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STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 8, 2018David ShawStanford, California Stanford -17 USC - 3 DAVID SHAW: It was a good game. It was a good game, it was a physical game. We talked about how difficult it was going to be. Two pretty evenly matched teams. And I don't know if you saw my post game comments right after the game, we can't help it, right. I noticed a lot of people can't help it, that it is the tough guys at Stanford against the athletes of USC. But I think athletically we're pretty evenly matched. I think the game, some guys made some big plays, from the defensive secondary, Paulson Abedo played really well. Thought it was great to see Alijah back. It was, obviously, great to get all of our guys back. But it was two evenly matched teams that played really hard. Can't commend Bryce Love enough. His patience, his toughness, breaking tackles, getting two yards when there was two yards there, getting two yards sometimes when two yards weren't there and then the big runs happen. We know that about him. A lot of credit to USC. They made it really, really difficult. The game, with the corner blitzes and the guys in the A gaps and the movement, they did a great job. Coach Carberry, Coach Tavita Pritchard, I thought helped with a good game plan, and then we always know there are going to be adjustments. We had to make a lot of adjustments not just at halftime, kind of quarter by quarter. Did a great job. Lance Anderson -- I said it last week, I'll say it again this week -- just does outstanding job preparing our guys, putting them in position to be successful and let our guys go there and play fast. Loved to see what we did up front. Thought we played well. We still some young guys that are learning, but we made a lot of plays. And Joey Alfieri, again, shows up. Bob Okereke again shows up. Mustafa Branch shows up. It's a whole group. All those guys. And I challenged them again to play better. It's only game two. It's only game two. We're going to get too many pats on the back this week, I know that, that's fine, that's what happens when you win. But we can be so much better. And that's our charge, to see how good we can be, week after week. Questions. Q. You gave up, in the two losses to USC last year you gave up something like 1100 yards and 73 points. What were the big differences tonight, would you say? DAVID SHAW: The short answer is we played a lot better. We didn't give up the explosive passes. I think we gave up one or technically three explosive passes, but when the game was in doubt we gave up one. That was a big part of it. Secondly, we ran the ball a little bit better. Bryce still broke a couple runs the last time, but I think we ran the ball with a little bit more consistency. We played more plays, we had better pass protection. And as I told our guys this earlier, like, yeah, they beat us twice last year. Before that, we beat them three times in a row that. Before that they beat us twice in a row. Before that we beat them four times in a row. This is a great rivalry. These are big games, these are great games, and it's going to continue that way. They're a little young right now. They're going to be better at the end of the year than they are right now, I promise you that. And I want to see this rivalry getting more and more exciting. Q. What were your first impressions of JT Daniels, and what was your defense doing to confuse him? DAVID SHAW: I don't know that we confused him. We tried to pressure him. Now, what I will give Clay and his staff a lot of credit for is Tee Martin, the offensive coordinator, they ran the ball well. They ran the ball well. And that's what you want to do to take some pressure off a quarterback. You run the ball well. They were getting chunks, they were moving the ball. They gave him some quick, some easy passes, they gave him some play action passes where he was fully protected and the kid made some plays. And I have all the respect in the world for him. Wait until this kid plays four or five more games. He's going to get better and better and better. But once again, I commend our defensive staff for the pressure that we got on him when we needed it. Our guys played fast. I challenged our guys at the beginning of the year and we have a saying around here about having parties in the back field, and I don't think we were that team last year. But I challenged them to be that team this year. And it's not just one guy getting there, it's groups of guys getting there. And there was a couple of plays tonight where he was getting harassed by multiple guys. That's our plan. We've got to make sure we stop the run better than we did tonight, but continue to improve there. And get people into third downs and then attack the passer. Q. The fourth down late in the first half when you guys go down and score, how did that sequence sort of change the way the game got played in the second half, giving you the two touchdown lead? DAVID SHAW: There were some smart football coaches over there. They knew they were taking a chance for the that fourth down. So what you do when you want to make a smart play, it's what you do when you want to try to get points on the board because it's in that area where it's probably going to lead to points. If they get it, could lead to points for them, if they don't get, it leads to points for us. But it's also the reason why, and I don't have any statistical data as to percentages and all this, stuff, but it's the reason we take the ball. We take the ball at the beginning of the game. We try to score first like we did, we try to play great defense, and get one more possession at the end of the first half and score again. And then come out, kick off, play great defense, get the ball back and try to score. And those are, that's the formula that has worked for us. So thankfully we were able to get a great defensive stop, those guys did great job, we turned the ball back around, and we've got our tight ends and we've got Arcega-Whiteside, and we've got a great running back, we get the ball in positive field position, we have a chance to score points. Q. What did you tell your team at halftime? DAVID SHAW: I didn't worry about the shutout. I just wanted us to play better. I thought -- we had a two-score lead, and I thought we honestly could have extended it. And same thing in the second half. We gave up, I mean, two more opportunities to put points on the board and we didn't get them. But that's the challenge. The challenge is for us to focus on us and not to focus on our opponent. We had them down by two scores, we should have had them down by three scores. And we missed an opportunity, they came back and put three points on the board. We came back again and put three points back on the board. So all in all I thought we played well and we can play so much better. Q. You had Alijah Holder back, but you also had Malik Antoine back and he had two picks, including the one in the end zone, which was obviously a key play in the game. Can you talk a little bit about what he adds to your defense? DAVID SHAW: From the day that we moved Malik from corner to safety last spring it was just really weird. He was always around the ball. Forced in fumbles, picking up a fumble, deflecting a pass, intercepting a pass, just being around it he's got instincts, he's got great feel, he's got great ball skills. He's just one of those guys that you just, wherever you put him he ends up being productive. There's certain players -- and one of my conversations I had with Bill Walsh a long time ago, he talked about the most important thing is instincts. It's those things you can't coach. And this guy is always around the ball. He pushes himself to be great. I have to give a lot of credit to Justin Reid. From the moment those two met, both from down south, both from Louisiana, and Justin showed this young man how to work. Showed him how to study. I would constantly see them together, would constantly see them coming out of the film room together. Just -- and he's taken that work ethic, he's taken those leadership skills and pushed himself to be a really good player. And I feel the same way about him as I do with K.J. The ceiling is really, really high for Malik. Glad to have him back, got to continue to keep him healthy. He is still not a hundred percent, but he played really well. Q. Any word yet on how badly Foster Sarell was hurt? DAVID SHAW: Not sure yet. Q. You talk a lot about staying on schedule, getting really manageable third downs, but a lot of big plays tonight were on third and not very friendly distances. Can you just talk about what K.J. brings and kind of the approach to that down and distance this year? DAVID SHAW: There have been different times here, just on age and experience of the quarterback, that on third and long we got to be really careful. Happened last week and happened again this week. Made a lot of big plays on third down. I think we're pass protecting very well right now and we have got a quarterback that has an outstanding arm and has a great feel for relationships and we've got guys that can go get it. So last couple weeks, both K.J. -- with J.J., K.J., with Kaden, I want to say Colby made a big play on third down. Trenton Irwin made a big play on third down. So to have a group of guys that can make these plays on third down and a group of guys that will pass protect, including Bryce once again, that we can get to a third and seven, to third and 11 and still be able to take a shot down the field and know that we have got a good matchup, we have got size, we have got speed, we have got athleticism, that we can make some plays. Q. From your perspective, how much of the first two games does facing two really quality defenses versus an offense trying to find its rhythm and find maybe its identity? DAVID SHAW: A little bit of both. A little bit of both. San Diego State has been a nationally ranked defense, I think, since Rocky's second year there. They have always been good. We respect them in that a way. This defense, Clancy, at the helm, is always going to be good, it always going to be challenging, it's always going to be tough. So we didn't expect to put up 500 yards total offense and just go crazy, we expected it to be hard. We also expected ourselves to make some plays and we did that and I think we can make some more. Q. Last week the defense gave up only 10 points. This week only 3. How does this year's defense compare to some of the elite defenses that you've had in the past? DAVID SHAW: That's a hard question to answer two games in. I challenged our guys, also, it was we're going to go up too high in the rankings, that's just what's going to happen. So we can't worry about that. We've got to look at the things that we didn't do well and improve on those. Still think we gave up too many yards, too many chunk plays running the ball. I think we can play better there. Most important thing, things I'll say, plural, for the defense, playing great on first down, playing great on third down, playing great in the red zone. And I thought we were pretty good on first down, I thought we were really good on third down, and then we were great in the red zone. So it's -- for a team like that to keep them out of the end zone and force two field goals and only get one made, that's a great defense. Q. I'm sure you thought it was coming eventually, but was it early to see Bryce break that 25-yarder and then get in the end zone on the first drive after what happened last week? DAVID SHAW: Yes. Outside of just trying to win the game and putting guys in position to make plays, you can't help to root -- but root for guys, and for Bryce to get into a rhythm. Because when he gets into a rhythm everybody else is better. When teams are trying to stop him, we can make plays all over the place. But even when they're trying to stop him, we're still going to hand him the ball. Because a couple of those really nice runs it wasn't completely clean, you know, we flipped the ball out to him in space, he made a great run there, still made a little -- he was almost too fast to notice, a little stutter step move that freezes the guy and he accelerates away from him. It's beautiful to watch. This guy has got so much ability in speed and space, we love it. It was good to see him get going and it just makes everything else better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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