Chris Petersen met with the media today following the Huskies’ last full practice before the Arizona home game on Saturday.
With Friday always being a walk-through day for the Dawgs, here’s what Petersen had to say about the preparations for facing the Sun Devils.
On the relationship with Herm Edwards
I really appreciate Herm — I just like what he’s all about. I was waiting for that (question) on Monday — contrasting us. This should be a big week for you. You’ve got me on one side and the opposite extreme on the other. He just brings such great energy. I think he’s as authentic as they come. He knows football, he’s been around the game forever. From my dealings with him, what you see is what you get. That’s awesome to be around.
On the success SDSU had running against ASU
San Diego State’s offense is built for that defense — they go against it every day in spring and fall camp. That’s their style, so it’s ready made for that. You don’t see many offenses like that; that style of run. This will be one of our bigger challenges run-wise the entire year just because of the rules that it breaks in terms of your offense. It’s a really challenging defense, let alone a team.
On the run game vs Utah
I think Utah is one of the better run defenses around — we knew that going in. I think with the run game, you’ve got to stay patient, you’ve got to stay with it. Sometimes it’s ugly and by the end of the day if you can stay with it you get into a rhythm. The better the defense you play the longer it takes for that to happen. Sometimes guys get impatient and get away from it because you get frustrated and things aren’t happening. That’s one of the things, your hat’s off to San Diego State and how they ran the ball. That is their deal. They are not going to get impatient with it. They just keep doing that and it showed up for them.
On the 3-3-5 “rule breaking” ASU uses
It’s just the structure that they line up — you won’t see another defense in the Pac-12 or anybody on our schedule that lines up in the different structures that they line up. So it’s very hard to have, if they are in this front we’re doing this, if they’re in that front — it’s because it’s very unpredictable. Some of these fronts you don’t see by other defenses. So you’ve got to go back and simplify some things for your guys.
On helping Jake Browning
It starts with pass protection; It always starts with that o-line. Those guys…truly are unsung heroes when they’re doing a good job. When Jake’s throwing for a lot of yards and can plant his feet, everyone talks about what a great game Jake Browning has. That starts with the o-line. If they can not let the defense get on edges and pressure him where he’s going backwards, that’s the start. The second thing is, just us as coaches to make sure he can get the ball out of his hands. It’s a cat and mouse game…It takes everybody involved to help our quarterback, whoever that is.
On how Jaxson Kirkland is playing
He’s done a really good job. I think the big thing with him is just experience — but then those bullets start flying at him fast and you have to make quick, fast judgements and decisions and but it is nice that he knows what’s going on. If there’s a mistake made, it’s not like ‘huh? What’? They know.
Biggest Concerns for Saturday
My biggest concern every weekend is really the same, that we’re ready to play our best football. And I don’t say that lightly because it’s really hard to be at that emotional peak every single week– and If you’re not in this league, I just think with the parity it’s not going to happen for you. So I think those kids really played hard last week, we’ve talked about ad nauseum around here — it was a physical game. But it has to be like that every week. We always have a unique set of problems that we’re trying to solve as coaches in terms of the people coming in, but are these guys really, really ready to play? It’s kind of the same every week for us.
On having more practice time when there’s no traveling
Our weeks are really the same; the time is the time. Practice-wise…we’re limited so that doesn’t change. The one thing that is awesome is coming home to a really nice crowd– that does change things. That changes things for the team, I think it changes things for the fans themselves, so we’re excited to be home in front of a big crowd.
On the original thought that N’Keal Harry and Byron Murphy would be a package deal?
Them and Chase Lucas…those guys were very tight. And all really good players. We would have loved to have them all but we’re fortunate that we got Byron. Excited for everything that Byron’s been doing and our hope for him is that he’s going to treat this like just another game, stay in his lane and stay focused. You know how those things can kind of get bigger than they really should be. (Harry) is phenomenal — he’s really good. He’s got the size to go with the strength and speed. He’s one of those guys that’s going to make his plays and you just hope to slow him down a little bit.
About walk-ons
I take a little bit of offense to how you say that. I think they would too. We don’t think of guys like that. These guys have been on our team for a long time and these are Dawgs. It doesn’t matter if a guy is not. We play our best players, and obviously those guys are our best players. I’ve been proud of those guys. Those guys are tough as nails, and those guys are good football players.
(Petersen went on to say that Jake Wambaugh is now on scholarship)
On ASU’s running game
This is what I think about tht, they played Michigan State, who’s got a really good defense. And they just played San Diego State with that same awkward defense. So they are no different than us in terms of, yeah we’d like to run the ball, we’d like to get this going, we’d like our run numbers to be better. But the back is a heckuva back, he’s a little bit like Myles; he’s shifty, he’s strong and he can catch the ball.
On the subject of helmet stickers
If I do anything different with the uniforms, everybody reacts in a really negative way, so why would you even bring that up? Let’s just stay with the purple and gold and not put stickers on anything.
