Colorado University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Colorado-Washington Quotes
November 01, 2014 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre
General
"That was a tough loss. It was one where we had all of the momentum going in our direction at one point. I feel like Washington definitely won the game, but I also feel like we gave them the game. That was very disheartening for our guys. We've been taking care of the ball pretty well in terms of fumbles, but that hurt us today. I thought we stopped the bleeding after our second fumble when we stopped them, but we had a pick-six and a punt return for a touchdown. That really kind of gave them the football game. We just have to keep working, keep fighting and keep trying to find a way to win."
On What This Loss Says About the Buffs
"It just says that we're young. We had a freshman fumble the ball twice. He hadn't done that this season, but he's in the locker room in tears right now. We've been great on punt coverage this season, but the guy made a nice run and they had some good blocks."
On Bringing Down Shaq Thompson
"In the first half, we didn't roll-tackle the big back like had worked on, but in the second half we did and it made all of the difference in the world. Once you get trucked, you have to listen to the coaching and do what we ask you to do, but we have to coach it better also. We had one mishit that he had a good run on, but the rest of the time he just ran over us. He's a good player. When we did roll-tackle he just went down. That's something that they've done about 100 times since August. We have to enforce it better."
On New Areas of Concern Surfacing for the Buffs
"We have to keep finding a way to be an all-around football team. It was disheartening. We had all of the momentum in the world when we were up 23 to 17 and we were moving. We had that unfortunate fumble and they got some momentum back, and that's how we really started to give them the game."
On Having Something To Play For
"Any time that you play, you have a lot to play for. There are so many people that wish they could play, people that are injured that wish they could play and people that have diseases that wish they could play. So I look at everything as a great opportunity. The media mainly puts stuff out there about bowl games, but all that I talk about is going 1-0 every week. Of course, we want to go to a bowl game, but I don't ever talk to a team about that. I didn't talk to the team about that when I was at San Jose State, I won't ever talk to a team about that. When we go out there and treat every single game that we play is a season in itself. Hopefully, we can put enough games together to get to a bowl game. I don't think that the players were going out there thinking that if we didn't win that we wouldn't go to a bowl game."
On Getting Over the Hump at San Jose State
"We had a lot of situations like this that happened. Kids ended up making plays, doing the right things under pressure and the ball bounced our way a few times. It ended up happening, but it takes a while."
On Using that Experience to get CU Over the Hump
"We play in a tough league. It's going to take a while. My mentor at Duke [Head Coach David Cutcliffe] didn't win six games until his fifth year. Then he won 10 and they're going to win 10 again this year. When we went there, they were the worst BCS program in the country. When I came here, this was the worst BCS program in the country, but we're moving our way up. We are in fourth quarters, we are in football games and we're going to win some of them. I don't look at this like the world is coming to the end. I look at this as an opportunity to improve. I didn't think that we were overmatched today. I thought we fought hard and did a lot of good things, but you cannot have three turnovers and allow a punt return and beat a Pac-12 football team. It was good to cause some fumbles. One was in a scoring situation while the other wasn't."
On Whether the Buffs Tried to Force Things
"I didn't think that. I didn't think that we were pressing too hard. We still have to execute correctly and they made some good plays. It's hard to get a finger on what's exactly going on."
On the Confidence Level of the Team
"I think it's the confidence level of each guy to go make a play. The guys want to do well. We just have to keep working, keep meeting and keep fighting. We had a lot of guys step in today and had a lot of people playing while banged up. We just have to keep finding a way to do it. It's tough, but we need to look at all of the positives along the way."
On the Defense Giving Up Some Big PlaysÂ
"We gave up a big play on the run a couple of times today. The quarterback made a heck of a play on the read-option when he threw it, which was a nice play by them. We played good early on, but I think I'll see that we mishit the run early when Shaq [Thompson] had a big run. On the other one, he just flat ran over us. We have to do a better job of tackling even though he's a good, physical back. Those are the big plays that happened. They also had a good catch on a corner-blitz that we had on early in the first half."
On the Message of Optimism to the Fans
"Just keep believing and we'll keep battling. Anything can happen. That's what we'll keep telling our players while we keep fighting and pushing. That's all that you can do."
Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen
General
"Felt good. I knew Colorado was going to come out ready to play. We knew it. We didn't tackle well enough. We didn't protect the ball well enough early on, but I am proud of how those guys rallied and played hard for the whole game."
On Shaq Thompson
"He's a heck of a player and I keep saying, I know he can play three positions for sure really, really good if not five. He's fun to watch, I mean he's fun for all of us as coaches to watch. You give him a little space as an athlete. Even in between the tackles he gets a little space. He's so strong that he's going to push the pile and certainly if we get him out on the edge in space he's hard to tackle. He's going to run through an arm tackle or he's got enough athleticism to make guys miss. He's a heck of a player, we all know that."
On If He Expected A Big Day Out Of Shaq Thompson
"Yes. I mean he has a big game every game wherever we put him. So when we were going to give him the ball a bunch we knew he was going to do some good things if the guys up front gave him a chance."
On Whether Thompson Should Only Play Offense
"Well I do think that we have some good running backs in Lavon [Coleman] and Dwayne [Washington] on the field and those guys can play, they're just not totally healthy and hopefully we'll get them healthy. We've got to figure out where Shaq [Thompson] can give us the most help. Whether it is back on the defensive side of the ball, but I have confidence in our other backs as well."
On The Punt Return For A Touchdown
"We've been saying this for the last two three weeks that we just felt like we were close on special teams and able to change the game somehow whether it was on punt return, kickoff return, you know blocking a punt. We've done all of that, we've had some penalties and some things that haven't come through. We've been preaching that all week so it was nice to finally come through."
On The Team's Play In The Second Half
"I think that's what's nice about today is that it wasn't anyone guy. It wasn't Shaq [Thompson], Cyler [Miles] was fairly effective with the ball, it wasn't just him. A lot of guys that finally just got into the rhythm. We played hard and got something done."
On The Play Of Quarterback Cyler Miles
"Well I think he did a good job. You'd have to talk to him on how he was at times. I'm not sure why he was fumbling that snaps. I don't know if he's putting too much on himself to make things happen to fast that was very frustrating for us all. I know it was frustrating for him. But I think he was efficient in the pass game. He ran and got a few things done and I'm happy for him to come here and get a win."
On Coming From Behind In A Conference Road Game
"Anytime you can do that I think it's good. This team can do some things, that we have something to us but we have a long way to go. We continually shoot ourselves in the foot, stumble around on things that I think we can be better at. Give credit to the other side, they have good players too and sometimes they make you look bad, things like fumbling snaps and turning the ball over when we are going in to score and some penalties in inopportune times. I think we can be better at those things."
On Overcoming Mistakes
"And that's nice. They kept fight and kept playing hard so at the end of the day that's probably part of the message as well, cleaning up some more details."
On Defensive Struggles Led To Playing Thompson On D
"No. Not really. I don't think it was necessarily the guys at Shaq's position. There's enough to go around. It's not only the first guy who misses [the tackle] it's three guys missing it. To me, we just got to play harder. We got to run to the ball harder. We just have to wake up a little bit. It has nothing to do with the early morning start. We're early guys, we just didn't come out with a physical mindset that we need to."
On The Play Of Dante Pettis At Receiver
"His whole thing has been trying to learn our system. Just being so new and when he knows what he's doing, he can line up quickly. He's very natural and very athletic to the ball. He made plays in the special team's game as well."
On The Play Of James Atoe At Right Tackle
"Coach Strasser has been moving some guys around a little bit. I think Coleman [Shelton] might have got dinged just a little bit. We've got to be able to move guys around. Whether our guys aren't performing or our guys get dinged, it can't be any surprise like 'Oh now what' This is just how it goes. That's something we had to work with."
On Initial Thoughts On The Offensive Line
"Well we got more yards running the ball so that's positive. That's always a hard group for me to comment on until I put the tape on."
On The Importance Of The Win
"They are all important. It is so hard to win in this conference. I think that what everybody knows. Just look at the scores, in overtime or down to the wire, and then you go on the road and it's even harder. Every week if you can eek something out we're happy."
On The Defense
"I'm glad we got there in the fourth quarter [sacking the quarterback]. Guys fighting and that can be frustrating but we kind of knew that they give up as few of sacks as anybody around. It kind of proved true today because we got some guys who can rush the passer but I do think we are getting a push. I do think we were getting in some throwing lanes and I do think we had an effect on the run."
On The Play In Altitude And On Natural Grass
"Yeah the grass a little bit. But I think you look across the field and I think both teams have that. The altitude, the early start. I just, I refuse to say that's an issue. Guys are going to slip on grass fields. You got to play at good pad level and it just comes down to fundamentals."
On Containing Colorado Receiver Nelson Spruce
"We knew he would get his catches. I mean a guy like that catches the ball so much. If you can kind of slow him down and contain him a little bit I think we are happy with that."
On The Improved Play of Shaq Thompson
"The time that he's really spent back there, like studying the position. I think last week in those weird conditions the hard way to get your feet wet, we couldn't throw it at all and so to come out here after the second week of looking at what he can do. We have to continue to figure out the best way to use him."
Colorado Players
QB Sefo Liufau
ON THE GAME "There were just too many mistakes in the turnover category and that's across the board. You just can't have that if you want to win games and we had too many today. Our defense did a really good job of getting turnovers but offensively, we had too many turnovers, especially myself."
ON HIS INTERCEPTIONPASS IN THE THIRD QUARTER "Based off of what I was reading, I thought he was taking the inside slant but you just can't assume and that's what I did. It was just a bad read."
ON THE HIGH AMOUNT OF TURNOVERS THIS GAME "I don't think there was anything different. We just didn't take care of the football. We have to go back and work on that because you can't give up the ball. You need the ball to score and get points and we didn't do that this week."
ON THE SLOW SECOND HALF "It just comes down to executing the full 60 minutes. The previous weeks, we've been struggling coming out of the gates and we've been hitting it out but this week we came out strong. It's just a matter of executing for four quarters, every down, every snap."
ON THE TEAM'S GOAL OF REACHING A BOWL GAME - "Obviously the goal isn't attainable anymore but our other goal of going 1-0 every week is still attainable. You can't just throw the rest of the season away and say that it's over with. You have an opportunity to build, continue to learn and get better. That's the way we have to look at it. I have no doubt that this team is going to do that."
ON SETTING THE COMPLETION RECORD DURING TODAY'S GAME - "I don't know how much numbers count for if you don't have the win. You can have all of the numbers in the world but if you don't put it all together and get a win at the end; it's glamorous to have the record and it's nice but everyone here is for the team. We want to get team success over individual success."
ON THE LOCKERROOM VIBE AT HALF TIME "It was good. All of the guys were fired up and we were ready to get back out and continue to play strong. Obviously bumps in the road and you don't always play perfect games. But, the guys' spirit was up and we were ready to go out and keep fighting again."
TB Michael Adkins II
ON HOW TO ACHIEVE A FOUR QUARTER GAME "We pieced it up. Previously, it was the problem with not starting fast. This week, we started fast so we just have to put the pieces together. It's just getting in the mindset of putting it all together."
ON THE MOMENTUM SHIFT DURING THE GAME - "There is a momentum shift when turnovers are happening but I didn't feel like it got away from us. We kept pushing and we kept trying to get to the level that we needed to be at to win the game but we just didn't come out on top."
ON THE TEAM'S DREAM OF REACHING A BOWL GAME - "A bowl game was the goal but our main goal is to win football games. A bowl game was just extra added on to that. We want to win football games so we're going to go out to the rest of the season with the mindset that we're going to win football games. That's how we're going to take care of that."
ON THE ATTITUDE OF THE TEAM AT HALF TIME "We dove in. We started fast and ended up at the half with the lead. But we didn't say that we had it. We still have to fight and Coach comes back and says 'you have to keep pushing.' So, I wouldn't' say we had it [the win]. We were ready to go out and attack the rest of the game."
WR Nelson Spruce
ON THE SECOND HALF - "I think it was just the mistakes we made. We made too many mistakes in the second half. We were up and we gave the ball away a couple of times and we're just not in a situation, as a team, where we can make those types of mistakes and come out with the win. That's the biggest thing."
ON THE TEAM'S GOAL OF REACHING A BOWL GAME "I think it's just the same mentality that we've had every week. We want to forget about this week and take it one game at a time. Even though we're not bowl eligible anymore, we still have to attack every game like we're still fighting for a bowl game. If we do let off the gas at all, we're going to fall back and lose all of the progress that we've made. So, I don't think that the team's mentality will be hurt at all after this."
ON LEARNING HOW TO WIN "That's part of it, knowing what it takes to win. No one on this team has been really close to a bowl game so I think that's why we need to just keep pushing. It could take just one game where we finish it off to turn this thing around. That's how we have to approach it."
ON SETTING THE SINGLE SEASON RECORD FOR RECEPTIONS DURING TODAY'S GAME "I think offensively and defensively, we've been playing at a higher level. Those milestones are just a sign of progress. I think in a game like this, it just goes back to the mistakes that we have to eliminate if we want to start turning that type of production into wins."
DL Jimmie Gilbert
ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND HALF "Nothing happened differently from the first from a defensive perspective. We knew what they were going to run. We knew we had to execute, but the coin just didn't fall our way."
ON MINIMIZING BIG PLAYS- "When it comes to the big plays, it comes down to little things. When that one thing gets exploited, it turns into a big situation. So as a defense, we have to cut out those small little ticks we have, and come together as a whole unit."
ON FORCING TURNOVERS "Turnovers are always important. Every week, one of our goals is to cause turnovers, tip balls, force fumbles... As a defense, if we ever get the opportunity to score off of a turnover, we have to capitalize."
FB George Frazier
ON THE TEAM'S PERFORMANCE- "I wouldn't say we need to play better, we just made too many mistakes. We were playing hard, we fought, we came out strong, but we didn't make the plays when they counted.
ON MAINTAINING MOMENTUM FOR THE ENTIRE GAME- "We're a really young team, and we have a lot of young players on the field. It just comes down to just getting more experience, and gaining more confidence as we go.
ON FOCUSING FOR NEXT WEEK'S GAME- "We're a team. We know that we're underdogs going into a lot of games. We just want to get wins. Everybody on this team is tired of losing. So, we're not going to go back to the ways of losing. We need to keep battling, and keep getting stronger.
S Evan White
ON THE TEAM'S EMOTIONS "We're just focused on going and beating Arizona next week, and just moving on from this."
ON COACH MIKE MACINTYRE'S MESSAGE TO THE TEAM FOLLOWING THE GAME "Just to keep our heads up, keep pushing, keep working, we're not done yet. We still have some games to go."
ON HAVING TO TAKE ON A LARGE ROLE IN THE DEFENSE AS A FRESHMAN DUE TO INJURIES "I'm just doing my thing out there. (Knowing) all the plays, making sure I know all the formations and stuff, knowing what plays (the defense needs to run). I'm just trying to make plays every time."
ON THE DEFENSE FORCING MULTIPLE TURNOVERS TODAY "We're really good on defense, we have a lot of playmakers. Just keep making those turnovers and hopefully we'll get the win (in the future)."
DT Juda Parker
ON WHERE THE TEAM GOES FROM HERE "We just have to pick ourselves up, and it really falls on the senior leadership to tell the guys, 'Hey, you know what, don't give up on the season.' We have to create a legacy. Even though we are close in games, we still need to push-through, that's very important. It's tough as a senior, we lost another game and we are not able to go to a bowl game. But, I feel the right way to look at it is to help the younger guys come up and play hard."
ON POSITIVES HE TAKES AWAY FROM TODAY'S GAME "The defense really didn't give up any points in the second half. I feel like we really played our (butts) off, other than a couple turnovers, I feel like we were at a pretty good spot in the game. We played extremely hard, and guys were assignment sound."
ON THE DEFENSE ALLOWING BIG PLAYS "Coaches say that there are little things, it's something that you don't really notice when you're out there, but if you continue to let that linger we're in such a good league that people will capitalize on those plays and that's how you see those big plays tend to happen. If we can just minimize the mental errors and mental mistakes then I think we'll stop those big plays from happening."
Washington Players
LB Travis Feeney
ON THE GAME "Early in the game I played the first route, the first lane in. The second time I just sat and waited and he threw it right to me. Finally I caught the ball. I had a lot of drops in practice last week. It just felt good to finally get a touchdown."
ON FIGHTING BACK "This team is always fighting. We never give up and we always know that we are always in the game no matter what. They got on top of us fast. We knew that they were going to fight. Every game they've played has been a tough game. It was no different here. We got our heads back in the game and fought back and played hard."
ON WASHINGTON'S DEFENSIVE SUCCESS "It's the hustling. We run 4-6 every play. It's the fight. They're going to throw punches and we're going to throw punches back."
ON GETTING BACK ON TRACK "It feels good. We are definitely on the right road. We have a hard game next week. Every game in the Pac-12 is a hard game. We have to prepare and get back on Monday to get ready to go."
ON SHAQ THOMPSON "He's ballin'. Sometimes you just have to get a little cocky. I'm going to mess with him about. But, he played a great game. He really changed the whole offense and helped us out a lot."
WR Dante Pettis
ON THE PUNT RETURN TOUCHDOWN "It was mentioned earlier in the season when we first started playing. I've heard a couple fans say some things like "oh, break the streak." I know that we'd gone a long time without it. Before the play I knew the return we had was looking pretty good for us. I saw the punter roll out and then he kicked it pretty far so I knew there was going to be a pretty good chance. My blockers did an amazing job. It was pretty easy."
ON IT BEING HIS FIRST CAREER TOUCHDOWN "It was just a little double move. I did a stutter and go. The corner bit on it and then Cyler [Miles] just made a beautiful pass right to my hands. It was pretty exciting."
ON MORALE ON THE SIDELINE "We never really let it get to us. We were down but it didn't really feel like that. Our spirits were up the whole time and we just kept going and fighting."
ON COACH PETERSEN "I love Coach P [Chris Petersen]. He's the best coach I've ever played for. I'm pretty sure most of the players feel the same way."
ON STAYING PATIENT DURING PUNT RETURNS "I think it's just something that's just natural. Coaches tell you one time and then you just kind of realize it. My first game I wasn't patient I just tried to run and I learned that from experience."
ON BECOMING COMFORTABLE WITH COLLEGE FOOTBALL "After the third game I felt really comfortable being back there for punt returns. That helped a lot."
ON FEELINGS ABOUT TOUCHDOWNS "It was great. I mean, scoring my first touchdown in college and then the second one on a punt return was something I've always dreamed of doing in college football. It was pretty special."
ON SHAQ THOMPSON "He's unreal. That guy is something else. I mean when we have Shaq in the backfield they have to pack the box because you can't really stop him. It just opens up holes for passing."
ON CYLER MILES "He was really good. His throws were on the money every time and he was making good adjustments and reads. Everything. He played a really good game."
RB/LB Shaq Thompson
ON SEASON GOALS "We can still get better. Just go back to film on Monday; just learn from that and keep going. We have a good team."
ON THE TRANSITION FROM DEFENSE TO OFFENSE "(Coach Petersen) says, "Lets go 7, get something done out there." That's all he says that's my motivation."
ON CYLER MILES "Cyler stepped up in the quarterback role. It's his homecoming week. He did a great job. He's holding on to the ball. Sometimes he could've gotten rid of the ball. He helps me out and lets me know who to pick up. The fumble was all my fault; I'll take all credit for that. I thought he was going to pull it so I let go. It's not his fault."
ON SETTLING IN ON BEING A RUNNING BACK "No I still have my defense mentality. It's always defense first. It feels good to help out the offense every once in a while."
ON WHEN HE KNEW HE WAS GOING TO BE A RB "This whole week I knew. We just keep it on the low."
ON STAYING ON OFFENSE THE REST OF HIS CAREER "I want to do both ways. On defense we did okay. We just have to pick it up tackling wise. We had a couple stops that got us the ball back."
ON ALTITUDE "Once you get in the mode, game mode, you have to keep going whether you're tired or not."
ON TRAVIS FEENEY "I was happy. Travis has butterfingers. When he caught that ball I was juiced. He finally caught one and I'm proud of him."
ON WANTING TO PLAY DEFENSE "I did after seeing them miss a lot of tackles. That's one of the biggest things that we need to work on. They held it down for us and got the ball back when we needed the ball. We did good on both sides of the ball. There were fumbles and missed tackles but at the end of the day we fought."
QB Cyler Miles
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAYING WELL "It was very important. It was real special to me because I used to grow up coming to CU games. Just to be able to be in the stadium and experience it as a player is kind of like a dream come true. At the same time, I tried to just calm my mind before the game and do my job. I'd be lying to you if I said there weren't butterflies. I mean, this is my first time playing in front of a lot of my family. At the same time before the game I realized I had to calm my mind and I knew we'd be fine if I just did my job and trust my guards."
ON SHAQ THOMPSON "He's a ball player. Y'all know that. Everybody knows that. Shaq's going to do his thing no matter where you put him at. I'm glad to have him on my side. Anywhere he is on the field I believe he's going to make plays."
ON FIRST HALF STRUGGLES "It was a few fumbles. That's really it. We just have to take care of the ball better and focus up. I need to get better at that. My dad always told me 'stop carrying it like a loaf of bread'. I need to just tuck it and practice reps."
ON COACH PETERSEN'S THOUGHTS "Same thing. We have to take care of the ball better. We are hurting ourselves. I think we had two red zone fumbles and one almost in the red zone so obviously that's not acceptable at all."
ON HIS PERFORMANCE "I thought I did some good things. I thought I definitely need to take care of the ball. I thought I did a decent job and have a lot to work on like ball security. I could've hung in there a couple more times but I thought it was okay."