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UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2019

Kevin Sumlin

Stanford, California

Stanford - 41, Arizona - 31

Q. What are some of your take-aways from this game?
KEVIN SUMLIN: I mean, when guys play hard -- when you have a game like this, going into it, you know two different styles. They're going to use the clock and limit possessions, and then we needed to be efficient with no huddle. Actually we had more plays than they did.

But because they limit your possessions, when you turn the ball over a couple times, that's really like a possession and a half. So we needed to be more efficient than we were. We just weren't efficient enough in our jobs. We ran it pretty good. We threw it reasonably well. But we've got to get off the field on defense on third down.

Q. Your player said that you're prepared for either quarterback, yet there's a huge difference between their starter and the third string. How big of a difference is that?
KEVIN SUMLIN: Obviously, it was a huge difference today. What was he, 30-43, three touchdowns, no sacks and no turnovers. That's a veteran quarterback and a guy who's been in a lot of different games and been in a lot of different situations, and he showed it today. He was probably the best player on the field today.

Q. What was the reasoning behind the quarterback swap so early in the game?
KEVIN SUMLIN: We went in the game, and they knew that. So the third series, Grant was going to go in. Obviously, he operated pretty well. We want to get him in, and as I said two weeks ago, if he's not redshirting, he needs to play, and he needs to learn from some experiences like he had today. You're not in mop-up time. You're not in anything else. I think he showed that he's capable like he has. He's won games. He's played at different stages. We want to make sure that his growth continues.

Q. What was the determining factor when one would go in?
KEVIN SUMLIN: We already talked about that pregame. He understood. Khalil understood what was going on. He came in and moved the team, and then Khalil responded and ran and took off and did some things. I think, as long as there's communication in that deal, they understand it, and I thought the first half and even midway through the third quarter, until we got behind two scores, it's hard to put a freshman back in there at that point.

But I thought that they understood what the plan was, and I thought they both gave us a chance in the first half to be successful.

Q. Obviously, you guys were expecting a tough game on the road, but were you expecting a shootout?
KEVIN SUMLIN: It's football. You never know. To your point, you've got a quarterback that's an experienced quarterback that has been in big games. We know what Scarlett can do, right? So he got 106, but it was a real 106. He had 19 carries. So the other piece was Costello was just, as I said today, that's why he is what he was for preseason. He's an experienced guy that has been in a lot of football games, and that showed today.

Q. Kyle took over the punting duties this weekend. He just went out and practiced this week?
KEVIN SUMLIN: Yeah, we talked about that at the press conference. We've got competitions going everywhere. What we do in practice and everything like that, we chart everything, do some things. I think he was reasonably effective today, right? He punted four times. He averaged 46. That's substantially better than we've been all year. So it's a different style that he has. It's not pretty a lot. But it's effective. So he was -- that was an improvement in today for us.

Q. Stanford's cornerback Adebo is a preseason All-American and a darn good player obviously. He had two interceptions that were key, but what was his influence on this game? Did you try to stay away from passing on the inside or anything like that? Did you change your offensive approach?
KEVIN SUMLIN: No. He made a really good play on the last play of the game for us offensively. It was a stutter, a double move play, and he recovered. Maybe the ball was underthrown a little bit, but that was still a heck of a play by him. Guys like that, double moves, they're aggressive, and that's what we try to do. He recovered and made a play.

Q. What was problematic about the defense today?
KEVIN SUMLIN: Well, consistency for us offensively. When you've got almost 500 yards and 31 points, we needed 48 points. So that's -- you know, we had a couple of negative yardage plays that hurt us. What I would say is, as I said earlier, in a game like this, when you know the possessions you have are going to be -- not going to be as many, you have to be efficient, and you can't turn the ball over, and we did that. We made yards. We scored points. But if you turn it over, because of the style of play of the other team, you're losing possessions and point probabilities, right?

Like you said, we had 77 plays. They had 74. So it's two different styles. We needed to get more snaps. We did that, but the efficiency, again, we're 5 of 13 on third down. So we've been one of the top teams in the league in third down percentage. I think we were something crazy at halftime, one of five, and we had 24 points. So we were efficient but not efficient enough.

Q. You shuffled the secondary in the second half. Was that injuries --
KEVIN SUMLIN: Yes.

Q. -- or performance? Lorenzo, is he okay?
KEVIN SUMLIN: Yes. I don't talk about injuries, you know that. But it wasn't performance. These guys are -- he and Jason have been playing their tails off. Like everybody else, everybody's beat up this time of year and getting some other guys in there to play, give those guys a break. But, yeah, it wasn't a performance-based situation. It was where we are at this point in the season, needed to get some other guys in there to get them some rest.

Q. Why didn't Bobby travel this week?
KEVIN SUMLIN: He wasn't here. That's internal.

Q. Where are you guys at right now? You've got the last four games of the season. What's the state of the team right now?
KEVIN SUMLIN: It's hard right now because that locker room, it's tough in there. The message is we've got to stay together, and we've got to keep fighting. We've only got two choices. You either fight, or you run, and we're not running. For us as a coaching staff and for us as a team, we've got another challenge this week.

We talk all the time you win or lose. We've got to look at what we're doing great, which is a couple things we changed, and try to stay ahead of the curve there. The things we're doing poorly, we've got to fix, and that takes everybody. That's coaches, players, everybody.

So that's where we are. We've got plenty of season to go, and our guys are -- one thing I can say about them is they're not quitting. They're playing hard. We've got to give them chances as coaches, and we've got to cut down on the turnovers. We've cut down penalties. But you've just got to press forward.

That's my job. That's our coaches' job. That's our leadership internally on our team's job because we've got another game next week, and we can't let this affect what's going to go on this next week except for what we can do to fix some of the things that we didn't do very well today.

Q. Will this two-quarterback system continue in the next week?
KEVIN SUMLIN: Probably. Like I said, I mean, you guys keep asking me about that. I told you three weeks ago Grant wasn't going to redshirt. So like I said, I thought both of them were effective today.

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