STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 30, 2021

Jimmy Lake

Postgame Media Conference

Washington 20, Stanford 13

JIMMY LAKE: Well, so proud of our guys. We said this was going to be a heavyweight bout. These are two of the titans in the Pac-12 North. We knew it was going to go all the way down to the end.

David Shaw and his team, they're well-coached, have really good football players. They're so sound in all three phases. We knew it was going to be a battle all the way to the end.

I'm proud of our guys for fighting and swinging. Told you guys last week this is a team of fighters. They're going to claw and scratch their way all the way till the end. You saw that again tonight.

Q. (No microphone.)

JIMMY LAKE: Touchdown. That was what I thought. We had limited seconds there. We had no more timeouts. We felt like they were going to hunker up there to try to stop us against the run, so we had to stop the clock.

Going to take a shot. We went on the slant and go. Great protection. Dylan Morris threw a strike. Great job by Jalen McMillan.

Q. What made the running game successful tonight?

JIMMY LAKE: Always goes back to practice. J.D., Coach Huff, our offensive line, we were able to get the ball off tackle a little bit more tonight than we have in our first seven games, which really opened up things inside.

Our offensive line just really, really gelled well together. They played a tough, physical battle. They got challenged. We said this was going to be a heavyweight bout. They threw a bunch of body blows. Our offensive line and those two running backs, Sean McGrew and Cam Davis.

Q. (Question about the younger guys.)

JIMMY LAKE: I mean, I'm so proud of these guys. This is the growth and development that we've seen all year long. Even though it hasn't come in a victory a lot of games, a few games here (smiling). But we see it. We see the growth and development in these young guys that are in key positions. One of them is our quarterback. He's a young player.

Our receivers, they're young. It was awesome watching Giles Jackson going in there on the two point conversion. Jalen Washington. Two sacks, two freshmen playing defensive line. Carson Breuner getting his first start ever as a freshman. You can go up and down the board there. These guys are young guys, sophomores.

So proud of everybody in there. They come to work every single day. I think the confidence is going to continue to keep getting better and better and better as the weeks go by.

Q. The running game you had tonight, is this what you envisioned at the beginning of the year?

JIMMY LAKE: Yeah, I mean, of course. We rushed for whatever it was, 200 yards. I mean, I would like that every single game for sure. So proud of those guys that we were able to do it tonight down here in Palo Alto.

Q. What was different with Cam tonight?

JIMMY LAKE: Last game he had a good game, as well. I always say I like all of our running backs. Maybe this was the first time, we all know what Rich can do, what Sean McGrew and Kamari Pleasant can do. Maybe this is the first time everybody sees what Cam can do with extended carries. This is the most carries he's ever had. You can see the burst. You can see the vision. This is everything we see in practice. I always say I like all of our running backs. I do. I like our three running backs that we have right now.

Q. Fourth down seemed like the ref may have stopped play early. Did you get an explanation on that?

JIMMY LAKE: No, yeah, I agree.

Q. (No microphone.)

JIMMY LAKE: I want to give so much credit to Bob Gregory, Will Harris, Terrence Brown. We knew we had to change it up against Stanford's offense, what we've done in years past. We gave them a whole bunch of different looks that they've never seen before.

We felt like we kept them off balance. They have a young quarterback as well. Those changes, what you just mentioned, our disguise packages, our different blitzes we utilized, we felt like threw them off balance and was the key to holding them to 13 points.

Q. Are those positions things guys have played in practice or is it this week?

JIMMY LAKE: We played Kyler, was it UCLA? Kyler has played nickel before. He was featured there in a couple games in the past. They all have to know all different positions. But we definitely mixed it around, did things that we had never done before.

Q. You have a lot of respect for Stanford. They've gotten you the last couple years. Does it mean a little bit more to beat them than some other teams?

JIMMY LAKE: Yeah, like I mentioned at the top, since I believe they split up the Pac-12 into North and South, the only ones that have represented the North are us, Stanford and Oregon. They're the heavyweights of the North until someone changes that. It's always been that way.

We've won a couple since we've been here. Won a Pac-12 North. Stanford has won it. Oregon has won it. This is a huge heavyweight bout. We have another one coming up next week.

Q. (No microphone.)

JIMMY LAKE: I have to watch the film. I did see firsthand some plays from the sideline, a view of him mowing over some people, getting some great blocks, finishing guys off on the second level. He played really well last week down in the desert. I'm sure he's going to grade out extremely well after what our offense was able to do on the ground.

Q. (No microphone.)

JIMMY LAKE: At the end there?

Q. Yes.

JIMMY LAKE: Yes, for sure. Again, credit to Bob Gregory. We felt like we had a really good plan there. We knew what type of runs they were going to run. We really loaded everybody in there to stop the run.

This third and five play, that was huge. We felt like he was going to pass it. I thought they should have passed it because there was so much time left on the clock. They wanted to try to go for the first down to try to move the ball down, win the football game. They went for a play-action, which we were all over because we were playing pass there.

That was a key sequence, for sure.

Q. (Question about field goals.)

JIMMY LAKE: It goes back to execution. It goes back to execution. We definitely don't want to come up short with field goals there. Definitely have to go back and watch exactly every single sequence there, how she shaped up. I know the one off the top of my head, I remember our option play, which we didn't run correctly, we didn't block correctly. Should have been a good play and it wasn't. Now we got stopped on that one.

Again, it comes back to execution. That's the one I can remember off the top of my head. Comes back to executing. We got to execute better. We want to make sure all 11 guys are on the same page. I brought that up to our whole team, the huge game, Thursday Night Football, the Green Bay Packers against Arizona Cardinals. Arizona looks like they're going to win the game. 10 guys are running to the right play on offense, one guy wasn't, and they lost the game. It comes back to execution. Those red zone drives came back to us not executing all 11 guys.

Q. (No microphone.)

JIMMY LAKE: Yes, huge. I mean, another young player that's growing and developing right before our eyes. These two tackles, (indiscernible) and Tuli, every single week they're improving, improving, improving. Tuli was our captain for the game based off of what he's done this year, the leadership he's shown.

Yeah, it was nice having him back for sure.

Q. (No microphone.)

JIMMY LAKE: He was available. Dealing with some injuries from the last game. He would have been available if we needed him in there. But you saw the other two running backs handle it just fine.

Q. (No microphone.)

JIMMY LAKE: Yeah, I'll announce all that stuff on Monday. Unfortunately, I mean, this is the way football goes. We have some injuries. I'm sure we have some here coming out of this game as well. I'll announce those on Monday.

Q. Carson told us Thursday Bob Gregory told him he was going to be starting. What was the key why he got the starting role? What is his energy like?

JIMMY LAKE: It always starts in practice. Every time this gets brought up for anybody, Carson showed in practice that he was playing at a higher level than the other guys. Now we're going to go back to work tomorrow and have another week of practice. I'm an equal opportunity employer. If somebody shows up, knows the game plan, makes plays in practice at any position, that guy is going to rise to the top.

This last week Carson rose to the top. He definitely rose to the top tonight. He's one of the big reasons why we're coming out of here with a victory.

Q. Some of your route runners were slipping. Impact your play calling at all?

JIMMY LAKE: It's interesting. The field was in great condition. I did notice later in the game some sod must have come up there. Terrell Bynum and someone else slipped. It didn't affect our play calling. It didn't change anything. It was in good condition. I think it was a product of wear and tear throughout the game.

Early in the game nobody was slipping. I think it was the guys grinding on the field for two and a half hours.