Post-Game Quotes
Hawai‘i vs. Colorado
Sept. 20, 2014; Boulder, Colo.
Hawai’i Head Coach Norm Chow
On Gameplay
“We hung in there and we fought. We need to make plays on offense and we didn’t do it. I thought our defense did a nice job in the second half. You can’t fall behind like that to a good football team.”
On the Hawai’i Offense
“We obviously have to get better. We needed to win some more one-on-one routes outside and they took care of that. Once you can’t win that, we struggled to run the ball because they loaded the box.”
On How the Offense Faltered
“I wish I knew, if I knew we wouldn’t be bogged down. We’ll get better at it. We thought we had some things down, we missed an early throw that we thought we had on that first drive, but we overthrew it. We knew the coverage’s that they were doing, but we just have to get better.”
On QB Jeremy Higgins Providing a Spark
“He looked good, yeah.”
On the Hawaii Defense
“We played well. We got on them at halftime, but we need to put more pressure on their quarterback. If you give any quarterback time he’ll get you.”
On the Play of Nelson Spruce
“He’s a good player. I tried to recruit him when I was coaching elsewhere”
On the Hawaii Fan Support
“We have tremendous fans, but they want to see a winner. It’s difficult, but we have good fans and we need to win some ball games to make them feel better about us.”
On How the Altitude Affected the Game
“There are no excuses.”
On Quarterback Situation
“We’ll find out about Jeremy [Higgins] and what his hand situation is. We’ll have to go with what we have, we have another backup in Taylor [Graham]. So we’ll make that decision, we have a good idea, we’ll just look at the tapes.”
On Whether Higgins Hand was Broken
“You said it, I didn’t.”
On Taking a Look at Beau Reilly
“We haven’t thought about that yet. We’re trying to get to the next level that we need to get to. See what Ikaika [Woolsey] likes, see about Jeremy’s [Wiggins] hand and see what we can get from Taylor [Graham].”
On Colorado’s No-Huddle Offense
”We expected it, we knew they would go no-huddle. Just like they knew that we would. That’s what we always try to do and we just have to get it done.”
On the Play of Ikaika Woolsey
“He didn’t score many points when we had him in there, that’s why we made the change. Jeremy [Higgins] gives you a good spike once in a while, but he bogged down a little bit as well.”
On the Play of Steven Lakalaka
“He has a shoulder problem, but he hung with it and performed well today.”
P/WR Scott Harding
ON TOUGH LOSS – “Yeah, it really was. Our defense did really well in the second half to stop them and for some reason our offense just couldn’t convert in the red zone. It killed us in the end.”
ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES – “We have to watch the film and have a look at it. It’s always tough to see it from the sidelines and really pick it a part. We can move the ball really well 20-to-20 but that last little bit is what we struggle with. We have to get back to the drawing board and see what we can do about it.”
ON BIG HIT DURING PUNT – “I’m kind of used to it, as soon as I get outside of the box it’s fair game. I know that those are the rules and I try to hold it as long as I can. Sometimes they can beat me up a little bit after the punt but that is just part of it and I will be fine.”
ON GETTING BALL INSIDE THE 10 ON PUNTS – “I try to aim to get at least one down on the one or two every game. It really boosts our defense and can sometimes change the momentum of the game and that’s what I’m trying to do as much as I can.”
ON MESSAGE TO UH FANS – “Just stick with us. It’s been a long run and we’ve had a lot of ups and downs. I hope that we have shown the fans that we can match up with the best teams, including Pac-12 teams. We are almost there. We are kind of shooting ourselves in the foot; so stick with us and we will start to get put together.”
ON ALTITUDE AFFECTING PLAY – “I don’t think the altitude affected our play. We played in Wyoming last year and that is a little bit higher. It was a beautiful day and it was not really cold so that was no excuse."
LB Julian Gener
ON TOUGH LOSS – “I’m up and down about how we played. The second half we played lights out but in the first half we were making mistakes and they were capitalizing. We have to come out the same way for the entire game. The second quarter killed us. I think they had two touchdowns that quarter and that really hurt us. I think we need to collectively play as a unit from the start and we can make things happen.”
ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND HALF – “After playing slow I think we got hit in the mouth and realized that we were in a dog fight. We were in the alley, just one-on-one, and we knew we had to win. I think that’s when we woke up. We came together as a unit and our coaches said some things in the locker room. They told us to let our swag hang out, just play and have fun out there. I think that’s what we needed to do from the start.”
ON NELSON SPRUCE – “I’m playing linebacker so it’s a little hard for me to look at him the whole time. He made his catches but I think we should have had more opportunity to shut up down than we did.”
ON FEELING GOOD ABOUT SECOND HALF – “We’ve had like three moral wins. We are tired of them and we need wins in the win category. We just have to find a way to start from the beginning. Once we start from the beginning we should be able to shut every team out, lights out. That’s how I feel.”
ON MESSAGE TO UH FANS – “We are going to go back to work. It’s a bye week, but it is by no means a week off. We are going to take it as if we have a game this week and we are going to prep like nothing else. We have Rice in two weeks and we are going to be ready to go.”
ON TURNOVERS – “We did have some big time turnovers. TJ [Taimatuia] has been playing phenomenal lately. He had a pick and I wish he could have made it to the end zone but he’s not as fast. It’s alright because we got that and we had a fumble or two. I think we might have won the turnover battle in this game which is big for us. A focal point of our defense is trying to win the turnover battle because the majority of the time when you win that you have a good chance of winning the ball game.”
RB Steven Lakalaka
ON HIS WORKLOAD FOR THE GAME – “I expected that because of the way their defense plays and the situations we were in, but we just got to get better.”
ON HIS CONFIDENCE FOLLOWING LONG RUN- “After that long run I just had that confidence in myself. I just wanted to bring that energy to the team.”
ON FRUSTRATIONS OF BEING UNABLE TO CONVERT IN RED ZONE- “It was very frustrating. As long as we put points on the board and keep pushing that’s all that matters. When we are in the red zone we got to score. “
ON PLAYING ON HIS SORE RIGHT SHOULDER- “Coach told me that I could play so I told myself to fight up and man up. In the beginning of the week it looked like I was going to be questionable but as I got more treatment and ice, it got a lot better. My adrenaline kicked in and after that I felt no pain on me until after the game.”
ON HAWAII’S PLAY SO FAR THIS SEASON- “We got to get better, we have a long season to go but we just got to stick with it and stick together and don’t give up.”
PK Tyler Hadden
ON HIS PLAY TODAY – “Credit due to coach and our full unit and the 10 guys in front of me, I had solid protection all day and I just put the finishing touches in.”
ON HAVING SO MANY ATTEMPTS TODAY IN ELEVATION- “I just go out there and do my job. Actually it was really nice kicking here. I came out here and warmed up and kicking really well. I actually hit the cross bar on a 67 (yard attempt) warming up, so that was a big confidence builder warming up. It would be nice to kick in this weather all of the time.
ON HOW LONG HE THINKS HE COULD KICK- “As I said earlier in the week, I believe 55 (yards), just with the thinner air and kicking the ball well.”
ON POTENTIAL FRUSTRATIONS AT THE END OF THE GAME- “You never know what’s going to happen. We could have put together a drive in the last two minutes there and scored a touchdown and kicked an onside and now we are back in the game. So you never know the situation, you just go out there, do your job and execute and you will be good.”
