|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MOUNTAIN WEST FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP BOISE STATE VS HAWAIIDecember 7, 2019Bryan HarsinSonatane LuiJaylon HendersonBoise State - 31, Hawai'i - 10 BRYAN HARSIN: Well, first of all, congratulations to our players and our coaches, Bronco nation. It was awesome to be back in the blue and have an opportunity to play for a championship. There's a lot of work that was done to get us back to this position, and then really the message was about finishing. We had started this journey back in January. How do we get back to this game, how do we get another opportunity to play in it, and certainly as the season went on, I think you guys have seen how it all unfolded with our players, different things that went on. And here we are. This one is really special. This is special. It was great to have the support that we had today. We knew playing Hawai'i again for the second time and the type of team and how much momentum they had coming into this game, it would be difficult, and our guys rose to the occasion again and were able to go out there and find a way to finish. And we got a championship. For our fans, our players, everybody in Bronco nation, everybody at Boise State that supports our program, the athletic department, everybody across campus, we're really proud of this football team, proud for the moment that we had out there to play in this game and for the opportunity to win another championship back here and bring this trophy back to Boise State on that blue field. With that, open it up for questions. Q. Sonatane, I think you were probably the first guy yelling and shouting out on the field and smiling and holding signs up on the stage. What was this like for you to finish it off and kind of feel that emotion? SONATANE LUI: I was ecstatic. Going out last game on the blue, to come out and celebrate with our fans and then especially seeing my family out in the crowd and all the work that I've seen all of our players do, go through, and all that we've been able to accomplish this year, it was awesome to see. Q. Jaylon, you're the true epitome of a Cinderella story. Talk about how thankful you are to not only start in the regular season but in the championship game, as well? JAYLON HENDERSON: Yeah, none of this was possible without the Lord Jesus Christ and then the belief of my coaches and my parents and of my teammates just continuing to push me and push me every single day. But it's a feeling like none other. It's just one of those things that you just say look at God and keep on rolling and give him his thanks, and yeah. Q. Sonatane, I'm wondering about earlier this week, you said win or lose on your last game, you're going to be very emotional. What does it mean for you, and take me through that play as you were able to knock the ball loose as that was such a big play there to keep the momentum on your side. SONATANE LUI: Well, to answer the first part of your question, it's been the greatest feeling to win on the blue. I mean, we have the best home record because of what we do, and we're able to accomplish things because everyone works together as a unit, and that's the best part, I think. As for that strip sack, when I was coming off the corner from the 3, from the B-gap, it's a really good thing that Demitri and Curtis are so good because they kept him right in the pocket in front of me, and then I kind of envisioned a video that I always watch before games of Aaron Donald and what he's able to do, and I thought, oh, might as well slap this thing out. Q. The game kind of turned there late in the first half with those two touchdown passes, one to Khalil, one to Hightower where he stayed on his feet. Can you talk about what you saw going into those plays and how they came to happen there? JAYLON HENDERSON: Yeah, the entire game wasn't really about Hawai'i. Hats off to their defense. Coach Rolovich does a great job coaching them on the defense, but it was just one of those things where we had to go out there and execute our plays and execute what was called. Coach Hill dialed up the plays, Coach Harsin dialed up the plays and we just went out there and executed what we've been doing since day one of spring ball. Q. Jaylon, can you talk a little bit about as coming into the season being third on the depth chart and kind of finishing out the year with this team, what were your thoughts going through the season. You're a senior, you're here, how much are you going to get to play on the field, and then you end up at the end of the season on championship podium with an MVP trophy? JAYLON HENDERSON: Yeah, I just saw when people would say how come what are your feelings of not playing, all that is pretty much rat poison to me. I just at the end of the day am a type of guy that no matter what the team does, I just want to go out there and get the win, so whether that's another person, another guy going out there and starting or myself or anybody else, I mean, as long as we get the win, I'm a happy guy. Q. Sonatane, two big 4th-and-goal stops for the defense. Talk about what you were seeing out there and what was working on those two big plays for you guys? SONATANE LUI: Well, Coach Harsin always tells the D-line that we're the tip of the spear. When you have fourth-and-short yardage most teams want to run it up the gut trusting their running back to get extra yardage or have the quarterback keep it. I think for us what we saw is we had planned on them in short yardage trying to have the running back go as a lead blocker and we dialed it up well enough to make those stops, and I think everyone played with great eyes and everybody communicated exactly what play was going to come. Q. Sonatane, that 4th-and-goal down at the 1-yard line, I don't know if you know how close you were to being offside, but it was really close. What do you remember about that play and were you trying to time it up or what happened there? BRYAN HARSIN: They didn't call it. SONATANE LUI: Exactly. You know, sometimes the refs aren't in your favor and sometimes they are. I had been -- their cadence is a little different than most teams. The quarterback initiates it and then it's up to the center to snap it and he gives the cadence. I timed it up and I guess he was trying to trick me, because he said "set, hut" and he didn't snap the ball and I jumped and I was able to put my front leg forward, pushed me back just enough, and then as soon as the ball snapped I just said full commit, and ran through that A-gap. Q. Sonatane, obviously the we want 'Bama was really favorable amongst the fans and the team. How would that be a great match-up for Boise State? SONATANE LUI: Anyone we're going to play in this off-season would be a great match-up, and I think that no matter who it is we'll definitely go with the mentality of we need to win this game. Boise State, we always go to prove ourselves that we're going to win, and whether it's 'Bama or whoever else is in front of us, I think we'll definitely show out and go do what we're supposed to do. Q. Coach, the two 4th-down stops and then the two turnovers, just big defensive efforts from you guys tonight. Seem to come at the right time. Just talk about those. BRYAN HARSIN: Well, let me talk about -- I know we had the Cinderella question a little bit. Those two guys that just answered those questions, I want you to think about there's a lot of guys on this team that are like that. So-Lui walked on. Lui came off a mission and walked on to Boise State and here he is up at the podium. Jaylon Henderson came in and was the third-string quarterback at the beginning of the season and here he is up at the podium, and we have a lot of guys that are in that locker room that are just like that, and the one message that I want everybody to understand that we talk about all the time is hard work does not go unnoticed. So these guys, this entire team, those two guys that are up here right now being recognized, and there's a lot of other good players that played really well tonight, but this hard work and staying focused and putting in what you're asked in your role to go out there and star in it, these guys have done that. It's not like Jaylon just showed up and -- he worked really hard to be in the position that he's in. As far as our defense goes tonight, you look up there and you'd like to go out there and always score a bunch of points. Sometimes the defense has got to go out there and make plays, and that's exactly what they did. We got a turnover, we got 4th-down stops, we got goal-line stops. Think about the critical situations that we were in tonight with our defense and how Coach Schmedding and Coach Danielson, Coach Franklin, Coach Brown, all those guys, Coach Alley, got everybody ready to play on that side of the ball against an offense that's potent that also showed they could run the ball effectively against us. So the balance became more difficult as the game went on. But in these key moments or the critical moments and we talk about those all the time, those guys rose up and were able to make those plays. So to me, as much as I look at this game and there wasn't a whole lot on special teams. I know we had the missed field goal in there and things like that and we'll correct those and work on it, but when I look at our defense giving up one touchdown in this game and the type of offense that we played, those guys were phenomenal, and the game plan was fantastic. Very proud of our defense and what they were able to accomplish tonight, and huge momentum swings because of the defense in my opinion. Q. The 4th down the other way, the touchdown to Shakir, fourth-and 4 you're usually not chucking it down the field, was that the plan on that play or was it because of the way they lined up with all their guys at the line of scrimmage? BRYAN HARSIN: We were dialed. I'll just say that. Yeah. That was something that we had in the game plan, and we felt very good about it. You're right. But we also talked about, too, we're not coming into this game and playing conservative. So that's always been the mindset. I don't think that's our nature, and certainly didn't want to show it in that situation right there. You're going to go and you've got an opportunity to score, doesn't matter if it's 4th and 8 or 1st and 10; score. The key on that play was they brought edge pressure, and Ezra Cleveland and Andrew Van Buren set an edge that was really difficult for two players to actually get done, and when I saw the play, we had man coverage, so we had a concept to beat the man coverage and we had two of our better players in there to get that done, Shakir being one of them, and his one-on-one match-up, he did a great job on it. He got himself wide open. But the edge is where the whole thing was laid out for success, when Van Buren and Ezra set the edge, Jaylon had just enough time to be able to throw it up, and it was really going to be like that in man coverage. You're going to get a few steps on the guy, just give him a chance, and he was able to go make that play. To me, you don't really look at those, you look at the actual play, but the guys who set the edge on that play, we wouldn't have had a touchdown if they hadn't done their job. Q. I know this is something you can't control, but as far as the bowl selection, where you guys end up with the New Year's Six, what would be your pitch for Boise State to wind up in one of those games? BRYAN HARSIN: Yeah, good question. I think that's kind of within what's been asked quite a bit this week, not of me, but I've heard it. I think when you look at the bowl games -- and I'm not going to call this a pitch. This isn't a commercial or anything like that. What it is, you look at the games that we played in in our bowl games, I think the big games we played in, Boise State has showed up. I would say for those teams, we've showed some exciting football, as well, and we've been very competitive, and we've won most of those games. The big ones, the New Year's Six, we won all of them. That's what I'd say. And I think this: I think this conference, this team and what we were able to accomplish this season under the circumstances that we had, hard to find another team in the country that's able to say with some of the players what we were able to accomplish. But more importantly, today is about this championship. Today is about this opportunity that we had in front of us and these guys doing exactly what they set out to do in January, to play in this game and to find a way to win it. You just look at the work, you want an exciting football team, the Broncos need to be in it. It's really that simple. Other than that, I think we've shown that. Q. You guys joined this league eight, nine years ago. I think people expected it to be like the WAC where Boise State was rolling along and there were a lot of hiccups the first five, six years. You look at two of the last three championships, you are like 24-3 the last three years, won every division game the last three years. Is this starting to rise up to be sort of a powerhouse in this league the way it has been in the past? BRYAN HARSIN: I don't know. I think that's a tough question. It's always hard -- it's hard to compare ourselves to what was done those other years. It's always the comparison, right? I know what we did. I was here and was a part of it. I would say this: This league, the teams we play, every single week to find a way to win like we did, every one of the games that we played in, it's really difficult to do. So no, because I coached in them, and I watched our guys play in them, do I think that we're the team that's going to roll through the league and it's going to be that way? No, I've got a lot of respect for all the teams that we play. And I know how -- I know when we operate the way we need to, I know how successful we can be. But there's a lot of change going on, too, in this league. There's a lot of new coaches that are coming in. There's a lot of things that have happened. I don't know what to say for the future of it. But I do know this: I know that Boise State and our brand is very strong and is a big part of the Mountain West. Now that I really believe in, and I know how important our program is to that conference, as well. It's important that my focus is on Boise State and the people that support it and the people that help our program and the people that are going to be out there helping us while we're coaching and trying to win football games but promoting our program and helping our conference, those things matter. I know what kind of brand we have, and I know how strong this can be, as long as we continue to keep doing the things that we talk about within our program to make it that way. Q. You guys scored four touchdowns in the span of one minutes and 44 seconds today. About 1:07 left at the end of first half and 1:09 left at the end of the third quarter. What's made this team so good in those crunch times? BRYAN HARSIN: Yeah, well, the second half of -- what was it, 3-3 after the first quarter or something like that? Yeah, it was 3-3. It was really -- I thought we did a good job managing the time. We scored and then we got an opportunity to get the ball back, so our defense made plays, we managed the clock properly, we got a chance to get into a two-minute situation. One of the things about this team that we've done really well this year, we've scored I think now every -- has it been every time? You would know this. Have we scored every time going into half? Q. It was every road game this year, the last three games in a row. BRYAN HARSIN: Okay, so we've done well at the end of halves going in and scoring points. You know, and sometimes that's how it works, right? You get some momentum, you try to capitalize on that, so part of that with the big plays, if you have it, you want to try to use that momentum, and so if your guys are feeling it, you can call some plays in there that might be shot opportunities and take advantage of it. But the consistency, you'd like to see that consistency. We ran the ball fairly well. We threw the ball decently. We had the turnover in there. You know, it was a little bit inconsistent throughout the game, but then we'd get hot and we'd be bang-bang right there and we'd have those plays like you're talking about. We want to do that every drive. I think the one thing in this game, you go back, and we took the ball. We wanted to be aggressive. We wanted the ball, we wanted to score. You're going to play against a team that can score points, we wanted to go put points and try to put a little pressure on them and they were three-and-out. That was disappointing. We put a lot of time into our openers. We've actually been pretty good when we get the ball of going down the field and at least creating field position, and tonight, that one there was a little surprising, and then we punt the ball and I think for a minute there guys were like, all right, let's regroup here, and it took us a little bit of time to get going. Q. Second quarter there when things were still 3-3, Hank was over there warming up hard. Were you guys thinking of a change at that point? BRYAN HARSIN: Yeah. And let's say change, we're thinking about Hank getting in there and playing. And then, hey, get ready, get loose, we'll see what happens there, and then the momentum swung in our favor and you kind of ride the wave there a little bit, so to speak. But yeah, Hank is -- that's the one thing, Jaylon has done a great job in the games he's started in, Hank has done a great job to get us here, too, and that's one of the things that we all know is we wouldn't be in this position if Hank and Chase hadn't played, either. So all those guys deserve a lot of credit, and tonight you're a little bit -- with the way the game had gone and the way the defense was playing, we wanted to run the ball. Jaylon had done a great job and gotten most of the reps on a lot of the run game stuff that we had included for the quarterback. We probably had more quarterback run game in than we have normally in this game plan, and that was a little bit because of weather. I wasn't quite sure if we would get into another weather game like we did last year, and that quarterback run game can really help you when you get into situations like that. I didn't know if it would be raining, snowing, windy. So we added more quarterback run game at the end of the game when we were running the ball. That becomes another option, and those extra two, three yards you might get from the quarterback position really helped us sustain drives. Q. Back to the 4th-down stop on the goal line, they had just kicked the field goal and then the offsides penalty they took points off the board, would have given him a 6-3 lead. How much do you think that really changed the game, keeping it a tie game instead of being down? BRYAN HARSIN: When they went for it? Q. Yeah. BRYAN HARSIN: Yeah, I think -- I don't think that's the wrong decision by Coach Rolovich. He was trying to be aggressive, and playing on the road and playing a team that already beat you here, I think you get an opportunity to get closer to the end zone, I don't think that's the wrong decision at all. I think he's trying to be aggressive, and our guys made a play. At the end of the day, we were able to stop them. But what did they have, a yard to go? Yeah, as an offensive guy you've got to say we can go get a yard and then our defense steps up and you don't get that yard. Yeah, I don't think anything on the decision. I think our guys just made a play. And that's what this game is about. To me coaching decisions in games like this, I'm sure there's questionable ones at times, but normally you wouldn't be in this game if you weren't making pretty good decisions as a coach throughout the season, and then when you get into a game like this, it becomes a player's game. Those guys are going to make plays. They had a chance to make a play, and our guys had a chance to make a play, and our guys made the play. I thought that was great from our momentum standpoint that we were able to do that, and obviously when you're that backed up as a defense and you're able to do something like that, everybody on the sideline knows how difficult that truly is to accomplish, and so it creates a lot of momentum and energy for your sideline, and I felt like that was a good thing for us. Q. In talking to a lot of players on the field, in the locker room, they talk about what makes this team unique and a lot of them have talked about camaraderie, and I know that can be an abstract concept, but how has that come together for you guys? BRYAN HARSIN: Yeah, I think the chemistry, we talk about the brotherhood on this team, and that's part of the things we went back and hit on this last January. I'd say this: These guys, the chemistry on a football team, it matters. When we had a conversation about this as a team, and the bottom line was the leaders and the guys on this team that work hard and want to be successful, they want to make sure that the other guys that don't, that's unacceptable. That's the chemistry piece. And so really what it becomes is kind of a call-out session like hey, if you're not going to work hard and do the things that we're all out here to do and you're not going to star in your role, then leave. Be a part of it or we don't want you here. I think that's always good. People need to hear that because sometimes we all slack off a little bit. It doesn't make us bad people, it's just a reminder like hey, we're all working for something. And when you're around high achievers, that's what helps you to be successful. When you're around those guys that don't, you don't want to be a part of it. To me that's what they're talking about in the chemistry piece is everybody is doing their part. All right, there's not somebody that's a major distraction, there's not guys that are just out there complaining about not playing or just being on this team or whatever. Everybody is involved, and tonight you saw all the guys run out there with a hammer. Everybody had a hammer and the reason we run out with a hammer in games like this, is because the guy on the scout team that nobody talks about is still extremely important to our success. So everybody was involved in this game, and everybody that was on this team helped us get to where we are right now. It's trying to get everybody to understand the concept of team, and the big team, little me. Everybody has seen that, right? The big team, little me. Because it all starts off in the beginning of the season, it's always about team because nobody is really getting a lot of recognition. Some guys do from the previous year. And as the season goes on, that me starts to come into play because everybody now is getting recognized and now families, everybody is kind of like, you've got to get yours and all that, and it's like, no, we wouldn't be here if we were doing it by ourselves. And I think this team, that's the one thing that they truly understand is it's not about me, it's about us and this team. That sometimes seems a little bit corny in the world we live in now where it's so easy to be an individual. I mean, right now if you want to be unique, be a part of a team. Be a part of a team. If you want to be unique, be a part of a team because you can individualize yourself. We all can do that. It's easy. Everybody can do that. But you can't be a part of a team the proper way. And these guys, as the season has gone on, you hear a lot of guys out there, I love you and things like that. There's a lot of comments to each other, and they really do. They really do. And what that means is I respect you, I know how hard you've worked and I've been by your side and I would do anything for you, and I'm glad to see that you had success. That's what those guys mean, and that's why this team has had -- that's why we're able to go through the situations we did, and in that quarterback room, for example, still come out and be successful, because it wasn't about me, it was about us and those guys, and I think those guys really understand that. Not bought into it, to me that's overdone. They really believe it. Q. I think you had a front-row seat to the Hightower catch and run. I still don't know how he stayed on his feet. BRYAN HARSIN: I don't, either. Q. What did you think of that play? BRYAN HARSIN: So we're throwing a go and the safety comes over and there's a window you can fire it into and it was a little bit late, so Hightower slows down, comes back, takes it away from the safety, and all I see is a little bit of horizontal and then his leg hit and he stays up and he scores. I mean, it was a phenomenal play. He has been -- John has been one of these guys that -- I mean, exceptional at the game of football but also practicing, just preparing himself. Shakir obviously played well again tonight. But that play right there, we were kind of talking about how fast we scored. So you guys know, we don't actually work on the jump up, land on one leg, spin around and try to go score. Those are what those guys are -- they do. That's the ability they have. I would say this, too, about John: The competitiveness that I am not going down and I'm going to find a way. If you throw me the ball I'm not going to catch it and I'm not going down and I'm going to do something with it. That doesn't surprise me, that part of it, but spectacular, spectacular play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|