What they said after San Diego State’s 34-10 Las Vegas Bowl victory

What players and coaches said after San Diego State’s 34-10 victory over Houston on Saturday in the 25th Las Vegas Bowl at Sam Boyd Stadium:

San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey, on the journey to the record-breaking 108 yards:

“It definitely wasn’t easy. They didn’t want me to break it against them. Our offensive line accepted the challenge. At first, they were controlling the line of scrimmage, and then our offensive line, they controlled the line of scrimmage from about the second quarter all the way to the rest of the game.”

Pumphrey, on the record-breaking play:

“Just that play, we were all on the sideline and coming out of a turnover, and I just hear all the fans chanting, and all my teammates pumping me up. From that point on, I was just trying to hit the outside. I thought I was gone, but the guy had a good angle.”

San Diego State linebacker Calvin Munson, on the Aztecs’ four second-half interceptions:

“Our defense, we feed off each other. We blitz a lot. Coach (Rocky) Long’s philosophy is to kind of get after their team get them on their heels. That’s what we did. Guys were making big plays, turnovers, we just kept feeding off of it. We had like three sacks in a row, and guys were getting fired up. It was just a blast out there.”

Houston defensive lineman Cameron Malveaux, on Pumphrey’s minus-1 yard after the first quarter:

“Nothing really changed as far as our game plan toward him. They just started making plays. It went down to zero count football. Some guys just got to show up, and we just did not make enough plays after the first quarter.”

Houston coach Major Applewhite, on his team’s offensive struggles after the first quarter:

“Turnovers, turnovers, we had situations where there was miscommunications on a route, miscommunication on a pick-six. It really swayed the game. Being down 10, still think you are in the football game in the third quarter, and then going down 17 for how we were producing, it became almost insurmountable in some people’s eyes. That is the bottom line.”

Applewhite, on his first game as a head coach:

“In general, we stink. We lost. That is how I judge myself as an assistant, as a player and now as a head coach. If you win, you did great. If you lose, you did bad. Didn’t enjoy it. Doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. When we come back next spring, we lose a great senior class, and that is the circumstances. So what is our attitude going forward and how do we prepare?”

Applewhite, on Pumphrey, who broke the NCAA career rushing record:

“When you give a great back that many at-bats and that many opportunities, one is going to spit at some point, and it did.”

Houston tight end Tyler McCloskey, on his senior season ending with loss:

“(I feel) terrible. The way it started, they then beat the crap out of us. We did not show up. We didn’t execute the way we needed to. I thought we prepared well. We prepared hard. Obviously it wasn’t good enough.”

San Diego State coach Rocky Long, on his second-quarter adjustments:

“I thought we really struggled in the first quarter with their quickness and their front seven. They were able to get in the backfield and hit our running backs in the backfield because we could not get on them to block them or maintain the block. I thought our coaches did a great job on the sideline adjusting how our offensive linemen started to block at the line of scrimmage. We started double-teaming the down linemen and letting the linebackers go and let our running backs try to challenge the linebackers instead of the other way around.”

Long, on Pumphrey getting to 2,133 yards and Penny getting to 1,018:

“I’ve been told we’re the first ones to ever do that (in NCAA history), and that’s a credit to our players. I think our coaches do a nice job of evaluating, I think our coaches do a nice job of coaching, but guess what: Coaches don’t make plays. Coaches do not win games. Coaches can lose games, but coaches don’t win games — players win games. These guys win the games. All we have to do is make sure they’re in shape, they have the right attitude and give them an honest chance to win and then they go out and win.”

Long, on the second-half interceptions:

Any time you have a team that is as explosive as they are, and they run up and down the field and snap the ball every 15 to 18 seconds, I appreciated them slowing down there after a while, when they started looking to the sideline and asking for the right play. I appreciated that they had to slow down, because they were averaging about a play every 15 seconds.”