Highlights from our first round of interviews this week...
OT ZACH BANNER
--on the Twitter feud with LenDale White
"This is kind of the last time I want to talk about this thing with LenDale, to be honest with you. I don't feel dumb for sticking up for my team. I feel dumb for doing it on Twitter, if that makes sense. I don't take any words back that I said. Obviously the personal comment and shade that I threw at him, that’s locker room talk and that should've been in the locker room. But he’s never around, so that’s why I called him out like that. If we saw each other today or talked to each other, we would probably be, ‘Hey, we don’t need to talk like that.’ Hopefully, as old as he is and as mature as I would think he would be, I think that’s how we would treat it. I’m just going to leave it alone. If I see him, we’ll probably talk it out. It’s not killing me. I just don't want past players shooting down players, especially myself. You can’t be mad at me for wanting to shake hands after a game.
"He talked to somebody within our organization that’s been here forever, since he was there and is here still, and they have kind of relayed, ‘Well, he was talking about how you might help players up.’ When I push somebody on their back, as an offensive lineman because that’s exactly what I do, when I put them on their back. And I get up off of them and I pick them up. That’s not me being soft. That’s just me being a good sport. I look up to guys like Russell Wilson. I look up to guys like Andrew Luck, guys like that. It’s not a soft thing."
--on whether the whole situation surprised him
"It surprised me, but I just got to let it go. It’s an immature way to keep talking. And I shouldn't have responded. But I don’t argue with what I said. I argue with how I said it. I was sticking up for my team. It was a bad choice. I shouldn't have tweeted it. It’s over. We’re leaving it alone."
--on how he feels he’s playing
"Personally, there are a lot of things in my game that I can always work on. Everybody expects me to be perfect, because of who I am. And I’m OK with that. I want to be able to be held to that criticism. But not only have I gotten better since last season, I’ve gotten better every single game. Every single time like last weekend, which is why I thought it was crazy that this man was calling me soft for shaking hands. After the game, Utah players were saying, ‘Hey, good job. You’re a hell of a player. I wish you luck in your career.’ Respectfully, I said the same thing back to them. ‘You guys played a hell of a game. Good job, way to stick in there, get the win, and good luck to you guys the rest of the season.’ I personally think I’m killing it. But I have to do better obviously in leading and playing if we’re not winning. I got to do something better. But to be honest with you, if you watch my film, I think you’d be happy."
--on USC’s 1-3 start
"A lot of people are flared up because we’re losing. That doesn't excuse people. That excuses you, because it’s your job. I’m talking about the past players who played here. You have every right to be pissed off we’re losing, but don't abandon ship. Don't give up. I’m not giving up, and I’m not going to give up, regardless if we win this weekend, next weekend, blah, blah, blah. I want to win. We should've won last weekend. We had the game in our control until we didn’t execute on certain plays. We should've played better the weekend before and the weekend before that. There’s no reason to bash heads."
WR JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER
--on if he felt more comfortable with Sam throwing him the ball
“It was just really the game-plan. We all went in it knowing that we had to play for the quarterback that was going to play and obviously we were working out with Sam a lot.”
--on if he felt like he needed the ball more for the team to do well
“Of course, I want to be part of the team. I mean, whatever which way that works, if it’s hand me the ball or throw me the ball, either way I feel like I should be put more into the team, so that means getting me the ball more.”
--on how the team has responded the past couple of days
“At this point in time, it’s now just play balls out, put everything you got on the table for each practice, each play, and especially for each game. If you take one game at a time, like I said, it’s still not over. If you still win in the South then you have an opportunity to play in the Pac-12 championship.”
--on how it affects him to be 1-3
“It hurts a lot, but you can’t just sit back and just think about it knowing that you got seven, eight more games ahead of you. As a grown man and as a professional, there’s no time to be sad knowing that you have a whole other future of eight games in front of you.”
--on what defenses are doing differently against him
“Just bracketing, they’re just playing one underneath, one over top, one in the middle.”
--on how he counters that
“Just the game-plan that we had, move me around, play inside, play the outside, put me in at running back or somewhere to give me the ball where I’m able to make plays.”
--on how comfortable he is in the slot and other positions
“Very comfortable, honestly. When I’m in the game it’s more me and the DB, 1-on-1. There’s nobody else on the field. When it’s man to man all I see is the person who’s covering me and myself and just beat that man and you’ll do your job.”
--on his reaction to being more involved in the game-plan
“I still have to get the ball a lot more, and every guy should feel like that. But, I mean, whatever works out for the team, it is what is. This week we knew that they were going to play Cover 3, we knew that they were going to play bell, we knew that they were going to play man. And then when you put in stops, outside of you knowing your routes, you know you’re getting the ball, so it’s just what they put on the table is what we put on the table. Knowing that I’m going to get eight balls is hard, maybe even less balls than that.”
--on how me much he wanted to go for it on fourth down
“It’s like playing Madden, you ever punt the ball in Madden? No. You’re going to go for it, you’re going to be on your own goal-line and you’ll be backed up and you can get a safety, you’re going to go for it regardless, you’re playing Madden. It’s a video game. But there was a play that they called on Damien Mama (illegal receiver downfield), that hurts, that’s rare, nobody calls that. He actually rolled two yards then got up and they called it, so I think that right there, Darreus’s catch and run would’ve sealed the game. But still, when it’s fourth-and-5 and you’re on the road, and your team hasn’t been punting, they only punt one time in the game, I would say go for it.”
--on what he’s seen from ASU’s defense
“ASU, usually, the team is really good, the offense puts up a lot of points. (On) defense, they got some new guys in the backfield, but it’s going to be a fun game. So we’re just getting ready for that.”
--on what he thought of the ball spot on the play against Utah-
“I thought it was going to be fourth-and-1, but where the ref spotted it was like fourth-and-4 or fourth-and-3. It was bad spotting; we could’ve challenged it but it was tough. It was something that I wish we got back.”
--on whether anybody argued to challenge it
“No, nobody, I mean the coaches upstairs saw it. If we would’ve got the ball back then we would’ve burned a timeout. It was tough. It was fourth-and-1 and when I got hit, I guess, the dude put me back two more yards and it was like fourth-and-3.”
--on if he expects to get more single coverage this week given ASU’s propensity to blitz
“Yeah, most definitely. They play a lot of Cover 4, a little bit of Cover 2, a little bit of Cover 3. We’ll see what they have; Arizona State’s always been about pressure."
Continued below...
OT ZACH BANNER
--on the Twitter feud with LenDale White
"This is kind of the last time I want to talk about this thing with LenDale, to be honest with you. I don't feel dumb for sticking up for my team. I feel dumb for doing it on Twitter, if that makes sense. I don't take any words back that I said. Obviously the personal comment and shade that I threw at him, that’s locker room talk and that should've been in the locker room. But he’s never around, so that’s why I called him out like that. If we saw each other today or talked to each other, we would probably be, ‘Hey, we don’t need to talk like that.’ Hopefully, as old as he is and as mature as I would think he would be, I think that’s how we would treat it. I’m just going to leave it alone. If I see him, we’ll probably talk it out. It’s not killing me. I just don't want past players shooting down players, especially myself. You can’t be mad at me for wanting to shake hands after a game.
"He talked to somebody within our organization that’s been here forever, since he was there and is here still, and they have kind of relayed, ‘Well, he was talking about how you might help players up.’ When I push somebody on their back, as an offensive lineman because that’s exactly what I do, when I put them on their back. And I get up off of them and I pick them up. That’s not me being soft. That’s just me being a good sport. I look up to guys like Russell Wilson. I look up to guys like Andrew Luck, guys like that. It’s not a soft thing."
--on whether the whole situation surprised him
"It surprised me, but I just got to let it go. It’s an immature way to keep talking. And I shouldn't have responded. But I don’t argue with what I said. I argue with how I said it. I was sticking up for my team. It was a bad choice. I shouldn't have tweeted it. It’s over. We’re leaving it alone."
--on how he feels he’s playing
"Personally, there are a lot of things in my game that I can always work on. Everybody expects me to be perfect, because of who I am. And I’m OK with that. I want to be able to be held to that criticism. But not only have I gotten better since last season, I’ve gotten better every single game. Every single time like last weekend, which is why I thought it was crazy that this man was calling me soft for shaking hands. After the game, Utah players were saying, ‘Hey, good job. You’re a hell of a player. I wish you luck in your career.’ Respectfully, I said the same thing back to them. ‘You guys played a hell of a game. Good job, way to stick in there, get the win, and good luck to you guys the rest of the season.’ I personally think I’m killing it. But I have to do better obviously in leading and playing if we’re not winning. I got to do something better. But to be honest with you, if you watch my film, I think you’d be happy."
--on USC’s 1-3 start
"A lot of people are flared up because we’re losing. That doesn't excuse people. That excuses you, because it’s your job. I’m talking about the past players who played here. You have every right to be pissed off we’re losing, but don't abandon ship. Don't give up. I’m not giving up, and I’m not going to give up, regardless if we win this weekend, next weekend, blah, blah, blah. I want to win. We should've won last weekend. We had the game in our control until we didn’t execute on certain plays. We should've played better the weekend before and the weekend before that. There’s no reason to bash heads."
WR JUJU SMITH-SCHUSTER
--on if he felt more comfortable with Sam throwing him the ball
“It was just really the game-plan. We all went in it knowing that we had to play for the quarterback that was going to play and obviously we were working out with Sam a lot.”
--on if he felt like he needed the ball more for the team to do well
“Of course, I want to be part of the team. I mean, whatever which way that works, if it’s hand me the ball or throw me the ball, either way I feel like I should be put more into the team, so that means getting me the ball more.”
--on how the team has responded the past couple of days
“At this point in time, it’s now just play balls out, put everything you got on the table for each practice, each play, and especially for each game. If you take one game at a time, like I said, it’s still not over. If you still win in the South then you have an opportunity to play in the Pac-12 championship.”
--on how it affects him to be 1-3
“It hurts a lot, but you can’t just sit back and just think about it knowing that you got seven, eight more games ahead of you. As a grown man and as a professional, there’s no time to be sad knowing that you have a whole other future of eight games in front of you.”
--on what defenses are doing differently against him
“Just bracketing, they’re just playing one underneath, one over top, one in the middle.”
--on how he counters that
“Just the game-plan that we had, move me around, play inside, play the outside, put me in at running back or somewhere to give me the ball where I’m able to make plays.”
--on how comfortable he is in the slot and other positions
“Very comfortable, honestly. When I’m in the game it’s more me and the DB, 1-on-1. There’s nobody else on the field. When it’s man to man all I see is the person who’s covering me and myself and just beat that man and you’ll do your job.”
--on his reaction to being more involved in the game-plan
“I still have to get the ball a lot more, and every guy should feel like that. But, I mean, whatever works out for the team, it is what is. This week we knew that they were going to play Cover 3, we knew that they were going to play bell, we knew that they were going to play man. And then when you put in stops, outside of you knowing your routes, you know you’re getting the ball, so it’s just what they put on the table is what we put on the table. Knowing that I’m going to get eight balls is hard, maybe even less balls than that.”
--on how me much he wanted to go for it on fourth down
“It’s like playing Madden, you ever punt the ball in Madden? No. You’re going to go for it, you’re going to be on your own goal-line and you’ll be backed up and you can get a safety, you’re going to go for it regardless, you’re playing Madden. It’s a video game. But there was a play that they called on Damien Mama (illegal receiver downfield), that hurts, that’s rare, nobody calls that. He actually rolled two yards then got up and they called it, so I think that right there, Darreus’s catch and run would’ve sealed the game. But still, when it’s fourth-and-5 and you’re on the road, and your team hasn’t been punting, they only punt one time in the game, I would say go for it.”
--on what he’s seen from ASU’s defense
“ASU, usually, the team is really good, the offense puts up a lot of points. (On) defense, they got some new guys in the backfield, but it’s going to be a fun game. So we’re just getting ready for that.”
--on what he thought of the ball spot on the play against Utah-
“I thought it was going to be fourth-and-1, but where the ref spotted it was like fourth-and-4 or fourth-and-3. It was bad spotting; we could’ve challenged it but it was tough. It was something that I wish we got back.”
--on whether anybody argued to challenge it
“No, nobody, I mean the coaches upstairs saw it. If we would’ve got the ball back then we would’ve burned a timeout. It was tough. It was fourth-and-1 and when I got hit, I guess, the dude put me back two more yards and it was like fourth-and-3.”
--on if he expects to get more single coverage this week given ASU’s propensity to blitz
“Yeah, most definitely. They play a lot of Cover 4, a little bit of Cover 2, a little bit of Cover 3. We’ll see what they have; Arizona State’s always been about pressure."
Continued below...
