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STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 5, 2019

David Shaw

Stanford, California

Washington - 13, Stanford - 23

HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Called Tyler Gaffney this week and told him I wanted him. I wanted him up here. This was going to be an attitude game, and couldn't think of a better person to come talk to the team and he was awesome, and our guys played like that.

And I recounted, you know, coaching Tyler with our guys, and talked about doing your job, but playing with some confidence and swagger, also. Most people wouldn't understand a team like us, playing with confidence, but that's fine. People don't have to understand. We've got good players. I like our schemes in all three phases. A lot of things, we just need to relax and let go and we did that today.

Offensively, Davis Mills played really well. Great to see Simi Fehoko. He's been so close. We know he's got so much ability and when he has a game like that, it takes so much pressure off of Colby Parkinson, so much pressure off of Mike and Connor, to know that we have other guys out there that can make some big plays.

Osiris St. Brown once again made another big play today also. Love our receiving core right now, what those guys can do, throwing Colby Parkinson in on top of that.

Story of the night, know, Tyler Gaffney. I think inspired our guys, but Cam Scarlett just played a lot like Tyler today. Not that he has to be like him. He's his own man. He's gotten better and better. He's playing the best football of his career right now. Just hand the ball to him repeatedly against loaded boxes when they knew we were running the ball. Broke tackles. Finished runs physically.

Just an outstanding game by Cameron Scarlett, and probably one of his biggest plays of the night was in pass protection and if you want to know the truth that, was the biggest challenge we gave Cam this year was that he needs to be a great pass protector. If you're going to be the lead back, you have to be able to run and we have to be able to do playaction. And the touchdown to Simi Fehoko that we're faking on the left and the safety blitz came on the right and Cam came all the way down and made a great block and allowed us to get the ball off. Can't say enough about where Cam Scarlett is right now. Just playing such great football.

Defensively, our best game start to finish. We talked about slowing down the run. We talked about getting after the passer and we were able to do that. We talked about, gosh, what would it be like if we played with a lead. Had not really played with a lead all year but second half, for us to be able to get stops, rush the passer, get an interception, play with great field position.

I thought our special teams were outstanding again tonight. Really excited about the way our guys played and defensively, big thing for us all year was being great in the red zone, being good on third down, not giving up the big plays. We gave up one early but the rest of the time the ball kept in front of us, even some of those deep crossing routes, we still got them on the ground. Made it difficult for them to cross -- to go the entire distance for a touchdown. Coach Anderson and the staff and players on the defensive side were outstanding offensively. Still hate getting inside the five-yard line, kicking two field goals, that one is going to stick in my craw for a while because we torqued so hard to get down there.

We have to score touchdowns. We have to clean that up. But for the post part, proud of our guys. That's a good football team out there we just beat by two scores.

Questions.

Q. What changed tonight?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: We've played a lot of big play offenses, really, between USC and Central Florida, Oregon, Washington. Today was the first day -- once again we gave up one big one early in the game but if we don't give up the big play and make them exist in second down, third down, eventually we'll get a stop. Eventually we'll get a stop. Got a couple TFLs, got after the quarterback a couple time. Made him move.

A quarterback like that, you let him sit back there, he'll pick you apart. Great receivers, big strong quarterback with a quick release and one of those NFL-ready guys. So thankfully we made him move and throw the ball away a couple times and made him tuck it a couple times. Just the fact that we weren't letting the big play happen most of the game, we were able to rush the passer with some regularity.

Q. What happened to Davis when he came out? Looked like he might have had something wrapped on his leg and following up on that, how big was Cam, especially once Davis went out and then became clear that you guys were going to try to milk the clock a little bit?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Yeah, I don't have an update right now on Davis Mills. He came out somewhere in the fourth quarter and got checked out, and felt he could go back in. Doctors checked him out, cleared him to go back in. Went back in. Didn't feel right. Came back out.

You know, we're going to err on the side of caution. Guy comes out of the game twice and says something doesn't feel right, we're going to pull him. Cam did a great job in that fourth quarter, really killing the clock. The fact we didn't throw the ball had nothing to do with Jack West.

Jack knows the game plan inside and out, understands our offenses and he would go out there and do it all and do it well. We just weren't going to put the ball in the air. There's just no reason to. We're up by two scores and we're going to make them take their time-outs and kill the clock.

Not exciting for everybody, but there's a reason why we have the record that we have, and for us to finish the game the way we did with three freshmen on the field; once again, Coach Carberry has done a great job putting this offensive line together, training the young guys, get them to take great footwork, having great communication.

So we were able to, you know, throw in a freshman in the red zone, go down there and score the one time we got inside the five-yard line and scored on the ground, was actually right behind him, Jake Hornibrook came in there and did a great job.

The rest of the game, we're out there with three freshmen and two juniors and a fifth-year senior running back. Let's go. So it was great. Great way to finish the game.

Q. Following up on the fact that you finished the game with three freshmen up front, what do you see from Coach Carberry during the game working with his guys, as so much has changed with his unit during games that he's had to adjust to, and what did you see from foster tonight? He seemed to be moving guys pretty well.
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Yeah, well, this has been an interesting two-year stint, or year-and-a-half stint for Coach Carberry. Last year, starting the season, felt like we had one of the better lines in the conference and possibly the nation and it was musical chairs then.

We came back in, the deepest we've been in three years and we've challenged that depth now to where we were excited about all five of our freshmen coming in, and we just knew at some point they were going to be really good. We know they are going to have to be really good right now, and the fact that we've had to play them and they haven't batted an eyelash. They go out there and just play. We teach them. They make a mistake. They learn. They grow and we just keep getting after it.

So we'll see where the situation is and see if we'll stay with this group, but if we do, hey, this is what we have, and we'll roll them out there and just have our guys keep going up there and fighting.

Q. I just wanted to ask about the pass break-up that Paulson Adebo came down and broke up a turnover on downs beginning of the third quarter. The confidence level of the team at that point. And a follow-up question, how impactful has Paulson Adebo been for the defensive backs for your team this year?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Paulson Adebo has not had the year so far that he's wanted and we haven't had the year that we wanted as a team but Paulson's confidence has never wavered. He works really hard and takes great coaching from Coach Akina, coach Anderson, one of the hardest-working guys on our team. Today gave up one big one early on, but didn't hang his head. Didn't roll his shoulders forward. Came back and I think he had three pass break ups.

Big-time plays when we needed them. Third down on one, fourth down on another one. Big play down the field and was in great position. That's what we need.

He's been a great example for Kyu Blu Kelly. He's a true freshman that's gone out there and he played great tonight, also and if we can get that kind of play out of two receivers in this conference -- two corners in this conference, then we always have a chance to win.

Q. I know you said you never lost confidence, and a lot's been made of the first half of the schedule being difficult, but do you think it's important to go into this open week 3-3 instead of 2-4 and riding the momentum you're on?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: I didn't think about 2-4 all week. Didn't even think about it. The way that we practiced this week, it didn't reflect our schedule. Our guys were serious. They worked hard. We've shaved a little bit off, a few reps off here and there to help our guys stay fresh.

But they just went hard, and as I said earlier, we knew that people wouldn't understand that we could take the field against a good team like this with the confidence that we had but we know what we're capable of. We just haven't reached it yet on game day.

So today it was great for us to reach that but still coming back knowing that we can play so much better, and whoever is healthy in about ten days, that's who we will roll out there with at UCLA and play with the same confidence and hopefully play with great execution, as well.

Q. You've talked about kind of each game for Davis, he's getting his sea legs back under him after being away from football for so long. Can you think of any examples tonight of things you saw him do that were another next step?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: Well, to say it blatantly, the touchdown pass he made to Simi Fehoko, as well as the first play he made to Simi Fehoko, those are the ones that we've missed, that he's missed and they haven't connected on. Honestly over the last two weeks, Coach Pritchard, Coach Kennedy, have worked with those two, especially, on those plays.

Simi is too big and too fast not to hit in stride when he's open and we worked on that and we actually worked on throwing the ball with a little bit of air, but you can tell when a quarterback feels confident, doesn't throw it with any air and that touchdown pass, there was no air on. He threw that thing on a line and Simi caught it in stride and took off. That's a big sucker that runs a 4-3. Great too see him make some big plays.

Good to see all of our receivers make plays tonight, including Colby. Guys made plays for him and Davis continues to grow. We'll see where he is injury-status-wise, but I thought it was a great performance by him tonight.

Q. You guys finished the game controlling time of possession, was that a key to the game and how will that be able to parlay later on in the season with the confidence knowing you can close out a game like that?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: So to always quote the great Chip Kelly: Time of possession means nothing, unless you score touchdowns. If you can have time of possession and you score touchdowns, and you give them field goals, now you've got a chance to win.

Usually at the end of the game, time of possession usually means one thing to me: Means we have the lead and we're running the ball well. If we can have the lead and we can run the ball well, we're going to get time of possession and we're going to win the game. That's the bottom line there. Once again put it on the offensive line, put it on Cam Scarlett, two-score lead most of the second half, we're going to be us and run the ball and be physical.

Q. On the touchdown pass to Simi, was there something you saw during the week that made you think playaction would work against them or just a function of the game flow tonight?
HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW: We always have a section of playaction. Some of it off what we're doing in the run-game wise and some of it just off of film. That play, actually, is one we used to do with Chris Aluce (ph) quite a bit way back when. A little different action but the route is a combination, the same kind of a deep curl and go; a deep comeback and go.

Coach Pritchard, hit me early in the week, said, "Coach, I think we can do this and I think it's going to be perfect for Simi." So we put it in early in the week. He ran it really well. Great playaction. Once again, great pass protection by the offensive line, Cam Scarlett and it was a great route to the point where, you know, the corner, they ran a blitz. The corner kind of let Simi go and then the stutter, I think made the safety get his eyes back inside and he stayed outside. It was a beautiful throw and catch.

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