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STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 21, 2015

David Shaw

Stanford, California

California - 22 Stanford - 35

COACH SHAW: Throughout the week, couldn't get him back in the game. Danny Marx, hopefully he'll be back for next week.

Secondly, our seniors. So proud of those guys. We don't have a guy in the program that's lost the Axe. And that was what we talked about all week. We got -- I got the question throughout the week about guys bouncing back, and I'm telling you, it's Cal week. When it's Cal week, we don't worry about anything else. This is a big game, it is the big game and our guys were phenomenal in practice all week. They really wanted this game.

Cal came in and played well. Quarterback played extremely well. We're not used to losing the time of possession. They kept the ball for a long time. They were very efficient. But give Coach Anderson a lot of credit, keeping the ball in front of us, not giving up touchdowns, giving up field goals in the red zone. That was huge. That was huge.

And offensively, and special teams-wise, has anybody seen a running back -- I'll say this, a football player, better than Christian McCaffrey this year? Tell me. Show him to me. I haven't seen anybody.

We played a lot of night games, which we all talked about. So we had a lot of time to sit and watch football. I have not seen anybody in America like this kid. He's truly, truly special. Kickoff returner, runner, receiver, blocker, he got a couple nice blocks today. The kid's just truly, truly special. And our guys know that and they take a lot of pride in blocking for him down the field because the guy makes special, special plays.

Besides that, Bryce Love, just constantly trying to keep him involved, both as a decoy and with the ball in his hands. Boy was he fast. Just truly a special football player, will continue to grow. He's just a young one, as we call him. He's got a chance to be truly special as well.

Finally, really happy for Brennan Scarlett coming over from Cal, a lot of respect from those guys. It was not a contentious thing. It was very understandable why he came across, no disrespect to Cal. They played hard, he played hard. But also the guys wanted to win this one for him also, because we didn't know where we would be right now on this football team without Brennan Scarlett. And it was a good game and he carried the Axe off the field. He was so excited. I'm proud of him and proud of our guys.

Q. How would you say that your speed with Bryce Love and Christian McCaffrey compares on film to other elite speed teams in the nation?
COACH SHAW: I think we have got one heck of a four by one team. I think it's truly special. Between Christian, Barry J. Sanders, Michael Rector, Isaiah Brandt-Sims has come in and done some nice things. Has come in and done some real nice things for us also, and Bryce. It's just a good group.

We've talked so much about increasing our speed really for the last six or seven years. To find those guys that can finish plays. We talked a couple years ago about tired of having 20-yard games, we want 50-yard touchdowns.

And Ty Montgomery did that a lot for us the last couple of years. Christian has done that now. Michael Rector has made big plays. Bryce Love, Barry J. Sanders has made big plays. That's one big emphasis for us is we want to be physical, we want to be tough, but we got to be fast. And I think we continue to add to our speed. A couple young guys who are special also once they get a chance to play.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH SHAW: Absolutely. A couple guys had asked a few weeks ago about whether or not we were going to do that and I tried to be coy because we had been talking about it. Just the fact that having Christian back there, and he's so special knowing that balls are going to get kicked short. So putting Bryce back there with Barry, with Barry, and Remound, so all of our running backs are on the field. So they're all tough guys, they're all great with the ball in their hands, but they're also good blockers.

So here we are with Bryce and Barry and Remound on the field and the ball gets kicked deep and those guys make great blocks. And then Christian just explodes and breaks tackles and does what he does and finishes in the end zone.

So give a lot of credit to Pete Alamar. Something we had been talking about for a while, and I think we'll do some that have the rest of the way.

Q. Were you surprised that Cal kicked off to McCaffrey in the final minute of the first half rather than a short kickoff?
COACH SHAW: Maybe a little bit. There was still a decent enough time and it was a great kick, too. It didn't go in the end zone. So they had a chance, knowing that we weren't going to return it, but if they get us backed up, if they get us three and out, they get the ball back and get a chance to score, get the 2 point -- or not the conversion, sorry, score, kick it and then try another onside kick to try to win the game.

So, it was not a bad decision. It was just a different decision that people were probably expecting. We were, obviously, expecting the kick, but when I saw the time and they kicked it deep it made a lot of sense because it's one thing if you kick it out of the back of the end zone, but now they got a chance to get us inside the 20.

Q. You didn't blitz Goff very much. What was your strategy, especially without Ronnie Harris back there?
COACH SHAW: We mixed it up quite a bit. We did blitz a little bit early. He's too smart, he sees it coming, he double counts and changes the protection.

A couples times we still were coming scot free, but he's got that quick release. He got that ball out pretty quickly. We sent our linebackers quite a few times to come after him. And we hit him a few times, but you're talking about a really, really good, talented quarterback and he got the ball out of his hands.

Q. What were you able to do in the red zone to force them to field goals?
COACH SHAW: I hate the phrase "bend but don't break." Because it sounds very passive. We're not a passive football team.

But, we want to keep the ball in front of us and not giving up the touchdown passes and trying until late in the game. But trying to keep the ball in front of us and get them to third and six in the red zone. Get them to third and five in the red zone. And not give up the touchdown to make them check the ball down and make them kick field goals. And that's, once again, that's -- it's math. If we can go down and score touchdowns and make them kick field goals, eventually, we're going to win.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH SHAW: I'll tell you exactly what I told the guys down in the locker room. To go 8-1 now, 8-1 in the deepest conference in America. That's nothing to sneeze at. People can say whatever they want about the four-team playoff and where people are ranked all that stuff is fine. Whatever.

Everyone knows we got the deepest conference in America. And we just went 8-1 and lost a tight one to Oregon, who is also one of the best teams in America. Make no mistake about it.

So, I'm proud of our guys. This is a tough road that we have traveled in our conference, the toughest nine-game schedule in America.

But then again, hey, we got to where we wanted, which is the PAC-12 championship game. We get to put the PAC-12 in a little bit of a box right now and put it up on the shelf for a week and go play a really, really good football team in Notre Dame next week. We got to start getting ready as soon as we wake up tomorrow morning.

Q. This game was a little different in that you didn't have your usual sort of 50/50 mix of passing and running. What went through your mind to essentially have an all-run game?
COACH SHAW: Well, we have a lot of plays that are run and pass options. And the run options where we put it in Kevin's hands and he did a great job diagnosing what they were in and we took a couple shots early with Michael Rector, we had a couple things, Devon Cajuste, we did a couple nice things, but when we're running the ball the way that we're running it and they weren't dropping down necessarily, they played a little bit tight, but they weren't dropping eight guys in the box for us to go one and one outside. And the runs were great.

The biggest issue we had was getting them off the field. I thought we had a pretty good run/pass mix until we were running out of clock. But then we crack a big screen pass to Christian, we crack a big run, so we had a lot of big plays, we didn't have a lot of plays. But the bottom line is they finished up in the end zone.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH SHAW: A lot of credit to the entire coaching staff because we recruit regionally, each guy has a different region across the nation and we have recruited very well. We're really deep on the defensive backs, corners and safeties. Duane Akina key in a does a phenomenal job with those guys. So we lose Elijah during the course of the game also, so now our two starting corners are out and Terrence Alexander went out there and played great. Alameen Murphy went out there and played great. Quinton Meeks continues to grow every single week. He's got a chance to be a special football player. Our safeties did a great job keeping those guys organized because there's a bunch of young guys out there so it was nice to have two fourth-year seniors back there organizing everybody, but those guys went out there and they met the challenge. It's a very, very tough challenge. We didn't get all the interceptions that we wanted to get, didn't get all the sacks we wanted, but we kept the ball in front of us, we didn't give up the big play, our guys played very, very smart, sound football and helped us get to a victory.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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