Oregon State vs. San Diego State POST-GAME QUOTES
September 21, 2014 | Football
September 20, 2014
Reser Stadium
Corvallis, Ore.
Oregon State
Head coach Mike Riley
On the win …
“That was a good win. We had a speaker last night talk about perseverance and that came into play today. We had to stay with it because it didn't look very good early.
On the defense …
“There were some fantastic defensive plays after we got past that first drive.”
On the overall game …
“It was a hard game. We wanted to run the ball because we knew it would be hard if we had to pass protect all game.”
On Sean Mannion …
“Sean adjusted, we got rid of the ball quicker. We rushed for 10 times of the amount we had against them last year. Even though 100 yards isn't great we were pretty effective.”
Senior Quarterback Sean Mannion
On moving into first place all-time on the Pac-12 passing list …
“It's cool knowing DA [Derek Anderson] and being friends with him. It's also a cool honor being among the guys that went here, they have really enabled me to have a degree of success. Really more than anything I'm just happy we won though.”
On starting the Pac-12 grind vs USC next week …
“We just have to keep improving, I thought we took some strides today but there is still work to be done. I liked the way we closed the game too. That was something that came up versus Hawaii in the last game and I thought we addressed that. We had a late lead versus them and let them back in so I thought it was good to close the game out and finish strong.”
Senior Running Back Terron Ward
On the Overall mindset of tonight's game …
“I feel like the offensive line came out with the mindset that we had to bully these guys. I think they accomplished just that. They wanted to establish the run early, we did that and all the touchdowns came from running backs so that a good day in our room.”
On thoughts and feelings about the approaching regular season …
“When school starts we will have another big responsibility, but as student athletes we are used to that and we plan to take the season head on.”
On how he plans to celebrate tonight's win …
“Im going to relax, chill with my family and take it all in.”
Senior Linebacker Michael Doctor
On being injured last year and health this year …
“It feels good, especially with our defense playing like the way we are. We still have to put together a whole game of defense. We didn't start too great but we ended strong. I'm glad to be back.”
On next game at USC …
“We've got to study for them and watch film. Main thing is we have to stop the run. We want to hold them and make them one dimensional.”
Junior Running Back Storm Woods
On today's game …
"I feel great, but a guy like me is never satisfied. We just have to keep on pedal to the metal. We have a good opponent next week with USC."
On the offense ...
"We just have to keep fighting. We can't stay stagnant we just have to keep going."
Senior Cornerback Steven Nelson
On the interception …
“I felt that it was a great play, but I have to give credit to my linemen. They put lots of pressure on the quarterback.”
On improvements from last game …
“We definitely stepped up and made improvement. We did come out rough the first drive but once we adjusted to SDSU's style the game was ours.”
On upcoming USC game …
“I feel very confident about my team and we are going to come out with a strong mentality”
San Diego State
Head Coach Rocky Long
Opening comment…
“My number one thought is you can't win in today's college football if you only score seven points. I thought our offense, other than the first drive of the game, was average to poor. I thought the defense played fairly well until right before halftime and right after halftime. You could see the character of our kids, because they didn't give up. But we weren't doing anything on offense, and we kept them out of the end zone in the fourth quarter.”
On whether it was an athletic mismatch…
“No, I don't think so. They played better than we did.”
On the play of San Diego State quarterback Quinn Kaehler…
“It's impossible to tell without watching the film. I know he was under a lot of pressure. There were several times that their defenders were in his face or hitting right after he threw. So, if I was just guessing without watching the film, I would say that their defensive line played extremely well and our offensive line played absolutely horrible.”
On the play of Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion…
“He's a good quarterback. He's a good player. That's a quarterback who throws for 500 yards on some people. I think he's a great quarterback. I think he's going to be in the NFL. I think he's going to be an excellent NFL quarterback. I'm not taking anything away from him, but he didn't have to do the things he has to do sometimes because we only scored seven points.
On the turning point in the game…
“I thought the pivotal play of the game was when we had the blitz come completely free and we missed him (Sean Mannion) in the backfield when it was 3rd-and-8 or something. There's still a chance we could stay in the game right there. If we made them punt, we would've got the ball back in decent field position and we could stay in the game. But that ended up being the 14th point in the third quarter. You can look at it one way or the other. Our guy missed the tackle and he should've sacked him, or what a great quarterback because he shook the tackle and made a good throw. It depends on what side of the field you're standing on.”
Linebacker Calvin Munson
On how the defense played ...
"We didn't play as well as we should have played. Our big plan was to stop the run first and make the mark for us tonight but they came out and played harder than us. They beat us off the ball, they ran it pretty well and they threw very well. It just wasn't our game tonight."
On going up against Mannion ...
"He's a great pocket passer and he's got a great arm. He's a good leader for them. He came great tonight and as much as we threw at him, he did a great job responding to it."
Sophomore Wide Reciever Lloyd Mills
On SDSU's offensive flow …
“After our first drive, where we scored a touchdown, we were out of sync and there was a lot of pressure on Quinn. We needed to step up as a whole unit – there was a lot of pressure on us receivers to make plays and scoring seven (7) points isn't going to get it done.”
On SDSU's score …
“Any time you only put up seven points your chances of winning are very slim. We just have to get back to the drawing board because we start conference next week and I would like to see us go to the conference championship.”
