STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 20, 2021

David Shaw

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 11, California 41

DAVID SHAW: Congratulations to Cal. They were a better team today. No question about it. We had our opportunities. Looking back, probably too aggressive. First few drives, we got down there inside the five yard line. Went for it on fourth down knowing they were a good football team, knowing they were going to come back.

Had a chance to go up 14-0 and didn't get either one of those. Tough shot, you know. Took our shot. Didn't do well enough. Too aggressive on my part.

Game continued on. And they got momentum. Made some nice plays. We missed some tackles, you know. Lost leverage a couple times. Quarterback got outside a couple times. Runners got outside a couple times.

And then typical, you know, one guys misses a tackle, then we're off to the races. So not good enough by any stretch of the imagination. Had a couple opportunities and didn't take advantage. That's kind of been one of the issues for the entire year. Put ourselves in position and don't finish. And I put that on myself to put these guys in a position to be successful.

Really disappointing. Coming off of probably the best week of practice we probably had all year. Bunch of guys back. Some of those guys coming back maybe a little rusty. But they played hard. They played hard.

So all credit goes to Cal. Great job by Justin Wilcox and his staff. They got after us today.

Questions.

Q. Coach, can you take us through the third down and fourth down calls on both of the initial goal line opportunities in the first quarter?

DAVID SHAW: Yeah. When you get down there -- there's been no secret what we've done around here for going on 15 years, we're going to take some shots with our big guys outside and we try to run the ball.

A couple things we tried to do getting on the edge. They had a couple of nice plays by them, didn't let us get on the edge. And we missed, you know -- not saying Tanner missed, but we missed each other a couple times. And down there, it's all timing. It's all trust and consistency. And we missed each other.

So fourth down, both times, try to call plays that we felt good about. You know, one ended up being a bad call. The other one probably, if it was executed better, had a chance.

Q. (Question regarding Tanner.)

DAVID SHAW: Solid. Not great. Not bad. Solid. Made a couple big-time throws. Throw to Ben, Ben Yurosek up the sideline. You know, can't throw it any better.

A couple of throws over the middle between people. A couple great throws but we missed. We missed a couple.

He and John beginning of the year did such a great job working together. They missed each other a couple times. He and Ben, really, really good. They missed each other a couple times.

We had a couple of slips at the top of the route. Right? I don't think -- it wasn't the grass. It was just we had some bad footwork and a couple of balls that had a chance to be completed were off to the left, off to the right.

So the opportunities were there. I thought Tanner was solid. But about five to six place that we had a chance that we didn't make.

Q. You had said during the week how much you respect Garbers. How difficult was he to contain? It seemed like he obviously hurt you guys both with his arm and his legs today?

DAVID SHAW: Yeah. I mean, typical Chase Garber's game. Made some big-time throws, put the ball in safe places. If you let him get outside, he's going to hurt you. So he got outside of us a couple times. Once bought some time, threw the ball down the field. Two other times, just kind of skated with his legs and had everybody covered. But he's the X factor.

Had a chance to talk to him this off season at our media day and told him how much I respected him then. And all the guy does is come out and make plays. But he's also a senior, older guy. Knows how big this game is. And he came out and played a great game.