STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 25, 2021

Chip Kelly

Postgame Media Conference

Q. (Regarding the performance by Dorian.)

CHIP KELLY: Uh-huh. I don't think it's mentioned enough with Dorian, is how tough is. He's been tough from the get-go. I remember really the first game he played in the opener against Cincinnati, but then started again Oklahoma and got bounced around. I just remember seeing his mom after the game and saying, You have a tough son right there.

It's as underrated quality for a quarterback to be a tough guy, be able to stand in there and play, and I think that was on display today. Something we've known for four years now, but I think he really showed that tonight. I was really proud of how he played.

Q. (No microphone.)

CHIP KELLY: I don't know that. He didn't miss any time in the first half, so -- they just tell me when he's out, and then they told me he could go back in. So he is a competitor. He loves to play. I think that was on display today.

Q. How is that process work? He goes out and comes back in?

CHIP KELLY: The trainers and the medical team look at him and tell us if he's cleared. They just told me he's out and then they tell me if he's cleared to come back in.

Q. Did you talk to him after he was cleared?

CHIP KELLY: Did I talk to him? No. I think he just went right in to play.

Q. Is he getting tests right now?

CHIP KELLY: He is what?

Q. Did he get an x-ray or...

CHIP KELLY: I don't know where he is right now.

Q. Beyond the toughness, what makes him so good in second halfs, so productive?

CHIP KELLY: You know, I don't -- we don't have a ton of data points from this season. It's so early in the year. Didn't play in the second half, very rarely, so you can't really use that.

But he's a competitor and he competes, and the longer err plays the more he learns, and that's what we talk about. We prepare each week, we compete each week, and we learn. He can digest information during the game of what's happened, so that if we get back to this again we want to do this.

So we knew what we were doing. They had big personnel on the field and we knew we wanted to try to get Kyle down the seam. They had a big outside linebacker on him. It's bang, bang. He made the play. But it's exactly what we talked about on the sideline before that. We're going to get an open set and see if we can get a seam ball here, and he handles it.

Really, really impressive performance by him today.

Q. You had an effective passing game. Midway through the second quarter, throwing to the runningbacks out of backfield of Charbonnet in particular. Were you seeing something in particular that opened that up?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, they tried to man up our outside guys, so just trying get the matchup and runningbacks and the linebackers. That was something we felt like we could exploit there a little bit. They were back in the box, so let's loosen them up and get the ball -- how can we get the ball to Zach and get it to him on the perimeter. Both him and Britain. I thought Britain was going to break that one but he slipped. I thought both him and Britain gave us something there in the pass game.

Q. You also got a lot of production out of Greg Dulcich.

CHIP KELLY: Yeah.

Q. A lot more than in the past couple days.

CHIP KELLY: Did you go to the LSU game?

Q. Sorry, the last game.

CHIP KELLY: Okay. We only played four games. We've only played four games, so...

Again, it's the same thing. If you're going to play man coverage we have to go to our best matchups, and we really felt like the tight end and Kyle and then Zach a little bit were some of the matchups, and Dorian understands that when they play man coverage, we want to find out what are matchups are and then how do we exploit those matchups.

Q. They came back and tied in the fourth quarter. Do you think having a game, what happened last week where they came back, did that prepare you guys for the mental aspect of fighting back?

CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't think you can look to that. Again, we prepare, we compete, and learn. So we talked about what happened in the Fresno game. That's part of what we do Mondays. We sit down, watch film. What is the reason for what went on, whether it's a W or an L, and how can we correct our mistakes and build on what we did well.

I thought those guys did a great job. They were eager on Monday in our training session, and that followed through the whole week. I thought they would respond well and obviously they did.

To be up 21-7 and to be tied and come back is a credit to those guys. To score twice after they tied it up was a real big deal for us.

Q. (Regarding defense in the first half.)

CHIP KELLY: Uh-huh.

Q. Did you think you might not have taken advantage of enough opportunity offensively?

CHIP KELLY: We actually planned that. We said, Let's keep it close. We told our guys, Hey, let's not make this one. We don't want to go crazy and score too much in the first half.

But I am joking. The mistakes we made in the first half were us. We had a couple bad snaps we have to correct. We had a holding penalty we have to correct, and now all of a sudden now we're first and 20 when we are moving the ball. I really felt in the first half that the stops that occurred on those drives were self-inflicted. It was us making mistakes.

Not something that -- it wasn't a great play by a defensive player, and sometimes you got to tip your cap to them, but we got to get the snap problem straightened out. We had too many errant snaps today. I think there were three that I counted that put us off schedule.

When you're playing a good team like Stanford you can't be off schedule. That's a really well-coached team. They were under-manned today because they had some kids out with the COVID restrictions. I tip my hat to David and the coaching staff because they didn't have all their weapons today, and I've been where he is.

That's a tough deal. No one feels sorry for you, but I do think they did a hell of a job coaching against us.

Q. Did you it occur to you in your play calling when Stanford hit that long, quick touchdown pass, for 85 yards or whatever, that you were really trying to do that... (indiscernible).

CHIP KELLY: We're not trying to show anybody. We're just trying to exploit what the defenses is in, and they got a lot bigger and brought in two outside linebackers. They went nickel defense against us, and even though we were in a spread formation.

So if they were going to do that, then they're trying to stop our run game. We tried to spread them out a little bit and throw it. We got the look that we wanted and it was favorable, and give Kyle credit for running a great route.

In finishing, sometimes guys catch that, but it's just a big game. To finish in the end zone like he did was a big deal for him. He hit him in stride, so if he hits him in stride we got a chance to finish.

Credit to those two guys. Good job in the protection for those guys up front, but a credit to Kyle and Dorian for making that play. I was very pleased that we answered in one play. I don't like it to take longer than that. We'll take it.

Q. Talk a little bit about Kyle's performance.

CHIP KELLY: You know, the punt return, to set the tone and start the game you always want to get off to a good start. For him to set you us up where we were and get the ball that tight in the red zone, after that return. You know, we felt like we had an opportunity in the return game with him. I thought our guys did a really good job all week with the plan that Coach Sage and the special teams guys had of getting a good hold up return in there.

Kyle, again, any way we can get the ball in his hands it's positive. It's tough because the return game in college football, it's really nonexistent. They kick the ball out of back the end zone and you don't get an opportunity that much.

I think our guys took pride in really doing a good job in the hold up aspect of it. They know if they give Kyle time to catch and set his feet, we got a shot. I think the punter just kind of miss-hit him a little bit. Most of the other punts he hit because he's a great directional punter. Pinned us on the sideline when we didn't have an opportunity for a return, but that one, they tried to kick it back across the field and we took advantage of it.

Give those guys, the whole group on that punt return team, for doing a good job.

Q. What about your run defense? This is four teams in a row now where you basically shutdown the run game. What did you see out of your run defense?

CHIP KELLY: I think they're aggressive. I think we have some tough kids on that side of ball that are -- they do a really good job of not staying blocked. When they can get off the blocks and try to make some plays.

When you have a quarterback that's not a huge run threat, and we have been fortunate because we haven't had a quarterback -- now, give David credit. On a key third down they had him keep it, and I think everybody in the stadium was on the runningback, and McKee is running down the sideline, but for the most part we had the ability to kind of contain Peat and keep him in front of us. I thought our guys did a good job we will look at the tape, but I thought our guys did a good job by and large tackling. But it's a lot easier to tackle and get guys down when your gang tackling, and I thought we had a lot of guys running to the football tonight.

Q. (No microphone.)

CHIP KELLY: No, that's just me personally. I don't share that with our guys. Our guys don't care. We'll play in a parking lot 2:00 in the morning. It really doesn't both us. If I had my druthers, you wake up Saturday morning, you get a little breakfast, and you play football. That's the tradition of college football. It's a beautiful stadium, a great place to play. The sun was setting over their sideline.

Those are the cool things that you reflect upon. It's just my own personal deal. I don't like playing games at night because I got to sit around all day long. I wish we could play at 9:00 a.m. We get up, we train. You guys are there for practice. That is our rhythm, that's our routine.

We don't worry about what we don't control. If they tell us we got a night game, we play a night game. This group doesn't care. They'll play whenever. I just bitch to you guys, I don't bitch to them.