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STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 30, 2014David ShawUC DAVIS – 0 STANFORD - 45 COACH SHAW: I'll start off by saying that I'm proud the way the guys started the game. I thought we were physical. I thought we paid attention to detail. It was not perfect early on. I know Kevin would love to have that interception back. It was a great play by the defensive back, right on Francis's back, jumped in front of him, made a great play. Besides that, I thought we ran the ball well. I thought Ty Montgomery showed everybody what kind of shape he is in, what kind of talent he is, the different things he can do as a runner, receiver, returner. Dynamic playmaker. Defensively, we came out with that attitude. I give a lot of credit to Lance Anderson getting the guys ready to play, playing within the scheme, playing together. We have an old group, tight knit group that trusts each other. They trust Lance and he trusts them. I thought David Parry played outstanding today. And A.J. Tarpley was all over the place. And it was great to see our defensive backs come up and be physical. Defended the deep ball. But they came up and were physical, which is great to see. Proud of Noor Davis. Noor Davis has come so far to make plays all over the field. Blake Martinez was great starting out. He played a good game. And then Noor came in which was awesome also. I'm excited about what we did on offense and defense that first half. Second half, we're going to have some conversations about the second half. And we need our efficiency to be much higher on the offensive side regardless of who plays. Q. Coach, thoughts on your running game and blocking the offense the line, new starters. COACH SHAW: A lot of new starters. And it's tough to say exactly because we had some efficient runs. We had some good, tough, physical runs. Had runners bounce out, make some nice plays. Barry made a heck of a run late in the first half. And Remound Wright came in, had a nice little run off the right side. There were some holes we ran in. Kelsey Young came out, made one explosive play that was outstanding. We need to be efficient. And we need to be consistent. That's the thing with a bunch of new starters. They're all talented. But we've got every single play matters. Ever single play is vital. And hopefully we've learned from that. Q. We saw Ty line up in a lot of different spots, returned punts for the first time. When you have a player who is so versatile, what kind of weapon can that be for an offense? COACH SHAW: That's the thing, Ty started off last year, was so dynamic. He got a chance to impact every single game. This year, we know people are going to key on him. We want to have the versatility to put him anywhere and everywhere. Saw him line up in the wildcat, punt return, kickoff return, receiver. We can put him anywhere and everywhere in the slot to the field, outside into the boundary, outside. We're going to put him anywhere and everywhere because he's that kind of a player. And what I love about Ty he's also extremely humble. Wants to help the team wherever the team is, whatever he can do to help the team, because he'll be the first to go in there blow a hellacious block like he did earlier today. He wants to be a complete football player. Q. Were you expecting that kind of game from Christian McCaffrey in his first college game? COACH SHAW: The answer should be no. But the answer is yes. I've said it to a couple of you guys after practices kind of under my breath that Christian's had a good camp. You see now why. When we came back from the summer, coaches came back into town, getting ready for training camp. The players, the old guys, fourth and fifth year guys, which you never hear, they came out and say I can't wait to watch Christian McCaffrey play. These are guys, fourth and fifth‑year seniors, telling me they can't wait to see a true freshman play. You see why. He's dynamic. He's tough, physical. And for the record, so everybody knows, I tried to pull him out. I tried to pull him off of kickoff after that long touchdown reception, because he ran a long way, he looked at me and smiled and said I'm not coming off. He goes down on kickoff and makes the next tackle. That's the kind of football player he is. He's dynamic. He's exciting. And he's willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win. Q. Could I ask the same question about Austin Hooper and his first game? COACH SHAW: Absolutely. Hooper started last spring. Was excellent last spring. Didn't get the start tonight for an in‑house reason. But he's our Y. And he's done a great job. He's a physical blocker. Wasn't perfect today, but he's the kind of dynamic athlete. I've set the bar really, really high for him. I don't mind telling you guys. The bar for him is Jimmy Dray, what Jimmy Dray did for us here when we first started, setting the physical tone at the line of scrimmage, tight end, and being a receiving threat. And Austin's taken that to heart, hard worker, physical guy. But you can see what kind of pass receiver he can be. Q. I hate to bring up one negative thing and that is how disappointed were you in Devon Cajuste and his suspension? COACH SHAW: I told guys a bunch of times, disappointed from my position is not complicated. Devon knows how much I care about him and how much I want success for him on and off the field. This is a one‑game situation. Violation of team rules. And now we get ready for USC and he's passed it. We're passed it as a program. And now we start on Monday with no eyes into the past, eyes forward. He'll be the starting X against USC next week. Q. Going into USC, when does that prep start for you? I know Monday for the players. COACH SHAW: Started 20 minutes ago. Q. When you say "20 minutes ago," is there anything you can point to tangibly? COACH SHAW: The big thing is mentality. More than anything else, as a head coach, that's what I talk about. I don't talk about Xs and Os. I talk about mentality. I talk about what it takes to be a successful program, for each individual to be a successful student‑athlete. And right now that's our approach is we've got a big game next week. And if we're a good football team we've got a lot of big games coming up. This game's at home. Some of them are on the road. For us, we can't care about what it is or who it is but we have to recognize that it's time to play big‑time college football. We've got a good opponent coming in next week. Q. Specifically Leonard Williams at USC, how does he match up nationally for them? COACH SHAW: I haven't seen everybody. It's early in the season. But I'd be surprised if there's a better defensive player in America. Dynamic, explosive. And it sounds like the head coach at Stanford is trying to lay a trap for USC. It's not at all. That's not at all. You ask any NFL scout, because a lot of those guys have come through, and you ask them the question who is the best offensive player you've seen, who is the best defensive player you've seen. A lot of them, some of them said Ty on the offense. Some said some other guys, which is great. All of them said Leonard Williams at USC. It's not just me, everybody sees it. Q. Is that a game, matchup with him, undisputed something that we'll see him in the NFL some day? COACH SHAW: No question about it. But I think it can't be 5 on 1. Somebody's going to have to single block him during the course of the game. Hopefully we can double team as much as possible because he deserves a double team. But there will be times when we have to single block him. It will be tough. The backs will have to help. We'll have to be able to keep a great player at bay. Q. Can you address Jordan Williamson after the Fiesta Bowl heart break, now the school's leading scorer career‑wise, talk about Jordan? COACH SHAW: I think it's a lesson not for athletes, not for athletes. Athletes understand it. There are ups and downs and highs and lows. We close ranks as well as anybody. When a guy has a tough time, we'll close ranks, put our arms around him, build him back up. For me it's a lesson to football fans and fans of athletes and sports fanatics out there. You can't live and die with every play. We can't live and die with every game. There are a lot of people that had thrown Jordan on the scrap heap. He's done. Why don't we have somebody else? And you look up a couple years later, after a couple of game‑winning kicks, a couple of crunch‑time field goals as well as crunch‑time kickoffs, where he put the ball at the back of the end zone in big games, big moments. Now he's the all‑time leading scorer in the history of Stanford football. Look at all the names on the wall, all those All‑Americans, the first round draft picks, and those great players that have played here, he's the all‑time leading scorer in the history of the game. That's a lesson that we don't live and die with one quick or one play ever. Q. I know a lot of this was a product of field position, but you had scoring drives of nine seconds, 53seconds, 2:58. 25seconds and six seconds. Are you turning into the Oregon Ducks? COACH SHAW: I didn't expect that question. I usually can expect the questions you throw at me. But, you know, I never look at that. I never look at that. That is in my opinion, it's a waste of time. What that means to me, though, we've got explosive football players. You've got a Christian McCaffrey that can score anywhere from the field and a Ty Montgomery and Michael Rector that can score from anywhere on the field. We have explosive big tight ends. You saw all of our tight ends make some plays today. They can make big plays in space. Saw what Barry Sanders can do in space. We've got dynamic athletes that we're not going to put a clock on every series like some people do and some people tout. We know no matter where the ball is with the athletes we have on our team right now, we can score quickly and from anywhere. It doesn't have to be on a pass play, can be a run right up the gut. Give Kelsey Young the lane and he'll take off and go. Q. I know a lot of the preseason and early season rankings are as much about generating tickets as much as the products on the field, obviously. But this isn't your first rodeo. You had a lot of really good teams. Your team, 11th in the country, preseason. Do you think that's about fair? Too high, too low, based on what you have seen today? COACH SHAW: It might sound crass, but rankings don't matter at least until mid‑season. If not late season. Heard an old coach tell me one time: Preseason rankings are like toilet paper. Only difference is toilet paper is actually useful. But they belong in the same place. The games start and the games matter. Once you start your conference play, that's when the season starts and we get into it and it's tough and it's physical. And every team is going to have ups and downs. And mark it down, the team that wins our conference might not be undefeated. The team that wins a National Championship might not be undefeated. But conferences are stacked. There's a lot of great football being played all over the country. It's hard to gauge, especially after nobody's played a game, how good anybody is. It's hard to gauge after one game, two, games, I think seven, eight games down the road you start to have an idea who the best teams are in the nation because everybody is going to grow. I hope for our team that we're better four weeks from now than we are today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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