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VIZIO FIESTA BOWL: BOISE STATE v ARIZONADecember 28, 2014Marcel YatesGLENDALE, ARIZONA THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. You've had a break, but how is it preparing for Arizona? COACH YATES: Going well. We had a couple days off. I didn't take a couple days off because I took a computer home, so I kept watching film just to stay on point with our plan. Q. You had your first practice. How did it go yesterday? COACH YATES: The guys were focused. They went hard. I think they understand, you know, what we're here for. Q. (Question regarding other team's offense.) COACH YATES: Their offensive line is huge, they're huge, strong. They fire off the ball. We have our work cut out for us. Q. The last game they played, you look at that, how do you put that in perspective? COACH YATES: Well, the quarterback got hurt, so he was injured. That team early in the season had beat Oregon. It's tough to beat a team twice. Obviously we had the same situation we had to go through. You know, it's hard to beat a team twice. But if they're healthy, they have that trigger guy, they'll be fine. Q. The last three, four games, you turned the corner, especially the SanDiego State game. What changed and how do you keep that momentum rolling? COACH YATES: Just keeping guys healthy. Then for guys just understanding not to give up anything easy. We harp on that as a staff. If a team is going to score on us, we want them to earn it. I thought we played well as far as our tackling these last couple games. Not giving up anything easy. Q. What is it about Rich's offense? COACH YATES: Up‑tempo, speed offense. The thing with him is he knows how to recruit guys that fit his system. He knows what he wants to do, how he wants to do it. Everywhere he's gone, he's had guys that fit his style. You have to give him credit for that. Like I said, the speed they have on the edges is what can hurt you a little bit. If you don't have the speed guys to cover, number one, then the second thing is because they spread you out, there's going to be a lot of space. Whenever you have space, that means you have to have guys that in the open field can make open‑field tackles. For the most part we've tackled well. I'm a guy, I believe you have to work on tackling. You can say you want to be good at tackling, but if you don't work on it, you won't be good at tackling. For me it's no explosive plays. Q. How have you continued to practice that, I suppose? COACH YATES: We've been tackling the scout team. Obviously we can't hit Jay. But when it comes to us, how we do it, we actually use live bodies and we hit those guys a little bit. Q. Any more than normal? COACH YATES: No, you just do it every day, yeah, every day. Q. Do you remember when these up‑tempo offenses first started coming in, and what did you think at that point in time, being a defensive guy obviously? COACH YATES: You know what, I don't remember when it first started. Just you could see the game changing because it kind of went from low scoring to high scoring. I mean, when you look at fans, fans want to see points. I don't know how many want to see a 10‑7 game. I'm that guy. I want to see a 10‑7 game. But as a fan, they want to see 42 and 35 points scored. You don't want to see that as a defensive coach (laughter). Q. You said Rich knows how to recruit guys that fit the system. That's the case. What stands out with the freshmen to succeed so early? COACH YATES: They don't look like freshmen. If you didn't look at those guys, you watched them play, you wouldn't think either one of them were a redshirt freshman or a true freshman. To me, that's what it comes down to. When you're a coach recruiting kids, I don't care about how many stars there are, how great they are coming in, it's who can learn your system, who can play that style that you want them to play at. Q. What jumps out to you about their quarterback? COACH YATES: His feel for the offense, what they want. He knows exactly what he sees from the defense. He makes the right checks. Then how many plays he keeps alive with his legs. He's a guy that he can find space and run it. He'll hit you downfield on a pass. He's a guy you got to be very concerned about. Q. Corey Bell, his role has diminished a little bit. Now with injuries, he's asked to be in a prominent role. How has he been able to battle some adversity at times? COACH YATES: Corey is probably the key to our defense because he's been the one that's had to move around so much. We moved him from nickel, safety. If you go back his junior year, he played some Mike linebacker, Will linebacker. He's moved around the field for us. For him to hang in there and keep playing for us, doing whatever we ask him to do, he's the ultimate team player to me. Q. He accepted his role was going to be diminished. Now you're knocking back on his door. COACH YATES: Right. That just goes back to him as a player. He wants to win. He wants to play. He's a competitor. He wants to be on the field. But he understood there's certain situations where he would play more, there's certain situations he didn't play as much. He didn't pout. He kept working hard. These last few games, he played well. Q. What about a guy like Beau Martin, he got thrust into a leadership role. COACH YATES: He was a quiet kid that just did his own job. Now he's been asked to step up. He's our motor guy. He plays with a motor. He plays every snap hard. He goes hard, he snaps. He's our heart. Q. Walked on and said it was the best decision he ever made. Finishing a career in a game like this, are you happy for him? COACH YATES: Without a doubt. The whole goal is to end up in a bowl game like this. For our team to be here, it's a big deal for us. Q. What about for you personally to be here at the Fiesta Bowl? COACH YATES: It feels great. For me, it's work. To me, I try to treat it as much as a normal game as possible because I always think the kids, they feed off us as coaches. I mean, they'll feel the energy, the difference once they walk out for the game and they see the stadium. I think for me, being in the SEC for two years has helped me get ready for a stage like this because every game in the SEC, it feels like how this game is. Q.  When you think about this game, how it's helped build Boise State's history, what does that mean for you? COACH YATES: You know, it feels great. I do have some great memories here. For me to come back as a coordinator, it means a lot, my first year as a coordinator. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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