STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 30, 2021

David Shaw

Postgame Media Conference

Washington 20, Stanford 13

DAVID SHAW: Not the way we wanted to come out after the bye. Give credit to Washington. Washington played a good game, physical game. Tried to impress upon our team this week, if they've noticed, we get teams' best shots. It's the reputation I think we've built. Teams come after us, and they play well. We have to match that.

We still have some growing pains in a couple different positions that you would hope by this time in the season you wouldn't have, but we still do.

Very similar to the last game, it's a combination of three things. Offensively we drive down there early in the game, had an opportunity for at the very least a first down if not a touchdown, and we don't connect between the quarterback and receiver. Got down there again on the offensive side, didn't connect between quarterback and receiver. Tipped pass, interception. Two opportunities to score which at the most can give us 14 points, we got three and a turnover.

At the end of the game got an opportunity between running the ball, and very infrequently, right, we throw the ball in that situation late in the game. We couldn't connect. Good call, bad call. It's a bad call if it doesn't work. So that's on me. Probably shouldn't have done that. Trying to find a way to get a first down to try to end the game.

Get a delay of game penalty, shouldn't have. We don't get the punt that we'd like. But we got some time on the clock, an opportunity to play defense. Honestly played good defense the entire game. Played good defense the entire game.

Once again, it comes down to two minute and we can't get the stop to end the game. That's how you lose. That's how you lose. Have a locker room full of guys that are not happy right now, and they shouldn't be. We looked at some things this week, we'll look at some more things next week.

This team is better than it's playing and it's up to me to find out why we're not and what we can do to get there because we can play much better than we played tonight. I'm tired of saying that. We're going to find a way to get more out of this football team and get us back into the win column.

Questions.

Q. You said the guys in the locker room aren't happy. Can you articulate what the emotional swings were like to make that comeback in the fourth, then where they are now.

DAVID SHAW: It's pretty straightforward to me. We have to overcome our own issues, right? I think we all see that now, all across college football. There's great parity and there should be great parity. Last few years it hasn't been. Especially in our conference, the difference between the top and the bottom is not very big.

If you're fighting against a team that you're already comparable to, but you're trying to overcome your own mistakes and beat the other team, it becomes very, very difficult.

Now, we have these surges on our team where we play great for very brief periods of time, right? Offense, defense, special teams. It's just great for periods of time. How and why we don't stay there is a question for me to answer. So ultimately I'm responsible for that. Got to find a way for these guys to play at the level they're capable of.

To me that's not on them, that's on the coaches, right? That's on us to get these guys right. You see the ability out there. You see the guys making plays. Just too inconsistent.

Let me pause here. Ben Yurosek is special, continues to be special. He has a lot more room to grow. I believe he's already the best tight end in our conference. By the end of the year he may be one of the better ones in America.

But as an entire football team we are operating below our potential. As a coach I have to look at a lot of things to make sure we can find a way to get there.

Q. Could you talk about Austin Jones and the effort he showed tonight, particularly in the drive that set the touchdown.

DAVID SHAW: Yeah, we look at our running back position as having multiple starters. All the guys have made big plays. For what Nate Peat did against USC, right, big run, the 70 post yarder. E.J.

Austin Jones is a leader in that room. Showed that again last week. Just some great runs. He breaks tackles, he makes people miss. Stretches of every game we're going to lean on him. Still going to spread those guys around a little bit, but Austin really gave us a lift there in that second half.

Q. You said yourself not the way you wanted to come out after the bye. On offense specifically, what were the points of emphasis during the bye week and what happened tonight?

DAVID SHAW: There was one point of emphasis, and that was reducing the error in our game. That did not happen. So I go back and look at the film. Got a good feeling, but I want to look at the film and confirm a couple things.

For us to have the drives, three drives off the top of my head right now, where we marched down the field looking great. Actually technically four drives including the one we scored a touchdown on late. Four drives during the game, and those four drives coming up with 10 points. Turnovers, field goal, late touchdown, it's uneven, uneven.

We got great leadership on our football team. But this one starts up with me. I'll lean on those guys, those leader on the team, to help us get to the next level. But we got a team that plays with such up-and-down tendencies right now, that's more than just the guys. I'm going to take that completely on my shoulders.

Q. The defense stiffened and forced some field goals. At the same time the run defense, Washington was averaging 107 yards a game on the ground, today had 229. Why do you think that is? What can be done to fix it?

DAVID SHAW: I don't have an answer for you. Next question. If I knew, I would have fixed it now, right? I'm not going to tell you what our strategy is. We're going to keep working on things.

Q. You mentioned some growing pains that some position units are going through. Can you go into a little more detail on that.

DAVID SHAW: It's multiple. It's multiple. Growing pains really is part of the uneven play, right? If a guy wasn't good enough, wasn't ready, he wouldn't be out there. But we have some guys that show great promise and have a chance to play at a really high level, and in spurts they do. We got to find a way to take out the negative plays on the offensive side, a couple missed tackles, missed assignments on the defensive side.

We reduce those things, even if we cut those things in half, right, we're probably above .500. We just cut those things in half, we're above .500. It's not that we're not good enough, it's the fact that we have too many negative plays on our film. Right now that's who we are. I'd like to say we're not that, but that's what we are until we change it.

Q. First half there's a sequence where looked like you got a fumble recovery, but it was overturned. Took them awhile to make that call. Any explanation from the refs?

DAVID SHAW: Nope. We were told it was a fumble, called down again to say they wanted to review it again. I didn't get a good, clear view of it. We had an opportunity to get the ball. I think Jimmy will learn from that.

It's one thing when you're out in the open, the ball is up there, you can pick it up and go. It's another thing when you're around other people. You just got to fall on it. He's a freshman. He's going to be a heck of a football player. Tried to make a play. Hard to blame him. But with people around you, you just got to jump on the ball.

Q. How close were Wilson and Humphreys to being available for today? E.J.'s return, what facets did that add to the offense?

DAVID SHAW: It was really good to see E.J. out there. Had a great week of practice. He's completely healthy. Was a little rusty out there today. Still made some nice plays for us. I anticipate him being better next week. Just a week back after missing a few weeks.

Mike and John I think are close. They're close. Both were late-week calls. Both were not ready. Wasn't really close, they weren't really ready. They were able to come out and practice this week, which was good.

Next week, short week, Monday, Tuesday on the field. We'll probably have to make an evaluation after Tuesday, see if those guys are ready, one or both of those guys are ready to come back and join us.

Q. You mentioned the short week. Are you going to have the same schedule like leading into Arizona State or any changes?

DAVID SHAW: Probably make a couple more changes. I think we're coming off a pretty physical game here. Anticipate the Utah game is going to be a pretty physical game also. May have to shave a little bit off of our time, get our guys off their legs a little bit more.

But we'll practice Monday, Tuesday, do our walk-through Thursday, then a week on-the-field Thursday to get ready for Friday.

Thanks, everybody.