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STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 6, 2018

David Shaw

Stanford, California

Utah - 40, Stanford - 21

HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: First of all, lost to a very good football team in Utah. Coach Winningham has done a great job for years there with their football team, their philosophy, their toughness, their effort. Great job by them. Great job.

We knew what expect and there were times where we played well and too many times where we didn't. The key to the game for us is a couple things, No. 1, we've got to stop the run better. We have to stop them from running the football. I don't know how many 100-yard rushes we've had this year but it's more than we're used to.

Talked about the young defensive line -- they are not young anymore. We have to play better up front. We have to stop the front. Secondly, we have to run the football. I'm sure some people in this room will write, and some people outside of this room will write, that change will be due -- throw the ball all over the yard. Those people don't know me. Those people don't understand this program. Those people don't understand what it's taken to get where we are, and how many games that we've won with the philosophy that we have. It's a proven philosophy.

We played well today in spurts. Can't turn the ball over twice in the red zone and not give up points. We kicked two field goals; it's a completely different ballgame.

Defensively, we got enough stops to make them kick a couple field goals. But at the end of the day, got a quarterback in our sights, we have to get him on the ground. We have a guy covered, we have to take cover. We have to stay up. Can't throw the ball while we're getting sacked. Can't throw the ball flat when we need a jump ball. Pretty straightforward. We need this bye. We have a lot of guys including, Bryce Love, that are banged up that we need to get healthy. Looking forward to some days off. Let's take care of our guys and get them back and get ready in a week and a half for Arizona State.

Questions.

Q. The struggles to run the ball this year, do you think K.J. Costello is perhaps in a situation where he's trying to do too much, maybe might explain some of the errant throws?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: The one for sure, the play where he's getting tackled. We got a field goal if he just takes it back. He tried to throw the ball up -- that one for sure.

Most of the rest of the evening, outside of the ball he threw to Jay that got intercepted, I thought he played well. He gave guys chances to make plays. Made some really, really tight coverage throws that were outstanding.

Those two plays were really rough and I know he'd love to have them back. But yeah, we'll take a quarterback who is still growing and learning. He's not there yet. He's getting closer. He's not there yet. But just a couple places where he could have done a little better, but all in all, for the night, after being down, we have to throw the ball, he marches down the field multiple times.

Q. At what point did you realize that Bryce was not going to be able to play in this game?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Honestly, this morning. This morning. He did a couple workout this week. Early in the week, he felt pretty decent. I think he was really -- he really wanted to play. I had to put him through a couple of work outs that were not intensive that he was able to complete but then was really sore afterwards.

I think if we played in a couple more days, he probably would have been ready to go. In an emergency situation, yeah, he might have gone out there but he might have set himself back. Like I said this is not a long-term thing for Bryce. He should be raring to go against Arizona State and hopefully the rest of the year.

Q. You talked about wanting to be able to lean on the maturity of this team. Have they shown in games what you would expect from them, given that experience level of avoiding some of the mistakes you've talked about?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: That's a really good question. I would say we are 80 to 85 percent there maturity-wise, which is a B to a B minus, which is not bad but it's not our standard. I expect more. The coaches expect more. Our leaders on the football team expect more.

I hope you hear what I'm saying. It's not just about winning the football game. We play our best and lose, hey, that's great. It hurts when I think we can play better, and we don't and that's where we are right now. That's up to me. That's up to me to make sure that we get to the point where this football team is playing our best football and usually by now, we are, and we are not. That's on me.

Q. How would you evaluate the offensive line play through the first six weeks?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Below our standards, and there are a lot of reasons. There are a lot of excuses. We've had guys rotating. We've had guys banged up. We've had guys injured and come back, probably about 80 percent not playing at their optimal level. We've made some -- the biggest issue for me is we've made really, really small mistakes that cost you big runs.

The first six games, four or five plays a game that if we just stay on our blocks for another split second, we've got some big runs. That's what we need to be better at.

It's not the schemes. It's not the O-line coach. It's not who we're playing. It's not the personnel. It's just when you're inefficient, usually is what it is is one guy makes a mistake on one play, and another guy makes a mistake on a different play and you're counting on all five of those guys. I thought at times, we had a couple really nice ones that were well blocked.

I thought Trevor ran well tonight. I thought Cameron Scarlett ran well. We weren't able to stay within our game plan throughout the game. You know, Trevor is getting 60 yards on 17 carries. You know, would have been nice if we could double both those guys' runs but we couldn't.

Q. You had three receivers go over a hundred yards. Do you think this is the best group of pass catchers you ever coached?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: I'm not falling into that trap. I fell into that trap once before and I got a text (indiscernible) I'm excited about what we have, really, in every position. The key for us is to find that extra 15 percent, you know, where we can get maybe five percent more. To have veteran receivers in JJ and Trenton, it's not just about them playing at a high level. These guys were tired tonight and when Michael Wilson scores the first touchdown, the speed and acceleration -- ran all night.

That's why I love those guys. They celebrate everyone else's plays more than their own. That's what we're getting from them. That's what we're counting on and we need it at every position, every single day.

But I'm excited about what those two guys are doing. I'm excited about our tight ends. Smith is one of the best tight end in America and Parkinson, you'll be saying the same thing about him pretty soon. These guys are special. We're going to put it all together. If it all comes together, we could be so much better than we are, but once again, that's my job.

Q. This is the fifth time in sixth game you've trailed after the first quarter. If you knew what was going on, you would have changed it by now, but what do you attribute that to, falling behind early so often?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Kind of answered your own question there. For some reason, we are not playing at a high level until somebody else scores. Like you said, if I had the answer, I'd have fixed it a couple games ago. For whatever reason, we're starting slower than we're used to.

USC might have been the one game where we went down and scored first. Every other game, it's like we're sputtering until we're down 7, down 14, down 10, all of a sudden, down by so -- we're not changing the plays. We're not running things differently. We're executing better at a high level. We have a better of urgency, and once again, that's that 15 percent maturity that I think we're losing in that we have to start the game, we talked about it as a group. Our seniors have talked about it. Our captains have talked about it and we've tried different things.

It's time to start trying -- or time to start trying and start doing. We have to start the game with a sense of urgency and start playing fast, not missing throws and catches, not running the wrong routes, not being out of coverage or being out of our gaps. Those are the things that happen to us early in games and we have to find an answer.

Q. What did you notice out of Tyler Hundley tonight?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: He played the position the way he has all year. Very efficient. Very good runner. But doesn't take a lot of chances. He takes what's there. He gets down so he doesn't take any big hits, which is a smart thing to do. Takes the ball down when he needs to -- throwing it quick, throwing it in the slot. Then running when the space was there to run.

The play of the night for me is him avoiding the sack. Big-time play. Avoided the sack and then having enough muster and arm strength to throw the ball down the field. Not a lot of guys can make that throw. To make that throw, a lot of guys need to be kind of prim and proper, take a good hitch and step into it. He was coming off of getting dragged down. He popped up and set the ball out there.

Q. Given who you guys have been so long along the line of scrimmage, how unusual is it that this is the focus now; this is the area that you guys have to improve upon?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: We've had spurts we haven't played well over the last decade or so. I don't have a good answer for you right now. There are things that we can do and things that we're good at, and there are times that in the game that we are doing well and there are times that we don't.

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