STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 20, 2021

Jonathan McGill

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 11, California 41

Q. Hey, Jonathan. Obviously not the result you wanted, but can you just talk about how good it felt to be back in the field playing, get an interception, just how good from that standpoint personally to be back in the field?

JONATHAN MCGILL: Yeah. It's always great any time, you know, I can be back on the field playing with my brothers, just competing. You know, that was the one thing I probably missed the most, obviously, just competition. A real competitive guy, so being back out there, lining it up, strapping it up with some of the seniors, the juniors, some of the sophomores, my first time being on the field with Jimmy. That was a real fun thing for myself. Loved being back out there being comfortable again. Obviously hoped the result obviously would have been different, but it was great being back out there.

Q. This has been an issue in previous games, but you guys give up a lot of yards on the ground, 352 today. Any sense of why that's kept being an issue all -- you know, last several games?

JONATHAN MCGILL: I said in an interview earlier with Troy earlier this week, you know, the two keys to the game for myself and for our defense was going to be tackling and then on offensively blocking. But tackling, any time you, you know, leave any good back or any back with arm tackle, it's not going to cut it in the Pac 12. So tackling has been an issue for our defense.

And then, obviously, just execution as players. We've got to execute the assignments that coach puts us in no matter what look. It might be tough, it might be hard. But at the end of the day, you're expected to do your job. You're 1/11. And that's something that our team consistently needs to do more.

We've done it at times. You've seen it. And at other times we haven't. And, you know, that's when you give up 90, 80, 70, 60 yard pops for runs. So just execution is something we've got to do better.

Q. The big pass play that got the Bears on the board, the 84 yarder, can you take us through it?

JONATHAN MCGILL: Yeah. Pretty much had bad leverage on myself, on receiver Simi inside. I got to stay inside, do my job at the end of the day. So, you know, pass rush did their thing. Everybody else did their thing.

But when one guy is out of position, it can result in a touchdown. So that one is on me. Got to stay -- got to use my leverage, stay consistent, do my job, and then that wouldn't happen.