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SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 15, 2018

Rocky Long

San Diego, California

SDSU - 28

ASU - 21

Q. What's going through your mind when they're driving and they get that big play?
ROCKY LONG: I'm contemplating how we maybe could have played that better than we did. Because I thought the biggest play or the biggest moment of the game is when the defense stopped them, and Ryan talked about it, defense stopped them on fourth and one. They decided to go for it instead of kicking a field goal. We stopped them and then the offense took it down and tied it up. And in the second half I thought that we were the much better football team in the second half. And to come up two touchdowns ahead at the end and let them, I think our players thought the game was over too, let them drive down the field that easily and score, and then fumble the ball to give them a chance to get back in the game, that makes you start to think that there's something out there against you. Because we deserved to win the game. We outplayed them. We deserved to win. And them even making it that closes seems kind of ridiculous.

Q. Were you surprised that the catch was overturned or did you guys see that?
ROCKY LONG: No. The guys upstairs in the box saw it on TV. They said that the ball hit the ground. So I'm glad they saw that.

Q. Do you think that still gets reviewed if that targeting doesn't happen there?
ROCKY LONG: No, they would review, they reviewed both of them. Yeah. At the same time. In fact, I went and asked the official and he said they were reviewing both.

Q. But if there hadn't been a targeting there, would they still have reviewed the play?
ROCKY LONG: Yes.

Q. What impressed you most about Ryan today?
ROCKY LONG: Oh, I think he didn't -- I mean he was probably nervous before the game. Every good player is nervous before the game, but he didn't act like he was nervous. And I thought he did a really nice job of getting out of trouble several times and making positive yards.

Q. The fourth down stop that you spoke of, that -- the fourth down play itself, what happened there and was it good defense on your guys' part, did they not protect well, on the play that Myles made to sack the quarterback, what did you see?
ROCKY LONG: Oh, I think we did a nice job of coverage and it allowed enough time for him to get back there. Late in the game and you can, we can discuss this, this is a coaching deal, do you rush three and play coverage and hope the clock keeps running or do you keep playing the same defense you played the whole second half and they couldn't hardly get a first down. Well, football 101 tells you you play soft coverage and let the clock run and that's what we did. That's not my personality so I won't do it again.

Q. Why did you do it this time?
ROCKY LONG: Because I was, I thought we were ahead enough that somebody back there would make a play and we have some DB's that should be deeper and coming forward after the ball instead of chasing receivers. I mean we -- we'll get back to this, we're still a very inexperienced team. I mean we had them a couple times on defense and third down and a couple freshmen make mistakes that give them an automatic first down. We had eight true freshmen that we took to the hotel with us, so that means eight true freshmen are on the travel squad. So we made a lot of improvement this week, and I thought that our players went out there and played as hard and as physical as they could play. And I thought the secondary got a little bit better, but we got to get a whole lot better in the secondary if we want to continue to win. But they got a little bit better tonight. I mean the ones they caught the DB's were in good position, they just didn't make a play on the ball.

Q. Did you change stuff up much in the beginning of the second half?
ROCKY LONG: We played a little bit different on defense in the second half, yeah.

Q. And did they execute better too?
ROCKY LONG: Well, I think that we took some things away from them by the coverage of what they wanted to do. And then when they started moving the ball and then we started blitzing and they got in some couple one-on-one situations, and if you don't get to the quarterback, that's a possibility they're going to catch it. I watched it on TV all day today. I didn't see a DB stop a pass play at all.

Q. Talk about the rushing attack, 311 yards on the ground. Can you talk about how --
ROCKY LONG: Is that what they got?

Q. 311 total yards?
ROCKY LONG: Oh, we did?

Q. Yeah. Chase got 116. Juwan got 123 --
ROCKY LONG: I mean that's a credit to the two running backs, but it's also a credit to the offensive staff by their design and it's a credit to the offensive line. I mean I told you last week the offensive line didn't play very well. Well, guess what, they played pretty darn good today. Because if you look at the Arizona State defensive line, they're the real deal now. They're all six-foot-four, taller, they're all 300 pounds or bigger, and they can bench press the world and all those sort of things and they got blocked tonight. So that means our big boys did a pretty good job.

Q. Does it feel a little extra special to put up this performance against Arizona State who came in as the best rush defense in the country?
ROCKY LONG: They came in as the best rush defense in the country?

Q. They want to average it out --
ROCKY LONG: Do you want my true -- I'm going to give you the truth. The only one stat that matters is who won. That's the only stat that matters. You can talk about all the statistics all you want at the end of the season to try to evaluate teams, but the only thing that matters is if you win or lose.

Q. Down 7-0 in the first half, what was your thought process in going for it on fourth down?
ROCKY LONG: We were out there to win the game, not stay in the game and try to keep it close, we were out there to win. So were they. They went for fourth down, they were out to win the game too. We stopped them, they didn't stop us.

Q. Do you feel like if you would have just kicked the field goal there, it would have set the wrong tone?
ROCKY LONG: I'm not worried about setting a tone.

Q. Or just been the wrong decision?
ROCKY LONG: You kick a field goal you're still behind, right? I mean it might have been different if we were playing a conference game. I might have done it differently. But this is a non-conference game and the most important thing to us is to try to win the conference championship. So you get a ranked team and you've got a chance to beat them, don't be soft. Don't be scared. And I don't want to be either. And I was scared at the end of the game.

Q. Could you talk about how important the execution was at the end of the first half, because you guys played soft on defense and executed on the defensive end.
ROCKY LONG: I thought that was the biggest moment in the game. I think we went in at halftime with all the momentum, and we came out of the locker room with the momentum too. I don't think if we -- I think it would have been a completely different game if that hadn't happened.

Q. How valuable is Agnew's dual threat ability?
ROCKY LONG: It was big tonight because they got some pressure on them and most of the time he made them positive plays.

Q. Coming into this you talked about having Danny on the other side and kind of the cat-and-mouse thing that was going on. How did you feel lake that played out?
ROCKY LONG: You're too observant. About a quarter and a half of the first half, I was calling the defense and using signal guys. And because they're smart coaches on the other side they started going hurry up. They started going pace or whatever they call it, tempo. They started tempoing on offense. And we had some miscommunications between the signalers and the guys on the field that led to them driving the ball down and scoring. So I said the heck with it, I didn't care if they saw it or not and I started calling the signals.

Q. How do you think the coaching battle played out with Herm Edwards on the other side? Do you think you out-coached him?
ROCKY LONG: Oh my God. Coaches can lose a game. Coaches can never win a game by decisions. I didn't think any decisions he made loss them the game. Our players played better than their players. That's why we won.

Q. On the very last play did you say anything to the guys in particular, knock the ball down? Anything?
ROCKY LONG: Yeah, we say that every day in practice. And we work that Hail Mary drill, the one that was at the very end, we work that Hail Mary drill every single week. Now see that was a mistake, when we had them fourth and 10, I probably should have put the Hail Mary group in there. And if I would have put the Hail Mary group we probably would have played it better because we have three guys that stand on the goal line. They don't have to back pedal out of there, they stand on the goal line. So that was probably a coaching error when it was fourth and 10.

Q. What was going through your head when Wilkins got up and started running?
ROCKY LONG: I thought that was going to be a momentum, big time momentum swing. Because I thought he was down. I think I even heard a whistle. Now, the officials say they didn't blow a whistle. And that's probably true because they hardly ever blow the whistle. But I thought he was down for sure. And I started turning around, I mean, I started to go do something else and all of a sudden I hear the crowd go crazy and I turn up and I see him running down the sidelines and I didn't know how he got there. I'm glad he was down.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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