Thanks to Ed Lewis from the Bruin Sports Report for the first two videos.
The video above is Coach Mora's Post-game press conference. Initially, Coach Mora had this to say:
The game showed we have some grit to us....I've been around teams before that would have folded, but we don't do that. This is our third game out of four away from the Rose Bowl. I don't know many teams with three road games out of four -- at Virginia, at Texas, at Arizona State -- and won them all. I think that says a lot about the young men in that locker room right there. Their toughness. Their grit. I'm really proud of them.
He also spoke about Brett's play in light of the elbow situation:
He just relaxed. He played very well. He played fearless. That's what I was looking for. I think we were looking for that. I'm sure he was looking for that. Not worried about his elbow...just playing and he moved really quickly toward that.
While he was asked to talk about the 5 plays over 80 yards, he spoke about the three plays that really stuck out to him:
The two Jordan Payton plays and the Eldridge Massington play are the ones that stick out to me because of the second effort and, in Eldridge's case, the third and the fourth effort to get out of that. JP's when they had the holding or the PI. You know, you see a lot of receivers who will throw their hands up, "He held me!" and they'll stop. JP put his hand down. He kept going. He caught it. I don't know if he scored on that....Eldridge wasn't satisfied getting the first down. He stayed with it. That's what, as a coach, you like to see. That second effort and then when it pays off because it has an impact on the rest of your team.
The next question he was asked was about Ishmael Adams' interception return for a TD. Coach Mora described it this way:
I don't know if there's a better guy to have the ball in his hands in that situation than Ish. He's a great open-field runner. Initially, when he caught it, I'm thinking "OK, he needs to get down." so we would have a chance to run a play or two. Then, all of a sudden, when he cut back, I like "Yeah, OK, we're good. It's Ish." That was a huge, huge, huge play.
He was asked to assess the defense's performance, given that they were on the field for 100+ plays. He didn't seem very happy about it.
Well, I'm not happy with it. I think we're much better than we showed tonight....What it comes down to is doing what you're supposed to do and doing it consistently. Defense is about discipline and effort and we've just got to improve in the discipline category.
He was asked some more questions about Brett's elbow, his playing status, and how he felt when Brett was hurdling defenders.
When asked about the plays the receivers made downfield, Brett gave credit to the receivers and O-Line. He said:
I give all the credit to the receivers and the O-Line tonight.They stepped up for me. They stepped up huge. That's the one thing Coach Mora told me was, "Let them make plays." They came out today and they made plays.The O-Line did a great job led by Jake Brendel, Malcom, Alex, Scott, Caleb. And, then, JP, Eldridge, everybody on the receiving corps did a great job for us tonight.
Hundley summed up the game very succinctly, by saying:
We came out and executed our game plan.
He also addressed some of the pre-game hype that had built up:
To come in to this stadium, it was a "blackout" game. People were getting off work for this game. There was a lot of stuff building up for this game. For us to be able to come in here and come out with a win like we did was huge for this team.
Ryan Kartje of the OC Register posted the next two videos of Thomas Duarte and Coach Ulbrich.
Among other things, Thomas Duarte spoke about Brett's injury and his leadership of the team.
Brett...I've never seen him so hyped as this whole week. I mean, It's ASU. He grew up around here, so it's only fitting for him to be as hyped up as he was.
I mean, he's got the sleeve and the brace and everything and he's telling everybody he's fine. Just to see him out there doing his thing like hurdling guys, falling on the ground, taking shots. That inspires the team. This guy sat out the Texas game. he sits out and comes back the next week. It says something about his character and him as a man and for him to be a leader of this team inspires all of us.
Defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich spoke about how the defense has not yet met it's potential.
I think our group has so much more potential, so much more in the tank. You enjoy the win, but we can be so much better on defense. We've yet to play a complete game or play to pour potential. I'm happy that we won. It's a big time win against a great opponent, but, at the same time, we can be better.
There was one more nugget in this press conference which may easily be overlooked. It's a reference to Coach Wooden's philosophies. Ulbrich said:
We talk about competitive greatness, being at your best when your best is required. They've done that so far.
It's nice to see our football coaches using Coach Wooden's teachings. Now, whether the defense has done that so far, as Ulbrich claims, may be a matter for debate. But, it's a debate for another day. Today, let's be happy with a big win on the road and let's be satisfied that our coaching staff is instilling the right values into the minds of our team.
It's always a great day when our football coaches are inspiring our team with the teachings of Coach Wooden. Today is a great day to be a Bruin!
Go Bruins!