What Khalil Tate, Colin Schooler, others said after Arizona’s loss to USC

The Arizona Wildcats lost to the USC Trojans 24-20 on Saturday, snapping their two-game winning streak.

Arizona (2-3, 1-1 Pac-12) trailed 17-0 at the half and 24-0 in the third quarter, but made things interesting at the end. Our full recap can be found here and Coach Kevin Sumlin’s comments can be found here.

Here is what quarterback Khalil Tate, linebacker Colin Schooler, wide receiver Tony Ellison and safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles had to say afterwards:

Arizona Football players Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, Tony Ellison, Khalil Tate and Colin Schooler break down the Wildcats 24-20 loss to USC.

Posted by AZ Desert Swarm on Saturday, September 29, 2018

What did you think went wrong?

Tate: “I think we didn’t play hard all four quarters. I think we started playing hard, but it didn’t come until the second half, the fourth quarter to be exact. So, I think that’s something that’s something that you have to do to be a good team or be a team that’s even halfway decent you just have to play all four quarters, and that’s what we didn’t do.”

How are you feeling physically?

Tate: “How did I look?”

That’s not for me to answer...

Tate: “I’m healthy enough to play.”

Colin, how did you think the defense played?

Schooler: “I thought we played pretty well. Not as well as we played last week, we started off really strong. Then third quarter, we kind of didn’t have the energy that we should have had, and then when things started to turn out well we started to pick up our energy. But we need to have to have that energy no matter what the score is.”

Why do you think there was a lack of energy?

Schooler: “I’ll put that on me. As a leader on this team, it’s our job and my job to make sure that everybody’s engaged, so that’s my fault, blame me.”

Demetrius, what do you think of the defense’s performance?

Flannigan-Fowles: “Fourth quarter was great. I thought that we should have kept up that same level of energy the entire game. Then maybe we would of held them to seven points instead of 24, so we just have to make sure that we’re consistent through all four quarters of the game.”

What were they doing in the run game or what were you missing that was enabling them to gain so much yardage?

Flannigan-Fowles: “Just power, people not doing their job. But as the game went on, people started doing their job a little bit.”

Tony, why did you think it took the offense so long to get going?

Ellison: “We just didn’t execute. Like Khalil said, we’re a great football team, but we’ve just got to stop waiting until the second half to start executing our plays.”

Khalil, what were you guys able to find offensively over the last quarter and a half that you weren’t able to find the rest of the game?

Tate: “I think we were just able to move the ball. That first half, I think we had a lot of stalls, third quarter also. We didn’t move the ball. I think in the fourth quarter we actually rallied and started moving the ball.”

On the interception you threw, were you trying to throw the ball out of bounds? You were scrambling to the left. Do you remember?

Tate: “No.”

You lost two, won two, had a good rally tonight. Where do you think the team stands?

Schooler: “I feel like we just need to play a complete game in all three phases. If you look at our three loses we haven’t done that, so if we control the line of scrimmage and do well in all three phases of the game then there’s not a team that can beat us.”

What’s the key to getting back in the win column against Cal?

Ellison: “Just do your job and execute the game plan. The game plan’s great, coach has put a great game plan in for us, and we just have to execute it. And we didn’t do that tonight. I think defense did great, offense has to pick it up next week.”

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