STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 25, 2021

Thomas Booker

Postgame Media Conference

Q. I asked coach the same question. How nice was it to you get the first sack of the year and get your juices going in that department?

THOMAS BOOKER: Yeah, you know, defense is one of those things where there is so much about scheme and everybody has to do their assignment, their job. Sometimes that results in you getting a lot of different plays, a lot of TFLs, a lot of sacks, a lot of stat sheet production, and sometimes it ends up having you set up for other guys.

So for me, I was fortunate enough that my teammates made plays enough to set me up for that one. So it was great getting that in the stat sheet, but the way our defense goes, that stuff can come in bunches or sometimes you're doing the dirty work and washing the dishes.

You got to be satisfied to do both of those in order to win the game. Yeah, it was great to get that, but obviously it was partly because of my teammates.

Q. In the first half UCLA went for a fourth down on their own end of the field in a hurry-up situation. Is that something that's difficult to uniquely prepare for when playing a Chip Kelly team?

THOMAS BOOKER: They have a lot of different things they do really well on offense, and you start feeling the game when you're playing defense enough, just feeling the offensive linemen, their stances, the tempo.

I think we all knew they were going to try to go for it after that one. After they were tackled, everybody rushed the line.

Yeah, defense is all about adjustment. Football in general is all about adjustment. So that's what we tried to do on that one, but unfortunately we couldn't get it down and stop them on that fourth dawn.

But, yeah, game adjustment. You got to come and innovate.

Q. (No microphone.)

THOMAS BOOKER: You know, they do a really good job running the ball. They have a lot of different schemes, a lot of different pin and pull things that they do. So I think when we are settled down and calm and filling those gaps and defense linemen, we aren't getting nosey, trying to do too much, being patience, not going too fast, not going too slow, I think we can really execute well and get them off the field quickly.

But sometimes they have so many different concepts that when you're not having eye discipline, not controlling your eyes, doing the right thing all the time, they'll punish you for it. When you have a really good offensive coordinator that's what they can do. Yea, I think that was kind of a tell today. When we were locked in on our keys, not trying to do too much and not doing too little, we can get them off the field pretty quickly.

Q. What's the mood like with the team right now? Obviously not going to get easier with Oregon coming in.

THOMAS BOOKER: Yeah, the way we look at it is we hate losing, point blank period. You don't come to play college football and you're not an athlete at this level if you feel neutral or you like this feeling, right?

But the whole point is you have to do something with the negative emotions that you're feeling and the anger that you feel about this. So that's how the team feels right now. Obviously don't feel good about losing our first home game. At the same time, you got to let that fuel your preparation. So feel sick about it, but do something about it. That's how we are right now.