CALIFORNIA HEAD COACH SONNY DYKES
General comments:
“Wow, I think I have aged 100 years in the last two weeks. After last week's loss it's nice to be on the other side this week and win a hard-fought, tough football game. You have got to give our players a lot of credit for bouncing back. When things went south in this ballgame they never panicked, they just kept hanging in there. Defense gave up a lot of plays, but they made a play at the end of the game when we needed one. That fourth down stop was huge. We had a lot of guys that made some big plays. James Langford making that kick was huge for us. He's a guy that hasn't made a kick like that in the past because he hasn't been in those situations. It was great to see him come through like that for us, and I am really proud of him for doing that. Our guys persevered. I told them at halftime, if there has ever been a team that knows about perseverance, sticking together and battling through adversity, its these guys. They did a great job in the second half finding a way to win a football game, so I am really proud of them for that.”
On the defense in OT:
“There are a lot of plays in a football game and they are all important. If you go back to last week's loss, there are a couple of plays in the third quarter where, if we had converted third down, or didn't bust an assignment, we probably would have won that game. It just shows you that every single play is critical. Part of the maturation of a football team is understanding that playing those plays out and playing hard when your back is up against the wall. It was a heck of an effort on that fourth down to get that stop. That was critical in us winning the ballgame.”
On Jared Goff:
“I'll say this about Jared – he always seems to make the plays when we need him to and he certainly did that down the stretch. He probably wasn't as sharp today as he had been, but I didn't think we played particularly well up front. We got pressured a little bit more than we should have and we didn't play very clean football offensively. We were out of sync at times. We have to give Colorado credit because they really challenged us. They played a lot of man coverage and forced us to win on the outside. Their corners are good and we knew coming in those guys were good players. They are two of the better corners we are going to play against this season. We've got to give credit to Jared. Like the rest of our guys, he is incredibly resilient, believes in his receivers and he did a great job giving them opportunities to make plays.”
On hitting various milestones:
“When you are not very good, which we weren't last year, then a lot of the wins you get are first this and first that. I am ready for that to be over because that means we have won enough games and we don't have to worry about that stuff anymore. We still believe that we have the chance to build a good program here. I believed that when I came here. We believe in our players and believe in their work ethic and character. I think that when a lot of good people care about each other, work incredibly hard and are unselfish, they get things to happen. I really like these kids. They work hard, they are conscientious, they care about each other, they love this university and what it represents and I am really proud to coach them.”
On Daniel Lasco:
“He is running so physical. When he has a run like that, it obviously gives us a ton of energy and you could feel the sideline, the excitement. He is really playing well and running so hard. He is doing so many different things for us. He brings a physical element to the run game that we need. Two weeks in a row, he has had over 100 yards. He had another great ball game today.”
CALIFORNIA PLAYERS
Jared Goff, QB
On whether this is the craziest game he has been a part of:
“It's probably up there with last week as the craziest game I've ever been a part of, but obviously it feels a lot better this time and I'm just so proud of the guys. I was confident going into overtime and we knew what we were going to do. The defense making that fourth down stand for us is what did it. It was just a whole team effort today. That's just the best way to describe it. Everyone had to do something at some point to help us win, and fortunately we came out on top.”
On halftime adjustments for the offense:
“We really didn't change much; we just kept doing what we were supposed to do. In the first half, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We had a lot of penalties, I started the game off with an interception and nothing seemed to be going right. We knew there was a whole second half of football to go.”
On Stephen Anderson's emergence:
“Stephen played a great game for us, especially with Darius (Powe) out. We needed him to play well and he did. That touchdown when I was rolling out and he was going across was big time.”
James Langford, PK
On what he was thinking lining up for the potential game-winning field goal:
“I definitely wasn't thinking about my miss earlier because you can't dwell on the past, especially as a kicker. It's kick-by-kick and you just have to have a short-term memory whether you make it or miss it. The next kick is the most important one that matters. It's pretty hard to remove yourself from the situation because you know what is at stake, but you're not focused on that in the moment. It all happens pretty fast, but you are focusing on your technique and trying to visualize it going through the uprights.”
On after hearing the crowd's reaction to his game-winner:
“It is just a huge rush of happiness obviously and being around your best friends and teammates for one of the best moments of your life is totally priceless.”
Bryce Treggs, WR
On his overtime touchdown and the team's first conference win in nearly two years:
“On the touchdown, I had a post route and the safety came down. It was sort of a cover one coverage and the corner was playing outside shade on me, so I stemmed him inside and pressed the vertical leaving the post wide open. It's very exciting to get our first conference win in a while. We are just ecstatic right now.”
Colorado HEAD COACH Mike MacIntyre
General comments:
“If you're a fan, that was a fun one to watch. If you're the losing team, it's absolutely gut wrenching. Our players played their heart out. We could have done a couple things better as a coaching staff. Our young men could have made some more plays. We should have done it right in regulation, but we didn't. I tip my hat to Cal. They got it done. What a gorgeous day to play football, and they found a way to win it.”
On the team's performance:
“We just didn't make a few plays in regulation. We would have won. In overtime, we didn't get in down there, which was tough. We stopped them and made them kick a pretty long field goal, and they made it. You can look at a million different things. I could have done things differently, but they had good plays. I think they've learned that they have to keep on fighting and trying to win. They're never down and out. They never say die; they really don't. That's the thing that I've seen with these guys, we've changed completely. If they keep doing that, which they will, and we keep coaching them in certain situations and these young kids keep playing despite all their situations. we'll get those wins.”
On the last play:
“We miscommunicated that. It was a mess up at a tough time. That play did not lose the football game, though. We could have made a bunch of other plays during the regulation, that's something we have got to do a better job at as coaches, as players, just executing that. We would have executed that. I think the play would have walked right in. Miscommunication was on the whole team, staff, coaches, everyone. We just didn't execute it right. Cal made a couple scramble plays, the quarterback made a couple good plays. We didn't execute some stuff as well as we would have liked. We made a lot of the same mistakes and they made a lot of the same plays. We had a couple busts, you just hope they don't find them, but they did. There was no dramatic change by either team. They made a couple plays and we didn't.”
On overtime:
“I didn't go for the two-point conversion because if I went for two and I didn't make it people would say 'why go for two?' Sometimes you can go for two and make it. I feel like we could go in overtime to see what was going to happen and we just didn't get it done. I don't think Cal could have gone for the Hail Mary. I don't know, maybe they thought it was too long. I don't know what they were thinking. I don't know what other teams are thinking. Everybody has different thoughts on that. I considered going for the field goal, but when we got to the half line, I thought we could do it. I thought what we had would have worked, but we just didn't execute it right. The Cal defense did a good job, we just couldn't get much push.”
On kicker, Will Oliver:
“He'll make them next week. I was really hoping he was going to get a chance to hit a winner. I was telling him, 'You're going to hit a winner.' He'll bounce back. It was just a tough day for all of us. He had a tough day.”
Colorado PLAYERS
Sefo Liufau, QB
On the loss
“It hurts a lot. It'll hurt for any team. Losing in overtime, in a game of that magnitude, it was a close game throughout. Give credit to Cal, they're a really good team and we just came one mistake short. I'm proud of the guys for fighting for four quarters. We'll definitely bounce back from this starting Monday.”
Did you think you'd be able to pass for a lot of yards heading into the game?
“It's not about the statistics; it's just what the defense gives us. They we're coming up and trying to play a bunch of cover one and we had to make them pay for that. I think we did that for the most part and everyone played a great game on the outside. We spread it around for the most part. Obviously Nelson (Spruce) had a bunch of catches for us. Sometimes you have to go to your playmaker and that's what Spruce is.”
Was your plan to throw to Nelson Spruce all game?
“Sometimes he's the last read in the progression. Sometimes it's just what the defense gives us, it comes back to him. It's not by design to get Spruce the ball 50 times. He's a playmaker, playmakers make plays and that's what Spruce is. He's going to make a lot of plays like that.”
Nelson Spruce, WR
On putting up big numbers but coming out on the losing end
“We've had our fair share of losses, but I think since I've been here this is the toughest one I've been a part of. We were up big in the first half with a chance to put them away. They fought back, give them credit, but it was a tough one.”
On Cal's halftime adjustments
“They stayed in pretty much the same looks the whole game. Not many defensive adjustments, but they kind of knew what to expect. I don't know how many points we scored in the second half, but I think as an offense, we executed all four quarters.”
