STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 14, 2020

Davis Mills

Postgame Media Conference

Colorado - 35, Stanford - 32

Q. Good to see you on the field and healthy. And wondering, kind of connected to that, was it noticeable to you that it took a bit of time to get in sync and feel comfortable out there, given what had happened the past week or so?

DAVIS MILLS: I wouldn't say necessarily, like, for me, it felt like we started off slow. I just felt, we felt a little out of rhythm on offense in that first half. Felt like the team really responded in the second half, but it was too little too late. We got to keep that urgency that we felt in the second half and just kind of use it the rest of the year now.

Q. You've had to, you had a chance to watch the first game and obviously play in this one. What is standing out to you about third down? It just seems like kind of a sticking point for you guys early in the season.

DAVIS MILLS: Nothing in particular. I would like to go back and see the film. But obviously our third down conversion rate is not where we want it to be. We have a lot of weapons on the edge. We have really good offensive line and backs. Really just go and watch film and prepare for next week and hopefully we can end up and be more successful on third down.

Q. And then just last one for me. How sharp did you feel your pre-snap reads and decision-making were, given what Colorado likes to throw at people?

DAVIS MILLS: I felt pretty good out there. Obviously it was protected really well. They obviously did bring those funky looks that you talked about. Colorado likes to mix it up, throw in some pressures, and some weird looks up front. But I thought we handled it well. My reads, I mean, obviously they're bringing pressure, so I wasn't able to get, like, through full progressions, but I thought we had chances, just need to execute a little better.

Q. But pre-snap you felt pretty good about your game today?

DAVIS MILLS: Yeah, managing protections, pre-snap kills, didn't really have any play clock issues. I thought we handled everything well pre-snap and before the ball was snapped, yeah.

Q. Take us through your week and what you had to go through.

DAVIS MILLS: You cut out the second half. I'll try to answer it. Definitely it was a very odd week for me. Got news, we had a false positive test Saturday of last week, so I was in isolation until I was let out. We had talked to the counties all week. They didn't approve our initial request to get out of isolation, just because we didn't have enough info. But I still tested throughout the week, ended up coming back, having a couple negative PCR COVID tests and then eventually the talks at the county went well and I was cleared out Thursday night, right before walk-through. But I wasn't able to participate in the walk-through, so we got one Friday morning. And I mean, I was up to date, was still in all the meetings. I was still ready to play. I just wasn't out there practicing with the team the first couple days. But I thought we had a really good -- we had a walk-through Friday morning and we had a really good practice Friday night. It looked really good and I felt prepared. So practice-wise, definitely odd to be not out there the first couple days, but I thought we did well at responding to what was going on and coming out and playing here today.

Q. You just hit on a bunch of this, but as much as you can do mentally, how difficult is it to go a week with only one practice in preparing for a game?

DAVIS MILLS: I would say it's not too bad. The hardest part is really just going out and getting those live reps at practice of seeing our scout team run their defensive looks. I'm able to do a lot just through, like, film study and stuff outside of practice, but missing out on some of those reps during practice definitely affects it. But I thought I saw it better than I initially thought after the game. So looking back on it, it wasn't too bad.

Q. And then I know it's only been a couple minutes here, but you guys aren't used to going into the home locker room with a loss. What's been the immediate reaction from the guys?

DAVIS MILLS: It's tough. Everyone, we're keeping our heads high, but really echoing the call. We want everyone to remember this feeling. I thought we started off too slow today and that urgent feeling we felt in the second half when we were behind, I thought we were playing some of our best football, we just really need to bring that to the first half of next week and keep riding on it.

Q. Where did you actually watch the Oregon game? And then, also, just I guess how, there's only a limited number of games this season and it's a short season anyway, how frustrating is it to have to miss the first one?

DAVIS MILLS: I watched the Oregon game from my hotel room up in Oregon. So I traveled with the team and then ended up getting called out of it right before, actually the team meal, like, earlier in the afternoon. So I watched the game from my hotel room and then again on film and stuff.

But can you repeat the second part of the question?

Q. Just, it's such a short season to begin with, just how frustrating was it to have to watch the first game?

DAVIS MILLS: It was tough. Obviously, I want to maximize the most I can do out of these seven games that we have. But being held out of the first one. It was a little out of my control. I'm not able to do it. All I'm able to do is respond to what's ahead.

Q. This is your first game kind of playing without fans in the stadium. What was that experience like?

DAVIS MILLS: Different, obviously, because there's no fans. We still pumped in some of that ambient noise at the certain decibel that's allowed. So that obviously simulates a little bit of that crowd noise, but it's definitely different with the fans, but it just puts the onus on us as players to keep up the energy and really go out and execute.