Colorado-California Quotes
vs
Wyoming
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Karl Dorrell
On the Loss – “That wasn't the type of game I was expecting at all. We struggled in the first half on both sides of the ball. We had a tough time stopping them with their offense. Their quarterback (Chase Garbers) made some plays. Offensively, we couldn't quite get any continuity of really bringing some drives together. We got three points on one drive and that's really about it, and that was for kickoff return. It's unfortunate that we didn't play to our capabilities today. We had a really good week of practice and felt we were going to play our best football. It didn't happen today. We’ve got a lot of work to do. The players know that. We’ve got to change things up to be more productive and more efficient and more effective with some other semblance of things. It was not a very good performance.
On California Dictating the Line of Scrimmage – “In the first half, we couldn't quite figure them out on what they were doing against us on our defense. We couldn't quite get much continuity going on the offensive side and sustain some drives and make some plays. We’ve got a lot of work to fix. I get it. We were playing a number of people (today), but we have to play better. It was unfortunate we didn't do that today.”
On Chase Garbers’ Experience Playing Quarterback – “You can tell the difference between our quarterback (Brendon Lewis), a freshman, and a senior that's been playing for a while. He played a marvelous game. He was pretty good with the football. He knew where everybody was, and he made plays with his legs. He would do what an experienced quarterback should do well. Conversely, with us we couldn't quite get Brendan in rhythm. He did some good things early, but it's unfortunate that we're still working through the process with our offense in general. It's not necessarily Brendan himself. We didn't protect him as well as we did the week prior. We didn't run ball as well as we've done (in prior weeks). Sometimes, it looks like it's bad quarterback play, but he made one bad play today in my opinion. (It) was the one interception he threw, and he stared it down. I told him you can't stare down with a good, experienced secondary. They'll read your eyes and take a great angle on how to make plays and they did that. But other than that, I thought he competed. He tried to do what we asked him to do. It is unfortunate we didn't play well around him.”
On the Defense Playing Better in the Second Half – “We started to minimize the package a little bit more. We got locked in on what they were trying to do. We got rid of a heavy package that we were dealing with their 13-personnel and played most of our regular base personnel. We settled our guys down to play a little bit more man coverage. Those are the things that really helped us on the defensive side in the second half of the game. We didn't get that type of production on the other side.
On the Struggles of the Offensive Line – “I can't quite put a finger on that. I'm trying to figure that out. We're going to have to really look at that and see what's going on there. We've had some issues up front. At this point in time, we should have some of those things cleared up. Apparently, we're still struggling with doing some things. We’ve got to go back and really analyze what our issues are and try to get those things fixed in a hurry. There are a lot of guys (on the offensive line that) have played a lot of football. It's hard to put a finger on it. I wish I had the remedy to fix it. We'll figure that out. That's what we're going to have to do as coaches -- try to figure out what our issues are and try to get that shored up as quickly as we can so that we can get back to playing some productive football.”
On RB Jarek Broussard Not Playing in the Second Half – “We wanted to make sure Alex (Fontenot) got some carries and Deion (Smith also). Both those guys have garnered attention to get reps, so we wanted to get those guys some reps.”
On WR Dimitri Stanley Not Playing – “He's got a lower leg, soft tissue injury that's been nagging him the last few weeks. He got to a point where he didn't feel he could be effective enough. We didn't want to risk him getting injured even further.”
On the Locker Room Sticking Together – “They care about what we're doing. I'm always truthful to them. I could see if I was deceitful and lying (to them and the players) didn't trust the coach (they might not stick together). I don't think we have that type of relationship. We have young players and a mixture of inexperienced players that are trying to find a way. Part of it is they have to take ownership on their side of it just like the coaches. We're very transparent with each other. Hopefully, we can learn from this experience that we're dealing with right now.”
ON FRUSTRATION LEVEL AFTER LOSS- “I wouldn't say frustrated people just know we got to start stepping up, having things click. It just sort of seems like when we get into games things don't go our way. Me myself I'm looking as people not being frustrated, just trying to keep people motivated. We still got a season to play, we’re 1-3 in conference. We're not the only ones so this is not the end of our time.”
ON DEFENSE NOT PLAYING UP TO THEIR LEVEL IN FIRST HALF- “It's a part of the game. everything isn’t always going to go on your favor. But as you see we made some halftime adjustments, continued to do what we know we could do and then we played a better second half, so that's all you can really ask for.”
ON HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS- “People just got to wake up. We always preach and start fast. I feel like we didn’t start fast today. That’s just a thing we got to work on more in practice. And I don't know if his nerves are what but, we all got to start to step up, have things clicking better on both sides of the ball, it's not just the offense. We gave up the points not the offense so that's what I'm speaking on.”
ON TEAM’S SIDELINE VIBE- “Well I can't really say so much on offensive side but for defense me, Nate, T Lang a bunch of guys are still harping on, get a turnover, we could potentially score, create some points for the offense help them out a little bit, because we really weren't stopping the ball until second half. People are going to continue to talk about the offense but, we don't give points, we don't lose. We just got to get more turnovers. I keep harping on the same thing we got to get more turnovers if want to be like a good defense.”
ON QUARTERBACK CHASE GARBERS’ RUNNING SUCCESS- “He's a great quarterback. We know were up against. People just trying to keep eyes on their men, eventually he's going to scramble. Just the scheme so far. You can't be in every position every time. They schemed up a lot of good things, like I said the quarterback was really good. He capitalized on where we weren't.”
ON WHERE LEADERSHIP IS- “I feel like leadership was going good, we just got to make more plays. It’s nothing about people's character, none of that. Good calls are being made it’s just that people got to step up and make plays.”
ON KEEPING GUYS ENGAGED FOR THE LAST FIVE GAMES- “It's not the only game I've ever lost. What is it game seven? We still have more to go so you never know. Always, look at it like this, how people act if we were 6-1 or whatever. Point is 6-1, 7-0, you got to be the same person regardless of the situation so that's what I try to preach for the team.”
ON GETTING YOUNG PLAYERS TO BE THE SAME PERSON REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES- “I just remain confident. You got to be the same person regardless of the situation. Me being an experienced, I've lost before, things like that happen. Just preaching the younger guys like this is not the worst thing you're going to ever go through it can always be worse.”
OPENING STATEMENT- “When you have a set plan a desire and a goal and you feel as though the whole team is heading towards that goal, you see a couple things that just take apart from that and those little things add up and you see that some people are buying in and some people are not fully in. It takes a part of it takes apart from us and that's what we need. We need a full buy in just to head up towards that goal.”
ON PRACTICE NOT TRANSLATING TO GAMES- “Yeah, I would have to say that a little bit because we all do practice hard but we're not practicing hard enough. We need to take it up to the next level in order to push it to that next level in the game and make sure that we can score on every drive, make sure that we can get something out of every drive because like these three and outs they’re not going to do it. Three points on the board that's not going to do it.”
ON PLAYERS DANGERS OF PLAYERS GETTING DISENGAGED- “Of course, but if you're not bought in then you might as well just leave. There’s no room for or anybody who's trying to be out or trying to excuse themselves from the team. We need to all be bought in in order for us to take the next step because this season is not over. And this season sets us up for next season and if we’re not brought in than next season’s going to go the same way because we're still going to have those cancers on the team.”
ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES- “Just be honest, I had a drop on the first play. I make sure I catch that because I could have started something on the first drive instead of waiting till the kickoff return. Just to start with that then it goes to up front, then it goes to the QB’s then it goes to the wide receivers attacking the ball. There's so much stuff that adds up to it and we got to do those things in practice so we can change it over to the game.”
ON HIS 67-YARD KICKOFF RETURN- “Just trying to put the team back in full drive honestly. I was hoping for a game changer. And maybe like that was some pushed that we need. Coaches talk about catalysts all week and I wanted to be that next catalyst again. So, just being unable to get that ball and try to take it to the house and I should have took it to the house, oh my goodness”
ON POSITIVITY FROM KICKOFF SIDE- “Definitely, I need that top end speed, I could have beat him out. And I was like I should have made a move. There's a lot of things you wish you could have done but you got to do actually do it in a game.”
ON KEYS AGAINST OREGON NEXT WEEK- “People are too nice. People are way too nice and that's all going to change this week. Especially for me. If I drop a ball I expect people to be on my butt like Mekhi Blackmon was on my butt last week. We need that change to get this pushed forward because it's not the coaches, it starts with the players. So, it's time to start to take that next step.”
ON LEADERSHIP ON THE TEAM- “Of course we have more leaders on our defensive side but we need more on offense because the people that are leading the offense, their voices aren't heard enough or loud enough, and I'm going to start speaking up. But the thing is for me to even speak up, I can't have no dropped balls at practice. I have to practice a certain way, I have to exemplify myself a certain way for me to step up.”
On California Dictating the Line of Scrimmage – “In the first half, we couldn't quite figure them out on what they were doing against us on our defense. We couldn't quite get much continuity going on the offensive side and sustain some drives and make some plays. We’ve got a lot of work to fix. I get it. We were playing a number of people (today), but we have to play better. It was unfortunate we didn't do that today.”
On Chase Garbers’ Experience Playing Quarterback – “You can tell the difference between our quarterback (Brendon Lewis), a freshman, and a senior that's been playing for a while. He played a marvelous game. He was pretty good with the football. He knew where everybody was, and he made plays with his legs. He would do what an experienced quarterback should do well. Conversely, with us we couldn't quite get Brendan in rhythm. He did some good things early, but it's unfortunate that we're still working through the process with our offense in general. It's not necessarily Brendan himself. We didn't protect him as well as we did the week prior. We didn't run ball as well as we've done (in prior weeks). Sometimes, it looks like it's bad quarterback play, but he made one bad play today in my opinion. (It) was the one interception he threw, and he stared it down. I told him you can't stare down with a good, experienced secondary. They'll read your eyes and take a great angle on how to make plays and they did that. But other than that, I thought he competed. He tried to do what we asked him to do. It is unfortunate we didn't play well around him.”
On the Defense Playing Better in the Second Half – “We started to minimize the package a little bit more. We got locked in on what they were trying to do. We got rid of a heavy package that we were dealing with their 13-personnel and played most of our regular base personnel. We settled our guys down to play a little bit more man coverage. Those are the things that really helped us on the defensive side in the second half of the game. We didn't get that type of production on the other side.
On the Struggles of the Offensive Line – “I can't quite put a finger on that. I'm trying to figure that out. We're going to have to really look at that and see what's going on there. We've had some issues up front. At this point in time, we should have some of those things cleared up. Apparently, we're still struggling with doing some things. We’ve got to go back and really analyze what our issues are and try to get those things fixed in a hurry. There are a lot of guys (on the offensive line that) have played a lot of football. It's hard to put a finger on it. I wish I had the remedy to fix it. We'll figure that out. That's what we're going to have to do as coaches -- try to figure out what our issues are and try to get that shored up as quickly as we can so that we can get back to playing some productive football.”
On RB Jarek Broussard Not Playing in the Second Half – “We wanted to make sure Alex (Fontenot) got some carries and Deion (Smith also). Both those guys have garnered attention to get reps, so we wanted to get those guys some reps.”
On WR Dimitri Stanley Not Playing – “He's got a lower leg, soft tissue injury that's been nagging him the last few weeks. He got to a point where he didn't feel he could be effective enough. We didn't want to risk him getting injured even further.”
On the Locker Room Sticking Together – “They care about what we're doing. I'm always truthful to them. I could see if I was deceitful and lying (to them and the players) didn't trust the coach (they might not stick together). I don't think we have that type of relationship. We have young players and a mixture of inexperienced players that are trying to find a way. Part of it is they have to take ownership on their side of it just like the coaches. We're very transparent with each other. Hopefully, we can learn from this experience that we're dealing with right now.”
Colorado Players
CB Mekhi Blackmon
ON FRUSTRATION LEVEL AFTER LOSS- “I wouldn't say frustrated people just know we got to start stepping up, having things click. It just sort of seems like when we get into games things don't go our way. Me myself I'm looking as people not being frustrated, just trying to keep people motivated. We still got a season to play, we’re 1-3 in conference. We're not the only ones so this is not the end of our time.”
ON DEFENSE NOT PLAYING UP TO THEIR LEVEL IN FIRST HALF- “It's a part of the game. everything isn’t always going to go on your favor. But as you see we made some halftime adjustments, continued to do what we know we could do and then we played a better second half, so that's all you can really ask for.”
ON HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS- “People just got to wake up. We always preach and start fast. I feel like we didn’t start fast today. That’s just a thing we got to work on more in practice. And I don't know if his nerves are what but, we all got to start to step up, have things clicking better on both sides of the ball, it's not just the offense. We gave up the points not the offense so that's what I'm speaking on.”
ON TEAM’S SIDELINE VIBE- “Well I can't really say so much on offensive side but for defense me, Nate, T Lang a bunch of guys are still harping on, get a turnover, we could potentially score, create some points for the offense help them out a little bit, because we really weren't stopping the ball until second half. People are going to continue to talk about the offense but, we don't give points, we don't lose. We just got to get more turnovers. I keep harping on the same thing we got to get more turnovers if want to be like a good defense.”
ON QUARTERBACK CHASE GARBERS’ RUNNING SUCCESS- “He's a great quarterback. We know were up against. People just trying to keep eyes on their men, eventually he's going to scramble. Just the scheme so far. You can't be in every position every time. They schemed up a lot of good things, like I said the quarterback was really good. He capitalized on where we weren't.”
ON WHERE LEADERSHIP IS- “I feel like leadership was going good, we just got to make more plays. It’s nothing about people's character, none of that. Good calls are being made it’s just that people got to step up and make plays.”
ON KEEPING GUYS ENGAGED FOR THE LAST FIVE GAMES- “It's not the only game I've ever lost. What is it game seven? We still have more to go so you never know. Always, look at it like this, how people act if we were 6-1 or whatever. Point is 6-1, 7-0, you got to be the same person regardless of the situation so that's what I try to preach for the team.”
ON GETTING YOUNG PLAYERS TO BE THE SAME PERSON REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES- “I just remain confident. You got to be the same person regardless of the situation. Me being an experienced, I've lost before, things like that happen. Just preaching the younger guys like this is not the worst thing you're going to ever go through it can always be worse.”
WR Brenden Rice
OPENING STATEMENT- “When you have a set plan a desire and a goal and you feel as though the whole team is heading towards that goal, you see a couple things that just take apart from that and those little things add up and you see that some people are buying in and some people are not fully in. It takes a part of it takes apart from us and that's what we need. We need a full buy in just to head up towards that goal.”ON PRACTICE NOT TRANSLATING TO GAMES- “Yeah, I would have to say that a little bit because we all do practice hard but we're not practicing hard enough. We need to take it up to the next level in order to push it to that next level in the game and make sure that we can score on every drive, make sure that we can get something out of every drive because like these three and outs they’re not going to do it. Three points on the board that's not going to do it.”
ON PLAYERS DANGERS OF PLAYERS GETTING DISENGAGED- “Of course, but if you're not bought in then you might as well just leave. There’s no room for or anybody who's trying to be out or trying to excuse themselves from the team. We need to all be bought in in order for us to take the next step because this season is not over. And this season sets us up for next season and if we’re not brought in than next season’s going to go the same way because we're still going to have those cancers on the team.”
ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES- “Just be honest, I had a drop on the first play. I make sure I catch that because I could have started something on the first drive instead of waiting till the kickoff return. Just to start with that then it goes to up front, then it goes to the QB’s then it goes to the wide receivers attacking the ball. There's so much stuff that adds up to it and we got to do those things in practice so we can change it over to the game.”
ON HIS 67-YARD KICKOFF RETURN- “Just trying to put the team back in full drive honestly. I was hoping for a game changer. And maybe like that was some pushed that we need. Coaches talk about catalysts all week and I wanted to be that next catalyst again. So, just being unable to get that ball and try to take it to the house and I should have took it to the house, oh my goodness”
ON POSITIVITY FROM KICKOFF SIDE- “Definitely, I need that top end speed, I could have beat him out. And I was like I should have made a move. There's a lot of things you wish you could have done but you got to do actually do it in a game.”
ON KEYS AGAINST OREGON NEXT WEEK- “People are too nice. People are way too nice and that's all going to change this week. Especially for me. If I drop a ball I expect people to be on my butt like Mekhi Blackmon was on my butt last week. We need that change to get this pushed forward because it's not the coaches, it starts with the players. So, it's time to start to take that next step.”
ON LEADERSHIP ON THE TEAM- “Of course we have more leaders on our defensive side but we need more on offense because the people that are leading the offense, their voices aren't heard enough or loud enough, and I'm going to start speaking up. But the thing is for me to even speak up, I can't have no dropped balls at practice. I have to practice a certain way, I have to exemplify myself a certain way for me to step up.”