POCATELLO, Idaho - Idaho State football held its weekly press conference on Wednesday morning with Defensive Coordinator
Grant Duff and Head Coach
Cody Hawkins taking questions from the local media.
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GRANT DUFF | Defensive Coordinator
On the mindset entering Week 2 after the season-opening win
"You gotta be excited right now. It's fun — being 1-0 is a great spot to be, and only half the teams in the country get to have that luxury. But that's the great and the sad part about college football: you can't really spend any time enjoying your victories because it's onto the next week. We're trying to build off the good things we did, correct the bad things and get better against a very quality opponent."
On preparing for an FBS opponent in Utah State
"I don't know that it changes — the schematics are gonna be the same. We've got to understand what they are, how their team is built, and it takes some humility to understand ourselves too. There's gonna be some things they do very, very well that we've got to be able to stop, and there are things that we do very well that we can't forget. We've got to be the best version of us."
On what makes this defense a threat
"Things that we preach and want the whole program to be built on are being tough, disciplined and together. We feel like our players can match up with anyone strength and physicality-wise, but we still have to refine the mental and emotional toughness that come along with playing football games. Defensively, we want to pride ourselves on being disciplined enough that we feel comfortable in that scenario."
On Trehsyn "Budda" Fesili's debut and the defensive line as a whole
"Budda's a wonderful young man — I can't say enough good things about him. He played well, he's relentless, he's tough, and he's still got things he will continue to build on as a 17-year-old freshman, but the sky's the limit for him. The D-line as a whole is probably the bedrock of our defense — those guys carry our culture. You just look at all of them and go, 'Okay, that's what it's supposed to look like.'"
On staying composed on the sideline during a dominant defensive performance
"In game, I try to be a facilitator of poise and confidence — I've never bought into the 'yelling at them is gonna fix the problems' kind of deal. I told them all week it was gonna be a boring game because the coaching points were gonna be exactly the same play after play: great eyes, great effort, great technique. We just kept trying to emphasize focus on the things that matter."
On the challenge Utah State's athletes present
"They've got some pretty good athletes that, when you get them in open space, have the ability to take off and take the play to the house, and up front, they're gonna be big and have size. We've gotta be able to attack all those different things and build in the mindset with our guys that we've got the solutions to be able to keep what they do corralled."
On the depth of this year's defense
"This is one of the deeper teams I've been on from top to bottom — the separation between our ones and our threes isn't that far, and that's a good problem. We've gotta be able to play multiple players. If we wanna go as far as we wanna go, a guy like Nate Reynolds can't play 80 plays a game — that's where the depth really comes in and helps."
CODY HAWKINS | Head Coach
On the week one to week two turnaround
"You always try to find areas where you can improve, because I think week one to week two is your biggest opportunity — you finally saw some live bullets and you've gotta change some things on special teams, defense and offense. It's a great opportunity for our guys getting to play a big opponent, and there's a lot of details we've gotta fix up."
On the plan to rotate two punters
"That was the plan. I think Sam Buck and Jordan Rucker both are really good punters, and you don't wanna shelf one guy just because he's one behind. Hanging on to specialists now has become harder and harder, so you wanna make sure they're both getting opportunities to showcase what they can do and help us out."
On Noa Calaycay's blocked-punt-return touchdown
"It was awesome. Jacob Perez making the block was great to see, and Noa's a guy who doesn't get enough credit for what he has done culturally for this football program. To see him get in the end zone — if you practice the technique and you do the technique right and you go really hard, good things will happen."
On Chedon James's return to Pocatello
"It's really his approach and his humility that's been good — it's his detail and consistency that always made him such a valuable asset to our offense. It wasn't that he was this unbelievable talent, though he's a great talent for sure. Having him come back was a comfort level for our quarterback after losing our top six guys last year."
On the depth in the receiver room
"This is probably the deepest receiver room that we've had since I've been here. I think we probably have eight guys that are capable of starting football games for us and producing. Juice is consistent and reliable and brings a ton of energy, and Zed is a legitimate burner — he's probably the fastest guy we've had since we've been here."
On Trehsyn "Budda" Fesili's debut and the development process
"I think Budda's probably an outlier of the process — when you recruit young guys, you don't expect them to go out and be all-conference-level players right away. He showed up with a great attitude and an unbelievable motor, and everything that he is is what you want in the culture. Everything Budda has done is a credit to him, to Ricky Ali'ifua getting him here, and to the positions Grant Duff has put him in."
On managing depth along the defensive line
"D-line is probably less flashy than receivers, but those guys are gonna run your defense — high-quality people, high-motor dudes that are used to rotating. I think we have multiple lines of guys that could be all-conference players for us on the D-line. The biggest thing is you've gotta make sure you find a role for everybody."
On the running back room's response to Dason Brown's injury
"It absolutely changes the offense — you have one of the best players in the conference, maybe the best guy with the ball in his hands, who's not going to be playing anymore. But I think our running back room is ready for the challenge. Rob's going to play a lot, Carson Sudberry is going to play quite a bit, and you have a lot of guys who are going to get an opportunity now. You can't replace Dason with one guy, but I think that room will step up to the plate."
On Dason Brown's eligibility outlook under the NCAA's new rules
"Right now the NCAA is saying his career is over, just with the five-for-five rule — they don't want to do medical redshirts anymore, and all the medicals had to be submitted by July 31st. It's not up to me to make a decision about whether I agree with that decision or not. We'll explore all avenues to support Dason however we can, but that's gonna be his decision."
