Colorado-North Dakota State Quotes
vs
Houston
Sep 12 (Fri)
5:30 PM
Postgame Quotes
North Dakota State vs. Colorado, Aug. 29, 2024, Folsom Field, Boulder, Colo.
Colorado Head Coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders
Opening Statement:
“You ever felt like it was you, you won, but you didn’t win? It’s almost like we had more points than they did; giving up the last touchdown on the run - that bothered me, because we pride ourselves on going to get the quarterback, and we have a multitude of young men that can go get the quarterback, and we didn’t get that done. But I’m thankful. I’m happy we got the W. Ms. Peggy’s one step closer to the dream and the vision that we have for her, as well as I think 31 NFL scouts are on hand tonight, and I think they saw what they came to see. So let’s move on from there. Imma try my best to hold back my anger, but we got the W so I’m happy.
On Cam’Ron Silmon Craig’s Update
“No, I don’t, not whatsoever. Hopefully they get me one soon. But he’s a leader, he’s a dog; he’s one of our defensive guys. And, you know, losing a guy like that early in the game hurts, and it did.
On the defense’s second half response
“Well, we knew we were gonna get it together soon. They were calling that every darn play that they ran. I mean, the defensive coaches are doing a wonderful job. We just got to do a better job of executing the scheme and being where we’re supposed to be. I don’t think the ball went outside the numbers, maybe a couple of times even in the first half, but the kid was lighting it up. He did a great job of getting the ball to the necessary receivers. We got a lot of picks, a lot of rub routes, a lot of blocks, a lot of yo yo. I mean, they did a lot of things that were effective for them. They played a heck of a game. I’m proud of their staff, their head coach, their history, what they bring to the table. You can’t not discount them. I think they had knocked off what several power five teams in the last matchups - last several matchups. I’m glad we’re able to come out of there with the W, although it wasn’t pretty.
On the performance of our running backs
“Our running backs are good. We got to do a better job of using them a lot more, getting more yardage, but we gotta take what they gave us. I mean, I don’t think nobody’s upset with that. Hayden showed you what he could do. Charlie is Charlie. We were getting to throw 29 in at the conclusion of the game, but then they scored, because I wanted you guys to see him, because he was going to put that game away, running as physically as he does. But I’m not overly satisfied with how we ran the ball, especially with the yardage per game, but we could do much better.”
On Travis Hunter’s stand-out moments throughout his big night
“Every last one of them. I mean, Travis is so explosive. We called it. We said that, you know, you are playing some guys that are a pretty tough matchup for anybody. But then when you’re bailing and you let him catch it and face you up, that’s a problem. And he did what he does. Travis is a phenomenal player.”
On taking solace in the second half
“I don’t think the operation was dirty, I just think we did some things. I know you guys couldn’t wait to get on me if we wouldn’t have won that game about going for it on fourth down, we didn’t get it. We gotta get that. We gotta convert that. That’s kind of putting your stamp on like, guys, we gotta be physical. We’re going to have to go third or fourth in one. We gotta get that. I believe in you, it’s what I told the line, I believe in you guys. So I’m not upset that I did that, because I believe in you guys that much.”
On Shedeur Sanders and Pat Shurmur’s relationship; influence on the game
They have a phenomenal relationship, and just the overall chemistry and the communication of the two, even when he’s on the field and hearing Pat say certain things to him. He’s going to tell you, but Shedeur is such a good kid. Sometimes it costs him, because at the end of the game, we just want to run the ball, let’s get out of here, and he took a shot to LaJohntay because he wanted LaJohntay to have a big play, because you’ve got the other two guys, the dogs, having a big play. And he knows he’s gonna have a one on one match, he just didn’t put it out there far enough, but that’s his character. I’m like dog, not right now. It’s not time to be the good guy right now. It’s time to put this game away. But that’s what that was. He wanted what he wanted. Let’s just put it like that. Usually he hits it.”
On the ineffective run game
“I mean, you gotta understand. You gotta take what people give you. You can’t take what you want, and it’s not there. Who’s upset? Well, the passing game looked pretty darn good today. So let’s be appreciative and thankful that we got one of the premier guys in college football spinning it. We’re going to run the ball. We’re going to have a lot more balance. Today was just that type of day. You gotta take what they give you.”
On how good it was to see Jimmy Horn Jr. have such a big night:
“Well his production was like that because Travis and Xavier (Weaver) were on the field. You know that guy just made the team for the Cardinals, that guys pretty good. So Jimmy is Jimmy. You never gonna see him jog a route. Jimmy’s gonna give you every darn thing he has, and with the burden he has on his shoulders. I mean Jimmy’s playing for his pop man. Jimmy just came back from court seeing his fathers sentence. Then come around and flip it and give you that? That was our conversation. You know his pop jamming in that thing right now. That's what keeps him going because he’s trying to make it right with pops when he gets out man. I'm so appreciative of him and I love him like a darn son. I’m so proud of him as well. I knew he was gonna get down tonight, and he did what he did.”
Deion on how the offensive line performed tonight:
“I'm happy. Like I said I would love to run the ball a little more but shoot when you got over 500 yards of total offense, I thought it was pretty good. I’m gonna go home and sleep good. Really good tonight with that so I’m cool with that. We would like to see a little more balance but what is balance? Balance wins really. That’s what balance is. Nobody says nothing when you win.”
Deion on how Cam Miller (NDSU QB) performed:
“God, he played good. Both of those kids can play well, man. They did what they came to do and were very effective. Not only throwing the ball, especially between the numbers. I don't know if they completed over two balls outside the numbers. But they did a phenomenal job executing their offense. That kid has a grasp on his offense. Did a great job and I'm proud of him. I got a chance because I don't know many head coaches around college football. But I got a chance to exchange pleasantries before the game with their head coach. I don't know the protocol. I just go out there and I'm here for my team. I don't know, I'm learning. I guess that's what you're supposed to do every game.”
On if there are moments he tells Shedeur to slide more or be more careful:
“No, I don't have to remind him of that, I'm just reminding him about the clock. I said you know that big thing up there? That's a clock. Those numbers up there that are running down like that, that's for you. Okay? Look at that so I don't have to burn these timeouts. But just that chemistry and that communication that Pat and I had was great that we were able to accomplish some things. You know save us with some of these timeouts called. But I was really just telling him, be smart. Just be smart. Don’t let the clock run down. Now we have to burn a timeout and we may need that.”
On if Shedeur and Travis playing together for so longs helps:
“Yeah they got their own little thing going on. I ain't mad at it because it works. It’s just a certain chemistry that they have where Shedeur is gonna place that ball. If that guys right beside him, he’s gonna place that ball. First of all it ain’t no 50/50 ball with Travis. If the ball is up close, it’s his ball. So he's that kind of athlete and shoot, Jimmy went for a buck 98? Oh my god. Why didn’t you guys tell me we could have got him two more yards! Wow, that’s awesome. That was a game huh? They may start to believe me when I start talking about those two going in the top five picks right?”
On Shedeur being pressured in the first half:
“I don't remember the duress in the first half. I don't know. I aint see that. What was his statistics in the first half? Like 13 for 15?”
But you probably don't want to see your guy getting hit that much?
“You never want to see your son get hit, let alone your quarterback. But no lion played a good game. We got to give him love. I mean the guy got sacked 1 time and dropped back. What was it 34 times? I'm good with that.”
On Robert Livingston communicating to defense for adjustments:
"He’s a great communicator, one of the best communicators that I've been around. His message is loud and clear not only throughout the game, but have time to make the adjustments. Then on to the second half you gotta understand the guys go down, this happens. You got guys losing contain so you gotta make personnel changes. But he did a great job of balancing everything. And not alone me, over there, saying some things that I want as well. He did a great job though."
On what it took to wear them down:
"Well you gotta understand that we knew we had a tremendous amount of athletes that it was going to be tough covering them on the back end. And with Shedeur’s accuracy we knew that was gonna be tough on them. We just had to hold them and get stops so we could get the ball. I think they almost tripled us in time of possession in the first half so we really didn't get the ball much. But we knew that was going to turn once we made the adjustments defensively so that we could get some stops, And that's what we did. But we knew they weren’t going to lay down. We wanted to win decisively and if we wouldn't have given up that last touchdown it would have looked better. But we’re not for looks man. The W or the L, that's what you remember. You guys could pick it apart. But youre here for the W or the L. Some of you get upset that we got a W and are really mad we didn't get the L. So god bless you all. You have to wait again till next week. Y’all take care. Y’all be safe on the way home please."
Colorado Players
Shedeur Sanders, Sr., QB
On getting the passing game going:
"Well, I mean, it was, it was cool, but every incompletion, it hurts me inside a little bit, for sure, besides the ones we throw away to get out of trouble. But I'm thankful. I'm excited for a win, but there’s situations in that game I personally could have handled better. Just throws, you know, check downs I could’ve got to. So really, the main goal tonight is to just recover a little bit and watch the film and see where we got to improve."
On his chemistry with Travis:
"It was really a connection, because he made the decision to fight the odds, to go on a different route and come to Jackson State at the time, and from then on; it’s something that I look back and now I really respect him a lot for because, a player of his caliber didn't have to do that, you know, but he did, and that's powerful, right there. So then years and years and years of connections, years of talking about different things; he plays defensive back. So he understands body position, he understands a lot of things a lot of receivers don't understand. So that's like the pro of you know, having him on there when he practices all week on defense sometimes, or then he gets out there and he handles his business. And we just locked in mentally. So that's the overall goal I'm trying to get with all the receivers, really, because everybody knows each game somebody's going to shine, you know, like, I didn't know Jimmy had 198 yards today. That was crazy. Everybody, everybody got involved. So that's, that's what's good. Everybody got some touches, but we just got to make sure, you know, everybody gets the ball."
On his pocket tonight:
"The O-line had an incentive. That's it. They had a great incentive. So they definitely did what they were supposed to do today. So now I feel good. I feel really good coming out of the game, but we still got to recover the right way, make sure, you know, going into the following weeks, it's compound interest. So it keeps getting hit over and over and over and over, and that was kind of like my first hit since, like, November. So it felt good, you know, to be live out there a little bit."
On the defensive switch:
"It's complimentary football. So you know, when we need them to show up, they'll be there. When we got to show up, we'll be there. But anything less than scoring every drive is kind of like a little failure to us, because we take the game so serious, we take each drive so serious, and you don't know what play could have been the play, you know, to decide the game. So that's why it's like, we enjoy the win overall, but it's definitely a lot of stuff we left on the table. It's quicker things that could have got to the reeds, and it's just nothing but room for improvement. But that's a great starting point versus a great team. It's really hard to get the tails on what coverage and everything they do. So I'm just, I'm just happy that we were able to face them, a real challenge."
On the 17-play drive:
"Yeah, that was crazy. We didn't even feel like that. But it was just that, and everybody just getting back to the bases. And that's why I told him. I said, let's just get back to the basics. They came out and they did something that I’ve seen on film once, you know. So we were able to adjust and see, okay, this guy dropping here, this guy is doing this. And when we get this look, this is what happened. So it was, it was, that's when, that's when the magic started in communication."
On his personal goals for the season:
“Honestly, it is honestly no personal goals, though. A lot of people say that, but honestly, we just want to win games. Like, that is it. Like we just try to win games and whatever comes with that. But, of course, we got to get a lot of completions, though, but personal goals, we don't really care about that.”
On his pass to LaJohntay Wester at the end:
“Cover zero. And we have the best receiving room in the nation. So it's kind of disrespectful. It was something I would learn from. So that's why I'm happy. Everything in my life, I always can learn from it. It's not too many mistakes you're going to see I made twice. So, that's just something I'm going to learn and understand. And even if it looks super tempting you have to just go with it. It's a lot of situations like play clock and everything that we're getting back into the flow of the games. But I'm just excited about the starting point and excited about getting everybody involved. And next week, we'll be locked in and focused.”
On Comparing play from today to a year ago:
“Well, we are really tough in practice. It's tough, just like Savion, going against the safety, like him, since ones go against twos and such. But it really gets him prepared, for the moment, and he prepares me for the other safeties we're gonna face just by looking him off, just by small details and what he's talented at, and how ranging he is also. I feel that, overall, I've grown mentally. I watch a lot more football than I ever have now, because I'm really a student of the game, and I just love seeing how everybody else figures out and fixes different problems in the game. So that's just what amazes me.”
On working with Coach Pat Shurmur
“Coach Shurmur is really easy. I feel like we definitely trust each other. He sees things a certain way, I see things a certain way, and then we're able to communicate. If he says, ‘Okay, well it’s this play’ then I ask him ‘Okay what are you seeing here?’ So I can understand his thought process, and vice versa. So it's very complimentary, and I love it.”
On getting different receivers involved:
“I was ready to get all the receivers involved. It's just about the coverage. It's not really even about the ice on it, you know, plays break down, plays break down. But overall, that's just how football is. You’re obviously not just looking at one guy the whole time. You're going through different reads, and anything you're unsure of, you're gonna find running backs, you're gonna find the check downs, whether it's shallows, comebacks, anything. It’s really not about what receivers are in what places. It's just about what the read is and what the defense gives you.”
On Travis Hunter:
“His ability to get out there, even with a lesser amount of reps, and being able to adjust and to see it, that's the main thing. We all get on the same page. It's the first time all of us, collectively as a group have played with each other, so it's really exciting. But at the end of the day, everybody has to interlock and understand how we're all thinking and ‘okay, what's good, what's not?’ There are active conversations on the sideline, like, if you always see us on the sideline, we're always talking about, ‘Okay, what did you see right here?’ Let's do this, like proactive things and not being too reactive to whenever they throw stuff at us. It’s getting back to the basics. But every drive we didn't score, we took that very personal.”
Travis Hunter, Jr., ATH
On his night and 3rd TD:
"It’s funny because he [Shedeur] got on me for not catching the one that we called the flag because I told him to throw me the ball no matter what. No matter what. So he got mad at me. He was like, I don't care, catch the ball. So that one, I just know I had to catch the ball. I had no other choice, no other option. So whatever I had to do to get the ball, I was gonna do it."
On the defense switch:
"I mean, we had to get our eyes right in the right place. I mean, they came out, we already knew what we had to do, but somehow we took them as a fool. We didn't respect them enough to come out there and just play how we needed to play in the second half, how we did in the first half. So we had to come out there and just put our eyes in the right spot. I mean, Coach chewed us out at halftime. Let us know what we got to do. We got to stop them. We got to get stops. Let our offense go to work, and that's what we came out to do”
On his goals for this season:
“I got no personal goals. I want my team to come out here and win every week, and I want us to go out there, dominate, and do our job. We got a target on us, and we got to go out and win. We must make a statement. We must tell everyone we are here to stay. We are not here to be mediocre teams. That’s why I did not want to talk to the media. I want to go to work with my guys and let them know, ‘I'm here with you all. Y got to my back, just like I got y'all’s back. Let's go ahead, and let's win.”
On the positive tweets from some of the best professional athletes:
“It does nothing to me at all. It's a lot of people that love this and a lot of people that hate me. If I try to look on the internet and see what people saying about me, it’s not going to be good for me. I'll be down in my shell and won’t want to talk to anybody because there are a lot of haters, but it's a lot of good people. I'll I don't even try to look at it. I don't pay attention to it. I just want to win with my team. Go out with my brothers, and at the end goal, I want us to be holding up a trophy.”
On Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig getting hurt and Savion Riley stepping up:
“Cam been on him. I mean in the weight room. Riley and Cam worked out. If Riley tried to do something that Cam don't like it or don't mess with he going to make sure you fix it. Because if I go down, he has to get in there. He has to be the next dude to go in there and lead us. Cam did a pretty good job of helping him out this off season, teaching him the way to go, how you got to treat your body, how you got to go along with everything, and how you have to be in the playbook. Cam did a real good job of doing that. So, we know when he got in the game, all we got to do is communicate with each other. We'll be going in there, and we'll be doing what we've been doing even if Cam not in.”
NDSU Head Coach Tim Polasek
Opening Statement:
“Good, yeah, obviously, quite frankly, it's just disappointing. We missed on a couple opportunities. I thought we had a shot - not to pull this out - but to win the game. We didn't come over here and get dressed up for nothing. And so the disappointment would be that there were a few plays out there that I think we're capable of making, that we need to make. It's unfortunate two big plays occur on a miscommunication or a missed assignment that we just can't have when you're playing these kinds of explosive athletes. And then a quarterback that can identify open guys, and good quarterbacks get the ball to open players, and then you get hurt. And so those things are disappointing, but I can tell you this: I can't wait. I wish we had practice tomorrow morning, because our guys would get up and go to work. And I'm just telling you that this staff is super excited. This will have nothing to do with the story that's written in 2024 and I don't know what that story will be yet, but everything that we want to do, which is to reach our full potential, is still attainable. And I'm so excited to be able to coach guys that'll play that hard, you know, with their backs up against the wall, and a couple of those situations, it was, it was tough. I think we're going to learn and grow from this a lot.”
On the delay of game in the second quarter being a momentum shifter:
“You know, the third down player is probably coming out too. I thought, probably the right call. The clock was at zero and we got called for the delay of game and just the operation of the personnel, right? Like, I'm here to tell you guys, I'm all over that. Coach Bohl just would never let me off the hook on that stuff. And it just is not acceptable. But in a first game setting, we were pretty clean as far as personnel adjustments, getting on and off the field, I mean a really, really cool environment. I mean, Colorado's got a challenging environment, and we got caught down there a couple times in the student section, but that was a big turn of events. I mean, it really was. And quite frankly, we were talking four down, you know, I kind of felt like they weren't on their heels, but I kind of felt like we were in a good place, and Cam was playing really good. So that delay a game call was most certainly impactful.”
On describing the speed of receivers:
Well, yeah, fast, I mean, but I'll give him credit for this though. You could see some really good coaching going on with the perimeter guys. I mean, it's catch the ball, tight turns, getting upfield with great intent. You know, they're not monkeying around much, and then the physical gifts to make somebody miss along with that, that's the scary combination. It's not always the jitterbug. It's the guys that are playing with great intent. And I thought on a couple of them, the Colorado players may have just been a little bit better on that specific play, but there are two plays. There are two plays, and we've been preaching it, and we need to be better. We need to run through our leverage on defense. And I'm thinking about the little flare on the right side going towards their sideline late in the fourth quarter. That gets 9 or 10, should have been shut down for four. We stutter our feet and we don't put our chest on the guy, and then we just didn't trust our instincts. Tyrone Braxton asked us to pull the trigger when he talked to us last night, and Travis Hunter's first touchdown, I just thought we needed to be more aggressive and we need to take better angles. It's stuff that we can get cleaned up, but you can't win these kinds of games in that kind of environment without making those plays.”
On Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders:
“Well, he's crafty. And then the ability to get thrown open, and the ability to be stopped, and to be able to stop on the fade stop down there, and then in the back of the end zone he kind of peels out of there, and Shedeur throws him open… That's a lot of you me factor over a lot of years, and I never really said this leading into it, but that was one of my biggest fears. You know, they had some Travis Hunter and Shedeur have some really good you me factor, and that's hard to contend with, and maybe they can leverage that moving forward. But, yeah, good players. Really good players.”
On what the difference in the game was:
“Well, the difference in the game is our inability to, I haven't seen the film yet, but potentially, to break a tackle here or there. On a couple runs that had a chance, our inability early for a three yard run needed to be four, four and a half, we were looking for five yard plays. And they were just keeping us off schedule just enough, right? But Cam was good enough that we were converting some third downs early. I think we were 6 to 12 on third down, they were 7 for 11. The difference in the game, I just think, comes down to they made a few more plays than we did. I really believe that. And again, I mean, all the credits got to go to those guys. You know Shedeur’s ability to extend plays is a nightmare, because now you're running with guys for 8, 9, 10, seconds. And I thought our guys up front made him adjust off his spot enough, but he was just better.”
On new players in certain positions ability to control the tempo of the game:
“Can't wait to watch the tape, but my early impression, especially early on, we converted some third downs. I mean, and Cam got to his third progression, that tells you protection is pretty good. When I would look up there from time to time the story was their pass rush, and so I was pretty dang pleased with it. Looking at their body types pregame and stuff like that, I wasn't concerned, but I knew it would be a challenge, and I thought our guys did okay. It was in the run game. In the run game early, it needed to be four and five, not two and three. And this group can die harder and we got to find a way to push the pile and just be really resourceful, getting us into third and mediums and third and threes and fours.”
On Cam Miller’s play today:
“Gutty, gritty. He had some off schedule plays with his feet, I thought he did a really good job throwing the dig to RaJa. Really good job executing the dig here with a little bit of pressure in his face late. Cam played, in my opinion, a really, really good game. I was really prepared to spend some time with Cam on the sidelines in between series, and I just didn't feel the need to. He was seeing the field pretty good. Obviously, our lack of explosive plays tonight is going to show up when you look at the numbers. To win championship level games or to win a conference championship at a high level you need five explosive plays a game. And I don't think those are on the sheet, if I'm not mistaken, maybe they are.”
On Eli Mostaert and senior leaders:
“Yeah, and I'll go a step further, just their response in the locker room. I mean, they were, they're looking at me, they're looking for leadership, and they want to be coached. Eli's the guy we can rely on. I thought (Dylan) Hendricks, and it looked like Loskiaka (Roques) I mean, they were making some things happen. We probably just didn't get enough hits on them to change them. Every quarterback has X amount of hits before they start feeling the rush, and they get their timing and rhythm a little bit off. That part of it, the effort in the front, I thought they played pretty good. It came down to a couple of missed tackles and a couple balls in the air that we didn't make plays on.”
On the impact having headsets made on the game:
“It was our only game with it this year and it’s a deal that can be a real positive. I think college football is going to improve because of it, even late there guys, I'm telling you, we executed. We were going to run potentially a different type of play than we had called. And we were able to say, ‘Hey, if you like it, just get down, alert, kill’. That's not on a wristband, that's not in a hand signal. And so, I mean, heck, we got a chance to throw it near the end zone, there at the end, and the headsets probably allowed us to manage that. Yeah, quite frankly, yes, it did. It's interesting, because I think potentially, now we would have had to travel a long ways, but our kill operation, for whatever reason. I gotta look at the tape. When we killed the ball, it seemed like four or five seconds ran off. And I know we detailed that in fall camp, and we never had snapped it, you know, or ran two more in two seconds off the clock.”
On his emotions of the night - it being his first game as head coach:
“In the third quarter, I was a little bit disappointed with myself on Travis Hunter’s touchdown. I thought maybe there was some more activity than that was seen. Maybe I got to control my emotions just a little bit, but it was, it's not fun. It's just not fun losing. But I can't wait to coach the next game, and I told the team and this morning, Jill and I are exactly where we're supposed to be, and I'm super fired up to continue to lead this program, and we're going to continue to focus on winning the next championship. That's all we're going to focus on, whenever that is. And I can't wait to help these guys continue to move forward.”
On what to do with a player like Travis Hunter:
“There was a time in the game - the fade stop, done in this end zone - I just said, ‘You know what? (Jailen) Duffie’s going to be a good player this year’. That was a competitive deal. Perfect. That's the game: Perfect throw, strong hands, toe tap to sideline. That's football. You either make it or you don't, and if you don't make the play, you typically lose. I thought it was a competitive play, I thought our guys were, at times, in positions to compete on the football, and that's something that we can leverage in moving forward and coaching and teaching this game, especially in the back end. You know, our backend guys will respond. I mean, we've got to be better than that. The two M.A.'s really hurt more than that's what I'm disgusted in, and not necessarily competitive play.”
On how important was to see this team in this environment: 11:28
“I gotta be careful not to be too honest, I guess. But I shared it with the guys this morning, I think it was about 10 o'clock, 10:30 this morning. I said, if somebody offered me a W and we were singing a song in the locker room, just gave it to us, right? I would turn it down. I was more excited to see our guys and where we're at and where we can go and to watch them compete. And we've got some sixth year guys that, you know, potentially they got 12 guarantees, and that's it. Super excited to continue to coach these guys, and we will, we're going to bounce back really good. I mean, we all wanted this. Our messaging was to come in here and get a win, like I said, we didn't get dressed up for nothing, and we just don't play these games. I don't care who's on our schedule, we're going to prepare to win and lay it on the line. And there are no moral victories at North Dakota State.”
On the decision to kick with 2 minutes to go in the game:
“Oh boy. You know what's cool is, like, I gotta study again like I'm in college. This two minute thing is going to change a lot of decisions that we're going to make. It changes the complexion of all your charts and we're operating with three time outs. And the bottom line is, I knew Eli was kicking the ball well, so we were going to kick it through the end zone. No time would run off right? And then, like, the thing that kind of grabs at you is, do you take a time out with 2:09? The book tells you not to, and everything that I've been reading up on and I've been getting educated on, and I got to continue to do that, because this two minute thing is going to be fascinating. You can predict almost to the T when you're going to get the ball back and so forth. And so I'll keep working hard at clock management, and I'll stand by that decision. That was a staff decision and that was the right call.”
NDSU Players
Wide Receiver Braylon Henderson
On his angle on the last play of the game
“I was on the sideline. Obviously, it’s a Hail Mary. More of a taller personnel grouping. I’m a little vertically challenged. So yeah, unfortunately, it just didn’t go our way.”
On ending first half with delay of game penalty and not scoring six points
“It wasn’t just one play. It was a culmination of things along the game that we could have done better, could have been sharper, could have been more disciplined, and the outcome would have changed. But, can’t dwell on it too much. Just on to next week. Keep grinding. Can’t wait to get back to practice with my guys.”
On Cam Miller’s performance
“I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised at all. I see it every day. Day in and day out, the hardest worker in the facility. First guy in, last guy out. He’s one of my best friends. I’m honestly just happy for him, so proud of him to come out here and do that on this stage. But all the naysayers say that he can’t do this, can’t do that. I’m just ecstatic for him that he had the impact he had today.”
On importance of the team bouncing back from deficits
“We were prepared for that. Coach P [Polasek] drilling us. We own the fourth quarter. We work, work, work, work. Keep grinding. Don’t really look up to the scoreboard till the clock hits zero. Just keep working. Never really looking at how much time we have left. Just keep our head down and keep grinding.”
On how tough the loss to Colorado is
“It stings a little more since it’s my last year. I know how bad our team wanted this. How bad I wanted this for our team and my guys. It hurts. I can’t really say much else.”
NDSU Quarterback Cam Miller
On how important learning from this experience is going into conference games
“Any loss is never a good thing. I’m not even gonna talk about the positives because no one likes losing. There’s nothing good about losing. But I do feel like offensively and defensively, this is going to give us a lot of confidence. I know there are some great teams in the FCS, but I’ll be surprised if we face some of the athletes during the regular season that we faced tonight. So that should give us a lot of confidence.”
On new helmet technology
“I think it helped a lot. Coach Landry was letting me know that we needed to kill it once we got a first down, I thought it was very beneficial. Throughout the game, he alerted me to pressures and all that kind of stuff. It helped a lot. And it was nice, using it like that.”
On vantage point during last play of game
“Well, initially I was supposed to get out to the right. It just didn't work out that way. I had to go back left. Didn't have enough on it to get it to the end zone and got to be better.” a
On what changed from first half to second & how’d it change game plan
“I don’t think they changed much schematically. They stayed in man coverage. Their linebackers did a tremendous job. I think the front seven did a tremendous job fitting the run game. They had athletes all throughout the field, and we just didn’t move the ball effectively. And that's on us, and we'll be better.”
On losing receivers from last year:
“We've been putting in a lot of work. And I told those guys today, I texted all of them, talked to all of them, and I said, you're gonna have a big game. And I think they all performed really well. I couldn't be more proud of them.”
On learning for conference games:
“Any loss is never a good thing. And I'm not even gonna talk about the positives, because no one likes losing. There's nothing good about losing. But I do feel like, offensively and defensively, this is going to give us a lot of confidence. I know there's some great teams in the FCS, but I'll be really, really surprised if we face some of the athletes during the regular season that we faced tonight.”
On Travis Hunter as a threat on offense and defense:
“I'm gonna say this, but He's unbelievable. He is. But my mindset going in, like the coaches had warned, like, ‘You got to see where number 12 is’. But I'm not afraid of anybody. I'll throw at anybody, and obviously, like it's in the back of your head that he's out there. But I'm not afraid to throw against somebody like that, especially with the receivers we have. Unbelievable athlete, but I'm not afraid of him.”
NDSU Line Backer Logan Kopp
On Colorado’s skilled roster:
“Yeah, no doubt they're really talented players. We knew coming in that it was going to be a tough task, and we knew that all of us, we're going to have to be on the same page. We're playing good football, every down gives us a chance. Thanks to Big O for obviously keeping us in the game, and, you know, just one or two big plays kind of hurt us. But I thought we had great effort throughout the game. I thought we played hard and just an unfortunate outcome.” (Logan)
On replicating speed in practice:
“I mean, they're, we knew that they're going to be fast. I think we had a good game plan going in to try to calm some of that down. There's definitely a reason why their quarterback and their receiver, you know, projected first round picks. They're super talented, and we did everything we could to kind of condense them at the end. We knew they were going to make some plays here and there, and our goal was just to eliminate explosive place as a defense, and I think we just let up a few too many.”
On changes made in the second half:
“Yeah. I mean, going against a temple offense is always tough, because got to get the play call from the sidelines, from the coaches, got to get it to all 11 guys on the defense. And so when teams are going fast it's just hard to keep up, and guys are getting tired, it's hard to sub, and so that's just something that we have to. We practice that a lot throughout the week, and we knew that it was coming, but it's still, it's just harder to execute sometimes, and in those pressure situations, when you're going fast, it's hard to communicate, hard to get lined up, and maybe that's some things that could hurt us.”
On frustration with Shedeur Sanders performing even with defensive pressure:
“Yeah, it hurts. We knew that, obviously he's a great quarterback, he's very talented, he's very athletic, he's good at escaping the pocket. We knew that he scrambles to throw, not to run. We knew all that going in, and so our goal was, to push the pocket, get as many hits on him, especially early on, as we could. I think we did a decent job getting some pressures, getting some hits on him, making him get out of the pocket of his comfort zone. But I think we just got to contain him a couple more plays, and that could have been the difference. He made some great plays, and we were just a step or two behind.”
On Travis Hunter as a threat on offense and defense:
“Like you (Cam) said, great player on offense. They had a ton of weapons, a ton of talent. We worry about ourselves as a defense and so we weren't worried about who was on the other side of the ball. We were worried about playing hard, playing fast, playing together as a defense, focused on tackling, the fundamentals, the basics. Whoever we're going against, whether it's a high school JV squad or the Minnesota Vikings, we're going to come out with the same mentality, and we're going to play with 100% effort and play together as a defense and just do everything we can to be successful.”
Frustration with being close to win against Colorado and Arizona:
“Close, but didn't get it done. It hurts. There was a lot of frustration in the locker room afterwards. I thought we prepared tremendously. The coaches had us prepared, but then again, we just left a few plays out there, and that's on us. And when you play a team that's that talented, you can't do that. But yeah, no, it stings and it really hurts.”
North Dakota State vs. Colorado, Aug. 29, 2024, Folsom Field, Boulder, Colo.
Colorado Head Coach Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders
Opening Statement:
“You ever felt like it was you, you won, but you didn’t win? It’s almost like we had more points than they did; giving up the last touchdown on the run - that bothered me, because we pride ourselves on going to get the quarterback, and we have a multitude of young men that can go get the quarterback, and we didn’t get that done. But I’m thankful. I’m happy we got the W. Ms. Peggy’s one step closer to the dream and the vision that we have for her, as well as I think 31 NFL scouts are on hand tonight, and I think they saw what they came to see. So let’s move on from there. Imma try my best to hold back my anger, but we got the W so I’m happy.
On Cam’Ron Silmon Craig’s Update
“No, I don’t, not whatsoever. Hopefully they get me one soon. But he’s a leader, he’s a dog; he’s one of our defensive guys. And, you know, losing a guy like that early in the game hurts, and it did.
On the defense’s second half response
“Well, we knew we were gonna get it together soon. They were calling that every darn play that they ran. I mean, the defensive coaches are doing a wonderful job. We just got to do a better job of executing the scheme and being where we’re supposed to be. I don’t think the ball went outside the numbers, maybe a couple of times even in the first half, but the kid was lighting it up. He did a great job of getting the ball to the necessary receivers. We got a lot of picks, a lot of rub routes, a lot of blocks, a lot of yo yo. I mean, they did a lot of things that were effective for them. They played a heck of a game. I’m proud of their staff, their head coach, their history, what they bring to the table. You can’t not discount them. I think they had knocked off what several power five teams in the last matchups - last several matchups. I’m glad we’re able to come out of there with the W, although it wasn’t pretty.
On the performance of our running backs
“Our running backs are good. We got to do a better job of using them a lot more, getting more yardage, but we gotta take what they gave us. I mean, I don’t think nobody’s upset with that. Hayden showed you what he could do. Charlie is Charlie. We were getting to throw 29 in at the conclusion of the game, but then they scored, because I wanted you guys to see him, because he was going to put that game away, running as physically as he does. But I’m not overly satisfied with how we ran the ball, especially with the yardage per game, but we could do much better.”
On Travis Hunter’s stand-out moments throughout his big night
“Every last one of them. I mean, Travis is so explosive. We called it. We said that, you know, you are playing some guys that are a pretty tough matchup for anybody. But then when you’re bailing and you let him catch it and face you up, that’s a problem. And he did what he does. Travis is a phenomenal player.”
On taking solace in the second half
“I don’t think the operation was dirty, I just think we did some things. I know you guys couldn’t wait to get on me if we wouldn’t have won that game about going for it on fourth down, we didn’t get it. We gotta get that. We gotta convert that. That’s kind of putting your stamp on like, guys, we gotta be physical. We’re going to have to go third or fourth in one. We gotta get that. I believe in you, it’s what I told the line, I believe in you guys. So I’m not upset that I did that, because I believe in you guys that much.”
On Shedeur Sanders and Pat Shurmur’s relationship; influence on the game
They have a phenomenal relationship, and just the overall chemistry and the communication of the two, even when he’s on the field and hearing Pat say certain things to him. He’s going to tell you, but Shedeur is such a good kid. Sometimes it costs him, because at the end of the game, we just want to run the ball, let’s get out of here, and he took a shot to LaJohntay because he wanted LaJohntay to have a big play, because you’ve got the other two guys, the dogs, having a big play. And he knows he’s gonna have a one on one match, he just didn’t put it out there far enough, but that’s his character. I’m like dog, not right now. It’s not time to be the good guy right now. It’s time to put this game away. But that’s what that was. He wanted what he wanted. Let’s just put it like that. Usually he hits it.”
On the ineffective run game
“I mean, you gotta understand. You gotta take what people give you. You can’t take what you want, and it’s not there. Who’s upset? Well, the passing game looked pretty darn good today. So let’s be appreciative and thankful that we got one of the premier guys in college football spinning it. We’re going to run the ball. We’re going to have a lot more balance. Today was just that type of day. You gotta take what they give you.”
On how good it was to see Jimmy Horn Jr. have such a big night:
“Well his production was like that because Travis and Xavier (Weaver) were on the field. You know that guy just made the team for the Cardinals, that guys pretty good. So Jimmy is Jimmy. You never gonna see him jog a route. Jimmy’s gonna give you every darn thing he has, and with the burden he has on his shoulders. I mean Jimmy’s playing for his pop man. Jimmy just came back from court seeing his fathers sentence. Then come around and flip it and give you that? That was our conversation. You know his pop jamming in that thing right now. That's what keeps him going because he’s trying to make it right with pops when he gets out man. I'm so appreciative of him and I love him like a darn son. I’m so proud of him as well. I knew he was gonna get down tonight, and he did what he did.”
Deion on how the offensive line performed tonight:
“I'm happy. Like I said I would love to run the ball a little more but shoot when you got over 500 yards of total offense, I thought it was pretty good. I’m gonna go home and sleep good. Really good tonight with that so I’m cool with that. We would like to see a little more balance but what is balance? Balance wins really. That’s what balance is. Nobody says nothing when you win.”
Deion on how Cam Miller (NDSU QB) performed:
“God, he played good. Both of those kids can play well, man. They did what they came to do and were very effective. Not only throwing the ball, especially between the numbers. I don't know if they completed over two balls outside the numbers. But they did a phenomenal job executing their offense. That kid has a grasp on his offense. Did a great job and I'm proud of him. I got a chance because I don't know many head coaches around college football. But I got a chance to exchange pleasantries before the game with their head coach. I don't know the protocol. I just go out there and I'm here for my team. I don't know, I'm learning. I guess that's what you're supposed to do every game.”
On if there are moments he tells Shedeur to slide more or be more careful:
“No, I don't have to remind him of that, I'm just reminding him about the clock. I said you know that big thing up there? That's a clock. Those numbers up there that are running down like that, that's for you. Okay? Look at that so I don't have to burn these timeouts. But just that chemistry and that communication that Pat and I had was great that we were able to accomplish some things. You know save us with some of these timeouts called. But I was really just telling him, be smart. Just be smart. Don’t let the clock run down. Now we have to burn a timeout and we may need that.”
On if Shedeur and Travis playing together for so longs helps:
“Yeah they got their own little thing going on. I ain't mad at it because it works. It’s just a certain chemistry that they have where Shedeur is gonna place that ball. If that guys right beside him, he’s gonna place that ball. First of all it ain’t no 50/50 ball with Travis. If the ball is up close, it’s his ball. So he's that kind of athlete and shoot, Jimmy went for a buck 98? Oh my god. Why didn’t you guys tell me we could have got him two more yards! Wow, that’s awesome. That was a game huh? They may start to believe me when I start talking about those two going in the top five picks right?”
On Shedeur being pressured in the first half:
“I don't remember the duress in the first half. I don't know. I aint see that. What was his statistics in the first half? Like 13 for 15?”
But you probably don't want to see your guy getting hit that much?
“You never want to see your son get hit, let alone your quarterback. But no lion played a good game. We got to give him love. I mean the guy got sacked 1 time and dropped back. What was it 34 times? I'm good with that.”
On Robert Livingston communicating to defense for adjustments:
"He’s a great communicator, one of the best communicators that I've been around. His message is loud and clear not only throughout the game, but have time to make the adjustments. Then on to the second half you gotta understand the guys go down, this happens. You got guys losing contain so you gotta make personnel changes. But he did a great job of balancing everything. And not alone me, over there, saying some things that I want as well. He did a great job though."
On what it took to wear them down:
"Well you gotta understand that we knew we had a tremendous amount of athletes that it was going to be tough covering them on the back end. And with Shedeur’s accuracy we knew that was gonna be tough on them. We just had to hold them and get stops so we could get the ball. I think they almost tripled us in time of possession in the first half so we really didn't get the ball much. But we knew that was going to turn once we made the adjustments defensively so that we could get some stops, And that's what we did. But we knew they weren’t going to lay down. We wanted to win decisively and if we wouldn't have given up that last touchdown it would have looked better. But we’re not for looks man. The W or the L, that's what you remember. You guys could pick it apart. But youre here for the W or the L. Some of you get upset that we got a W and are really mad we didn't get the L. So god bless you all. You have to wait again till next week. Y’all take care. Y’all be safe on the way home please."
Colorado Players
Shedeur Sanders, Sr., QB
On getting the passing game going:
"Well, I mean, it was, it was cool, but every incompletion, it hurts me inside a little bit, for sure, besides the ones we throw away to get out of trouble. But I'm thankful. I'm excited for a win, but there’s situations in that game I personally could have handled better. Just throws, you know, check downs I could’ve got to. So really, the main goal tonight is to just recover a little bit and watch the film and see where we got to improve."
On his chemistry with Travis:
"It was really a connection, because he made the decision to fight the odds, to go on a different route and come to Jackson State at the time, and from then on; it’s something that I look back and now I really respect him a lot for because, a player of his caliber didn't have to do that, you know, but he did, and that's powerful, right there. So then years and years and years of connections, years of talking about different things; he plays defensive back. So he understands body position, he understands a lot of things a lot of receivers don't understand. So that's like the pro of you know, having him on there when he practices all week on defense sometimes, or then he gets out there and he handles his business. And we just locked in mentally. So that's the overall goal I'm trying to get with all the receivers, really, because everybody knows each game somebody's going to shine, you know, like, I didn't know Jimmy had 198 yards today. That was crazy. Everybody, everybody got involved. So that's, that's what's good. Everybody got some touches, but we just got to make sure, you know, everybody gets the ball."
On his pocket tonight:
"The O-line had an incentive. That's it. They had a great incentive. So they definitely did what they were supposed to do today. So now I feel good. I feel really good coming out of the game, but we still got to recover the right way, make sure, you know, going into the following weeks, it's compound interest. So it keeps getting hit over and over and over and over, and that was kind of like my first hit since, like, November. So it felt good, you know, to be live out there a little bit."
On the defensive switch:
"It's complimentary football. So you know, when we need them to show up, they'll be there. When we got to show up, we'll be there. But anything less than scoring every drive is kind of like a little failure to us, because we take the game so serious, we take each drive so serious, and you don't know what play could have been the play, you know, to decide the game. So that's why it's like, we enjoy the win overall, but it's definitely a lot of stuff we left on the table. It's quicker things that could have got to the reeds, and it's just nothing but room for improvement. But that's a great starting point versus a great team. It's really hard to get the tails on what coverage and everything they do. So I'm just, I'm just happy that we were able to face them, a real challenge."
On the 17-play drive:
"Yeah, that was crazy. We didn't even feel like that. But it was just that, and everybody just getting back to the bases. And that's why I told him. I said, let's just get back to the basics. They came out and they did something that I’ve seen on film once, you know. So we were able to adjust and see, okay, this guy dropping here, this guy is doing this. And when we get this look, this is what happened. So it was, it was, that's when, that's when the magic started in communication."
On his personal goals for the season:
“Honestly, it is honestly no personal goals, though. A lot of people say that, but honestly, we just want to win games. Like, that is it. Like we just try to win games and whatever comes with that. But, of course, we got to get a lot of completions, though, but personal goals, we don't really care about that.”
On his pass to LaJohntay Wester at the end:
“Cover zero. And we have the best receiving room in the nation. So it's kind of disrespectful. It was something I would learn from. So that's why I'm happy. Everything in my life, I always can learn from it. It's not too many mistakes you're going to see I made twice. So, that's just something I'm going to learn and understand. And even if it looks super tempting you have to just go with it. It's a lot of situations like play clock and everything that we're getting back into the flow of the games. But I'm just excited about the starting point and excited about getting everybody involved. And next week, we'll be locked in and focused.”
On Comparing play from today to a year ago:
“Well, we are really tough in practice. It's tough, just like Savion, going against the safety, like him, since ones go against twos and such. But it really gets him prepared, for the moment, and he prepares me for the other safeties we're gonna face just by looking him off, just by small details and what he's talented at, and how ranging he is also. I feel that, overall, I've grown mentally. I watch a lot more football than I ever have now, because I'm really a student of the game, and I just love seeing how everybody else figures out and fixes different problems in the game. So that's just what amazes me.”
On working with Coach Pat Shurmur
“Coach Shurmur is really easy. I feel like we definitely trust each other. He sees things a certain way, I see things a certain way, and then we're able to communicate. If he says, ‘Okay, well it’s this play’ then I ask him ‘Okay what are you seeing here?’ So I can understand his thought process, and vice versa. So it's very complimentary, and I love it.”
On getting different receivers involved:
“I was ready to get all the receivers involved. It's just about the coverage. It's not really even about the ice on it, you know, plays break down, plays break down. But overall, that's just how football is. You’re obviously not just looking at one guy the whole time. You're going through different reads, and anything you're unsure of, you're gonna find running backs, you're gonna find the check downs, whether it's shallows, comebacks, anything. It’s really not about what receivers are in what places. It's just about what the read is and what the defense gives you.”
On Travis Hunter:
“His ability to get out there, even with a lesser amount of reps, and being able to adjust and to see it, that's the main thing. We all get on the same page. It's the first time all of us, collectively as a group have played with each other, so it's really exciting. But at the end of the day, everybody has to interlock and understand how we're all thinking and ‘okay, what's good, what's not?’ There are active conversations on the sideline, like, if you always see us on the sideline, we're always talking about, ‘Okay, what did you see right here?’ Let's do this, like proactive things and not being too reactive to whenever they throw stuff at us. It’s getting back to the basics. But every drive we didn't score, we took that very personal.”
Travis Hunter, Jr., ATH
On his night and 3rd TD:
"It’s funny because he [Shedeur] got on me for not catching the one that we called the flag because I told him to throw me the ball no matter what. No matter what. So he got mad at me. He was like, I don't care, catch the ball. So that one, I just know I had to catch the ball. I had no other choice, no other option. So whatever I had to do to get the ball, I was gonna do it."
On the defense switch:
"I mean, we had to get our eyes right in the right place. I mean, they came out, we already knew what we had to do, but somehow we took them as a fool. We didn't respect them enough to come out there and just play how we needed to play in the second half, how we did in the first half. So we had to come out there and just put our eyes in the right spot. I mean, Coach chewed us out at halftime. Let us know what we got to do. We got to stop them. We got to get stops. Let our offense go to work, and that's what we came out to do”
On his goals for this season:
“I got no personal goals. I want my team to come out here and win every week, and I want us to go out there, dominate, and do our job. We got a target on us, and we got to go out and win. We must make a statement. We must tell everyone we are here to stay. We are not here to be mediocre teams. That’s why I did not want to talk to the media. I want to go to work with my guys and let them know, ‘I'm here with you all. Y got to my back, just like I got y'all’s back. Let's go ahead, and let's win.”
On the positive tweets from some of the best professional athletes:
“It does nothing to me at all. It's a lot of people that love this and a lot of people that hate me. If I try to look on the internet and see what people saying about me, it’s not going to be good for me. I'll be down in my shell and won’t want to talk to anybody because there are a lot of haters, but it's a lot of good people. I'll I don't even try to look at it. I don't pay attention to it. I just want to win with my team. Go out with my brothers, and at the end goal, I want us to be holding up a trophy.”
On Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig getting hurt and Savion Riley stepping up:
“Cam been on him. I mean in the weight room. Riley and Cam worked out. If Riley tried to do something that Cam don't like it or don't mess with he going to make sure you fix it. Because if I go down, he has to get in there. He has to be the next dude to go in there and lead us. Cam did a pretty good job of helping him out this off season, teaching him the way to go, how you got to treat your body, how you got to go along with everything, and how you have to be in the playbook. Cam did a real good job of doing that. So, we know when he got in the game, all we got to do is communicate with each other. We'll be going in there, and we'll be doing what we've been doing even if Cam not in.”
NDSU Head Coach Tim Polasek
Opening Statement:
“Good, yeah, obviously, quite frankly, it's just disappointing. We missed on a couple opportunities. I thought we had a shot - not to pull this out - but to win the game. We didn't come over here and get dressed up for nothing. And so the disappointment would be that there were a few plays out there that I think we're capable of making, that we need to make. It's unfortunate two big plays occur on a miscommunication or a missed assignment that we just can't have when you're playing these kinds of explosive athletes. And then a quarterback that can identify open guys, and good quarterbacks get the ball to open players, and then you get hurt. And so those things are disappointing, but I can tell you this: I can't wait. I wish we had practice tomorrow morning, because our guys would get up and go to work. And I'm just telling you that this staff is super excited. This will have nothing to do with the story that's written in 2024 and I don't know what that story will be yet, but everything that we want to do, which is to reach our full potential, is still attainable. And I'm so excited to be able to coach guys that'll play that hard, you know, with their backs up against the wall, and a couple of those situations, it was, it was tough. I think we're going to learn and grow from this a lot.”
On the delay of game in the second quarter being a momentum shifter:
“You know, the third down player is probably coming out too. I thought, probably the right call. The clock was at zero and we got called for the delay of game and just the operation of the personnel, right? Like, I'm here to tell you guys, I'm all over that. Coach Bohl just would never let me off the hook on that stuff. And it just is not acceptable. But in a first game setting, we were pretty clean as far as personnel adjustments, getting on and off the field, I mean a really, really cool environment. I mean, Colorado's got a challenging environment, and we got caught down there a couple times in the student section, but that was a big turn of events. I mean, it really was. And quite frankly, we were talking four down, you know, I kind of felt like they weren't on their heels, but I kind of felt like we were in a good place, and Cam was playing really good. So that delay a game call was most certainly impactful.”
On describing the speed of receivers:
Well, yeah, fast, I mean, but I'll give him credit for this though. You could see some really good coaching going on with the perimeter guys. I mean, it's catch the ball, tight turns, getting upfield with great intent. You know, they're not monkeying around much, and then the physical gifts to make somebody miss along with that, that's the scary combination. It's not always the jitterbug. It's the guys that are playing with great intent. And I thought on a couple of them, the Colorado players may have just been a little bit better on that specific play, but there are two plays. There are two plays, and we've been preaching it, and we need to be better. We need to run through our leverage on defense. And I'm thinking about the little flare on the right side going towards their sideline late in the fourth quarter. That gets 9 or 10, should have been shut down for four. We stutter our feet and we don't put our chest on the guy, and then we just didn't trust our instincts. Tyrone Braxton asked us to pull the trigger when he talked to us last night, and Travis Hunter's first touchdown, I just thought we needed to be more aggressive and we need to take better angles. It's stuff that we can get cleaned up, but you can't win these kinds of games in that kind of environment without making those plays.”
On Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders:
“Well, he's crafty. And then the ability to get thrown open, and the ability to be stopped, and to be able to stop on the fade stop down there, and then in the back of the end zone he kind of peels out of there, and Shedeur throws him open… That's a lot of you me factor over a lot of years, and I never really said this leading into it, but that was one of my biggest fears. You know, they had some Travis Hunter and Shedeur have some really good you me factor, and that's hard to contend with, and maybe they can leverage that moving forward. But, yeah, good players. Really good players.”
On what the difference in the game was:
“Well, the difference in the game is our inability to, I haven't seen the film yet, but potentially, to break a tackle here or there. On a couple runs that had a chance, our inability early for a three yard run needed to be four, four and a half, we were looking for five yard plays. And they were just keeping us off schedule just enough, right? But Cam was good enough that we were converting some third downs early. I think we were 6 to 12 on third down, they were 7 for 11. The difference in the game, I just think, comes down to they made a few more plays than we did. I really believe that. And again, I mean, all the credits got to go to those guys. You know Shedeur’s ability to extend plays is a nightmare, because now you're running with guys for 8, 9, 10, seconds. And I thought our guys up front made him adjust off his spot enough, but he was just better.”
On new players in certain positions ability to control the tempo of the game:
“Can't wait to watch the tape, but my early impression, especially early on, we converted some third downs. I mean, and Cam got to his third progression, that tells you protection is pretty good. When I would look up there from time to time the story was their pass rush, and so I was pretty dang pleased with it. Looking at their body types pregame and stuff like that, I wasn't concerned, but I knew it would be a challenge, and I thought our guys did okay. It was in the run game. In the run game early, it needed to be four and five, not two and three. And this group can die harder and we got to find a way to push the pile and just be really resourceful, getting us into third and mediums and third and threes and fours.”
On Cam Miller’s play today:
“Gutty, gritty. He had some off schedule plays with his feet, I thought he did a really good job throwing the dig to RaJa. Really good job executing the dig here with a little bit of pressure in his face late. Cam played, in my opinion, a really, really good game. I was really prepared to spend some time with Cam on the sidelines in between series, and I just didn't feel the need to. He was seeing the field pretty good. Obviously, our lack of explosive plays tonight is going to show up when you look at the numbers. To win championship level games or to win a conference championship at a high level you need five explosive plays a game. And I don't think those are on the sheet, if I'm not mistaken, maybe they are.”
On Eli Mostaert and senior leaders:
“Yeah, and I'll go a step further, just their response in the locker room. I mean, they were, they're looking at me, they're looking for leadership, and they want to be coached. Eli's the guy we can rely on. I thought (Dylan) Hendricks, and it looked like Loskiaka (Roques) I mean, they were making some things happen. We probably just didn't get enough hits on them to change them. Every quarterback has X amount of hits before they start feeling the rush, and they get their timing and rhythm a little bit off. That part of it, the effort in the front, I thought they played pretty good. It came down to a couple of missed tackles and a couple balls in the air that we didn't make plays on.”
On the impact having headsets made on the game:
“It was our only game with it this year and it’s a deal that can be a real positive. I think college football is going to improve because of it, even late there guys, I'm telling you, we executed. We were going to run potentially a different type of play than we had called. And we were able to say, ‘Hey, if you like it, just get down, alert, kill’. That's not on a wristband, that's not in a hand signal. And so, I mean, heck, we got a chance to throw it near the end zone, there at the end, and the headsets probably allowed us to manage that. Yeah, quite frankly, yes, it did. It's interesting, because I think potentially, now we would have had to travel a long ways, but our kill operation, for whatever reason. I gotta look at the tape. When we killed the ball, it seemed like four or five seconds ran off. And I know we detailed that in fall camp, and we never had snapped it, you know, or ran two more in two seconds off the clock.”
On his emotions of the night - it being his first game as head coach:
“In the third quarter, I was a little bit disappointed with myself on Travis Hunter’s touchdown. I thought maybe there was some more activity than that was seen. Maybe I got to control my emotions just a little bit, but it was, it's not fun. It's just not fun losing. But I can't wait to coach the next game, and I told the team and this morning, Jill and I are exactly where we're supposed to be, and I'm super fired up to continue to lead this program, and we're going to continue to focus on winning the next championship. That's all we're going to focus on, whenever that is. And I can't wait to help these guys continue to move forward.”
On what to do with a player like Travis Hunter:
“There was a time in the game - the fade stop, done in this end zone - I just said, ‘You know what? (Jailen) Duffie’s going to be a good player this year’. That was a competitive deal. Perfect. That's the game: Perfect throw, strong hands, toe tap to sideline. That's football. You either make it or you don't, and if you don't make the play, you typically lose. I thought it was a competitive play, I thought our guys were, at times, in positions to compete on the football, and that's something that we can leverage in moving forward and coaching and teaching this game, especially in the back end. You know, our backend guys will respond. I mean, we've got to be better than that. The two M.A.'s really hurt more than that's what I'm disgusted in, and not necessarily competitive play.”
On how important was to see this team in this environment: 11:28
“I gotta be careful not to be too honest, I guess. But I shared it with the guys this morning, I think it was about 10 o'clock, 10:30 this morning. I said, if somebody offered me a W and we were singing a song in the locker room, just gave it to us, right? I would turn it down. I was more excited to see our guys and where we're at and where we can go and to watch them compete. And we've got some sixth year guys that, you know, potentially they got 12 guarantees, and that's it. Super excited to continue to coach these guys, and we will, we're going to bounce back really good. I mean, we all wanted this. Our messaging was to come in here and get a win, like I said, we didn't get dressed up for nothing, and we just don't play these games. I don't care who's on our schedule, we're going to prepare to win and lay it on the line. And there are no moral victories at North Dakota State.”
On the decision to kick with 2 minutes to go in the game:
“Oh boy. You know what's cool is, like, I gotta study again like I'm in college. This two minute thing is going to change a lot of decisions that we're going to make. It changes the complexion of all your charts and we're operating with three time outs. And the bottom line is, I knew Eli was kicking the ball well, so we were going to kick it through the end zone. No time would run off right? And then, like, the thing that kind of grabs at you is, do you take a time out with 2:09? The book tells you not to, and everything that I've been reading up on and I've been getting educated on, and I got to continue to do that, because this two minute thing is going to be fascinating. You can predict almost to the T when you're going to get the ball back and so forth. And so I'll keep working hard at clock management, and I'll stand by that decision. That was a staff decision and that was the right call.”
NDSU Players
Wide Receiver Braylon Henderson
On his angle on the last play of the game
“I was on the sideline. Obviously, it’s a Hail Mary. More of a taller personnel grouping. I’m a little vertically challenged. So yeah, unfortunately, it just didn’t go our way.”
On ending first half with delay of game penalty and not scoring six points
“It wasn’t just one play. It was a culmination of things along the game that we could have done better, could have been sharper, could have been more disciplined, and the outcome would have changed. But, can’t dwell on it too much. Just on to next week. Keep grinding. Can’t wait to get back to practice with my guys.”
On Cam Miller’s performance
“I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised at all. I see it every day. Day in and day out, the hardest worker in the facility. First guy in, last guy out. He’s one of my best friends. I’m honestly just happy for him, so proud of him to come out here and do that on this stage. But all the naysayers say that he can’t do this, can’t do that. I’m just ecstatic for him that he had the impact he had today.”
On importance of the team bouncing back from deficits
“We were prepared for that. Coach P [Polasek] drilling us. We own the fourth quarter. We work, work, work, work. Keep grinding. Don’t really look up to the scoreboard till the clock hits zero. Just keep working. Never really looking at how much time we have left. Just keep our head down and keep grinding.”
On how tough the loss to Colorado is
“It stings a little more since it’s my last year. I know how bad our team wanted this. How bad I wanted this for our team and my guys. It hurts. I can’t really say much else.”
NDSU Quarterback Cam Miller
On how important learning from this experience is going into conference games
“Any loss is never a good thing. I’m not even gonna talk about the positives because no one likes losing. There’s nothing good about losing. But I do feel like offensively and defensively, this is going to give us a lot of confidence. I know there are some great teams in the FCS, but I’ll be surprised if we face some of the athletes during the regular season that we faced tonight. So that should give us a lot of confidence.”
On new helmet technology
“I think it helped a lot. Coach Landry was letting me know that we needed to kill it once we got a first down, I thought it was very beneficial. Throughout the game, he alerted me to pressures and all that kind of stuff. It helped a lot. And it was nice, using it like that.”
On vantage point during last play of game
“Well, initially I was supposed to get out to the right. It just didn't work out that way. I had to go back left. Didn't have enough on it to get it to the end zone and got to be better.” a
On what changed from first half to second & how’d it change game plan
“I don’t think they changed much schematically. They stayed in man coverage. Their linebackers did a tremendous job. I think the front seven did a tremendous job fitting the run game. They had athletes all throughout the field, and we just didn’t move the ball effectively. And that's on us, and we'll be better.”
On losing receivers from last year:
“We've been putting in a lot of work. And I told those guys today, I texted all of them, talked to all of them, and I said, you're gonna have a big game. And I think they all performed really well. I couldn't be more proud of them.”
On learning for conference games:
“Any loss is never a good thing. And I'm not even gonna talk about the positives, because no one likes losing. There's nothing good about losing. But I do feel like, offensively and defensively, this is going to give us a lot of confidence. I know there's some great teams in the FCS, but I'll be really, really surprised if we face some of the athletes during the regular season that we faced tonight.”
On Travis Hunter as a threat on offense and defense:
“I'm gonna say this, but He's unbelievable. He is. But my mindset going in, like the coaches had warned, like, ‘You got to see where number 12 is’. But I'm not afraid of anybody. I'll throw at anybody, and obviously, like it's in the back of your head that he's out there. But I'm not afraid to throw against somebody like that, especially with the receivers we have. Unbelievable athlete, but I'm not afraid of him.”
NDSU Line Backer Logan Kopp
On Colorado’s skilled roster:
“Yeah, no doubt they're really talented players. We knew coming in that it was going to be a tough task, and we knew that all of us, we're going to have to be on the same page. We're playing good football, every down gives us a chance. Thanks to Big O for obviously keeping us in the game, and, you know, just one or two big plays kind of hurt us. But I thought we had great effort throughout the game. I thought we played hard and just an unfortunate outcome.” (Logan)
On replicating speed in practice:
“I mean, they're, we knew that they're going to be fast. I think we had a good game plan going in to try to calm some of that down. There's definitely a reason why their quarterback and their receiver, you know, projected first round picks. They're super talented, and we did everything we could to kind of condense them at the end. We knew they were going to make some plays here and there, and our goal was just to eliminate explosive place as a defense, and I think we just let up a few too many.”
On changes made in the second half:
“Yeah. I mean, going against a temple offense is always tough, because got to get the play call from the sidelines, from the coaches, got to get it to all 11 guys on the defense. And so when teams are going fast it's just hard to keep up, and guys are getting tired, it's hard to sub, and so that's just something that we have to. We practice that a lot throughout the week, and we knew that it was coming, but it's still, it's just harder to execute sometimes, and in those pressure situations, when you're going fast, it's hard to communicate, hard to get lined up, and maybe that's some things that could hurt us.”
On frustration with Shedeur Sanders performing even with defensive pressure:
“Yeah, it hurts. We knew that, obviously he's a great quarterback, he's very talented, he's very athletic, he's good at escaping the pocket. We knew that he scrambles to throw, not to run. We knew all that going in, and so our goal was, to push the pocket, get as many hits on him, especially early on, as we could. I think we did a decent job getting some pressures, getting some hits on him, making him get out of the pocket of his comfort zone. But I think we just got to contain him a couple more plays, and that could have been the difference. He made some great plays, and we were just a step or two behind.”
On Travis Hunter as a threat on offense and defense:
“Like you (Cam) said, great player on offense. They had a ton of weapons, a ton of talent. We worry about ourselves as a defense and so we weren't worried about who was on the other side of the ball. We were worried about playing hard, playing fast, playing together as a defense, focused on tackling, the fundamentals, the basics. Whoever we're going against, whether it's a high school JV squad or the Minnesota Vikings, we're going to come out with the same mentality, and we're going to play with 100% effort and play together as a defense and just do everything we can to be successful.”
Frustration with being close to win against Colorado and Arizona:
“Close, but didn't get it done. It hurts. There was a lot of frustration in the locker room afterwards. I thought we prepared tremendously. The coaches had us prepared, but then again, we just left a few plays out there, and that's on us. And when you play a team that's that talented, you can't do that. But yeah, no, it stings and it really hurts.”