Wyoming vs. Oregon-Quotes
09/13/14 | Football
Mark Helfrich - Head Coach
On the team's performance…
“We were a little sluggish at the beginning in every phase. It could've been a bit of a hangover situation, but I'm proud of how our guys competed through three-ish quarters. We've got a ton of work to do, and luckily it's in the wake of a victory. We'll take it and move on.”
On his thoughts after Marcus Mariota's leaping touchdown run…
“My emotions were: was he protecting the ball and was it a touchdown? We have some very strict guidelines about reaching the ball. That was a tremendous play. It looked like, initially, he did a good job of protecting the football. We try to tell the guys to only reach the ball on fourth down or in a desperation situation. That was a pretty athletic play.”
“You can't sit here and say, 'Don't do this or don't do that.' The only way you can control that is by the play that's called. The dynamic nature of his play, how he likes to improvise, that's one of our biggest strengths.”
On the receivers…
“We had a really competitive situation at wideout this week. We had a bunch of guys doing some really good stuff. I wanted to get those guys some chances. Overall, we did a nice job. It was great for Johnny [Loyd] to score there. Just like on the hoops court, you can see his smiling face every day at practice, and it's great to see that result in a touchdown for him.”
On reserves filling in for starters…
“We expect those guys to come in and play better. If Jeff's [Lockie] in at quarterback, we want perfection. That's how we start them out in Fall camp, and when those guys go in, we expect them to be great. Nobody's a freshman, sophomore, or junior anymore, if they're in there, they're the number one person.”
On Erick Dargan's interceptions…
“[Erick] Dargan made a couple of great plays. He's been doing that all camp… He's been exactly how he practices, and that's amazing. He's had a ton of picks in practice very similar to the play that he had today… We did well on the turnover ratio today.”
On areas that can be improved…
“Everywhere. We need to throw a little better, catch a little better. Special teams, defensively, we have a ton of stuff we can improve on. But that's in the wake of a 3-0 start, and that's what matters the most. We have a bunch of guys that are willing, able and excited to improve.”
On preparing for Washington State…
“I'm excited for the next game. Our guys did a decent job of shaking the hangover from last week. Now we're moving ahead to conference play. We're right where we want to be, as far as being 3-0, but we're nowhere near where we want to be for the long-term.”
Marcus Mariota - Quarterback, Junior
On the diving touchdown…
“We wanted a big-shot play, but there were some miscommunications. It was kind of a messed up play to the left and I started scrambling to the right and thought I was going to throw the ball to Keenon (Lowe), but he turned around and started blocking. I took off and thought I was close enough to the end zone, so I tried to jump in there I guess.”
On Helfrich after the play…
“He told me right after I got off to the sideline to never do that again. I'll take that as a warning.”
On making a risky play in the future…
“You can't really think about those types of things because that is when you'll get hurt. My dad always told me, if you play cautious then you're playing at half-speed and you end up getting yourself hurt. I always take the warnings from the coaches, but I'll end up doing what I have to do.”
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu - Cornerback, Senior
On Dargan's performance today…
“Dargan did a great job. When you ask him to be at a spot, he is always there. He is one of those guys that, when the ball is in the air, somehow it always ends up in his hands. He is always doing the right thing and it translates from practice.”
On QB's shying away from him…
“When I was a freshman, if you aren't improving they are going to throw the ball at you. If it's not open they aren't going to throw it.”
On giving up yards…
“A lot of blown assignments. I'm not sure why, whether it's their eyes in the backfield or if they are just outworking you. We have to play to our standard every week and some plays we didn't. They did a great job running those screens, but at the same time we have to know if that's the play they're getting yards on, we have to stop them.
Keanon Lowe, Wide Receiver, Senior
On Mariota jumping over him…
“That was a crazy play. I was expecting him to run me over or step out of bounds and then I hear the crowd go crazy and as I'm blocking I looked up and I see him doing a flip outside the back of the end zone. My first thought was, did he just jump over me? Good thing I'm 5-foot-9.”
On Marcus making those risky plays…
“I hope he never does that ever again. It was pretty awesome but I'd rather he run out of bounds at the two.”
On Loyd's touchdown…
“That was the best part of the game for me. He went in knowing he was going to have the opportunity to score a touchdown and he ran a good route. I see how much work this guy has put in and it's been the most out of anyone on the team.”
Johnathan Loyd – Wide Receiver, Senior
On his first college touchdown…
“I can't even describe it. Once I realized where I was on the field emotions just took over and I started screaming. It felt good.”
On comparing his touchdown to moments on the basketball court…
“It's a different kind of feeling. I've hit a good amount of shots, a good amount of and-one's, but this is my first touchdown in five years. This is a whole different type of feeling, but it definitely compares to being in the Pac-12 tournament, but it's completely different.”
On the touchdown play…
“I never think a play is being called for me, I am just trying to do my job out there on the field at that time.”
Erick Dargan – Safety, Senior
On his practice play translating over to the game…
“Our offense and defense make each other better. With Marcus, the way he plays he is able to look you off and make plays so we just have to do our job.”
On picking up tempo during the second half…
“In the beginning of the game we came out a little flat. We came back out and played at our standard with our energy.”
On Marcus's touchdown…
“I couldn't believe he took it. I have never seen him jump like that. I was happy for him.”
Jeff Lockie – Quarterback, Sophomore
On Mariota's diving touchdown…
“I was smiling and telling him good job, but deep down, I hope I never have to see something like that again. Being a back-up quarterback, I'm always watching to make sure he's okay. So once I saw him get up, I knew all was good.”
On playing in a few consecutive games…
“For the first time in a while, I've gotten in (consecutive) series, which has been a big help. I think last year, trading off with Jake was great, but building off a series and putting stuff together has been awesome.”
On the rest of the season…
“If I don't play the rest of the season, I'm okay with that. If I'm taking a lot of snaps, either something went really well or really bad. So I think it is kind of impossible to predict how much playing time you'll have because you never know how things can go, games can change so fast. I have to be ready to go at all times. If I never go in, good. If I go in, good. You just always have to prepare to go in.”
On this year vs. last year…
“I think it is awesome, the first time getting consecutive series. I think it really helps to build off a series and go out there and do it again. This is the first time since high school getting consecutive series and I hope I can just keep building on that throughout the year.”
Pharaoh Brown – Tight End, Junior
On Mariota's diving touchdown…
“I saw Marcus dive down and it kind of scared me for a minute, I was just trying to catch his head and I just wanted to get him up and make sure he was good. At first, I thought he landed on his head, but it ended up that he just landed on his back and once he jumped up, I knew he was good. It brings a lot of energy when someone makes a play like that, it was a pretty crazy jump.”
On today's game…
“I think this was a career-high for catches today. We were trying to get the tight ends more involved in the plays today. When the o-line goes down, we all have to step up to help out the younger guys.”
Craig Bohl - Wyoming Head Coach
On Oregon…
“They certainly deserve a No.2 ranking. On tape, they were an explosive football team and that was bared out today. I don't know if anybody here has a vote for the Heisman Trophy, but I would encourage you to take a look at your ballot for that quarterback. He's a tremendous player and I thought he played really well today.”
On the loss…
“We're disappointed in the loss. We knew it was going to be an uphill challenge and that we were going to have to play error free, and we certainly didn't do that. It's going to be a learning experience for us and we need to get back to work on Monday and improve as a football team.”
On what is next for his football team…
“We've got to learn from this and move forward from it. I think how we respond is going to have a big, big impact as we move forward.”
On the speed of Oregon's offense…
“I don't think we'll see anybody else that has that kind of speed, hopefully we don't. What it does is it forces you to be completely perfect.”
On quarterback Colby Kirkegaard…
“We believe in Colby. He's been a joy to coach. He owns his work and he'll be the first guy to tell you that he didn't play as well as he should have, but he did a lot of positive things.”
Colby Kirkegaard, Wyoming Quarterback, Redshirt Senior
On the offense's ability to move the ball against Oregon…
“We had some good plays called and our receivers got open and our line blocked. I just wish we could have had some more of those.”
“It did seem like we were moving the ball quite a bit. Obviously the score didn't show that and that's too bad.”
On what the offense can take away from this game…
“We know that we can move the ball. We just have to minimize turnovers and get in the end zone more.”
Eddie Yarbrough – Wyoming Defensive End, Junior
On facing a team of Oregon's caliber…
“They're No. 2 in the country for a reason, but as a defense we should know our assignment and know what we have to do to combat that. We have a lot of growing to do and we know what we have to get done.”
On Oregon's offense…
“As a unit and as an offense they definitely work together well.”
On the crowd noise in Autzen Stadium…
“For me personally, it didn't really affect me. My first game ever was against Texas, at Texas. So the crowd noise didn't really affect me, but it's a beautiful stadium.”
Mark Nzeocha – Wyoming Linebacker, Senior
On the defensive struggles against Oregon…
“Obviously, you have to give them credit. They came out prepared and executed better than we did today.”
On if Oregon's offense did anything new…
“I studied a lot of film before I played this game and they pretty much showed what they had been showing.”
“I've personally never faced a team that plays at that kind of pace.”
Tanner Gentry – Wyoming Wide Receiver, Sophomore
On the early success of the offense…
“We started off really great. We were all really confident. The score didn't go our way but I thought we all played our hearts out. There was no quit out there.”
On what positives can be taken away from this loss…
“We didn't show any quit. We're a football team that if we get down, we're not just going to lay down.”
D.J. May – Wyoming Running Back, Redshirt Sophomore
On the feel in the locker room after a tough loss…
“I definitely feel like we're encouraged. We got some things accomplished today.”
“We still have a lot to learn, but we definitely got better today.”
On Oregon's defense…
“They definitely have some fast guys out there and they have some big boys on the end. They're a faster defense but we were able to do some things, so that definitely puts things in perspective.”
