ASU media day transcript
July 24th, 2008, 3:10 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Zeiger
Coach Dennis Erickson and quarterback Rudy Carpenter represented Arizona State at Pac-10 football media day in Los Angeles on Thursday, and here is what was said during their time at the podium.
The laugh tracks are not included.
OPENING STATEMENT (ERICKSON): Again, it’s a pleasure to be here and represent Arizona State, along with a guy who has been at Arizona State for a long time. I guess if you talk about a Sun Devil, you talk about Rudy Carpenter. You can talk about that football-wise, but if you’ve ever been to basketball or women’s softball games, about any game, he’s there. It’s great to have him here. He’s had a good summer. For me, it’s just great to be anywhere.
As far as our football team is concerned, when I signed a contract two years ago, they didn’t show me this year’s schedule. They showed me last year’s, when we played all of those games at home. I thought that was pretty good. I saw this year’s schedule, and it’s a little different than last year’s. We played those games at home that got us off to a good start. This year, we play Stanford in the second game, and Georgia, and USC and California on the road. It’s different than I anticipated, but that’s how it is.
We’re excited about this year. I look at our team, and the strength is Rudy at quarterback, but we have a lot of wide receivers back. We lost three starters on the offensive front. We have to replace those guys, and that’s an area we obviously have to get better. Our running back situation, with Keegan Herring coming back — he played extremely well — and Dimitri Nance, so that’s a strength for us.
Defensively, we have a lot of strength coming back. We lost Michael Marquardt at tackle, but we have both of our ends, Dexter Davis and Luis Vasquez, back. We lost Robert James at linebacker but have the others back. A key to our defense is a guy by the name of Troy Nolan, who started at safety last year and is a huge leader on our team. I look for great things from him. Omar Bolden is at corner.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Thomas Weber, a Lou Groza Award winner who missed only one field goal a year ago. I usually don’t coach kickers, but I did last year. When you have a weapon like that, you can do a lot of good things, so we are fortunate to have that. I’ll open it up for questions for Rudy or myself.
QUESTION: Your offensive line, obviously there were some struggles …
ERICKSON: Next question.
QUESTION: Give us an update on where that stands and how can it improve this year.
ERICKSON: We lost a great center in Mike Pollak. He will be difficult to replace. We will be young but athletic. I’m not a coach that’s convinced that you have to do this or that; you look at the strengths of your team and your players on offense. We’re going to throw the ball and get it off quicker and be in a little more four wideouts, things I’ve done over the years. I think I’ve run just about every offense. You try to take a little pressure off the offensive front, a little pressure of Rudy by doing that.
I think a lot of the sacks we had last year, a lot of it was play-action passes, so we were taking seven-step drops. We didn’t protect well up front, we didn’t protect well (with the backs). We didn’t get it off as quick as we should have, and Rudy will be the first to admit that. To me, it’s a temporary problem that I think can be solved. Getting rid of the ball in a quicker passing game should help.
One of my ex-quarterbacks is sitting here today, a guy who ran that stuff, Steve Clarkson. He played quarterback for me at San Jose State and now runs a quarterback camp. Everything he teaches, I taught him. So, thanks, Steve.
CLARKSON: I’ll send you the check.
ERICKSON: Please.
QUESTION: You tied for the conference championship last year. Could you talk about the race this year?
ERICKSON: You don’t pay attention to that. One thing about how they rate you — it’s over in about a week, because practice starts. Our league is so competitive. USC has set a high standard, and that’s the reality of it. Everyone in our league can beat anybody, and it’s been proven, year in and year out. That’s why it’s such a great league. To pick who will be second would be difficult. I guess we’ll find out starting next week.
QUESTION: I’m Steve Clarkson, a former pupil.
ERICKSON: You were pretty average, actually.
QUESTION: I’ll take that as a compliment.
ERICKSON: That is a compliment.
QUESTION: I have a question. You’ve worked with major universities, won national championships, and coached Heisman Trophy winners. Working with Rudy Carpenter, who is a senior and going into a tough conference where quarterback play is dominant, how does recruiting differ from being at Miami or the Pac-10? What are some of the tactics you use, and how do you portray that Arizona State will be here a long time?
ERICKSON: How many parts was that question? Wow. I’ll talk about Rudy, and the thing about him is that he has played a lot of football games and spends a lot of time in my office studying the game. He loves the game, and that separates him from a lot of quarterbacks. He understands the game and what is going on. You have a good quarterback, you have a chance to be successful.
As far as recruiting quarterbacks, that depends on how successful you are. When they watch Rudy on TV, if he’s successful, they will want to come and be part of the system.
QUESTION: Rudy, you guys had a great season last year and played in an emotional game on Thanksgiving. Even though you didn’t win, what did your team take away from that experience that can help you this season?
CARPENTER: It was a big-game atmosphere. We got a chance to play against USC on national TV and played them pretty well for a half. I think we’ll take that experience into this season and hopefully carry it over into the big games we’ll have against them and other teams this year. We have a tough schedule, so we’ll need that experience.
QUESTION: Georgia has not left the state to play a non-conference game in 40 years or something like that. What do you think of playing a big game like that, even though you have some games before that? What’s the challenge?
ERICKSON: Teams in the Pac-10 are starting to play games like that to get national prominence. If we want to get that prominence — USC has it, obviously — we have to do that. Oregon State is playing Penn State, we’re playing Georgia, UCLA is playing Tennessee. There are a lot of games like that. It’s great. I would like to play a game like that once a year — all of them at home, preferably. It puts you on a national stage against another great conference.
Obviously, (Georgia) is one of the better teams in the country. They are going to be ranked No. 1 or 2 with USC. It’s a huge game. We play Stanford the second game of the year, and that is a huge game because it is a league game. That’s a big game to me right now. But the opportunity to play a Southeastern Conference team is exciting, and it will be big for the people in Tempe.