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STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 24, 2015

David Shaw

Stanford, California

Washington - 14 Stanford - 31

COACH SHAW: First of all, I think our guys played really well. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. A lot of things we could have done better. But some of it had to do with Washington. Washington is a very, very underrated football team, and I'm not just saying that because we won the game tonight.

If you really watch the game, they're physical. I know Coach Petersen's doing a phenomenal job there. I love the running back. He's got a chance to be really, really special.

Our guys kept fighting. Like I said, we weren't perfect, missed a couple things here offensively, let a couple things go there defensively. But our guys are fighting, they're battling. We talked about being a second-half football team. The second half of football games in the second half of the season. That's where our training shows up, that's where our mentality shows up, and the guys did that tonight.

They played really well, not perfectly, but we're trying to improve every week from here on out.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH SHAW: Absolutely. We talked about it. When you watched film, there is a reason why statistically these guys are really up there in our conference and in the nation. They don't give up a lot of big plays. We were able to get a couple tonight with great efforts by our quarterback and Christian McCaffrey. They don't give up a lot of big plays, so we knew there were going to have to be some eight, nine, ten, 12 play drives. If we want to score, we have to be methodical and systematical and convert on third downs and find a way to create some yardage because they don't give up a whole bunch.

So I give a lot of credit to the mentality of our football team. The maturity of our football team, and knowing that we're not going to rip off 30-yard runs and 50-yard passes play after play after play. It was going to be hard. It was going to you tough sledding. We had to stay with our plan and our guys did a good job.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH SHAW: It's been pretty big, it's been pretty big. And you know, Kevin made that decision, and he of course thought about it for a while and talked to his mom about it. We had one brief conversation about it before he really wanted to think about it. Bottom line for him was he couldn't imagine not being at Stanford this year. He couldn't imagine not being here with these guys and this team, which once again, it's a very, very selfless way to think of it. It's not just about being a superstar.

He knew what we were going to do. He knew we were going to be balanced. He wasn't coming here to break a whole bunch of passing records. He wanted to come back and play with these guys. This is a really, really good group of guys and football players.

His leadership, I think, has been huge for us. He's been as efficient as any quarterback in college football over the last month and a half. He just really has. Making great decisions, little bit behind that last throw there, taking a shot there, but you really watch him play, and not make a lot of mistakes. He's come up with some really nice balls, given a guy a chance to make some plays.

Then he's back, even with the bad ankle, he's back to being hard to tackle. He broke three a couple times with some nice runs and an extended drive. I couldn't be more proud of where Kevin is right now.

Q. Coach, Garnett and Murphy had a (No microphone) (No microphone)?
COACH SHAW: I think biggest thing is looking at four out of the five in the last recruiting class with Casey Tucker being the one exception. And last year having high aspirations for those guys, and really setting the bar high. I don't think we've reached those aspirations last year. This year with a lot more maturity, Coach Bloomgren has done a phenomenal job with those guys technique-wise and system-wise, as well as getting them and pushing them to reach their potential.

In particular, Garnett and Murphy right now are playing at a high level. Graham Shuler over the last month of the season is playing the best football of his career along with Johnny Caspers. So just talking about those guys from that one class have grown, matured and starting to become what we anticipated them becoming when we recruited this group.

Q. (No microphone) you've won quite a few of them at home now. Actually I think you've got the best streak in the country. How is playing so many of these types of games here give you an advantage? Is it much different playing at night than during the afternoon?
COACH SHAW: Oh, it's a huge difference. I don't know if it's an advantage or not. I think our guys have played extremely well. Our guys take it seriously whenever we play at the home, no matter what time. We have a really good home record over the last four-plus years.

I think the stadium's also really, really beautiful in the sunlight. But they just tell us what time to play and we show up and play, and our guys have done a really good job.

Q. Another great performance by Christian tonight, 300 more all purpose --
COACH SHAW: It took you guys that long to ask a Christian McCaffrey question?

Q. I know it. I don't know what's taken everybody so long. What more can you say about this young man, and are you ready to start promoting him as a Heisman candidate?
COACH SHAW: I'm at the point where I don't know what else I can say other than watch him. Just watch him. He's so quick; he's so explosive. The little guy never gets tired. He gets pounded, he gets hit, he gets blown up on a kickoff return and we want to sub him and take him out just to see if he's okay, and he comes up with a smile on his face and says, Coach, I'm fine. We put him back out there, and he gets after it again.

I know Barry J. Sanders came in and did a nice job as well. Just the time we really want to sell Christian, but he's special as a runner, as a receiver, as a returner. He's just fun to watch. He's fun to call plays for because we don't have to be perfect. Couple plays tonight weren't blocked perfectly, but he made big runs. So the hype for that award, that's still down the road. That's still down the road.

We're playing on national TV. People are getting a chance to see him play, which is great. But for us and for him, I congratulate him, kind of gave him a little bump on the chest. He said, Coach, we've got next week. It's all about next week. That is the mentality of him and the mentality of this football team.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH SHAW: I wouldn't say a hundred percent, but it's been nice. Last week he had one play where I saw him plant on that leg and drive and finish direction, which was really nice to see. Happened a few more times today. Still a little stiff. The best thing about it, it doesn't hurt anymore. It's not as sore. But usually the last thing to come back is that explosion, that top speed. I don't know if he's completely back there yet, but he's getting a lot closer. We'll be careful with him this week. Just continue that rehab process until he's back 100%.

Q. You went for fourth down a couple times, converted both times on 4th and short. What was the thinking behind going for the fourth down because obviously it worked out?
COACH SHAW: Well, the big thing that I've said a couple times this year because there have been some dissatisfied customers for me not going for a fourth down, and I've just outed my philosophy, and I'm going to stick to it which is we had a two-score lead with what Remound does. He has a phenomenal knack, as good as anybody I've ever been around with 3rd and short, with our offensive line and the way they're playing, we'll go for it. I feel good.

I feel fine about it being on our own side of the 50 because of the score we had and the way our defense is playing. Now if we're in a 0-0 game or down by one score, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to play field position.

But I trust our guys and believe in our guys and the plan that Coach Bloomberg comes up with. So we get in those positions and we're a two-score lead, somewhere around midfield or plus territory, we're going to go for it.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH SHAW: There is no question. It's all over college football too. I think it's really exemplifying the fact that it's all over college football. One of the national guys I was talking to a couple weeks ago was basically saying, and I kind of agree with him, there is no one true dominant team in college football. There's a lot of good football teams, so if you don't play your best, you have a chance to lose. If you play your best, you have a chance to win week-in and week-out.

The good teams also, they might lose one, but they're going to bounce back. They have to bounce back. That's what happened to us week one, that's what happened to Washington State week one. They came out and played really, really good football the last couple weeks. It should be a really good game.

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