Quotes: Osweiler feels team is rested, ready to take Buffaloes
ON HOW HE FEELS AFTER THE BYE WEEK:
“I feel great and I think I speak for the team as well. That bye week came at a very crucial point in time. I think it was perfect timing. We have pretty much been going full go since August 1st when camp opened up. We got through our first seven games and it came at a great time. It really gave guys a chance to heal up their bodies, refresh a little bit and get focused on the second part of the season.”
ON WHERE HE WENT DURING THE BYE WEEK:
“I went to Denver. I went up there for the weekend with Matt Tucker. He’s my roommate, been my roommate since I first came to ASU, and that’s where he is from. It was just good to get out of the city for the weekend, get some of that fresh air up there and it was a very good weekend.”
ON BEING ABLE TO MAINTAIN AN EDGE:
“That’s hard to tell. We’ll find out as we go. However, I do know that this team has been very good about taking it one week at a time and I think that’s the most important thing with these next five football games. If we do that and just stay focused on that one team I think that will help us come to the games ready - like we should - and handle business.”
ON PLAYERS GETTING HEALTHY:
“I [really feel like everyone has recovered]. Like I said, that bye week really came at the perfect time. Guys were very energized yesterday. There was a little extra speed from the guys, which I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. My arm, for example, the first three throws we had I overthrew the guy and I was wondering where that juice came from. I haven’t had that in a few weeks. It was great. I think the guys are refreshed and excited to get this week rolling, play [Colorado] and go from there.”
ON HIS PLAY IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON:
“There were good things and there were bad things. There were times where I was very happy with my play and then there were times where I wasn’t so happy. [The bad times] are the times that almost benefit you more because you really learn from those games. The Illinois game, the Oregon State game in the first quarter, certain situations like that, you really take a lot from it and I think it’s important in the learning curve of playing quarterback.”
ON COLORADO DEFENSE:
“They do a few things that we haven’t seen so far this year as far as coverage goes. It’s something we have seen in the past, just not this year. So we have to study a lot of tape this week to be prepared for what they are going to throw at us. I see them being a pretty athletic defense, they are very assignment-sound, they don’t seem to mess up coverages or stunts and they play hard. I expect them to come down here and give us their best shot and we’re going to be ready to roll.”
ON IF COLORADO STILL RESEMBLES A BIG 12 TEAM:
“It’s hard to really classify a Pac-12 school or a Big-12 school. In my opinion, if you are playing Division I football, you are a good football team with quality players. I haven’t noticed anything that would say that [Colorado] should be a part of the Big 12.”
ON Mike Willie STEPPING UP:
“I know going into Utah and Oregon, we put a pretty big focus on getting the ball out to the perimeter guys, our X, Y and Z receivers: George Bell, Aaron Pflugrad and Mike Willie. Rashad Ross stepped up and played very well up in Oregon. It wasn’t that those guys weren’t capable of playing well at the beginning of the year, especially Mike, it’s just when you have so many weapons on a football field at once, sometimes guys are only going to get two or three catches a night and have a quieter night. But that next game, Mike can step up and definitely put on a show for everyone.”
ON HOW HE HAS GROWN AS A QB THROUGHOUT THE SEASON:
“When I talked to you guys before the season, the one thing that I said that can’t be traded for anything is game experience. I really feel that every game that I play in and finish I’m getting better, more comfortable, and everything is really slowing down. It has been very noticeable as far as me recognizing blitzes, coverages and what to do. Things have really slowed down with every single football game and hopefully that continues and we continue to win football games and get better each week.”
ON FOOTBALL BEING A SECOND LANGUAGE:
“It’s definitely a second language. I consider football my foreign language. I haven’t done French or Spanish. I have done football and that’s a language in itself. It’s secondhand nature now. Coach Noel Mazzone and I can communicate on the same level, we know exactly what the other guy is thinking, what he’s trying to do, what I’m trying to do and it’s to the point where I am on the field and I’ll come to the sidelines and he’ll say I knew you were going to throw it to that guy or I called this play because I knew you were going to do this. Things are at a good point right now.”
ON LEARNING AND THEN EXECUTING:
“A lot of the blitzes [Illinois] was bringing that night were something that we hadn’t seen all of last year and this year in the previous two games. At the time, I didn’t understand what they were doing, I just knew I was getting hit every play. However, after watching the tape, sitting down with Coach Noel Mazzone and figuring out what was going on, [we made adjustments]. USC gave us a few of those same looks, I changed the protection into it, we picked it up and we had big plays down the field and then the same thing happened at Oregon. Same situation, they were trying to bring the same exact blitzes, I recognized it, pushed the protection that direction, we got it picked up and we got the ball downfield.”
ON TAKING ONE GAME AT A TIME:
“I think in the game of football, sometimes you’ll see a team looking past another team. [This week] it will be a good test for us, but I think a lot of that credit needs to go to Coach Erickson. He keeps us very focused on just that, one week at a time. That’s where I learned it, Coach Mazzone passes it down and as a result that sentence goes around this building often. Just focus on the Buffalos this week, just focus on Colorado and that’s what we do and hopefully we’ll take care of business.”