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Post-Texas State interviews: Sonny Dykes, Shane Buechele

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Post-Texas State interviews: Sonny Dykes, Shane Buechele

Postby PonyPride » Sun Sep 06, 2020 2:04 am

Sonny Dykes post-game interview

Question: Congratulations, Coach. I know you’ve got some things you want to fix here in the next couple of weeks, but it’s always good to start 1-0.

Sonny Dykes: Thanks — it is. Obviously, we didn’t play our cleanest game today. It’s kind of … it’s just a strange football game, a little symbolic of the way 2020 has been so far, but … you know, we were fortunate to win, with as many mistakes as we made.

You’ve got to give it to our defense. They got four stops in a row right there in the second half, and you know, kept us in the ballgame and gave us a shot to win. We made just enough plays to win a football game. You’ve got to give Texas State credit, too — they played hard, they’re very much improved. I thought the (Texas State) quarterback played well, they had a good plan and they played hard, so we’ve got to take our hats off to them.

Question: Diving up 228 yards in the first half, a lot of it on the ground … were you concerned if your defense could come up with plays like that for the second half?

Sonny Dykes: Yeah, I was, a little bit. I think we probably were a little conservative, played a little too much base defense in the first half, and decided, you know, to cut it loose a little bit more in the second half. I just think that’s, you know, that’s who we are, and I thought (defensive coordinator) Kevin Kane did a great job in the second half of getting us into some blitzes and some pressures, put a little pressure on their quarterback … gave us a little bit more in the run (defense) game as well.

We’ve got to do a better job stopping the run. I was really impressed with the way some newcomers played. I thought Brandon Crossley played exceptionally well — he just kept showing up, competed really, really hard for the football. I really liked to see him out there making plays, and I was encouraged by that.

Question: (The offense) really struggled running power to the middle on (the) run game, and then went to the outside zone and it really helped the running back — everything started to flow, started to see some cutback lanes, and you really went to that. Is that going to be the bread and butter?

Sonny Dykes: I think, you know, every week’s going to be different. These (Texas State) guys were in three-down (linemen), they did a really good job of running their linebackers through and making some plays in the backfield, some outside linebacker blitzes, and they caught us in a couple of negative plays here and there. But once we got into some double (tight ends), we balanced them up a little bit, ran some zone and gave them a little bit of cutbacks early, and then we stretched it out a little bit more as the game went on and started cutting some guys off. So that’s just like everything else, every week is different, every situation is different.

I thought our guys ran well. We got a touchdown called back, obviously Kylen (Granson) scores on a long touchdown and we get a personal foul — Reggie (Roberson) cracking back, and you can’t do that — and then we get another touchdown called back for illegal formation when Shane (Buechele) keeps it, and then we fumble at the half-yard line. So we should have been able to put the game away much earlier than we did, but you know, when you make those kinds of mistakes, you’re going to be in for a dogfight.

Question: Reggie Roberson obviously had the big play, with the 51-yard touchdown catch, but did Rashee Rice really show you some signs of the way … looked like he really played the ball well on several throws his way.

Sonny Dykes: Yeah — you know, Texas State did a good job of pressuring us, and Shane got hit a couple of times and had to throw it up a little bit, and Rashee made some plays. I thought … obviously, you said the big touchdown to Reggie was a big play in the game. Danny Gray did some good things, Tyler Page did some good things. It seemed like we were our worst enemy a couple of times on offense — we’d get a little bit of momentum and all of a sudden we’d have a penalty that set us back, or turn the ball over or fumble…

Obviously we’re going to have to play better — we know that — significantly better against North Texas, or we’ll get beat. But again, you’ve got to take your hat off to Texas State. I thought they played really hard, I thought they had a good game plan and get themselves a chance to win today.

Question: (Chris) Naggar’s field goal looked like it could have been good from 52, not 32, and the kickoffs — he’s kicking it out of the end zone, giving you guys good field position defensively.

Sonny Dykes: Yeah, that’s obviously an improvement over this time last year. I think we were under 50 percent on our field goals after the first game last year, so … Chris is a weapon for us — not having to cover those for us is a huge advantage for us, and I thought he did a really good job kicking that field goal — as you said, that thing would have been good from 50. There was no doubt, when we sent him out there, that he was going to knock it through.

Shane Buechele post-game interview:

Question: Shane, it’s obviously been a crazy offseason — short spring, fall camp’s obviously been very different. How did the team perform today, based on your expectations going in. You couldn’t have expected perfect football.

Shane Buechele: Yeah, exactly … and you said it. We knew that it wasn’t going to be perfect, but we also know that we have a lot of stuff to fix. I’m happy with how we played today. Our defense really showed up in the second half, and on offense, we’ve just got to put them away. We’ll learn from this, and take it into the next game.

Question: Offensively, you got production out of two new running backs, or running backs in more of a featured role this year. What did you think of T.J. (McDaniel) and Ulysses (Bentley)’s play?

Shane Buechele: Yeah, they ran hard. They’re young guys, though, so we’ve got to get them going, but overall, I was happy with them. They ran hard, and I’m excited to have them in the backfield with me this year.

Question: As a quarterback, did any crazy thoughts go through your mind when Reggie (Roberson) went out for a few plays?

Shane Buechele: Yeah — you know, I was just hoping and praying that it wasn’t like last year. But I was happy to see him back, and then when he was back, he scored a touchdown, so it was good to see from him.

Question: Finally, what do you need to clean up in the next two weeks to be ready for North Texas?

Shane Buechele: You know, I think one of the things is finishing off drives, ball security, and then whenever we got to make a play, we got to make a play. That’s just from the offensive side. Defense, like I said, they played their butt off in the second half, and we’ll take that into the next game.
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