Here's the full transcript from Steve Sarkisian's teleconference with the beat reporters.
Opening statement
SS: “I'd like to commend guys on their focus, energy and effort in this game. So many teams you see around country that are supposed to win, they're looking ahead. … I thought our guys were really on point. That’s a credit to our coaches for getting our guys ready to go. A couple of guys really stood out. JuJu Smith-Schuster, it’s easy to look at the stats and see 10 catches and 190 some-odd yards and a couple touchdowns. He was just impressive all night. His ability to block, his willingness to block, his effort downfield, his willingness to clear out routes for other guys. I just thought JuJu had a tremendous game. I thought our receiving corps in general really picked it up blocking down field. I think that’s the reason why the running game was a little bit better and we provided some explosive plays. I thought our receivers played very physical on the perimeter and blocked really well for us.
“We had four touchbacks last night on kickoffs which again is an improvement for us. I thought Alex (Wood) really improved as the game went on. I know he mishit one that went out of bounds. But to get four touchbacks is big for us. I thought in special teams, I thought Soma Vainuku was really productive for us, he continues to do it in all phases, the guy does, he’s on every team for us, he does a fantastic job. I saw that and pretty typical stuff from what we talked about. Again, I thought the offensive line did a nice job of communicating, much better than a week ago. And it showed. Cody (Kessler) had a lot of contact there, they opened up holes for the running game. I just thought in general, they were a lot better up front and obviously the backs ran well, they all ran well when they got their chances. All in all, it was a good win for us. We got to play a lot of people and now our focus has shifted to Stanford.”
What will you tell the team as far as what changes this week? Is it the speed of the opponent, the physical nature, what’s the difference from the first two games?
SS: “I think there’s two parts to it. One we have to recognize Stanford is a really good opponent. They’re a good team and they’ve been a good team for many years now. They’re extremely well coached, they’re disciplined, they have their style of play which they’re committed to and they’re good at it. The other side of it is we need to prepare for Stanford and we need to understand their schemes and how they play on offense, defense, special teams and all those things.
"But I also don’t want to shift the focus away from us. This is really about us preparing ourselves to play. And not changing the way we prepare based on who the opponent is. I think we have a good formula for success, I think we understand the process now, we’re heading into week three with it. And the key really is for us to stick to the process and believe in the process to get prepared to play a quality opponent. But because they’re a quality opponent doesn’t mean we should change. We have the right formula we just have to stick to it and be committed to it.”
Given Kessler’s near 80-percent completion percentage and the running backs’ high yards per carry average, what do you attribute to the poor third down conversion rate?
SS: “I really, I went back and looked at them today. Really our starting unit was really 0-for-3 in the game. We had three more there in the fourth quarter when they were out. But I think there’s a couple things to it. I think one, if you go back and look at the tape and if Cody could do it all over again, the one where he gets kind of flushed to his right, I think when he watches the tape he’s going to realize, man he could have ran and got six or seven yards and converted the third and five. So part of it is him utilizing his athleticism which we worked on here all offseason. I want him to take advantage of that.
"Two, we don’t need to try to be so perfect as a staff. I think sometimes our tempo is who we are and we need to continue to play to that tempo and not always try to find the perfect play. That’s a hard thing to do as a staff. You want to put your players in the best position to be successful. But sometimes tempo is just good enough. And we’ve had a couple calls where defenses have called the right things to defend us. We had the third down there, tight red zone, they dropped eight into coverage and covered our guys. Cody scrambled forward to get us to a fourth and short and we went for it and converted it. There’s a lot to it but there’s also, we don’t have to make it a lot. We can stick to who we are as a base offense and carry that over to third down and I think it’ll be effective for us. So we’ve gotten off to a little bit of a slow start in that are but I think there are things we can do that we can fix it sooner rather than later.”
Stanford and Arizona State are very different. Is it easier to focus on how you play and make the opponent adjust to you rather than scramble to adjust to who you’re playing?
SS: “Well, we’re going to game plan, that wouldn’t be fair to our kids if we don’t. We’re going to have things that attack our opponents like I said, in all three phases. We have to put a game plan together that’s conducive to play our opponent. But in our preparation, our Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we have to compete with one another, we have to go goods on goods, that’s what makes us who we are so that when Saturday rolls around, the tempo, the speed, the energy at the stadium and the speed of the game, we don’t have to try to turn it on. Where I think last year and probably even the previous years before I even arrived, you’re trying to take care of your team because you don’t have the bodies.
“Tuesdays and Wednesdays maybe aren’t as physical, they aren’t as fast and then you’re asking your kids to turn it on Saturday and that’s a little scary at times because you’re really relying on them to be mature enough to do that. When the way we’re going about it is, we don’t know any other way, this is just what we do. When it’s time to go, we’re going. I think our kids are understanding that. So schematically, we’re going to game plan, but fundamentally, psychologically, emotionally, how we take the field should not change and that’s what’s going to be part of the message here when we get with the guys tomorrow morning."
How will entering Pac-12 play affect rotations?
SS: “This week being a home game, everybody’s still at our disposal, obviously. Defensively, it will be a little bit different. Stanford is more of a traditional, huddle-up team. They don’t play with as much tempo, they do have that, they go to some no huddle, but they’re not going to try to go out and run 90-100 plays. They’re going to try to possess the football. So defensively we don’t necessarily have to platoon our players. We still will, but it’s not as urgent as when you’re playing a team like Arizona State two weeks from now that’s really going to speed you up and it’s going to be hot in Arizona at that time, so then the platooning becomes more of a factor. I think every game as we move forward is going to be different. We’re going to again, we’re just trying to do what’s best for our team to go out and be as successful as we can be and try to win the ball game.
“I don’t think it would be fair not to give all of our backs a shot to carry the football. When and how is what the challenge is going to be every week. We see flashes of all these guys when they get their shots. They’ve done nothing not to put them in there. They did a great job with pass protection yesterday. Idaho threw a bunch of different looks at us, to their credit. And to our guys’ credit, we picked it all up. We improved in that aspect of it and the backs were part of it. Even the young backs did a nice job of understanding the protection and doing a good job with it. Like I said, every week is going to be different. Some weeks, the platoon system is really going to be in effect because of the tempo and potentially the heat. Other weeks, maybe not as much. We’ll just have to continue to move forward from there.”
Opening statement
SS: “I'd like to commend guys on their focus, energy and effort in this game. So many teams you see around country that are supposed to win, they're looking ahead. … I thought our guys were really on point. That’s a credit to our coaches for getting our guys ready to go. A couple of guys really stood out. JuJu Smith-Schuster, it’s easy to look at the stats and see 10 catches and 190 some-odd yards and a couple touchdowns. He was just impressive all night. His ability to block, his willingness to block, his effort downfield, his willingness to clear out routes for other guys. I just thought JuJu had a tremendous game. I thought our receiving corps in general really picked it up blocking down field. I think that’s the reason why the running game was a little bit better and we provided some explosive plays. I thought our receivers played very physical on the perimeter and blocked really well for us.
“We had four touchbacks last night on kickoffs which again is an improvement for us. I thought Alex (Wood) really improved as the game went on. I know he mishit one that went out of bounds. But to get four touchbacks is big for us. I thought in special teams, I thought Soma Vainuku was really productive for us, he continues to do it in all phases, the guy does, he’s on every team for us, he does a fantastic job. I saw that and pretty typical stuff from what we talked about. Again, I thought the offensive line did a nice job of communicating, much better than a week ago. And it showed. Cody (Kessler) had a lot of contact there, they opened up holes for the running game. I just thought in general, they were a lot better up front and obviously the backs ran well, they all ran well when they got their chances. All in all, it was a good win for us. We got to play a lot of people and now our focus has shifted to Stanford.”
What will you tell the team as far as what changes this week? Is it the speed of the opponent, the physical nature, what’s the difference from the first two games?
SS: “I think there’s two parts to it. One we have to recognize Stanford is a really good opponent. They’re a good team and they’ve been a good team for many years now. They’re extremely well coached, they’re disciplined, they have their style of play which they’re committed to and they’re good at it. The other side of it is we need to prepare for Stanford and we need to understand their schemes and how they play on offense, defense, special teams and all those things.
"But I also don’t want to shift the focus away from us. This is really about us preparing ourselves to play. And not changing the way we prepare based on who the opponent is. I think we have a good formula for success, I think we understand the process now, we’re heading into week three with it. And the key really is for us to stick to the process and believe in the process to get prepared to play a quality opponent. But because they’re a quality opponent doesn’t mean we should change. We have the right formula we just have to stick to it and be committed to it.”
Given Kessler’s near 80-percent completion percentage and the running backs’ high yards per carry average, what do you attribute to the poor third down conversion rate?
SS: “I really, I went back and looked at them today. Really our starting unit was really 0-for-3 in the game. We had three more there in the fourth quarter when they were out. But I think there’s a couple things to it. I think one, if you go back and look at the tape and if Cody could do it all over again, the one where he gets kind of flushed to his right, I think when he watches the tape he’s going to realize, man he could have ran and got six or seven yards and converted the third and five. So part of it is him utilizing his athleticism which we worked on here all offseason. I want him to take advantage of that.
"Two, we don’t need to try to be so perfect as a staff. I think sometimes our tempo is who we are and we need to continue to play to that tempo and not always try to find the perfect play. That’s a hard thing to do as a staff. You want to put your players in the best position to be successful. But sometimes tempo is just good enough. And we’ve had a couple calls where defenses have called the right things to defend us. We had the third down there, tight red zone, they dropped eight into coverage and covered our guys. Cody scrambled forward to get us to a fourth and short and we went for it and converted it. There’s a lot to it but there’s also, we don’t have to make it a lot. We can stick to who we are as a base offense and carry that over to third down and I think it’ll be effective for us. So we’ve gotten off to a little bit of a slow start in that are but I think there are things we can do that we can fix it sooner rather than later.”
Stanford and Arizona State are very different. Is it easier to focus on how you play and make the opponent adjust to you rather than scramble to adjust to who you’re playing?
SS: “Well, we’re going to game plan, that wouldn’t be fair to our kids if we don’t. We’re going to have things that attack our opponents like I said, in all three phases. We have to put a game plan together that’s conducive to play our opponent. But in our preparation, our Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we have to compete with one another, we have to go goods on goods, that’s what makes us who we are so that when Saturday rolls around, the tempo, the speed, the energy at the stadium and the speed of the game, we don’t have to try to turn it on. Where I think last year and probably even the previous years before I even arrived, you’re trying to take care of your team because you don’t have the bodies.
“Tuesdays and Wednesdays maybe aren’t as physical, they aren’t as fast and then you’re asking your kids to turn it on Saturday and that’s a little scary at times because you’re really relying on them to be mature enough to do that. When the way we’re going about it is, we don’t know any other way, this is just what we do. When it’s time to go, we’re going. I think our kids are understanding that. So schematically, we’re going to game plan, but fundamentally, psychologically, emotionally, how we take the field should not change and that’s what’s going to be part of the message here when we get with the guys tomorrow morning."
How will entering Pac-12 play affect rotations?
SS: “This week being a home game, everybody’s still at our disposal, obviously. Defensively, it will be a little bit different. Stanford is more of a traditional, huddle-up team. They don’t play with as much tempo, they do have that, they go to some no huddle, but they’re not going to try to go out and run 90-100 plays. They’re going to try to possess the football. So defensively we don’t necessarily have to platoon our players. We still will, but it’s not as urgent as when you’re playing a team like Arizona State two weeks from now that’s really going to speed you up and it’s going to be hot in Arizona at that time, so then the platooning becomes more of a factor. I think every game as we move forward is going to be different. We’re going to again, we’re just trying to do what’s best for our team to go out and be as successful as we can be and try to win the ball game.
“I don’t think it would be fair not to give all of our backs a shot to carry the football. When and how is what the challenge is going to be every week. We see flashes of all these guys when they get their shots. They’ve done nothing not to put them in there. They did a great job with pass protection yesterday. Idaho threw a bunch of different looks at us, to their credit. And to our guys’ credit, we picked it all up. We improved in that aspect of it and the backs were part of it. Even the young backs did a nice job of understanding the protection and doing a good job with it. Like I said, every week is going to be different. Some weeks, the platoon system is really going to be in effect because of the tempo and potentially the heat. Other weeks, maybe not as much. We’ll just have to continue to move forward from there.”
