Chris Petersen after Huskies’ 70-21 win at Oregon: ‘These guys prepared as hard as they’ve prepared all year’
Here is everything Huskies coach Chris Petersen said after Washington’s 70-21 victory at Oregon on Saturday night.
(Opening) “I’ll just start by saying, needless to say we’re really proud of these guys. They prepare each week really, really hard. With a purpose to get better. with a chip on their shoulder. And that was the case again this week. I think it’s because everybody has a lot of respect for this Oregon program, so these guys prepared as hard as they’ve prepared all year. I think it’s nice when they prepare that hard and they can see the fruits of their labor. It’s been a while coming, not this game, but with this team, because last year I think they worked as hard as they have been this year. But sometimes it just takes a while to build skill. I think back to this time last year and those kids were working just as hard. Appreciated how much they just stayed with the process, and things can change, so we’re proud of them and they keep working and continue to stay humble and continue to be good teammates, keep progressing.”
(Ever think you’d score 70 points in a Pac-12 game?) “Well, I don’t think anybody, certainly me, wants to score 70 points. I think it was one of those games that we came out in the third quarter, we score they score … we couldn’t stop them there for a minute. So then you score some more points. I’m glad they executed. It is what it is.”
(On Jake Browning) “He’s been playing at a high level, obviously. I think our receivers have been playing at a really good level. I think there’s a good mix of throwing deep, and most guys know these guys can run, so they’ll play off, and then Jake will just take what they give him. so it’s been a good cat and mouse game and it’s usually right. Both those guys, John Ross and Dante made tremendous catches a couple different times, and that’s what you have to have to really keep moving the chains and have something special happen.”
(On John Ross scoring on fade routes) “... I think Jake saw him a lot. He’s a hard guy to cover with that speed, he really is, then I think there’s a good receiver on the other side with Dante. It’s a good combination. And the thing about Jake is, he will go where the ball is supposed to go. He’s not just going to lock into, ‘this is my fastest guy,’ or ‘this is my best route runner.’ He’s going to go where the coverage takes him.”
(On Jake Browning’s finger-point penalty) “I said, ‘don’t do that again.’ Something like that. It’s not – it’s an emotional game – that’s not who he is. He knows it, I know it, everybody knows it. He’ll have a hard day tomorrow.”
(On Budda Baker’s interception) “That was awesome. It really was. I couldn’t see the pass exactly. I think it was close, might have been a little bit behind. And then he got his hand in there. someone got their hand in there. it was just kind of one of those plays, but to start the game like that – this has been a fast-starting team, for whatever reason. On special teams, on defense, on first drives. We really don’t talk about that. In fact, we almost tell them, ‘hey, if it doesn’t start fast, don’t worry about it. We’ll get into a rhythm,’ because they’ve started so fast every game. But it’s awesome to come on the road and start like that. I think that sets the tone.”
(On hearing UW fans in the stadium) “We really … this is a loud stadium, and we could hear our fans in the stadium. I could hear them in the first half. And that’s awesome. And how our fans were last week at home was awesome. I just think everybody’s hopeful that we can take the next step as a program where we’re all in this together, the fans come with us, pack that stadium, truly make it the greatest setting in college football. It helps our guys play, there’s no question about it.”
(On Myles Gaskin’s big game) “I think he’d probably be the first to tell you, when the big fellas up front can cover guys up, he’s such a patient guy, you kind of saw him getting back to that, then you’ll find that crease and he has deceptive speed and he can go. So it was good to kind of get him going in a rhythm.”
(On finally beating Oregon again) “I’m just glad I don’t have to talk about The Streak. I don’t have to answer that. That’s probably the No. 1 thing I’ve been asked about since the day I got to Seattle. So that’s why I’m really happy, so I don’t have to answer that question.”
(On the timing of the upcoming bye week) “I think it’s good, I really do. You like them probably later than earlier. We’re right kind of in the middle. So it will be a chance to look at ourselves, coaching-wise, it’ll be a chance for our guys to get rested up. I think they deserve a little bit of a break. I think there’s a fine line to that. We’re not going to practice a bunch, but when we do, we need to really practice. So that’ll be interesting. And if I know these guys, I think they will practice hard. But you know, we don’t want to get out of that rhythm as well. We’re in a really good rhythm right now. We pay close attention to keeping these guys fresh, and how many reps they get in practice, how much distance they cover in the games and practice. So we’re in a good rhythm now. We don’t want to lose that. So we’ve got to be smart as coaches about how to kind of keep that going with the bye week.”
(On keeping the team focused after two big wins) “I don’t know. I just think we have a lot of – and I think they know this – we have a lot of football left to play. We’ve only played three league games. So we’ve got six more to play. we’ve got the meat of our schedule really to play. I always say it, I just believe it, that any team can beat anybody in this league. So I think our guys know that and believe it as well. So if we can stay relatively healthy and keep practicing hard – those are two hard things. You start to get into the season and guys get beat up and all these things. And then you get scared to practice hard. I think our guys have been practicing hard, and I think that’s the only way you get better, if you go out and just practice hard, and don’t go through the motions, and they have, and they’ve gotten better.”
(Are Chico McClatcher and Shane Brostek’s injuries long-term?) “I don’t think so. I think we’ll see, but we think we’re going to have them back for our next game. That’s what we think, but you never know. Some guys recover faster than you think and slower, but right now we think we’ll have them back.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2016 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Chris Petersen after Huskies’ 70-21 win at Oregon: ‘These guys prepared as hard as they’ve prepared all year’."