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SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 11, 2012Alec JohnsonRyan KatzJosh WadeQ. Josh, last week you guys planned the defensive option plan. What kind of defensive mindsets need to take place here? JOSH WADE: You definitely have to change mindsets. Going against the triple option, they do a lot of things different and unorthodox. But they have a good team and a good quarterback and wide receiver coming. There are a lot of good pass concepts. We've just got to change our mindset, and Coach will come in with a game plan this week and try to install it, and Coach will try to execute like he did last week. Q. What do you see for Greg Hardin? How does he stack up to the receivers you've faced in the past? JOSH WADE: He's very quick. We see on film, he's running by guys. He goes up after the ball, and he has a good quarterback behind him throwing the ball. So we'll see how we fare. Hopefully the scouts give us a great look like they did last week and we can be very prepared for did trail blazer. Q. Is there any receiver he reminds you of from last season? JOSH WADE: No, I can't really place him with anybody. He has a style of his own. He looks very quick on film, and I'm excited. It's going to be a challenge this week for the defensive backs and the defense in general to go out and stop a team that's putting up points like they are and moving the ball as well as they've been moving it. Q. Coach mentioned before that establishing the run was a huge part of your success and moving forward it will be as well. How important is it to get that going? ALEC JOHNSON: Definitely. That's what we try to do offensively is run the ball. It establishes what we do, and it's kind of our identity. Play action comes off that, so it's very important. We as an offensive line understand that we need to run the ball as an offense. Q. Ryan, obviously success breeds confidence, and it's only one game. But for any of you guys, was there a feeling in the room like the young guys might have grown up a little bit in that Army game? RYAN KATZ: Yeah, definitely. It's great to get a win when you can. Guys are just anxious to get back on the field and get a W in the W column. So I think it was a good game. Yeah, a lot of young guys played, and everyone got a lot of good playing time. So it was good for our team. Q. Josh, you've been here quite a while. How does this year's defense kind of stack up with past years? JOSH WADE: Well, the guys have gotten a lot of reps. When Coach Long came in, he's been working with a lot of the guys, and they're starting to get older and they have experience playing with the way we rotate and the way a lot of guys get on the field. You've seen the plays over and over. With that repetition, you get better play for it, and you play faster and more aggressive towards things. Q. Now that it's four years into learning Rocky Long's 3‑3‑5, do you feel you've gotten it down? JOSH WADE: We definitely have gotten steps of understanding it more. You can always get better. We're not going to get content with learning it. There are different game plans every week. We've got to come out and execute for the opponent that we face that week. With things changing and things like that, we have to stay on our toes. But, yeah, we feel more confident with the 3, 3, 5 defense and understanding where we have to be and playing with each other instead of our guys doing their own thing. We play and each person does their job, and that ultimately shows up in the team stats. Q. Coach said he was pretty pleased with the offensive line last week. How did you guys grade out? What did you think the line learned over the last two game that's will help serve you well going forward? ALEC JOHNSON: We graded out all right. We did all right. We can get better definitely. We still need to work on protection, and keeping it clean and keeping our backs up and running the ball again. We can get better is my response to that. Q. What is the biggest difference in playing in an atmosphere like Washington and coming back home? RYAN KATZ: I think it's great. That was my first game in Qualcomm. I think the student section was great and we had a lot of fans there. So, yeah, it was great to get in front of the home crowd and finally play in front of them. Q. How important is it to not overlook this team on Saturday? RYAN KATZ: You can't do it. They're the next team on the schedule. We have to prepare for them. We have to prepare for them hard. I think we have to have a great week of practice like we did last week and just keep building on it. We're not taking anyone lightly. They're the next opponent and we want to beat them. Q. Josh, same question. Also Rocky had mentioned the sizes and weights of every offensive linemen. Does that trouble you at all? JOSH WADE: Yeah, they have some guys that can make plays. They have bigger guys that can put up a lot of points. We're not going to take anybody lightly. We're going to prepare as hard as we did last week. Have guys practice and go out and execute and play the best we can play. Q. Josh, is it almost better that Dave gave the confidence and accomplished with NorthDakota State that are not supposed to be necessarily in your league, so to speak. But what they've done is eye opening. Is that almost helpful to you guys in a way to keep you focused? JOSH WADE: Yeah, we want to go out and compete. We'd like to go out and compete against other good teams and they've been playing well. Like I said, they've been scoring a lot of points, and we take it as a challenge. So we're going to go out and try to keep this ball rolling with the win and just (No Audio). Q. Josh, what's been the biggest thing on defense? JOSH WADE: For this week's game? Q. Just in general, coach mentioned that you guys are quicker and you're anticipating things a lot faster. Maybe that is because of the reps. But what is one big thing in the game when it's down and you guys are doing well? JOSH WADE: I think we're playing together. Guys are being where they need to be. Guys are making plays and we're getting a lot of hats to the football. You saw that with Army because they run that triple option, and it's important to get a lot of guys to the ball. So I think guys are understanding where they need to be and how to play together more. You can see it more as we get more repetitions and more practice at it. Guys are starting to understand a lot more. Q. Josh, coach kind of mentioned that the first three points you guys all ran different offensive schemes and stuff. How good of a test is that for you guys in the preparation going forward? JOSH WADE: It was good in the sense that we get a feel for a lot of different things. These guys can come out. They have a lot of different pass concepts against teams that run the ball more, and they have a lot of size. We have to go out and have good technique, be in the right spots and be aware of what's going on. Like you said, they have very different schemes every week. So, yeah, that is the biggest thing is making sure we prepare differently and have the proper game plan and players executing. Q. Also, Nat Berhe had a good year last year. Wasn't talked about too much coming into the season but has had a pretty good couple of games. How important is he to the team and how have you seen his development? JOSH WADE: Nat's a very good player. I was happy to see him go to Aztec. The coaches asked him to play Aztec and be in certain spots, and he was able to do that this week. He's getting a lot better. He's an athlete. So when you put him in positions to make plays, we can count on him as a defense to make the proper plays that we need him to make for us. So he should be a good player this year. Q. How well would you say your trust is coming along with you and the receivers, especially with you and Ezell? RYAN KATZ: It's going well. Like I said, we've been working all summer and I know Ezell is a good player. When I first got here, he's put a lot of work in over the summer and it's coming along well. I think we can keep building, have another good week of practice and keep the ball rolling. Q. Did you get a chance to watch Miles Burris last night? What were your thoughts on that? JOSH WADE: I thought Miles played well. He got a couple tackles for loss. He looked pretty big like he had been getting in the gym a little bit, and I thought he played well. You can see them out there being successful like that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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