BearTalk

A sampling of what was said in the press room following Saturday’s game:

COACH JEFF TEDFORD:

 

On getting off to a good start

It’s always important to start fast. We talk all the time about starting fast and finishing strong. Absolutely, today it was really important to get some momentum early and I felt like we did that.

 

On capitalizing on speed advantage

Things have to be blocked well. They were blocked well at the point of attack. We had an advantage in the back end in that when we got our guys with speed out in space, we had an opportunity to make some big plays. Anytime we can get our speed in space, we feel like we have a pretty good shot at making some big plays.

 

On defense’s performance in the second quarter

I feel like we got sloppy with our fundamentals. We didn’t tackle real well. We had guys covered but they made the plays on the ball and we didn’t. But more than anything, I was a little bit disappointed with the tackling. We missed some tackles in space. We need to make sure that we’re focus on using the fundamentals.

 

On whether it’s a relief to beat a team you’re supposed to beat

It’s a relief after any win. Any time you win, you’re always happy about any win. As a coach, you’re relieved. I don’t care who we play. You’re relieved and move on. It’s one more down. Thankfully it’s a victory. It gives us an opportunity to move on to next week.

 

On the defense responding in the second half

I thought the defense responded pretty well. I made a point to kind of get after them a little bit at halftime just because the second quarter I didn’t think we tackled really well. That’s something that we can control. I thought they played hard in the second half. They did a better job of tackling and I thought they pressured the passer well. You have to give Washington State credit. They made some plays in the passing game. Their quarterback made some nice throws. But I’m pleased that we held them to no points in the second half.

 

On Jeremy Ross

He’s a good player. Jeremy has great speed. He’s tough and he’s strong. If you give him a crack, he can make people miss. He’s doing a good job on special teams and on offense.

 

On the Wildcat formation

It’s a combined effort with everyone. We’re going to go in with some part of it every game. It’s in our package. The players do really like it. I heard Shane and Jahvid are starting to come in saying, “Let’s do this, let’s do that.” They enjoy it. It’s fun. It spreads people out. We’re not going to live on it by any means. But it’s part of the offense that we’re always going to carry in some way, shape or form.

 

On what the team does with the Wildcat

There’s a lot of different parts to it. We probably ran three different parts of it today. It depends on what you’re looking for out of it, if you’re looking for misdirection, if you’re looking to spread the field, if you’re looking to get guys out of the box. Every week, we do something a little different with it. But Shane and Jahvid both have a real good feel for it back there. You utilize it for a lot of different reasons.

 

 

 

QUARTERBACK KEVIN RILEY:

 

On whether the bye week was good timing

We talked about that quite a bit. It was perfect timing. We needed that. The confidence wasn’t down but the spirits were down. Two spankings like that shouldn’t happen against a team of our caliber.

 

On capitalizing on speed

That’s always the plan. Today we just did it a little bit more. Watching film, we felt like we’d have some pretty good matchups.

 

On whether it’s hard not to let down after getting a big lead

It’s tough sometimes because you can see that people kind of get loosened up. But we knew early on that there were still three quarters to play. We knew Washington State was better than last year, which they showed by bouncing back and playing harder. You just have to go out there and continue to make plays and stay focused, and I think we did a pretty good job of that.

 

On the attitude to start the second half

We just went out there like the score was 0-0. The defense made a stop and we scored on our first drive, and we just picked it up from there.

 

 

WIDE RECEIVER JEREMY ROSS:

 

On whether anything is different about the offense the past two games

There’s nothing too different. We’re still the same team. We’re still the same offense. All it was just some mistakes here and there, little things we needed to tighten up. We’re definitely the same team. We were able to look at the film and see our mistakes and move forward from there.

 

On whether he likes punt returns or kick returns better

I like punt return. It’s exciting. The adrenaline is pumping. You have to worry about the gunner coming down and wondering if he’s going to hit you or not. I definitely like punt return better.

 

On whether he’s told Syd’Quan Thompson he’s going to take his job

That’s always his job, when he’s ready to take it. I’m just going to step in whenever I can to make those plays. But he was definitely excited for me.

 

On capitalizing on speed advantage

We have a ton of speed on the field. No matter who we line up against, I feel like we’ll have an advantage. If we do face teams with a lot of speed, it’s going to be a dogfight. But definitely we have an advantage.

 

On the difficulty of suffering a letdown after getting a big lead

It’s difficult. You definitely have to be focused. You have to have motivation to keep going. It’s very difficult to stay motivated.

 

On whether the team’s spirits are better than a couple weeks ago

They improved a whole lot. We switched some things up from the SC game. Right after that, we started trying to get our spirits up. We tried to build ourselves back up. It’s definitely been all about the team these past few weeks and it’s helped us out a lot.

 

 

RUNNING BACK SHANE VEREEN:

 

On capitalizing on speed advantage

I think going into every game we try to make any impact that we can to make the team win, first thing by using our speed. Today, Jeremy had a great game — good catches and a nice punt return. Jahvid had a couple nice runs. So speed was definitely on our side today.

On using the speed creatively

It keeps the defenses open. They can’t really anchor down on anything when we’re going left and right, and so it helps the run game out tremendously.

 

On what he would do with the Wildcat formation
It would be crazy. I know it would work, though. I’d probably throw in there a little more pass plays for us, maybe a couple options, zone reads. You never know. We could do a lot of stuff.

On the Wildcat formation making it hard on opposing defenses

Me and Jahvid are the main running force, especially when he gets the ball, they’re on their toes, ready to go. And then when we throw something at them that they’re not ready for or pound them with the downhill game, it definitely keeps them on their heels and keeps them honest.

On the difference in the way the team is playing now compared with a couple weeks ago

I guess those weeks we couldn’t get going. But these past couple weeks we’ve found a sense of team, a sense of urgency on the offense. And we’re playing great right now. I couldn’t be happier or more proud of the offense and everyone contributing.

On not suffering a letdown after building a big lead

That actually was a challenge for us today. I think we got up quick on them and I kind of think we took our foot off the pedal a little bit. And I think it was a learning experience for us, that when we get up on a team, that doesn’t mean to back off. It means to keep pushing and finish the game out.

On Kevin Riley’s success

We’re with him 100 percent of the way. When we were down we still had his back. Now that he’s up and doing well, we’re still with him. It’s great to see him bounce back the way he did. He’s a leader on this team and a leader on this offense.

 

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BOB GREGORY:

 

On the poor play in the second quarter

I think it’s a really simple thing that happens in football. I think we lost our focus. We jumped out to an early lead, they thought it was too easy, and we lost our focus, particularly in the secondary. I thought our front guys played well, got pressure on the quarterback. He was on his heels a lot. But I don’t think we played great in the back end. I thought we gave up too many yards passing-wise and our tackling on the back end.

On what had to be done at halftime

Our whole deal was there was absolutely nothing to fix but our focus and our attention to detail, and they did a nice job. They responded well in the second half.

On Darian Hagan’s inconsistency

He needs to be more consistent, there’s no question about it. I thought he had one of his better games he’s played here last week. I thought he had a very poor game today. We’ve got to keep trying to work with these young kids to grow and mature, and he needs to play much more consistent.

On why Cal used four down linemen at times

Just to get bigger guys going, guys that can push a little bit. We don’t necessarily have that Zack (Follet) kind of guy. I think we got some good push. So in passing situations, I think it’s a good deal for us.

On the effectiveness of the four-man front

They did a nice job. I think those four guys got good pressure on the quarterback and I thought also when they ran the ball against that group they did a nice job.

On getting pressure on the quarterback in the second half

I just think we kind of kept doing our deal and hopefully did it a little bit better. I thought our first quarter was good, I thought we lost all of our focus in the second quarter.

 

On what getting a big lead allows the defense to do

It does allow you to be more aggressive, as long as we maintain focus. It doesn’t matter what you do if you lose focus. And clearly we lost that in the second quarter, and played soft.

On what was said at halftime

By the time we got down there, they were getting on each other as players in a postiive way, which was awesome. That was great leadership. (Coach Tedford) got on them. We as coaches got on them in a positive way, and got the point across that that’s not how we want to play.

On what the defense learned

It’s going to take all four quarters. We certainly can’t ease up. No one in this league is good enough to ease up — we’re ok, let’s relax a little bit in the second quarter. You can’t do that in this league. Every week is a battle.

 

NOSE TACKLE DERRICK HILL:

On halftime adjustments

The first quarter we jumped out to a great lead and second quarter we got lackadasical on our execution, and I think that was the biggest thing. I remember telling them right before halftime we have to pick it up. We gave up too many points off the bat. We’re only supposed to give up 17 in a game at most. And we had given that up in one half, one quarter really. So the biggest thing was always making sure that our team played to its fullest potential, and I think guys stepped up big-time second half.

On the big lead contributing to a lack of focus

It was a big issue. You always love when your offense is scoring like that. It’s always a great thing. But the main thing is making sure all three phases of the game is playing perfect. Two out of three was playing great and one, defensively, we just stopped playing in the second quarter and you see what happened when you take your foot off the gas.

On improving the pass rush in the second half

Great play calling, great effort. You see the guys running around like crazy, so you’ve got to put a lot of effort into that. Guys made big plays the second half, and that was a great thing to see.

On the four-man front

I enjoy that. It’s been two years since we ever did that, and to be back out there in a 4-3 was a great experience. We had a lot of fun doing it. Trevor (Guyton) stepped up and had a great game. Cam and Tyson always do what they do, and Cam had a big day today.

On Cam Jordan

Two weeks in a row, he’s making big plays when it’s needed. And that second sack was a huge one. They were having a great momentum shift and they were going down to score, and Cam’s sack stopped their momentum and brought it back to our side.

 

On what changes with a four-man front
Actually, just like the whole mentality and the way that they come and block. The blocking scheme is different. I’m pretty sure when they were game planning, they were game planning for a 3-4. When you’ve got four men it’s harder to double team on them, because you don’t know what the scheme is and things like that. And plus, it just gives us the advantage for having at least two or three one-on-ones, compared to one one-on-one and two doubles or triples.

 

On the concern of all the yards allowed
It’s always concerning when you give up too many yards and too many points. The great thing was the second half, not giving up as much. When you’re throwing the ball 40 times a game, it’s kind of hard to keep the numbers down. You can’t really dwell on that. But you can be happy about the second half effort of everybody, not giving up a touchdown or field goal.

 

RUNNING BACK JAHVID BEST:

On the importance of getting off to a good start

Yeah, that was definitely important. You don’t want to give them any life. The more life and confidence they get, the harder the game will get.

On the difficulty of maintaining focus with a big lead

It’s difficult. Guys start to get satisfied with where they’re at, but we had a lot of players making plays and that just gets our offense going again. So that was fortunate for us.

On what he would do with the Wildcat formation

I’d definitely add some kind of option with me and Shane.

 

On whether he would like to throw out of the Wildcat
Shane’s the thrower. He can do all the throwing.

On why the Wildcat is effective

We got Isi out there and they have to honor the sweep with Isi. And if they don’t, then we still burn it down the sideline with that. So it just keeps the defenses honest.

 

On what happened during the bye week

We just got refocused. And that’s the biggest thing, and we got our mindsets right, got those two losses out of our head, and now we’re back to playing how we should be.

 

On whether the team’s spirits are up
During the bye week we just said forget about that, it’s a new season. We’ve got a seven-game season. So that’s how we look at it now, we’re 2-0.

On whether he’s ever hurdled a tackler like Covaughn DeBoskie-Johnson did

I’m not a jumper. I don’t know, that’s just like the last thing I think about.

On whether he’s like to see himself, Shane Vereen and Isi Sofele on the field at the same time in the Wildcat

I think that’s the next step.