Still shaking my head over the shocking season-opening loss by the Aggies on Saturday night. Emptying out the notebook of some leftover quotes from the upset:
Coach Mike Sherman
On kicker Richie Bean's misses from 32 and 25 yards
"Richie's been hitting those in practice. He's been very good and prepared well. He's made some big field goals in practice, and the second one wasn't a great snap or hold necessarily. And he's so accountable. He said, 'Coach, I still should have made it,' and he's right. But I wish I hadn't put that on him. I wish we had done a little better there and gotten touchdowns. We put it back on him, and he's got to make those field goals, but we put it back on him by not scoring right there."
On the second-half struggles by the offense
"We couldn't get anything going. We could never get into a rhythm. We ran the ball well in the first half. I thought we pass protected well in the first half. And I didn't feel like either one of those was good for us in the second half."
On trying to prevent 0-1 from turning into 0-2
"I've been in situations like this before, and I told our guys you can learn more about yourself from adversity than you even can from winning a football game. My biggest concern was there would be a deflation when we weren't executing very well. And I didn't feel like that. There was a sense of urgency in talking to the players. I felt that when they went out onto the field. I felt the frustration when they came off the field. There was no hang-dog attitude about it. So I think I learned something about them. And we'll learn more about them in the next couple of days with how they respond to this. This is the first ball game, and it was a tough one. It was a game that you would expect Texas A&M to win, and that's not taking anything away from Arkansas State. They did a phenomenal job, and I give them all the credit in the world, but we were home and we expected to beat them. But it didn't happen. I just think we have to get back to work and keep working and be better next week than we were this week."
Quarterback Stephen McGee
On the second-half struggles
"Little things just shot us in the foot. Third down and one, you know, we didn't get it. That comes down to 11 guys on offense just not taking care of the opportunity. We've got to make the little plays when they're there."
On the missed scoring opportunities in the first half
"There were too many mistakes and you can't win football games like that. We've got to improve offensively and overcome a bad play here or there. You need to be able to bounce back better than we did tonight. You can't get down about little things. We need to have a better mentality as an offensive unit, and that starts with me. I've got to lead those guys better out there."
Defensive coordinator Joe Kines
On ASU quarterback Corey Leonard
"They did exactly what they did last year, exactly what we practiced against. The youngster can make a play. He's got a lot of make-you-miss in him, and he made us do that a couple of times. We've got to tackle better. That's my fault. We were in position sometimes and through being over-anxious or whatever we missed the tackle. That's why you coach."
Running back Mike Goodson
On his fourth-quarter fumble
"I was just really trying to fight for extra yards. It was third-and-1, I think. I was trying to fight for extra yards. I've got to wrap the ball up. There's no excuse."
Linebacker Matt Featherston
On the problems ASU's offense presented
"They just did a good job of hitting the gaps. They came out and ran the ball hard. The quarterback ran the ball like we expected. For a minute we had them and then they got a couple of breaks which put them in scoring position."
Defensive end Michael Bennett
On ASU running back Reggie Arnold's strong game
"We schemed and had everyone slant the other way and then he got in the crease. He just did a good job running to it."
-- Lori Dann
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