Arizona vs. Oregon - Quotes
10/03/14 | Football
Mark Helfrich – Head Coach
On the game…
“First and foremost, we have to give them credit. They played really well, their QB got hot in the second half and we didn't make enough plays, and that starts with me. We weren't smart enough. We had a lot of uncharacteristic errors tonight from a communication and penalty standpoint. There's a lot that we have to rectify.”
On the defense…
“They played really well. They did a decent job assignment-wise creating a couple of turnovers. If the offense complemented the defense in the first half, we'd probably be talking about a different situation right now.”
On things to improve…
“There's obviously things in every phase that need to be rectified. For some reason, we had a bunch of assignment busts on the perimeter, which we haven't had ever. Part of that was a communication issue. We missed a couple of signs in the first half, which has never happened. And those just came up at opportune times. We didn't play cleanly tonight in any phase. It's much tougher to watch the film after a loss than a win, but I think that's a very talented team and they had a good night.”
“We've got a bunch of hurt guys, so it's kind of a coulda-woulda-shoulda. We had them stopped there at the end and we had a silly play. I'll take the blame for that, but it was not the right time to have that happen.”
“I thought we played hard, for the most part. We didn't necessarily play smart enough or clean enough, and that starts with me first, our coaches second and our players executing that third. We'll come back tomorrow and continue to take care of each other and flip the page.”
Marcus Mariota – Quarterback, Redshirt Junior
On the game…
“We left a lot of points and plays on the board, but that's football. The locker room is positive. We're ready to move on, get back together and get it going.”
“Hats off to them. They did a good job of covering guys and getting some pressure. It happens. We just have to execute better and obviously learn from it.”
On the game ending fumble…
“It was a good play by him. They ran some coverage that we weren't really expecting, and I was just trying to make the play. My instincts always lead the ball to go low, and he kind of just ripped it away.”
“I just have to learn from my mistakes. We had a lot of miscommunication errors and, obviously the turnovers. That's on me. That's stuff I can always get better on.”
Royce Freeman – Running Back, Freshman
On thoughts after loss…
“Any loss hurts. Personally, I hate losing more than I like to win, but it's a lesson we can learn as a team. Me being a freshman, a lot of the veterans are taking over and showing us the ropes and how to handle this loss.”
On Arizona's defense…
“Just their physicality and the way they answered when we started gaining tempo. When we gain tempo we continue to put teams down and grind it out, but they held their ground when we started to get tempo. I give them a lot of credit because they are a very physical team as well.”
On thoughts in locker room after game…
“A lot of guys know what happened out there and we are just looking forward to making corrections. We've been here before, but me personally, I haven't, so we're looking forward to correcting and getting better.”
On touchdown pass to Mariota…
“It's pretty interesting. We practice it in practice and usually I lob it to him, but I don't know what happened. I just threw a dart and Marcus made a good catch and he wanted the touchdown so he fought for the extra yards. It was a great play.”
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, Corner Back, Senior
On the defensive pressure when the offense isn't performing…
“If your offense doesn't have the ball for very long, you just have to get back on the field over and over. If the offense has a bad day we have to pick them up, and if we have a bad day the offense has to.”
On the games left on the schedule…
“It's football, you are going to win some and you are going to lose some. We have another game but we have to get to the next game and worry about our next opponent. We lost this game and have to move on, it happens.”
On this loss being a test of the team's resilience…
“Every loss is a test of our character to see how we respond. Not every team in college football is going to go undefeated so everyone has to learn from their losses and get better.”
Derrick Malone Jr., Linebacker, Senior
On learning from this loss…
“We reflect on what we did wrong. We are going to hit that film room hard and realize what we did wrong. That's the culture around here. We are going to get better and won't let any loss define who we are as a team.”
On going home tonight and digesting this loss…
“It's going to hurt. I know how much effort we put into this week. But when we start looking at UCLA we have to disregard that, we cant let one loss beat us twice.”
On channeling the hurt from this loss to move forward…
“You never want to feel again. All pain is temporary and we want to feel this pain for a moment in time but we are going to step up, digest what we did wrong, and move forward because we don't want to feel this way again. I think we have great guys and coaches here and we are going to ban up together as brothers and get better.”
Charles Nelson -- Wide Receiver, Freshman
On the loss…
“It's a big loss, we came into the game thinking we were prepared. But as we say, one game doesn't define a season.”
“It's quiet in the locker room, everybody is down because of the loss. But we will come back tomorrow focused and ready for the next game.”
On Oregon's offense…
“To be honest, we just didn't execute very well on offense and they did a very good job.”
Rich Rodriguez – Arizona Head Coach
On beating the no. 2 team in the country…
“I'm very proud of our guys and the way they battled. We didn't play a clean game by any stretch of the imagination, but our defense kept us in it the first half and our offense started executing in the second half against some really explosive players.”
“It wasn't a clean game, but they were jacked up to come up here and play in this environment.”
On this win compared to last year's victory over Oregon…
“Last year was really heart warming because it was the senior's last home game. It was improbable, of course, but it was such a great feeling with our fans storming the field. This one, I don't know if anybody picked us. I don't know how many people were talking about us. I'd bet you most people weren't thinking this was going to happen, not on the road, lightning doesn't strike twice.”
On what the win means for his football team…
“Well, we're 5-0. We're one win away from bowl eligibility, I guess. I think it's hopefully a shout of confidence that we can play against a really good team. We still have a lot of things to clean up.”
On the sack, forced fumble by Linebacker Scooby Wright III in the fourth quarter…
“Scooby's been playing great all year. I think he was really jacked up to play this game and made a great play against a great player.”
On the strong second half for the offense after struggling in the first half…
“There was no panic at half time and we didn't change a lot of our play calling, we just executed better. There's a tendency sometimes when you're not scoring points to just abandon everything and move on. We felt we knew what we were doing and what they were doing, we just had to execute better. We called a lot of the same plays, we just executed better in the second half.”
Anu Solomon – Arizona Quarterback, Redshirt Freshman
On the win…
“We beat a very good team. After the game, I told Marcus (Mariota) he has my vote for the Heisman.”
On handling the nerves in a high pressure game…
“It wasn't nervous, it was just more anxious and frustration. We just have to clean things up.”
On the offense finding success in the second half…
“It was just being on the right page with everybody, trusting our reads and believing in our coaches.”
Terris Jones-Grigsby – Arizona Running Back, Redshirt Senior
On beating Oregon…
“Getting that win shows that we can play 60 minutes. We knew we were going into a battle, but that's Arizona football.”
On silencing the Autzen crowd with his touchdown…
“It was dead quiet. I was just making sure I crossed that goal line.”
On Quarterback Anu Solomon…
“I thought Anu showed great composure out there, he didn't let the crowd rattle us.”
Scooby Wright III – Arizona Linebacker, Sophomore
On his sack and forced fumble in the fourth quarter…
“I was just trying to get after the quarterback and make a play.”
“When I finally realized I had the ball in my hands, I was already running towards the sideline.”
