Rob Ash Quotes from Tuesday Press Conference
10/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Rob Ash looks at Weber State, Idaho State, and the state of the Bobcat running game...
BOBCAT COACH ROB ASH
How important is the Weber State game?
“If you ask me the same question for the next seven weeks I’m going to give you the same answer. Every game is going to be really important for here on out. The Big Sky is tremendously balanced this year. I’m very impressed with the scores I’m seeing. But there’s only one team I’ve been studying the last 24 hours, and that’s Weber State. I know they’re a very good football team. Yeah, it’s a must win, but every team in the league is going to say that every week, all nine teams, because that’s just how the league is.”
What makes Weber State better than they were last year?
“I think there’s two things that make Weber State better. One is that they’re settled at quarterback. Last year they played three quarterbacks against us, and Cameron Higgins now is the man. He came in at the end of last year, and he is one of the top quarterbacks in the conference now. That makes their offense a lot better. They’re very balanced. Trevyn Smith and (Bryant) Etuati at receiver, a great combination of a power runner and a big-play guy, and they have other good players, too, fullbacks, tight ends, but I’m very impressed with their balance and it all starts at quarterback. Defensively they’re much more multiple. Last year they were predominantly a man-to-man team most snaps, and now what we see is an evolution where they are much more multiple with blitzes and combinations of coverages. I think that’s a big step for them, an important step, because they’re much more difficult to prepare for.”
Are you surprised with Weber State so far?
“I’m not surprised they’re at the top. I was impressed with their physical play last year. We beat them, but they weren’t settled at quarterback. Their offense really bloomed at the end of the year and I knew they had a lot of people back. I’m not surprised to see Weber State up there at all. As far as their focus, I think if you asked them the same question, they’d have the same answer that I did. They know that in this conference you have to play every week, and win or lose you have to win the next game. Every team has a must-win situation every week.”
Are they building on what they did at the end of last year?
“There’s no question that that’s happened. The way the schedule worked out we saw Weber State a lot in our film study after we played them, so we watched them as we prepared for other opponents the rest of the year. We were really glad we were past them by the end of the year. Etuati had a great year, he got behind everybody, and Cameron found him. They can always run the ball because they’re a very physical team. Their offense wasn’t real deceptive in terms of being real multiple, a lot of wacky formations or anything like that, it’s just good old-fashioned football. They run the ball right at you, then they fake the run and throw it over your head for a touchdown. They’re really good, they do a good job, and they’re going to be much better than the team we saw last year.”
How important is getting younger players game-time experience early in the year?
“That always makes a big difference. Certainly it’s better when a guy goes in and plays if he’s been out there a little bit. We try to rotate a lot in the defensive line. I think that will help us because John Laidet and Dustin O’Connell have played, they haven’t just been on the sidelines all season. It does make a difference when you lose your playmakers, there’s no doubt about it, but I’ve always said that when a backup has to go in and play usually he’s the least surprised of anybody at how well he does. All guys want to play. These guys that are getting their opportunity, they can’t wait, and they’ll probably play better because they’re getting their chance to play. The other thing that happens when guys are hurt is that everybody around the new player plays better. You kind of feel a sense of urgency that you have to raise your game because a Dane Fletcher isn’t out there. Sometimes the whole is better than the sum of the parts.”
Were you surprised, was Weber State’s win over Montana a dominating win?
“There’s no question about it, they were the better team on that day. How it all shakes out at the end of the season, we’ll find out. But they protected the ball better, they made more big plays, they did a great job on defense and offense both, they had some big special teams plays, they just played an excellent football game. That’s no disrespect to their opponent that day, they played a good game. (Weber State) made the key plays. When they tried to throw the ball down the field they caught it and ran it in for a touchdown. When they needed sacks they came up with sacks. They just played a super game. They handled the conditions well. They would have been tough against anyone the way they played Saturday.”
How important was the turnover margin last week?
“We have to do that if we’re going to be successful. It was a key part of our game plan, it was a priority for us in our preparation. I was very happy that we cut our interceptions out completely, we needed to do that, and that will help us going down the road. If we can go three-to-one on turnovers the rest of the year that will make it a lot better formula for success, no question.”
What’s the theory behind getting Cody into the running game more and taking pressure off Demetrius?
“What happens during the course of the season is that everybody makes adjustments. If we’re running the zone read and we’re getting yardage up the middle handing the ball off somebody’s got to react to that. So now you make the quarterback run, let’s stop the zone read and now the quarterback has to run. And if he’s successful, you have the best of both worlds. That’s kind of how it works. As far as the scrambles go, we talk to Cody a lot about, if it’s not there, you don’t have to throw it. Don’t chuck it out to somebody else, let’s pull it down and run, and he did that extremely effectively. That’s an adjustment we made. And now that’s going to make us a more multiple football team, because if people are in coverage and they get our guys covered it’s not necessarily going to be a dead play because Cody can make something happen with his feet. The fact that he was able to do that in both cases is going to help our running and our passing.”
Is that a matter of Cody maturing?
“Sure. That’s why we talk about experience. Experience is the best teacher there is, and he had some positive experiences on Saturday to learn from.”
BOBCAT COACH ROB ASH
How important is the Weber State game?
“If you ask me the same question for the next seven weeks I’m going to give you the same answer. Every game is going to be really important for here on out. The Big Sky is tremendously balanced this year. I’m very impressed with the scores I’m seeing. But there’s only one team I’ve been studying the last 24 hours, and that’s Weber State. I know they’re a very good football team. Yeah, it’s a must win, but every team in the league is going to say that every week, all nine teams, because that’s just how the league is.”
What makes Weber State better than they were last year?
“I think there’s two things that make Weber State better. One is that they’re settled at quarterback. Last year they played three quarterbacks against us, and Cameron Higgins now is the man. He came in at the end of last year, and he is one of the top quarterbacks in the conference now. That makes their offense a lot better. They’re very balanced. Trevyn Smith and (Bryant) Etuati at receiver, a great combination of a power runner and a big-play guy, and they have other good players, too, fullbacks, tight ends, but I’m very impressed with their balance and it all starts at quarterback. Defensively they’re much more multiple. Last year they were predominantly a man-to-man team most snaps, and now what we see is an evolution where they are much more multiple with blitzes and combinations of coverages. I think that’s a big step for them, an important step, because they’re much more difficult to prepare for.”
Are you surprised with Weber State so far?
“I’m not surprised they’re at the top. I was impressed with their physical play last year. We beat them, but they weren’t settled at quarterback. Their offense really bloomed at the end of the year and I knew they had a lot of people back. I’m not surprised to see Weber State up there at all. As far as their focus, I think if you asked them the same question, they’d have the same answer that I did. They know that in this conference you have to play every week, and win or lose you have to win the next game. Every team has a must-win situation every week.”
Are they building on what they did at the end of last year?
“There’s no question that that’s happened. The way the schedule worked out we saw Weber State a lot in our film study after we played them, so we watched them as we prepared for other opponents the rest of the year. We were really glad we were past them by the end of the year. Etuati had a great year, he got behind everybody, and Cameron found him. They can always run the ball because they’re a very physical team. Their offense wasn’t real deceptive in terms of being real multiple, a lot of wacky formations or anything like that, it’s just good old-fashioned football. They run the ball right at you, then they fake the run and throw it over your head for a touchdown. They’re really good, they do a good job, and they’re going to be much better than the team we saw last year.”
How important is getting younger players game-time experience early in the year?
“That always makes a big difference. Certainly it’s better when a guy goes in and plays if he’s been out there a little bit. We try to rotate a lot in the defensive line. I think that will help us because John Laidet and Dustin O’Connell have played, they haven’t just been on the sidelines all season. It does make a difference when you lose your playmakers, there’s no doubt about it, but I’ve always said that when a backup has to go in and play usually he’s the least surprised of anybody at how well he does. All guys want to play. These guys that are getting their opportunity, they can’t wait, and they’ll probably play better because they’re getting their chance to play. The other thing that happens when guys are hurt is that everybody around the new player plays better. You kind of feel a sense of urgency that you have to raise your game because a Dane Fletcher isn’t out there. Sometimes the whole is better than the sum of the parts.”
Were you surprised, was Weber State’s win over Montana a dominating win?
“There’s no question about it, they were the better team on that day. How it all shakes out at the end of the season, we’ll find out. But they protected the ball better, they made more big plays, they did a great job on defense and offense both, they had some big special teams plays, they just played an excellent football game. That’s no disrespect to their opponent that day, they played a good game. (Weber State) made the key plays. When they tried to throw the ball down the field they caught it and ran it in for a touchdown. When they needed sacks they came up with sacks. They just played a super game. They handled the conditions well. They would have been tough against anyone the way they played Saturday.”
How important was the turnover margin last week?
“We have to do that if we’re going to be successful. It was a key part of our game plan, it was a priority for us in our preparation. I was very happy that we cut our interceptions out completely, we needed to do that, and that will help us going down the road. If we can go three-to-one on turnovers the rest of the year that will make it a lot better formula for success, no question.”
What’s the theory behind getting Cody into the running game more and taking pressure off Demetrius?
“What happens during the course of the season is that everybody makes adjustments. If we’re running the zone read and we’re getting yardage up the middle handing the ball off somebody’s got to react to that. So now you make the quarterback run, let’s stop the zone read and now the quarterback has to run. And if he’s successful, you have the best of both worlds. That’s kind of how it works. As far as the scrambles go, we talk to Cody a lot about, if it’s not there, you don’t have to throw it. Don’t chuck it out to somebody else, let’s pull it down and run, and he did that extremely effectively. That’s an adjustment we made. And now that’s going to make us a more multiple football team, because if people are in coverage and they get our guys covered it’s not necessarily going to be a dead play because Cody can make something happen with his feet. The fact that he was able to do that in both cases is going to help our running and our passing.”
Is that a matter of Cody maturing?
“Sure. That’s why we talk about experience. Experience is the best teacher there is, and he had some positive experiences on Saturday to learn from.”
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