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SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 16, 2017Christian ChapmanRashaad PennyDavid WellsSan Diego, California Stanford - 17, San Diego State - 20 THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. David, can you take us through the play you scored at the end. DAVID WELLS: Oh, man. Well, I was hoping my number would get called. Thank Coach Horton. Put up a great play call. Just had a late release on the Sam. Once I was able to push him inside, Chapman found me in the flat, great pass. Just thought to myself before the play, There's no way I'm not letting myself get in the end zone. It was just a willpower thing. Thanks to all my brothers out there. Everybody played such a great game. It was a hard-fought game from the beginning till the end. It's an awesome feeling when you're able to get that game-winning touchdown and help all your brothers out. Q. You said this was an opportunity game. What did this opportunity mean? RASHAAD PENNY: Definitely gave us national recognition like we are a team to play with. I feel like everybody overlook because we just in the Mountain West. Tonight proved it. We can match up with anybody. We coming at you. You guys know what we're going to do. Hats off to Stanford. They played so well. There were times where they stuffed us in the backfield. We got a lot of flags. Ball backing up. That just shows how greedy this team is and how fight, and the grit we play with. That's because of Coach Long. He instilled that in us. We take our hats off to him because he done a heck of a job. This is one of them wins, the nation is definitely going to be on the watch list for us. Q. Christian, what goes through your mind during the long delay when the lights go out? Sitting there cold for 15, 20 minutes. CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: Yeah, I was saying it was the calm before the storm type of thing. We were all in there, telling each other, This is it. Crazy. Can't write it any better. Lights shut off, everybody is showing their lights. The fans are going crazy. Telling our brothers, This is it, this is our drive. If we want to be something, this is what we got to do. Everyone came together. We finished off a great drive. It was amazing. Q. How tough was this game for the defense? CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: They have great DBs. In the first half, they were bringing pressure throughout the whole game. They were getting to me a little bit. They were bringing some stunts, bringing some stuff here and there. Hats off to them. They were doing well the first half. After the first half, make adjustments. That's what we did. We came out, we were firing. Q. A game like this where suddenly it's over and there's so much emotion, all of a sudden you guys see these thousands of kids streaming at you, what is going through your heads at that point? DAVID WELLS: It's an awesome feeling. Stuff you dream of as a kid. Scoring a game-winning touchdown, then the whole entire fan base rushing the field. It's an awesome feeling. Really is an awesome feeling. But now it's time for us to get ready for Air Force. This is the start of Mountain West Conference now. Our goal this year is to win 22. To do that we've got to win every single game from here on out. This was definitely a statement game for us, come out here and show what kind of team we are. Showed how tough we are, how resilient we are no matter what happened. Now it's time to get back to business. Q. Rashad, have you ever been a part of anything like that before? RASHAAD PENNY: Never. I mean, Cal wasn't like that. Cal was a totally different team. It was little bit of a revenge game. This is Stanford. We talking about the same team that does the same thing. One thing Coach Long preached before the game is, Who is the most toughest? They know what we're going to do. We know what they're going to do. They going to pound us. We going to pound them. At the end of the game, you all know who the aggressors were. I think it was us. Hats off to them because they a heck of a team. They brought everything. It was fun. Q. Given the reputation of this program, especially the last couple of years, was focused around the run game. When it came down to it, you had to make two or three important throws on the last drive. In a program that is so predicated around the run game, how satisfying is that? CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: The run game opens up the pass game. It's a complement of each other. Rashad was running the ball well tonight. That just opened up throws for me. We got into third down. I know my job is to get us out of third down. If it's third and long, I know how to make the throws. Got down to it. A lot of teams think we're going to throw the ball down there. We'll hit you with the play-action. You saw what David can do, all the grunt and grind he did to get into the end zone. Great way to finish it. Q. How did you do your job? CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: I thought I did well for the most part. Got a third down a lot of times, a lot of good plays that coach called. But, yeah, I thought I did my job well tonight. Q. Rashaad, right before the lights went out, on that play, you came off the field, maybe shaken up slightly. Did that delay help you gather yourself? RASHAAD PENNY: Most definitely. I mean, I'm not in the greatest shape, but I know I'm in football shape. Sometimes I just got to tap my head. Then again, it was an amazing drive. I mean, hats off to a young offensive line, which a lot of people thought couldn't do anything like this. But in that whole football program facility we got over there, we knew they could do this. Hats off to them. I think they the ones should be getting all this. All five of them should be sitting up here because not many people believed in them. We was all in. That's four freshmens on that offensive line. They coming back next year. That's deadly. Q. You're friends with Kameron Kelly. RASHAAD PENNY: That's my roommate. I'm going to give him crap about it. I don't know what to say. I can't explain his game tonight. He played like a man possessed. He was all over the field. This is the game we all wanted. Like I said, this is an opportunity game. We took this game. It's just another win for us. 3-0. I know everybody is going to make it as big as possible, but it's just another game for us. We just getting ready for Air Force. Q. You made some good plays to Mikah Holder. CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: I knew we were going to Mikah this game. Especially he was lining up on his brother. We tried to give him some opportunities to make some plays. Mikah is one of our best receivers, so we gave him some opportunities. I think he made the most of it. There is probably a few he would tell you he wished he had back. For the most part, Mikah did well. Got to have bragging rights on his brother for a few years now. Q. Any chance you set an NCAA record for selfies after the game on the field? RASHAAD PENNY: That was awesome. Like I said, I never been a part of something like that. As a kid, all of us probably dreamed of just watching the field being stormed. But people running up taking selfies, the fans being excited. This is something San Diego wanted. Sadly, the Chargers, but the Aztec gained ground around here. It's that one city, one team thing. Everybody is so excited about it. We're excited. Like I said, it's just another win for us. We're getting ready for next week. Q. Christian, you said this makes you 3-0. This is the first time this program beat a Power 5 team in 36 years. CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: For the city, too. I'm from here. How many people came up to me and said, So glad you stayed home, hometown guy. It meant so much to me, meaning I can bring that back to my city, win something like that. It means a lot to me. Especially, I mean, to see all the Carlsbad kids here, Pop Warner kids here. To do that in front of my hometown people. No better feeling than that. A big win for us. I love it. Q. David Wells in San Diego, they think about that other guy, the pitcher. Maybe a different David Wells we need to think about now. DAVID WELLS: That man is a Hall of Famer. Of course, he's going to have all the bragging rights to the name. I'm just thankful, thank God for all of my opportunities. Thank you to the training staff for getting me back on to the field, getting me back from my injury. Thanks to Coach Hall, all my coaches, and especially my family. Couldn't have done any of this without them. Awesome feeling to make the Wells name proud. Q. Christian, are you a different quarterback in any way from last year? If so, how did that one extra year of experience help you on the last drive? CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: I've matured a lot. Last year probably in those situations, you're super nervous. But I've kind of been in some things like that before. Got a little experience under my belt. Kind of I knew not to get overly excited or anything. I just had to do my part. When my number was called, just don't do anything stupid at that point. Don't throw an interception. Try not to take a sack in that last possession. Just move the ball as best as I can. I know that maturity does a lot. I think it kind of showed. Q. Why should the rest of the country not be surprised by this? RASHAAD PENNY: They shouldn't. To us, we not surprised. We just a San Diego State team trying to win. DAVID WELLS: The way we're trained is be the toughest team on the field. That's our goal, is every single game to be the toughest team on the field. Stanford is known to be one of the tougher teams in the country. They're a Power 5 team. They run the ball just like us and everything like that. Now it's time for us to step out of that shadow, time to show everybody we're tough sons of guns out here. We're ready to come play ball against anybody. Q. Should you be ranked now in the top 25? DAVID WELLS: I don't see why not. I think we have a good plea to it. We beat a top-20 team. It was at home. But you know what, beat a top-20 team, we're 3-0. You know what, going to keep getting better from here. Q. Christian, you agree? CHRISTIAN CHAPMAN: Yeah. No one gave us a chance but the guys in our room, our coaches, the guys on our floor. The people around us believed in us. That was the expectation, is we don't care who you are, we're going to play smash-mouth football and compete with you. I think that shows the nation we're 3-0. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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