San Diego State Athletics

San Diego State men’s basketball and football press conference quotes attached.

San Diego State Men’s Basketball Press Conference

September 26, 2017

SDSU men’s basketball head coach Brian Dutcher

On being the head coach:

“It’s kind of an exciting time for me. Year 19 on campus and first year to run my first official practice as head coach, and we’ll do that on Friday. Super excited for that opportunity and the team has worked extremely hard in the fall. We did a boot camp this year, got them up early in the morning, did a lot of stuff without a basketball and then did a lot of shooting. [We’re] trying to get the ball to go in the basket a little more this year and the kids have responded great. I think we’re all excited to start official practice on Friday leading into our first game which I think is November 10th against San Diego Christian. We’re healthy and our seniors will provide great leadership. Trey Kell, Malik Pope and the addition of Kameron Rooks have set the tone and the rest of the team has responded. The Aztecs are ready to take the floor and get ready for another exciting season.”

On the personality of a Brian Dutcher coached team:

“I’ve always been a positive person, so hopefully it’s that positive energy. It’s not looking at it as the glass half full. If a shot doesn’t go in, let’s not worry about that, just make the next one. We’re getting good opportunities, let’s take advantage of them. So I think I’m trying to bring a positive energy not unlike coach [Steve] Fisher brought, but in my own way.”

On any extra nerves, knowing that he now runs the program:

“Yeah, there is a little bit more excitement for me. I always felt like I contributed at practice and was a part of everything we did, but to step out there and be the final voice on everything is kind of exciting. It keeps me up a little bit more at night trying to find a way to word things - it’s not the message, it’s the way you deliver it. I think about ways to deliver a message that help us understand and try to help them get better. That’s my job as a coach, to help all these individual pieces get better but at the same time build them into a cohesive team. I’m excited for that opportunity and the challenge of doing that.”

On what the team has to do to get back to the postseason:

“Win close games. I always remember, Coach Fisher would always say and it’s true, the difference between winning and losing is this much. And that’s the case. I think we all remember the years we went on that streak where if we had a lead in the last five minutes, we never lost a game. We started losing some of those game and some of it’s coaching, some of it lies on us, some of it lies on players performing down the stretch. I think if we all take that responsibility, we’ll all climb that step and start winning close games. I think the thing we all know is the games are going to go to the last five minutes. You think back to the conference tournament against Colorado State, a couple of calls here and there, a couple plays and maybe we’re playing for the conference title against Nevada and going to an NCAA tournament last year. The difference is not great between winning and losing and we have to find a way to take that last step to start closing out games again.”

On how to find consistency for senior forward Malik Pope and junior guard Montaque Gill-Caesar’s games:

“Malik Pope, I think he missed nine games last year due to injury, so it’s hard to get a consistency about you when you’re always coming back from injury. Malik had a great summer and a great fall where he really put the work in and he’s at full strength right now even though he had a high ankle sprain near the end of the summer, he’s battled back from that and he’s full speed, full go. So I think a healthy Malik Pope will mean a great season for the Aztecs. You learn a lesson every year and I think Malik has gotten better freshman to sophomore, sophomore to junior and now junior to senior year. There are times when we watch Malik play and he’s the best player on the floor and an NBA-type player. Now we have to add the consistency where it’s that way every night for him so we have to put him into position to do that. In regards to [Montaque Gill-Caesar], he’s had a great summer and fall. Sometimes opportunity leads to your success and he played behind Dakari Allen, a senior, and behind Matt Shrigley, a senior, so he didn’t get a lot of minutes. When he did get in last year, I thought he pressed his game a little bit and there were times the ball went in and he looked great but there were times the ball wasn’t going in and it was easy to go back to the starter. I think the opportunity he’ll have this year will give him a peace of mind and he can come out and play a little more relaxed and know that his contribution is going to be greater over a greater period of time. I think that will help both him and our Aztec team.”

On the balance now that he has filled some holes in the roster this offseason:

“Yeah, I think the holes we plugged are interesting because we have 12 on the team and six of them are new to the playing floor. We had two redshirts, Devon Watson, obviously a local kid who had great success at University of San Francisco – averaged 20 points, five assists – Jalen McDaniels, a 6’9” freshman from Seattle who redshirted last year and we really debated whether we were going to play Jalen last year or not, it was that close. So I think the sit out year from him was great, I think he put on 20 pounds. So both those guys are new to the program even though they’ve been in the program, so we’re excited to add them. Then we talk about the three freshmen, we have Adam Seiko from a winning program, we have Jordan Schakel from a CIF and state title team, [and] we have Matt Mitchell from a CIF and state title team. So, we have three freshmen that come from winning programs and I don’t think there’s any replacement for that. They’re used to winning, they know what it takes to win and they know what it’s like to play with other great players where they’re not just the only player on the team. I think they fit right in because they’re not coming in to say ‘I have to do this to get on the floor,’ they know how to make other players better but at the same time add worth to the floor with their own abilities. And then Kameron Rooks, what program has greater success with fifth-year seniors than the Aztecs? I think Kameron is another one in those lines, a 7’1” local kid that adds the size that you don’t see anywhere else from us. We have athleticism, but he might be the missing piece size-wise. At 7’1” he’s a space-eater, he’s experienced – he had a great career and experience at Cal – but we’re fortunate to have him for hopefully his most productive year, that fifth year on the floor for us. So we’re excited about all the new pieces. The returners, we returned three starters. Jeremy Hemsley, who was Freshman of the Year in the conference and had a nice sophomore year and is ready for a nice junior year. Trey Kell, who was first team all-conference two years ago and like we tell him, as the team wins the benefits grow for everybody. So Trey had a very good junior year, but we didn’t win the conference so he dropped to I think maybe third team. And then Malik Pope, who’s come back from injury to have a productive summer. We had Nolan Narain, who is good enough to play but didn’t have the minutes to play because he got caught up in the depth chart. I tell the guys as a coach, ideally, you only want about nine guys on scholarship because usually you’re not going to play more than nine, so you’re going to have three guys that aren’t getting any minutes that are good enough to play. But I said unfortunately guys get hurt so a coach can’t go with a nine-man roster because you’re going to have a guy that’s sick, a guy get injured, so we have 12 on the roster. And I’ll tell you this, all 12 we have on the roster can play and they’re very good. So now it’s up to us to figure out what combination works best for the Aztecs. The summer is for developing your game individually, the fall as we start official practice is about getting the team better. So now all our efforts are in finding what combination will find the greatest success for the Aztecs.”

- SDSU -

San Diego State Football Press Conference

September 26, 2017

SDSU head coach Rocky Long

On the upcoming matchup against Northern Illinois:

“We have our hands full this week with a team that is coming off a bye week, so they’re well rested and probably healed up. They’re coming off a big win, beating Nebraska at Nebraska. Obviously, we played them last year and they’re a very talented, very well-coached football team that knows how to play the game. So I expect them to come in here with a lot of energy because they’re fresh, with a lot of confidence since they just beat Nebraska and I think it’s going to be a heck of a game.”

On what to tell the players when you are a two-touchdown favorite:

“I didn’t know we were that kind of favorite and hopefully they don’t either because then they are looking at the wrong thing. We go about it the same every week. It doesn’t matter if we’re the favorite or the underdog, we go about it the same every week. We try to keep everything routine and we try to put the emphasis where it’s needed on every game.”

On what stands out about Northern Illinois:

“Well, against Nebraska, they jumped out ahead by two interceptions that they returned for touchdowns but they played well enough that Nebraska couldn’t come back and win the game and they also took the ball late in the game to score the winning touchdown against a very good Nebraska defense. But more than that, we know them pretty well because we played them last year. They’re big and strong up front and they’re very, very talented and skilled at the positions they need to be talented and skilled at and there’s a reason they’re one of the non-Power Five schools with the best record and not long ago they played in the Orange Bowl. It’s a very good program that’s run by a very good coaching staff and they’ve got talented players, that’s why they’re good.”

On if senior running back Rashaad Penny’s name being in the Heisman conversation puts pressure on the team:

“No, I think everybody enjoys the notoriety that Rashaad is getting and Rashaad handles it really, really well. He’s a team guy and I don’t think it makes any difference to our team. It might at the end; If he’s still in the hunt at the end it might make a difference.”

On the lack of a Heisman campaign for Rashaad Penny:

“Well, last year we thought we had a legitimate candidate because of past performance. This year we didn’t have a legitimate candidate because he was the backup running back last year so why would you have a pre-arranged campaign for him? And it seems to work better since we didn’t do it. We thought he was going to be that good, obviously, but if you don’t have a record to show that he was that good in the past, there’s no reason to pre-hype him and it seems to be working better that we didn’t pre-hype him.”

On game delays during games the last two weeks:

“Well, I don’t think that the first one was a break for us. I think the first one against Stanford was a deterrent. At the moment, we had all the momentum. We were driving the ball, we had all the momentum, and the lights go out. That’s a bad luck deal if you ask me. Now, it turned out okay. But if you have a drive, you hate to see a drive stopped with that kind of momentum. Then last week, we benefitted from a lightning strike. That was a benefit to us. I think it really helped us. So does that mean that the next one is going to go against us again? I don’t know what’s going to happen this week. But I don’t think we benefitted from both of those. I think we benefitted from the lightning last week. I think it helped us come out of our doldrums and we played better, but hopefully we won’t have any more of those this year.”

On what the team did during the lightning delay against Air Force:

“At the break, the first 15 to 20 minutes were spent making adjustments like we would at halftime. Other than that, we sat around in the locker room with updates and every couple minutes they’d come in and say ‘it’ll be another 30 minutes, it’ll be another 30 minutes, it’ll be another 30 minutes.’ We were actually surprised that we got out as soon as we did because we were told it’s going to be about an hour and 35 minutes about half an hour into the deal, so the rest of the time we just relaxed. Now, I think that the weather had something to do with the start of the game. I think the weather was more suited to their style of play than our style of play. When we struggle running the ball, we have to be able to use play action pass. They do not. They hardly ever throw it. Well, with the weather like it was, we could not throw it and we probably couldn’t have caught it if we got it there anyway. But that’s not the reason we struggled early in the game. The reason we struggled early in the game was Air Force was outplaying us. They were more physical, they were tougher, they were more intense, they were better coached and the lightning strike allowed us to make some adjustments and get back on our feet and be good enough to win the game.”

On junior safety Parker Baldwin:

“He had a great game last week but he’s a very good player that we put into position to make plays. He basically was a six- or seven-yard deep middle linebacker last week against the wishbone and your middle linebacker ought to make a lot of tackles. But he’s a good player. Last year he had to go in as a rookie when Na’im McGee got hurt and ever since that time he’s gotten better and better and better. He’s a quality football player now and he’s in a position that should make a lot of plays. The free safety position or the middle safety position in our defense should make a lot of plays and he’s been playing really well this year. I think he has natural instincts where he knows where the ball is and he goes and gets it and he’s not afraid. People ask me all the time, ‘what makes a good tackler?’ and it’s a good athlete that’s not afraid to hit somebody. It has nothing to do with technique or what you teach. If you’re a really good athlete and you’re afraid, you’re going to be a lousy tackler. If you’re a really tough guy that loves to hit people but you’re not a good athlete, guess what? You’re going to miss tackles. But if you’re a good athlete and not afraid, you’re going to make tackles and that’s what he is. He’s a good athlete and he’s not afraid so he makes a lot of tackles.”

On the offensive line:

“Even though we’re 4-0, our offensive line is still a work in progress. I think they’re improving every week, I think they’re going to be really good here pretty soon and the future is bright for those guys because most of those guys are really young guys. When you develop an offensive line, run blocking is easier to teach than pass blocking. Pass blocking is a strange situation for an offensive lineman. Offensive linemen are usually aggressive guys so if they come off the ball and they have somebody to block, they usually do a pretty good job of that. Offensive protection, they have to give ground and absorb blows and move their feet. That’s against their personality and that’s a very tough technique to teach, so pass protection is a lot slower in developing than run blocking is. I don’t think they are (further along than I thought they would be). We struggled running the ball Saturday against a team that moved around a lot. The week before they played better against a better defensive line but it was a defensive line that didn’t stunt and move and blitz as much. Last week they played against a smaller and quicker group that blitzed and stunted and all that kind of stuff and they struggled with it.”

SDSU senior tight end David Wells

On how he’s getting in position to score more touchdowns:

“It’s all play calling. Everything goes through (SDSU offensive coordinator) Coach (Jeff) Horton. He makes all of the play calls and I think he does a great job at what he does. I’ve gotten pretty lucky the last few games that my number has been called and I can’t be thankful enough to all of the other guys on offense. I don’t think I’d be in this position bwithout (senior running back) Rashaad (Penny) or (junior quarterback Christian) Chapman, the o-line or any of the other tight ends, too. A lot of guys go unspoken on our offense, especially the o-line, and (sophomore tight end) Parker Houston is out there every single play. He’s battling and he doesn’t get a lot of recognition that he should. A lot of the guys on the team do a great job and it;’s nice to get into the end zone every now and then.”

On his touchdown against Air Force:

“That ball felt like it was in the air for about three minutes, just looking at it. They bid on the play fake and, wide open, it’s one of those things where you just tell yourself, ‘you’ve got to make this play’. The conditions were bad. We had to toss away the gloves at halftime because they were soaking wet, so you just had to go out there and make a play, especially at a time like that when the game is on the line.”

On how the increase in Rashaad Penny’s national profile puts pressure on the team:

“I wouldn’t say it’s more pressure than usual. We’re around Rashaad every day. We know how good he is. Really, we put pressure on ourselves each play to make sure we’re doing the correct thing every single down. The coaches are always on us making sure we’re doing the right thing and I don’t think it’s just because he’s gotten the national recognition that we’re starting to step up. I think it’s just for these young guys and everybody else on the offense is starting to click and figure out what we’re actually supposed to be doing and we’re advancing on that every single time we play. It just keeps getting better and better every single time we play.”

On the historical milestones the team has hit this year:

“We’re really just focused on being 1-0 each week. All of that stuff just comes with it. It’s really cool to see that stuff happening. You don’t really know about all of that stuff happening during the week when you’re going, especially when you’re just trying to prepare for practice and you’re just trying to get mentally ready because there’s a lot of stuff we have to learn throughout the week to get ready for each team. Just to be 1-0 each week, that’s our goal. After the game is when we see all of the different things. It’s like, ‘That’s pretty cool that we accomplished this goal of ours that we’ve never really had before.’ Every week, the goal is just to win and that’s really all we’re thinking about.”

SDSU junior safety Parker Baldwin

On adjustments the Aztecs made during the game at Air Force:

“I think more than anything, we started playing tougher and started hunkering down. If you watch the first few plays, our ends got double-teamed and driven very far back and the problem was that they just weren’t getting low enough. After we had the break, Coach (Long) came in and talked to us and he said, ‘We’re not playing tough enough on defense. We need to man up because they can’t keep running the dive for five yards. That’s what they run through. You’ve got to stop the option from the inside out.’ And luckily, we toughened up and everyone started to play a lot harder after the break. We changed play calls a little bit but for the most part, we ran the exact same stuff we ran before the break.”

On how the increase in Rashaad Penny’s national profile puts pressure on the team:

“Rashaad cares about the national recognition stuff but he’s a team guy. He just wants to win games and I think that’s how all of us on this team are; We just want to win games. As long as we’re winning, everyone is going to be happy.”

On playing at middle linebacker against Air Force:

“It was a fun experience, that’s for sure, especially being in the middle of that triple option, a bunch of guys coming, trying to cut you and everything else and it was a fun experience. I get to do it a little bit throughout some games but in that game in particular, I got the opportunity to do it the whole game. It was a really fun experience being in there and I was in there with one of my best friends, (junior linebacker) Ronley (Lakalaka). Ronley and I are roommates. We had a good time being in the box together and making plays. It was a good opportunity being down there. Hopefully I’ll have more chances in the future playing linebacker. In high school, I played receiver, I played safety, I played linebacker, so it kind of did remind me of that. My senior year, I played middle linebacker almost the whole time so it reminded me a lot of that. It was just fun and for me, it was one of those games, especially when it was raining, that reminded me of backyard football, just get to the ball and make the play.”

On if being 4-0 puts a target on their backs:

“I think it’s definitely motivation. We were talking about it the other day. (Being in the) Top 25, it’s recognition but at the same time, it is a target. It’s like a warrant for your arrest. Everyone is coming for you. Northern Illinois is definitely going to want to knock us off, especially after they knocked off Nebraska two weeks ago, and they’re coming off a bye week, too, so they’re going to have a lot of motivation coming in here. They’re a really good, athletic, physical team and we can’t overlook anyone on our schedule because you know any given Saturday, anything can happen.”

- SDSU -

Contact: Martin Foley

Sept. 26, 2017

SDSU Men’s Soccer Hosts No. 11 Stanford, Cal to Open Pac-12 Play

Aztecs went 4-3-3 in Pac-12 play last season

Game Day Preview

San Diego State (4-4-0, 0-0-0 Pac-12) vs. Stanford (6-2-0, 0-0-0 Pac-12)

Thursday, Sept. 28 | 7:00 p.m. | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.

Watch Live & Live Stats at GoAztecs.com

San Diego State (4-4-0, 0-0-0 Pac-12) vs. California (5-2-0, 0-0-0 Pac-12)

Sunday, Oct. 1 | 12:00 p.m. | SDSU Sports Deck | San Diego, Calif.

Watch Live & Live Stats at GoAztecs.com

Aztec Storylines

- San Diego State men’s soccer begins its 12th season of Pac-12 Conference play on Thursday, hosting two-time defending national champion Stanford at the SDSU Sports Deck at 7:00 p.m. The Aztecs will follow that contest with a Sunday match at noon against Cal. Both games will be streamed on GoAztecs.com.

- The Aztecs are coming off their best Pac-12 showing since 2006 last season, having posted a 4-3-3 mark in league play. The Aztecs went 0-1-1 against Stanford and 2-0 against California in 2016.

- SDSU is coming off a successful weekend in Texas, topping UT Rio Grande Valley, 2-0, and Incarnate Word, 1-0. With the pair of wins, SDSU extended its winning streak against Texas-based teams to an impressive seven games.

- SDSU recorded its first two shutouts of the season in Texas and currently own a season-best 256:06 opponent scoreless streak (also includes 76:06 from 1-0 loss to Cal Poly). Defender Kyle Adams and goalkeeper Adam Allmaras have played every minute of the current scoreless streak.

- Kyle Adams registered his first goal of the season in SDSU’s 1-0 win over Incarnate Word, converting on a header in the fourth minute for his second career goal. Adams is the only Aztec to play all 737:04 of action this season and one of just six Aztecs to start all eight games this year.

- With a team-high 10 points on the year (four goals, two assists), Jeroen Meefout is currently tied for fourth in the Pac-12 in scoring. Meefout is one of just five Pac-12 athletes to have a double-digit point total this season.

- Dallin Cutler took over as the team’s assist leader with his third of the year on Sunday with a helper on Kyle Adams’ fourth minute goal. Including a game-winning overtime goal against Vermont in the second game of the season, the team is 3-1 when Cutler registers at least one point.

- SDSU’s meeting with Stanford will feature the two top defenses in the Pac-12, with the Cardinal owning a conference-best 0.75 goals against average - just 0.11 fewer than SDSU’s mark of 0.86.

- After back-to-back shutouts, Adam Almaras has climbed near the top of the Pac-12 in numerous categories, including total saves (21, second), shutouts (2, third), save percentage (.778, second) and goals against average (0.84, second). Allmaras is one of just two players (Stanford’s Nico Corti) to post back-to-back shutouts this year.

- The Aztecs look to even the all-time series with the Cardinal, as Stanford owns a 13-12-8 record against SDSU. San Diego State is 22-19-4 in the all-time series that began in 1974.

- SDSU was voted fourth in the Pac-12 by league head coaches in the conference’s annual preseason poll. The fourth-place standing is tied for the program’s highest Pac-12 preseason ranking since the program joined the conference in 2005, having been ranked fourth in 2006, 2010 and 2011.

- The Aztecs had two players named to the 2017 Preseason All-Pac-12 team, including goalkeeper Adam Allmaras and midfielder Pablo Pelaez. SDSU’s two honorees is tied for second most in the conference, trailing only Stanford’s three.

- SDSU had a pair of impressive streaks come to an end in early September, as USF’s come-from-behind win snapped a 17-game unbeaten streak (14-0-3) when scoring first for the Aztecs. Utah Valley then followed that on Sunday, defeating SDSU 1-0 and snapping the Aztecs eight-match winning streak when playing on Sundays. Both streaks dated back to the 2015 season.

- SDSU defeated UC Santa Barbara in the team’s home opener on Sept. 4. It was the first two-goal win over perennial power UCSB since the Aztecs took down a No. 6-ranked Gauchos team 4-2 on Sept. 25, 2009. With the win, SDSU continues an impressive run, having won seven of its last eight home openers dating back to 2010.

- The Aztecs reached the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in program history last season. SDSU returns six starters and 13 letterwinners from last year’s squad.

- 2017 marks as the 50th season in SDSU men’s soccer history and the team has accumulated a 471-330-110 record over the last half century. After starting the program in 1968, SDSU reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time just one year later in 1969. SDSU has also reached the postseason in 1969, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2005, 2006, and 2016.

Opponent Notebook

Stanford

- After winning its first four games to start the season, the two-time defending national champions have gone 2-2 since that point, and are most recently coming off a 2-0 loss at Saint Louis on Sept. 23. Stanford currently stands at No. 11 in the latest United Soccer Coaches national rankings.

- The Cardinal is led by Foster Langsdorf, who has a Pac-12-most six goals on the season. His six goals also rank 10th nationally.

- In goal, Nico Corti owns a conference-best 0.75 goals against average and is third in the league with a .739 save percentage.

- The Cardinal offense has presented a great amount of pressure through the team’s first eight games, being ranked seventh nationally in shots per game (16.88) and sixth in total assists (19).

California

- California rides a four-match winning streak heading into conference play, and most recently topped Santa Clara, 3-2, on Friday, Sept. 22. The Bears head to UCLA for a Thursday contest before finishing off its Southern California roadtrip at SDSU on Sunday at noon.

- Cal’s Drake Callender is at the top of the Pac-12 in save percentage (.806) and saves per game (4.83).

- Jose Carrera-Garcia leads the conference and ranks 12th nationally with five assists on the season.

- SDSU -

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