Monty talks about tomorrow's matchup against ASU (and their excellent defense).

On Arizona State's defense

It's a pure matchup, and the easiest way to describe it is a switching man-to-man. They switch everything. It's different. It's not a zone per say, but it is a zone. They do a real good job on the ball, and since it's what they do all the time, they've gotten very good at it. They play very hard in it and people have had difficulty with it. You have to screen it a little bit. You have to drive it, put it down on the floor and try to force help situations. You have to cut, you can't stand because they're going to match up regardless. You have to move around.

On back-to-back road weeks

It's just a fatigue thing. We're still never really sure who we're going to have at practice and who we're going to have available to us. The fact that we play Sunday, it's interesting that you have a back-to-back road trip and they have you play on a Sunday, as compared to letting you go home on Sunday. It could hurt you confidence wise, not having that comfort level of coming home. But at some point you have to get your road games out of the way.

On the injured/sick players

Markhuri is out (for Thursday's game). His back is in bad shape. For some reason, we've got kids getting sick all the time. We'll just have to take it day-to-day. I just don't know these days. Jorge was tired yesterday, but he worked hard. It was good to see him get back out there. His conditioning is pretty poor right now. I would guess he would bounce back, but it's pretty bad right now because he hasn't done anything for three weeks.

On Omondi Amoke

When you come off the bench, sometimes you aren't sure how much you're going to play, so you come in with a lot of energy. You might get a little complacent as a starter, thinking you can pace yourself a little bit more. You don't want that. You want them to come out with that same energy. We don't have a lot of options right now, in terms of big guys, so he's going to have to play a lot of minutes. His best asset is his energy and his ability to get to balls.  

After the jump Syd impresses NFL scouts, a couple recruits keep Cal in their sights, MSF will miss this weekend's games, Lexi earns Pac-10 Player of the Week honors, and more.

Cal Football

• Syd'Quan Thompson and Tyson Alualu are participating in the Senior Bowl on Saturday at noon.  Look for it on the NFL Network.
• Despite initial concerns about size, NFL scouts have been very impressed with Syd's cover skills, toughness, and hard hits.
• Gabe King's HS coach says King is still deciding between Cal and Oregon.  He is no longer considering USC.
• El Camino College WR Kenbrell Thompson is still considering Cal.