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STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 15, 2016

David Shaw

Stanford - 17, Notre Dame - 10

DAVID SHAW: Now, it was a heck of a college football game. Emotional, physical, hard-fought on both sides. Both sides made plays. Both sides made mistakes. That's what happens when you're coaching college kids, and both teams, I think, are very talented and have some inexperience. I think both teams are going to be very good in the coming years.

As for our side, defensively we won the game. Lance Anderson did a phenomenal job, the defensive coaching staff, getting turnovers, standing up when we needed them to, pressuring the quarterback pretty much more so than we have outside of one other game this year. Played really well.

Offensively just the inefficiency drives me nuts. Drives me nuts, and we could be so much better. We moved the ball in the first half as well as we have all year, probably better than we have all year, and missed field goal and two turnovers. It's unacceptable, unacceptable.

The quarterback position right now, we did not play well, did not play well. I thought we've been growing. Both guys have been growing and learning each week, and we did not play well this week. That's the bottom line, it's the truth, and both guys can play better.

But for us, the second-half mantra that we continued to say was keep playing hard, good things happen. Just keep playing hard. Don't worry about the last play, don't worry about the mistake you just made, just keep playing hard, and we started to feel it on the sidelines, a feeling we haven't felt for like a month, of confidence and energy and passion. Guys played hard. They played hard until the end, even when Notre Dame was moving the ball, our guys believed and trusted, and we said, there's no time to be tired. Can't be tired. It's time to play our best football, and thankfully at the end of the game, guys made some plays to finish the game out.

Questions?

Q. When did you find out that Christian McCaffrey was not going to play and how did you feel Bryce Love did as his replacement?
DAVID SHAW: Well, all week we knew it was going to be Friday. Christian has nothing to prove to us. He's not one of those guys that needs a ton of reps. If he could get out and run on Friday and go full speed, which we're going to test him, he was going to play. Couldn't do it, just couldn't do it, couldn't get anywhere near it. Now, there's a good shot next week. There's a chance next week. Just couldn't go today.

It would be great to have a bye week, but ours has already passed in our schedule at some point, but that's just not going to happen. He'll be day-to-day again with the tag questionable for next week. But I know with a couple days' rest, we'll be able to check him again probably on Tuesday to see how close he is.

Q. How about Love?
DAVID SHAW: Bryce Love, this is the first time we've really been able to see it, and I've been saying it, those that have followed us, what is Bryce Love? Bryce Love is a running back. He's an every-down back. He's a physical runner, he's an explosive runner. He's not a small back by any stretch of the imagination. You see how he runs through tackles, he's physical, he's strong. For a guy who's under six foot, he can push the pile and drive his legs. I'm not surprised at all by the yardage, and probably could have had a few more.

But it doesn't surprise me. We knew what we had in Bryce, and it was just one of those days whenever Christian couldn't play, we were going to get a chance to see him with 20-plus carries, and we saw that tonight, and he did a heck of a job.

Q. Taboada and Meeks coming back this week, how much of the improved play tonight was just a factor of getting your guys back?
DAVID SHAW: That's part of it, and we still have a couple more that need to come back David Bright went out and Casey Tucker had to go back in, so every time we get a guy coming back we lose a guy, so we had two guys coming back and losing Christian McCaffrey. It's just been one of those years for us. But Quenton Meeks, Quenton Meeks is a ball hawk. We saw that last year, his true freshman year. He's got great instincts on top of his physical tools. He's long, he's physical, he's smart, and he's got a feel for the ball.

Great to have Taboada back. We put him in a couple situations running the ball and did a great job, and then we needed a big play in the passing game and he came through and made one big play, probably had a chance for another one, but it's just good to have those guys back, a full complement of our players, and at some point hopefully this season we'll have that, but it's good to have guys coming back.

Q. Did you happen to have time to notice just what Christian was able to contribute on the sidelines tonight?
DAVID SHAW: Oh, I heard him. I heard him. We talked the other day, and -- he's funny; he said, You know me, Coach, I'm not going to be moping on the sidelines now. I said, I didn't think you would be. He was energetic, he was fired up, he had a smile on his face, he was cheering his guys on, pushing his guys, and that's just what we expect, and it just shows you what kind of a person he is. He's not just a great player, he's a great teammate, and he's so excited for those guys, and he's probably one of the loudest guys in the locker room after the victory. He loves his teammates, and he's passionate for their successes, and hopefully we'll get him back on the field soon.

Q. You guys were moving the ball but you got down around the 30, 35 four or five times and drives stalled. What changed on that last touchdown drive?
DAVID SHAW: Bryce Love. You know? And the guys up front. One of our better games up front for the offensive line this season. We had one heck of a drive against UCLA. They played really well against USC, and we've been kind of up and down the last couple weeks, partially because we played against two really good fronts. The Washington front is one of the best in the nation, Washington State I think is very underrated and we had trouble with those guys. They played well tonight. We put the pressure on them. We said, we're going to run the ball, and we need you guys to sustain your blocks and give the guys a lane to run, and they played well. Proud of Coach Bloomgren, the game plan, challenging those guys up front because we needed them to play well, and they did tonight.

Q. When did you tell Bryce he was going to start and what was his reaction?
DAVID SHAW: Bryce doesn't react. He always has just like a half smile on his face. He said, okay. I mean, just no surprise. He's a sophomore. He's played in a lot of football games. He knows what his capability is. When Christian is healthy, he's a bit of a complementary back. He would have had more carries by now, but he started off the season injured, and we've been working him back in. Thankfully Christian was able to stay healthy because if it happened three weeks ago, Bryce probably wouldn't have been able to carry this load, but he was healthy and ready to go, and late in the game, I said, you don't have the right to be tired. You can't be tired. He said, Coach, I'm not tired. It was great to see him. Hopefully we get Christian back and we have -- hopefully we believe one of the best one-two punch running backs, group of running backs in the nation, so hopefully we get to see that going forward.

Q. What was your reaction when you saw Malik Zaire come in in the second half, and does anything change for you guys defensively depending on what quarterback Notre Dame was playing?
DAVID SHAW: No, nothing changes for us. Both quarterbacks are capable. Both quarterbacks have strong arms. Both quarterbacks are great athletes. Not good athletes, great athletes, so for both of them we had to be ready for the quarterback run. DeShone Kizer had a heck of a run early in the game, a couple of runs and scrambles in the game, so both of those guys are athletic. We just had to play our defense and try to play as sound as possible.

Q. 12 tackles for Solomon Thomas tonight. What are your initial thoughts on what he was able to do?
DAVID SHAW: Great player, shows up when you need him to. That was in the locker room at the end of last game, that was throughout the entire week. His work ethic, I'm so fortunate as a football coach to go out every day and see guys like Christian McCaffrey and Solomon Thomas just work and push themselves, and when your best players are your hardest workers, you always have a chance. Solomon, he challenged the football team, and he responded, and that's what leaders do. Leaders don't just challenge everybody else, they challenge themselves, too, and he came out with the mindset to play his best football game, and he just may have.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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