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SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 24, 2018

Rocky Long

San Diego, California

Hawaii - 31, SDSU - 30

HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: What can I answer for you?

Q. Can you talk about missing the first field goal in regulation and then going for two in overtime, your thoughts?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: Well, I thought obviously we have great confidence in our field -- in John Baron. We thought we had done it just right. Thought we were going to win the game. Then John missed the field goal.

Obviously they scored in overtime first. We scored on the first play, what gives you big-time momentum and we have a two-point play that we've worked on for about half the season that is really a difficult play to stop, so I thought we had a decent chance to win the game right there and there was no reason not to try to win it right there.

And then obviously we executed the play which we've practiced for the last five or six weeks, we executed the play poorly. We even got a penalty being in the wrong formation. So that's a lack of concentration on some people's part.

Q. Was it supposed to go to Kaeli (ph) there?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: No. You mean the one they actually threw? That one was called from the sideline. The one where we got the interference call is the one we work on in practice all the time.

Q. Was it always the plan to go for two, or was it just like you said, because you scored?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: No. We scored on one play. We had all the momentum in our favor, so we decided to go for two then.

Q. All these yards in the first half, what kind of things did you guys do? I mean, you shut them out the second half, but what changed?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: Well, we did a very poor job of coaching in the first half. I mean, we thought they were very explosive. We put some things in during the week that we thought that would confuse them a little bit, and maybe give us a better chance to win, and obviously that wasn't true.

Maybe we confused ourselves more than we confused them because we didn't play worth a darn in the first half. We made some adjustments at half-time and ran those the whole second half, and obviously played a lot better on defense in the second half which gave us a chance to get back in the game, so that's all on me. That's all coaching.

Q. You stuck with Christian most of the game and went to Agnew.
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: After the first half we thought he was playing okay and then the second half we didn't think he played very well. We weren't consistently moving the ball. Even though we were playing decent defense, we didn't have a chance to get back in the game unless we got a spark from somebody or a play or two. And so Ryan went in and gave us a nice spark that gave us a chance to get back in the game and had two chances to win it.

Q. You guys are Bowl-eligible, but with it getting crowded with teams and the number of Bowl opportunities, how do you feel going into this post-season?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: That's out of our control. So you don't think about it or worry about it.

Q. Not concerned with the way the team played down the stretch here?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: Got a lot of concerns about the way we played down the stretch. So you have to evaluate everything that you're doing, starting No. 1 with me. I've got to evaluate on how the program is being run and the message that is being given, because obviously the message is not getting acrossed, or they are not accepting the message.

Because you should get better as the season -- now, injuries have a little to do with that, but you should get better as the season goes along and I don't think we got better at all. I think we're the same football team tonight that we've been for the last seven weeks -- six, seven weeks, we were the same football team tonight.

So we haven't gotten better. So No. 1, that starts with coaching and I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about our whole coaching staff. I mean, there were some things done tonight by coaches that aren't good coaching.

Q. Any thoughts on the senior class this year?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: Well, I feel bad for them, since they were a part of a lot of wins. I mean, we still have a winning season this year, too.

So that class has been -- they have never had a losing season. They have had some great seasons and this one is kind of average, but they have been around here where we've done nothing but win. So you know, it's nice that they had that kind of career. I'm sure when they get over the hurt of this loss, they will feel good about themselves.

Q. What would allow the team to be able to bounce back and go into a potential Bowl game?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: I don't know, whenever you play poorly, if you get extra practice sessions, obviously that helps you get better. And we have so many young players on our team that haven't improved like they should have, it gives you another -- it actually gives you another like spring practice so you can work on some things; other than about the last week of the preparation, you get ready for the game. The first week of the preparation, you can develop your team.

Q. You said the Bowl is out of your control. Do you have any concerns that you could possibly get left out?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: Yeah, I think we could get left out. I've been there before. A couple times, I've been there before, a couple times.

Q. What did you think made it difficult for you guys to stop the passing against Hawai'i?
HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG: In the first half, I thought the game plan was terrible. I mean, we didn't execute it very well, either, but the game plan was terrible, and we changed what we were doing at half-time and it was much better the second half.

In fact, they didn't score -- I mean, they scored in overtime, but they didn't score the whole second half. Now one of their drives, they were down two -- there two score (ph), but they fumbled and we recovered. But we played much, much better on defense in the second half than we did the first half.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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