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GILDAN NEW MEXICO BOWL: NEW MEXICO VS ARIZONADecember 19, 2015Rich RodriguezCayleb JonesAnu SolomonScooby WrightAlbuquerque, New Mexico Arizona - 45, New Mexico - 37 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with coach. COACH RODRIGUEZ: I really appreciate everybody associated with the bowl. First class. The city of Albuquerque does a tremendous job. Great job. You have to give the Lobos a lot of credit. They played extremely hard, well-coached, very disciplined. I'm proud of my guys. Had a lot of adversity this year. To finish off with a win on the road, a bowl win, a road win, for our seniors to finish with a winning record, it's pretty neat for them. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Scooby, to be able to come back, to make the impact that you made today, how did that feel for you? What went into your decision to go to the NFL? SCOOBY WRIGHT: Let me answer your first question. I'm healthy. That was the first thing. Just get out there and play the way I usually play. Q. We understand you've made a decision on your future. SCOOBY WRIGHT: Yeah, I've decided to enter the NFL Draft. Q. Why is now the right time for you to do that? SCOOBY WRIGHT: I think I've accomplished everything I wanted to do in college and feel like it's the right time. Q. Coach, what would you say was the deciding factor in determining this win today? Turnovers, you were able to exploit their defense? COACH RODRIGUEZ: We knew we were going to be limited in possessions and possession time because of the offense they run. They did a great job. They controlled the clock, they controlled the possessions. They snuck an extra possession on the on-side kick, which was disappointing. Anu was seeing the field really well. Cayleb and the wideouts did a good job of winning some routs. We had some big plays. I think we averaged nine yards a play, and we had to. With the limited number of plays and possessions we were going to have, we had to make the most of it. I'm probably just as proud of the next to the last drive, to get a couple first downs, eat the clock, run it when you know they're going to run it, was pretty neat. I thought that was a big key for us. Q. Coach, what has it been like coaching Scooby the last three years to where he is now? COACH RODRIGUEZ: We thought he was going to be a great player when we signed him. I don't know how many other people did. We thought. He not only was that, but he's done everything he can to make himself better every year. Scooby Wright is a talented guy that loves football. But he's also one of the hardest working football players that I've ever had the privilege of coaching. Scooby, it's so important to him. He's going to do whatever it takes to have success. That's what he's done at Arizona. Q. Anu and Cayleb, there were questions coming in with their pass defense. How surprised were you that they gave you man-to-man coverage basically the entire game? ANU SOLOMON: We weren't surprised at all. Watching film, pretty much they played man-to-man. Cayleb, all the wide receivers, they all did a great job by getting open. Q. Cayleb, for you, were you salivating when you kept seeing one man lined up on you out there? CAYLEB JONES: I think over the bowl practice period, we stressed a lot of competition, one-on-ones every day. It really helped us develop. We saw it throughout the year, struggled a little bit with it. Knowing what they're going to do, coming in with weeks to prepare, Coach Rod did a good job of getting us ready for this situation. Q. Were you surprised they didn't roll the safety over? COACH RODRIGUEZ: That's their personality. They're going to be aggressive, try to outrun you. They did a good job of disguising some of that early, showing pressure, then bailing out, looking like they're not going to pressure, they come in late. Anu was seeing the field really well. That was one of the keys. We had some stuff built in. Anu saw the field really well. You have to do that. Outnumbered in the run game, they force you to throw. If you're sharp mentally with your quarterback and wide receivers on the same page, you got a chance to make some big plays. Q. Coach, we talked this week about trying to get these guys ready. A year ago you're playing for the PAC-12 championship. Now in this game, did it take more than you thought because they looked like they were ready? How much did the atmosphere help make this a big event for you guys? COACH RODRIGUEZ: That's a good question. I think actually in a strange way, playing a road game with a bigger crowd than maybe it was if you weren't playing the home team maybe helped our guys. You'd have to ask them. I thought our two weeks of bowl preparation was good. We had 12 straight with no open dates. Our guys had a couple weeks to lift, recover a little bit, then two weeks to play. It was a quick turnaround. Our bowl practice was really good, focus was good. I think their focus when we were down here for the short period of time, three days, was good. The crowd was into it. I think all these athletes, they like it when a crowd is into it. I'm sure they'd rather have the crowd be for them. Either way, when the crowd is against them, that can kind of get them juiced up, too. I thought the crowd was in it from the opening whistle till the end. Q. (No microphone.) CAYLEB JONES: I feel like our team loves football. We don't have the best guys in the nation. We have guys that come to work every day. They bust their butts. We appreciated it. Q. Coach, there was a lot of trick plays going on today. Were you expecting to use some trickery? Were you expecting to see so much? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Anu and I and Cayleb, we have a few in the bank that they didn't use today. Didn't have enough possessions to. We knew they would do some. Thought they'd run a fake field goal, fake punt. Even calling for the on-side kick, telling our guys it was going to happen. They did it. Why not? Why not throw all your things out there? I didn't know we had a fake punt. It was a read situation (laughter). Drew will forever be teased about that. But that wasn't ideally executed. Nonetheless, we knew there was going to be a lot of stuff happening. Q. Scooby, I saw some emotions on the sidelines immediately after that game ended. Where was your head then? Is that when it hit you that this was it? SCOOBY WRIGHT: This whole year has just been tough for me, from my injuries, send our seniors off right, the defense and offense playing well. I don't really know how to explain it. I was glad we got the dub for my teammates and my brothers. Q. Anu, can you compare your feelings today to your feelings last year after the Fiesta Bowl and how you think you played? ANU SOLOMON: We got the W. That's the most important thing. But overall, I mean, I'm just truly grateful to be in this situation, just to send our seniors off with a W. Come tomorrow, it's work time. COACH RODRIGUEZ: Maybe in a couple weeks (laughter). Q. Anu, the tradeoff for them all year has been with the man coverage they bring pressure and get sacks. You got away from the rush today and made big plays. Is that an ability you've always had? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yes, he has. He can run. He's faster than you think (laughter). ANU SOLOMON: That was for me (laughter)? Sorry. COACH RODRIGUEZ: I answered it for you. ANU SOLOMON: Yes. There we go (laughter). Q. Scooby, you score right out of the gate in the second half. You're up 18. All of a sudden it seemed like that was a kick in the pants for them. What was going through your minds at that point when they started scrambling back? SCOOBY WRIGHT: As a defense, we had a couple bone plays, a couple missed assignments. We had to go back to the chalkboard, make sure every person was doing their assignment, doing their job. Triple option team, one guy doesn't do their job, they get a touchdown. Q. Scooby, what are you going to miss the most about this? SCOOBY WRIGHT: Just people in the locker room, coaches, strength coaches, the whole program. ANU SOLOMON: The conditioning, 105-degree weather. Q. Coach or Scooby, with the disparity in possession time, did you get a sense that the defense was getting fatigued? Was there talk in the second half trying to motivate the guys to hang in there? COACH RODRIGUEZ: I can't repeat some of the things I was yelling (laughter). Probably played 91 plays against the triple option is a lot of plays. We did get a little bit tired. With our injury situation, we're not two deep right now in defense. We can't roll guys in or out. We tried to play as many guys as we could. They did a good job of picking the tempo up. Our guys had to just hang on. That's what we were doing, hanging on. Q. Earlier in the game, Casey missed a field goal. Did you feel confident turning it back to him? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I did. Obviously I would like to get a first down. Then we could take a knee and end it. We also were running a play to get us toward the middle of the field, make it a little bit easier. I have a lot of confidence. Casey has been kicking great all year. I had complete confidence, especially in the middle of the field, that distance, he's pretty solid. Q. Cayleb, you're also a guy who is eligible to go for the draft. Have you made a decision about that yet? CAYLEB JONES: I haven't. I have not thought about it yet. Q. Coach, the decision to go to Orlando at the end, why did you make that? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Coach Magee was going to alternate him anyway. Toward the end Jared was hobbling a little bit. We were going to alternate them a little bit. Orlando is a big, physical guy. He had the hot hand there. I did see Jared hobbling a little bit there. Jared did a nice job. I thought Orlando gave us a little lift there at the end. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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