Paul Petrino — Head Coach
- On Arkansas State game
“That was a tough one, because it was kind of a game we pointed at and make a statement. I thought our guys were really ready to play. We came out and a whole bunch of them played their tales off, so it was a little tough, but I thought practice last night, the moral was good … That’s one thing I’m proud of our players is that they understand as well as anyone that it is a process and we’re taking the right steps. They understand how much better we are, because they see it and they feel it out there in the games.”
“That’s as good as we’ve played as a team since I’ve been here. We just can’t turn the ball over that many times, that’s really what it comes down to. It’s too bad, because that’s definitely maybe, if not the most talented team, one of the most talented teams in the league.”
“We overcame quite a few of them. We overcame a lot of those turnovers early. We felt like when we fumbled the punt, that was a big one — but really we overcame that one, we came back and took the lead. It was 30-28, we had the ball, we got three yards on first down and on second down we tried a play action pass — got called for holding. Then add another penalty and it kind of started right there. Then they got the ball back … they ran a one back power on second down and scored a touchdown, then it kind of went down hill from there.”
- On the quarterback competition
“It’s really open competition every week. When ever we go into practice … It definitely is, They’ll both probably get more of even reps this week and just go into the game and do whatever we think gives our team the best chance to win.”
“That’s kind of something where you really play it by year, but I would definitely see both of them playing in this game.”
“He (Chalich) did some good things. We ran the ball — I probably called more runs when he was in the game. He did some good things and then there’s some things that he can improve on.”
“They’ve had that competition all year. It’s just something that, I think the two of them push each other everyday in practice. They push each other every day in the meeting room. That really hasn’t changed, they’ve always had that competition.”
“When he started out the New Mexico State game, he (Linehan) was 5-for-5. He was playing about as good as you could play in that game. This last week he wasn’t, but I wouldn’t say other than that.”
“A little bit of everything. A lot of times with the quarterback, it’s the other 10 guys got to do their job, too. He’s young, he’s going to be a great player, he is a great player, so it’s just something that he has to work to keep getting better each week in practice.”
- On the running game
“It’s very important. I think it helps our o-line, it helps to not have to rely on the pass as much and it definitely was Elijhaa’s best game, I thought he ran really well he looked more explosive. So it was definitely that was a positive … We’ve ran the ball really well in those two games, so that’s something we can keep building on.”
“I just think the o-line has improved, the backs our improving and I think a couple of it is what we’re going against defensively, too and how we had to attack it.”
“All the games that Jordan Rose has played, we’ve ran the ball really well. It’s that little spell when he was hurt and he was out we didn’t run the ball worth a darn. He’s been a big influence there, just having that big size at the strong guard position.”
“I think we need to run the ball for over 200 yards to win the game, that’s for sure.”
- On Elijhaa Penny
“It’s been great. I think it’s kind of a two-phase thing — one, he got dinged up in fall camp, but he never sat out. He fought through it and played through it, so I think he’s healthier right now. And two, he’s been losing a little bit of weight each week, and it’s making him a little more explosive, so I think the combination of those two things and then three our o-line is blocking better for him up front.”
“It really makes you very excited for the rest of this year and next year for him.”
“I think it’s due to the weight loss, experience and healthier now.”
“He never missed a practice, he just kept fighting through it.”
“It’s really exciting for him to go back there and play his brother. He’s got to have a big game, they’re going to be talking about it at thanksgiving, and probably every year from here until forever.”
(Penny’s younger brother, Rashaad, is a running back for the Aztecs)
- On San Diego State’s defense
“They’re big and physical upfront. They do a good job at scheming you. They have a couple different ways that they’re going to attack you and they’re just kind of relentless in doing it. This is going to be a lot different game then we’ve been playing here lately. It’s probably going to be about an hour and half shorter than all the games we’ve been playing … We’re not going to get as many as plays and we’ve been running the ball more now too so it could be an even shorter game.”
“They just try to confuse you. They try to confuse the quarterback, confuse the o-line. They line up sometimes and nobody will have their hand down and all moving around … They do a lot of different things to try to confuse you.”
“You just got to make sure everybody understands their job and who they’re responsible for and who is blocking who. I think when nobody has their hand on the ground, yeah, I think it is sometimes harder for them to stop the run.”
- On San Diego State game
“I think it will probably be more in the range of a 24 to 21 game, so what team stops the big plays and what team doesn’t hurt themselves with either penalties or turnovers.”
“That’s how they want to play all their games, so we just got to put our physical football hats on this week, especially defensively, because that’s what its going to be more of, rather than the spread out game.”
“It’s a nice stadium, it’s probably not like the swamp or some of those places we’ve been because it wont be the same atmosphere. It’s a little more off the field, it wont be as loud. It’s exciting, its great, we got a lot of kids on our team from California, so they’ll be excited to go back to their home state.”
- On recruiting California
“We did that on our bye week, so we’re not sending guys down a day early like sometimes you do. But we’re going to be on and be noticed, so it’s definitely a game we need to do well for recruiting.”
Josh McCain — senior wide receiver
- On disappointing loss to Arkansas State
“We just to come back and work harder this week, that’s all it is. Just got to come back each and every week and work hard. You can’t look back on it — the game is over with. You just got to look ahead and continue on.”
- On fourth quarter collapse
“Honestly I don’t even know — things just fell apart … Just a lot of frustration. We knew we were better than those guys, we just didn’t finish out yet another one.”
“We had a lot of mental errors. We just got to fix it and come back better than we were last week.”
“We just can’t turn the ball over, that’s what hurt us a lot. We had what, eight turnovers. We can’t turn the ball over, got to hold onto the ball.”
- On upcoming game against San Diego State
“Everybody has high hopes about this week. We’re going in positive thinking we’re going to beat San Diego State.”
“They’re beatable. We just got to take it slow, just play by play, hold on to the rock, take care of the ball and come back victorious.”
“I’m having a bunch of family coming out to that game. It’s going to be nice to see familiar faces out there.” (McCain is originally from San Jose, California)
“Hopefully, that’s what I’m trying to do this week. I’m really trying to put up big numbers.”
- On quarterback competition
“We use those quarterbacks so often, so we’re pretty much in synch with both quarterbacks. For Chad to come in like that, it was alright, we were use to it.”
Richard Montgomery — sophomore wide receiver
- On the Arkansas State loss
“It was a tough loss. I feel like we played great for three quarters, but we just go to finish … We did some great things, but there’s still a lot of stuff we can improve on.”
“We just got to keep practicing to win those tough games in the fourth quarter.”
“Everybody is just still pulling it together. We just got another week to go continue to get better and try to win another game.”
“I was better at blocking, probably the best I’ve ever done blocking. We was depending on the run game, those guys were running good, we was blocking well so that was going great for us.”
- On San Diego State game
“That’ll be fun going to California. It’s my first time visiting. I’m ready to compete with some other guys.”
Kris Cinkovich — Offensive Coordinator
- On Chad Chalich and the offenses performance
“I know when Chad came in, we ran the ball better … He made a couple of runs in some situations, so that was good. When I say assess the offense, I just think of eight turnovers — and that’s unacceptable. Give credit to Arkansas State, but that ultimately cost us the game.”
- On changing quarterbacks in game
“I don’t think it really changes us, and I know with the o-line it doesn’t. I don’t think it changes the receivers. Our job is to do our job first, and not really worry about the guy at quarterback — and that’s frankly how our kids go ahead and do it.”
- On quarterback competition
“It looks like it. It certainly does from what I saw. We have some on the o-line, too. We shuffled the deck a little bit and that’s always good. It’s helped us, and we’re running the ball a lot better right now. I think that is a result of some competition we’ve had — and if it does the same thing at quarterback, good.”
- On the running game
“They stepped up and got it going. I thought Elijhaa and Jerrel, as we got the running game going, had really good patients. There was a run early in the second quarter where Jerrel got stopped behind the line, but he didn’t panic, then he jumped out the other side. They both had really good patients and hit their creases and were authoritative. I think they helped everybody by the way they ran the football.”
“We’re able to run the ball better right now, and if you’re going to be a good team, that is the number one thing you got to be able to do, is run the ball and stop the run. We’re calling more runs because we’re more effective at it and that probably has something to do with the passing game. Frankly that’s how we want it, because we can control the ball, we’re able to score points and we’re setting a physical tempo that we want here at Idaho.”
- On fourth quarter collapse
“I don’t think it was fatigue, because for us, when we run 83 plays, that’s low for us … I think when some things went wrong, we didn’t respond to adversity very well, and we have to improve on that, because in every football game something is going to go wrong … we have to respond better when it doesn’t go right.”
- On SDSU
“There’s some similarities to Louisiana Monroe … They like to move around and fill gaps with different guys … It’s a dynamic defense that way, so we have to be really good in our roles and really good in our fundamentals.”
- On leader of offense with QB changes
“Mike Marboe, offensively, I think does a real good job. He’s that guy, he takes that role and he did on Saturday. He’s trying to fight us through, and he’ll continue to fight that fight, and we’ll all have to do that together.”
“He’s done a good job. We have player directed meetings on Tuesday, and he runs the whole meeting — he runs everything they do. He’s had that role a year or so. He’s not worried about who the quarterback is, he’s worried about doing a good job, hopefully preparing his line, leading the offense and whoever the quarterback is, doing a great job protecting him.”
- On playing in NFL stadium
“I’m sure it will be fun. I coached in there when I was at UNLV a couple times and it’s a unique stadium because the sidelines are so far from the stands. It’s like playing in a big cavern. I never felt the crowd a whole bunch there because it was so far back. I don’t know what they draw, but I doubt they draw 70,000, or whatever it is to fill it up. What’s nice, and what the kids will enjoy, is the locker rooms in the NFL stadium, that’s usually pretty cool for them.”
Eric Brown — Linebackers coach
- On Marc Millan
“That’s thee best I’ve seen him play. He’s been as locked in as I’ve seen him. He’s been a guy that’s starting to come into his own as far as discipline — and that’s been our focus with him the last few weeks.”
“I’m happy with what he did on Saturday, but we need a big game out of him this week.”
- On San Diego State’s offense
“We’ve faced spread teams, but a lot of them have been running teams. We’ve seen plenty of run, but the scheme is different, though. It’s more of a down hill, old school, traditional, physical football. For me, it’s exciting. It’s a challenge for the linebackers, its something I look forward to.”
“You prepare for it the same way you do everybody else. You break it down and rep it all week.”
“If we’re prepare the right way, if we have guys execute — I don’t see a weakness.”
“The tempo isn’t going to be as fast. Most of the teams in the Sun Belt go as fast as they can go, as many as plays as they can get in the game. Then you come to a game and a team wants to slow it down like San Diego State. Where you can get worn down is the physical side of it. I plan on rotating guys, and we’ll have a good rotation where we can bring the same intensity every single play and not wear out.”
Quinton Bradley — junior defensive end
- On Arkansas State game
“We just got to get better. We were playing good the first three quarters, then the fourth quarter things just got weird and we didn’t perform well.”
“Mark (Millan) — I know he took one of my sacks, but Mark did good. I didn’t know he had like 18 tackles, I didn’t know that. I thought he had the regular like 10, but 18 is crazy. I’m really proud of him.”
- On defense
“Yeah, we’re getting sacks now. It’s always good when a defense is getting sacks — especially the line.”
- On San Diego State game
“It’s nice to finally go back to a smash mouth football team. It’s better for us as a defense getting back to playing what we usually play.”
“Yeah, actually, we did (contained ASU quarterback). We contained him really well, so we’ll try to do the same thing this week if they change their game plan. A lot of teams do that when they play us, when they step on the field they like to change things up.”
“I treat every team the same. They haven’t done nothing special to me. I always give more credit, then at the start of the game it starts to decrease. I’m just ready to play.”
“We’ve been waiting for this week for nine weeks and its finally time.”
“It’s a regular game for me. Another chance to succeed, another chance to get more plays and get better.”
- On playing in an NFL stadium — he didn’t know
“Now that changes things, I didn’t know that. It will be nice. I haven’t been in an NFL stadium ever, so it will be nice to see that.”
Marc Millan — junior linebacker
- On big game against Arkansas State game
“I’ve been waiting all season to have a break out game, I knew it had to come sooner or later. I’m glad it came, I just wish we would have got the win.”
“Arkansas State was my best game to date. Hopefully I can get a bunch more of those.”
“I feel like I’m having a little more of a pep in my step every day now after that. Im just excited, I just really want to get a win. I feel like if I can play to that standard every game it gives our team a better chance to win.”
“I just try to do my job every play, and usually when I focus on that the end result is usually good.”
- On defense
“I feel like we’re just playing together more. There’s a lot of good communication going on. We’re flying to the ball and that’s showing up on our stops on third down and also turnovers.”
“I think instead of worrying about the outcome like ‘I got to make the big play’ it’s more about the process and I got to do my job every play. When we do that, good things happen.”
- On upcoming San Diego State game
“Smash mouth football, that’s what I got into the game for.”
“Yeah, that’s going to be pretty cool. I’m from Orange County, so it’s only like 45 minutes away from Qualcomm. I’m pretty excited, I’m going to have a lot of people at that game.”