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VIZIO FIESTA BOWL: BOISE STATE v ARIZONADecember 7, 2014Bryan HarsinRich RodriguezGLENDALE, ARIZONA JENNIFER JEPSON: Thank you, everyone, for joining us on this afternoon's call. And special congratulations to Coach Rich Rodriguez of the University of Arizona and Coach Bryan Harsin of Boise State for earning a spot in the 2014 Vizio Fiesta Bowl. We are very excited to host these two storied programs as we enter a new era of college football as part of the College Football Playoffs. The University of Arizona comes into the game ranked No.10 with a 10‑3 overall and a 7‑2 PAC‑12 record, while Boise State is ranked No.20 at 11‑2 overall and 7‑1 in the Mountain West. This year's game will be played on Wednesday, December 31st, at University of Phoenix Stadium, and televised by ESPN at 2 p.m. At this time we will turn it over to the coaches for brief remarks before we open it up for questions. Coach Rodriguez. COACH RODRIGUEZ: Thank you very much. It's a great honor and thrill to bring the University of Arizona football program to the Fiesta Bowl. We're really proud of our guys, particularly our senior class. This is going to be a particular venue for our fans, for everybody associated with the program, to be able to go just up the road to a storied bowl against a great opponent that has a great football program. We're just tickled to death to be there. I expect all of Wildcat Nation to show up and support our program. Our players are very, very excited, as the staff is, to represent the University of Arizona. JENNIFER JEPSON: Coach Harsin. COACH HARSIN: First of all, congratulations to Arizona. They had a tremendous season. We are excited about what happened here at Boise State. We're excited to be the conference champions. That was our first goal. What an opportunity it is for us to have a chance to go back to the Fiesta Bowl and to play against Arizona. This is exciting times at Boise State. We've been there. But this is a different football team. I know our fans are looking forward to returning to Arizona. I know that our players, this is something in the past they've seen and are excited to be a part of again. But a great opportunity for Boise State. Looking forward to competing against Arizona. Those guys have had a tremendous season. So we are looking forward to this opportunity. JENNIFER JEPSON: At this point we will open it up to questions. Q. Coach Harsin, you've been a part of a bunch of teams, arguably teams with better credentials than this one. In some ways, do you feel the past accomplishments of this program has helped you get to this position, get the reputation where the College Football Selection Committee was willing to use you over some of the other teams out there? COACH HARSIN: Well, I think obviously us playing in these games in the past, being on that stage, we've played well. Those teams that were in those games deserved it. I disagree with us having better credentials on some previous teams than we do right now. This is a very special team.  This is a team that's done something that no other football team in Boise State history has done, won an outright Mountain West championship. That's the first time. I think our credentials right now are pretty good. I think our selection into this bowl game is correct. I know our players are excited about it. But different team, different time. What a great opportunity we have this season, what this team has been able to produce to get us to where we are now. Q. The change in the system to go from the BCS to the College Football Playoff has worked out for Boise State's program. It feels like you are taking advantage of that. COACH HARSIN: Well, I think we're also trying to figure out exactly how this new system's going to go. If you look at it, there's obviously some questions even about the top four teams right now. Rightfully so. It's new. Everybody's trying to figure it out. But where it's put us right now, we feel like we're a team that should play, wanted to play in these type of games, and it's worked this year, like it did in the past. We're still trying to figure these new playoff systems out, but they've been good for Boise State this year and we're excited about this opportunity. Q. Rich, you have a couple guys on your team with some Boise ties. Jeff Worthy, how is he doing with the transition? Also you have Jared Tevis, played in the Fiesta Bowl for Boise State. Important to your defense. COACH RODRIGUEZ: Jeff Worthy has been able to contribute quite a bit this year. He was banged up at times, missed some action throughout the season. But he's healthy now, played pretty good football. Went from Boise through the junior college route to join our program. Tickled to death to have him. His best football is still out in front of him. Jared has been one of our most consistent football players on either side of the ball the last couple years. He's a valuable guy defensively. He's intelligent. He runs well. He hits. He's just a great football player. He's had a fantastic year. I think he's been worthy of some all‑conference mention, for us has been one of our most valuable players. Neat to see Jared go from a walk‑on to a special teams player to a scholarship guy, to a full‑time starter, and a very good one at that. Q. Your program hasn't been in a game like this in 20 years, never played Boise State before. What do you think of the matchup and the situation that your program is in this year? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, we're excited to be in this type of bowl game. We thought after we won the South championship we were going to be in a very good bowl no matter what happened. We didn't play well in the championship game. Here we are in a great bowl against a great opponent that has not only been there before and done it but is having a great season. Dominated the conference, has a lot of great players, outstanding coaching staff. As I said, they've been there, done it before. For us, we're kind of new to this deal. But it's also a great opportunity for us to be on the big stage again and try to play better. Q. You built this program over the last few years. What has gotten you to this point to get to a season where you can be a top‑10 team? COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think the biggest thing was the transition was pretty smooth for a new staff coming in. The senior classes have been so good in leadership. The first two senior classes we had last year and the year before, they were outstanding, did whatever we asked them to do. This year's senior class along the same lines. The transition has been smooth. I've been really proud of our staff. A lot of our staff has been together for a long, long time. They've had success before. In fact, they had success in the Fiesta Bowl the last time they were here. Proud of the staff. Proud of our players for making the transition so quickly. Q. Coach Rodriguez, when you look at your team this year, how were you able to win 10 games and what is the strength of the team? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, it's an interesting group. We thought back in August we were probably going to be in a lot of close games, at least that was the hope, probably have a lot of games go down to the last couple minutes, and they have. We've been in a bunch of close games, and we've lost a couple, but we've won quite a few, as well. I don't know if we have one particular strength on the team other than the guys just love playing football. Other than the last game, our guys have really competed well and kept playing. Even the last game, we kept playing, we just didn't play well. I think our guys love football. They're loving it even more now when we're having success. Q. Bryan, I wanted to ask you about your league, your schedule, compared to what you imagine or think Arizona's league and schedule is. Do you think that's a big step up or not that big a step? COACH HARSIN: Well, we'll look at our division, start with our conference. But Colorado State was ranked. Utah State was right there at 9‑2 when we played them. Both very good teams. Then obviously SanDiego State, they're a team that's done well the past few seasons. So I think you look at the body of work and the teams that we played, BYU non‑conference, Ole Miss early in the season, I feel strongly about what we were able to do, especially on our side of the division in our conference, who we played. The PAC‑12 is tremendous now. You have a group of teams in there. If you look at Arizona's body of work, obviously a very good football team, but they played very good teams throughout this entire season. I think the one thing, you look at it on a week‑to‑week basis, you're trying to compare the two conferences, it kind of is what it is. As you get into this type of game, I look at it more from a program standpoint than conference standpoint as far as where are both teams at. Arizona is right there at the top within their conference, as a program. I think Boise State is there, as well. So that's what makes it fun as far as this matchup goes. I think both teams have played quality opponents and both teams, as far as programs go, have had a lot of success this season in particular. It makes for a great matchup. The PAC‑12 is strong. It has been. I know those guys have seen very good players, very good teams throughout this entire year. Q. Rich, a couple of your standout players. Scooby Wright gets a ton of attention. Anu Solomon is a young guy at quarterback. What has enabled him to be as successful as he has been? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Scooby is kind of a neat story. A guy that plays extremely hard, loves football. He's a strong guy with a relentless motor. He's got good numbers because he never comes off the field. Put him at defensive end, linebacker, plays really well. Anu Solomon, for a redshirt freshman, has had a lot of success. He's been banged up really for the last three or four weeks and fought through that. He's learned I think from every game and every experience. Really excited about the future for him. Q. Rich, I wanted to ask you about the two games you had at Oregon. The last result, did that say more about Oregon or did you just have a bad day? How do you look at the fact that early in the season you beat them, then they beat you pretty bad? COACH RODRIGUEZ: We played really well the first time we were up there, and poorly the last time we played them. Part of it was them. They played extremely well in the game Friday night, executed, played a lot better. You get a talented team like them playing really well, you get a team that doesn't play well, that's the kind of result. I was disappointed because we picked a poor time to execute so poorly. But we've got some time to recover from that. We're going to have to play a whole lot better if we want to try to beat Boise, that's for sure. JENNIFER JEPSON: Thank you, everyone, for being on the call today, especially Coach Rodriguez and Coach Harsin. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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