What New Mexico State's Tony Sanchez said after loss at No. 21 Tennessee

Everything New Mexico State coach Tony Sanchez said after the Aggies lost at No. 21 Tennessee 42-9 on Saturday in Knoxville:

Opening Statement

“Just to start off, proud of our guys and the grit and fight that they showed. It’s crazy, that’s a well-coached team, that’s a good football team, a couple weeks ago I think they were ranked 14 or something like that. They’re a good football team. The crazy thing about it is we made some critical mistakes early in the game that really let it get away. The catosrophics. We were in a Cover-2 and we don’t get anything on the outside receiver and they take a shot down there and it’s an easy touchdown. We had a couple things like that. We were moving the ball, get stopped on fourth down. There’s a couple little critical things that could’ve kept us in that ball game for a whole lot longer. But again, our guys showed some grit, they fought. They did some good things. I thought we were able to run the ball a little bit. Obviously, it doesn’t reflect in the stat sheet because of some of the sack yardage that we gave up. The one errant turnover on the snap. We got some things we got to work on. Defense created some turnovers, unfortunately, offense gave some turnovers over.

“That’s a group of guys in there that have fought. They’ve been through a helacious season. I just told them, we’ve got two more to go. Great opportunity next week against UTEP, send our seniors out the right way. We got another one at home. If our guys continue to do what they’ve done all year, they’ll show up ready to work, ready to practice, ready to grit it out. I know there’s some good things ahead of them.

“Obviously, extremely disappointed right now. We didn’t come here to get a paycheck. We didn’t come here to hang out and let the time pass. We came here to win a football game. I think that reflected in how hard our guys played early. We let things get out of hand, not out of hand, but just kind of let it get away a little bit in the first half when they gave us opportunities. When you walk into a juggernaut like this at their house on their homecoming with a sold-out crowd and they give you opportunities, you have to take advantage of them and we didn’t do that enough early on.”

New Mexico State quarterback Logan Fife exiting with injury

“He wasn’t feeling 100%. He was a little banged up. We talked about it a little bit. It was a great opportunity to get Adam (Damante) in there. Adam did some good things, made a couple mistakes, but he did some good things. It just seemed like a good opportunity to get him in there and not take a risk of getting Logan hurt anymore.”

The injury for New Mexico State running back Kadarius Calloway

“I’m not sure yet. He got banged up in the ribs. I know they’re going to do some X-rays. I’m not sure what the results were, but we’ll find out soon.”

The offense stalling or making mistakes after strong starts to drives

“Yeah, off the hoof, without watching the film, I felt like early in the game we were moving the ball well. It seemed like we kept getting first downs on the first (set of downs). We were starting off with explosives, then we’d get right around midfield, then we’d sputter a little bit. The one that really hurt us was that early fourth down. I think if we get that and extend the drive, keep the clock moving, get some points on the board, whether it’s a field goal, get something going right there, I think that changes the dynamic. Again, it’s a tall feat to come in here and try to beat these guys, but we were moving the ball, we got to midfield multiple times. We got in short-yardage situations. We probably went for it on fourth down more than we had the entire season. You get half of those, you’re giving yourself opportunities.”

How New Mexico State backup quarterback Adam Damante performed

“I got to go back and look, but off the hoof, I thought he did well. He did a good job with his legs of extending plays. Ran the ball down to the one. He got flushed out of the pocket a couple times. Made some rookie mistakes when he threw the ball away and there was no receiver there, taking the grounding and things like that. The one pick that he threw, darn near threw it into the back of our offensive lineman, but those were his first snaps of the year for us and it’s a heck of an environment to have those in. I was proud of his grittiness and I thought he did some good things.”

On New Mexico State kicker David Barker

“He made a field goal and missed a PAT. You can’t miss a PAT, so God bless him, we got to work on that.”

How he assessed his New Mexico State defense

“I thought we played really good box defense at times. They were able to run the ball, they chewed up some rushing yards, no doubt about it, but for us, we did a really good job in short-yardage situations holding them. They didn’t seem like they were more physical than us. Again, off the hoof, watching that, I thought we held up in the interior pretty well. They got some balls on the outside and they got some chunk runs there, but I think we held up pretty good against them. We got some pressure on the quarterback without calling a lot of pressures. Inside we did good. In the back end, some of those big plays were tough.”

The final stretch of New Mexico State’s season at 3-7

“The whole thing is mentality and the way you look at things. Three of the last four weeks coming into this game you lose on the last play of the game. There’s not many teams in the country that have gone through that. You come here tonight and it would have been real easy to lay over. Our guys didn’t do that. They came in here gritty as hell and they fought. The challenge for me, which knowing this group of guys, I don’t know if it’ll be that big of a challenge, is UTEP is not going to be a gimme. They’re a tough team, they play people tough, their record doesn’t reflect that, but they’re going through their own trials and tribulations. They’ve lost a lot of close games. It’s a rivalry game. We won’t play them again for a while. When we get back to Cruces, we’re going to have to have a good team meeting tomorrow and have a good lift and a good talk about these last two weeks moving forward, taking them one at a time. This is a great opportunity for us to go get a win. I’m sure they’re saying the same thing. But believe me, we will not take it for granted. We’re not good enough to take it for granted. We’re going to have to get gritty and move this program forward. I’m proud of these guys and in full faith that we’re getting closer to where we need to be, we just need to take care of some of the details.”

His message to this New Mexico State team

“Without sharing too much, I told them, we talked about being grateful. We talked about being grateful before the game for the opportunities. God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. You talk about faith all the time, we talk about it constantly. If you truly have faith, this is where you got to lean into it. You got to lean into each other. You got to lean into your teammates, you got to lean into the program, you got to lean into one another. Life is going to throw a lot of different things at you. When things get tough, if you’re someone who turns and runs for the hills, it’s going to be a rough life. Football reflects life. These are great opportunities. We got another coming up on Saturday.

“And again, it’s not like we’re sitting here running around getting our doors blown off. Our guys are playing well, they’ve played some really good football at times, we got to put it all together. Obviously, now, there’s only eight quarters for this team to exist. But how are we going to send these seniors out? These guys are going to put their pads up for the last time, what are they going to do for the future of this program? Where are they going to leave it? We have some great opportunities ahead of us. It’s just having faith, caring about each other, loving each other, leaning into each other and playing for each other this coming up Saturday.”