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By Liz Alper
Quotes courtesy of Jen Heisel, Assistant Media Relations Director, San Diego State
September 20, 2016 (San Diego) - With a much-deserved bye week this week after two big wins against Cal and Northern Illinois, San Diego State football head coach Rocky Long, redshirt sophomore quarterback Christian Chapman and senior running back/wide receiver Rashaad Penny sat down with the media at their weekly press conference.
“It’s been kind of fun and exciting around here the last couple of days," Long opened. "These last couple of days have been kind of fun and exciting. We’re happy. We get to enjoy it for a few extra days because we have a bye week. We’ll practice hard on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, give them the weekend off and then we’ll get ready for South Alabama.”
There was a lot of insinuation that because it took the Aztecs 13 straight wins to get into the Top 25, there may be a lack of respect for the program. Long had a lot to say about the topic of respect. “I never even thought about that or even considered that. I think you earn their respect and when people are willing to give it to you, whenever that is, it's nice to have it.”
There was also a lot of speculation about why the Aztecs weren't in the Coaches' Poll despite their success. "Maybe I’ve made some enemies out there. Maybe some coaches don’t like me. Maybe it’s not about our team, maybe it’s a personal thing and other coaches don’t like me. I don’t get into voting and all that stuff...I don’t worry about it because 2/3 of them voting have never seen us play. If they haven’t played us, they haven’t seen us play on film and they sure as heck don’t stay up late at night to see us on TV. Whether it’s the coach or somebody or somebody voting for the coach, 2/3 of them haven’t seen us play. It makes sense that they don’t know where to put us.”
Despite last week's 42-28 win at NIU, Long was critical of his team. “I do not want this to sound wrong, but I did not think we played very well last week. I thought we played much better the week before (against California). Some of that credit has to go to Northern Illinois for having a great gameplan on both offense and defense that gave us some trouble...I didn’t think we blocked as well at the line of scrimmage as we did the week before. I also think we need to be smarter and not retaliate where we got penalties. I don’t think we need any of those unnecessary penalties to be a good football team.”
Despite that, he is grateful for the bye week. “It’s a great bye week for us. We don’t need to get anyone healthy, which is a Godsend. We’re not technically sound like we should be. We’re assignment sound, but not as technically sound as we should be. We have to become a lot smarter, and have to be emotional and tough on gameday without getting penalties"
Chapman was asked about the Aztecs being ranked 22 in the Top 25. “I think it’s good to finally get the recognition we think we deserve and it’s good to have all of that publicity right now, but I think that number doesn’t mean anything right now unless we finish the season with that number by our name.”
Recruiting was a big topic this week. All three were asked about how the program's success can help with recruitment. Chapman had this to say: “I think it’s a huge thing for kids coming out of high school. Especially from San Diego, seeing something like that, Top 25, it’s a thing to hook and bring in kids. They want to be a part of it and I think this will help with recruiting a lot.”
Chapman agreed with Long that the Aztecs didn't play their best last week. “I agree with him. I feel like, on both sides of the ball, we haven’t played our best game. I haven’t played my best game; I need to be more consistent. I feel like when the run game and pass game are on, we’re going to be an explosive offense and we’ve yet to see that. But we have time to grow and get better. This bye week, we’ll take it and just get better for South Alabama. That’s a big thing (penalties) that could cost us in the future. It’s something we’ve got to fix. Those penalties, the drives and not being able to convert, it’s tough so we’ve got to eliminate those as much as we can and just keep getting better.”
Penny echoed Chapman about being 22. “We’re just taking it week by week and preparing for the next game but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t finish it with that number by our name. We’re satisfied, but it doesn’t mean anything to us because we have to keep working and it goes week by week. We’re just preparing to get better for the next week and we’ll go from there.”
He doesn't get bored during bye weeks. “No week in football is boring. I feel like every week is a big week. Even though it’s a bye week, it’s still a big week for us because we have to prepare and get ready for this big South Alabama game. We’ve got to get them like they got us last year so that’s a big week for us and we’ve got to prepare against them like we did against Cal and every other week.”
SDSU takes on South Alabama on October 1st at 5:00 p.m.
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