STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 27, 2021

Thomas Booker

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 14, Notre Dame 45

Q. What were the emotions of senior night like for you today?

THOMAS BOOKER: Yeah, it was crazy. You know, I think you kind of see the combination of all the time that you spent at the university. You know, not only as an athlete but a student, a teammate, a friend, a brother.

Just being able to kind of see these bonds up on the screen, all my guys in my class, you know, it's crazy. You hear the statement the days are long but the years are short, and I definitely think that that's an accurate statement in regards to my time here.

It seems like just yesterday that I was a freshman, so it's crazy to see how the time flies. But I'm just so proud and happy to have had the experience.

Q. How would you put into words this season? I know it probably didn't end the way you wanted it to end, but how would you encapsulate everything that happened to you guys?

THOMAS BOOKER: Yeah, absolutely. I just say it was kind of like an emotional rollercoaster a little bit. You know, but the wonderful about it is that everybody was so resilient and persevered through all of it.

I think obviously we didn't have all the results we wanted, but the thing that was a constant every week was guys were coming into work, always trying to get better, looking at the film.

And obviously it hurt to look at some of the losses, but we were trying to take positives from it and move forward and use constructive criticism. So for me, it taught me a lesson in perseverance and resilience, right?

I've never been a part of a season like this in terms of our wins and losses, but the guys that I was with I wouldn't rather be with any other group of guys. This is a group that I think is special, and I'm excited to see what the team does in the future.

Q. On to the next phase of your life here, future NFL, also being now an alumnus of Stanford University once you graduate, all that. Just talk about in a way kind of any thoughts on kind of carrying the Stanford mantel into the next chapter, how eager you are to stay connected here?

THOMAS BOOKER: I'm so eager to do that. I'm glad you asked that question. It's such an honor to come from a prestigious institution like this partly because of how prestigious it is, but more than that, the people that you meet and the relationships that you've built.

You know, whether it be with coaching staff, my teammates, anybody else, I have just been so fortunate to have so many special relationships that are genuine caring relationships, people that I see on a daily basis.

So that kind of just encourages me and promotes me coming back here and having as much time spent, connections maintained and kept up as possible. I'm extremely proud to be a potentially a Stanford alumnus and somebody that will come back to school pretty frequently.

Q. Especially on this D-line you guys had a veteran group this year. As this program tries to bounce back, what do you feel about the teammates that are going to be taking over for you guys next season?

THOMAS BOOKER: I think there is a lot of promising young guys. Tobin Phillips is going to have to bear that weight of being the oldest guy in the room now. I think he has got it. I think Anthony Franklin, Aaron Armitage is going to be really, really good. I think for them, development getting comfortable, confident, is going to be key.

But I have faith in those guys. I've seen it this year with them being freshmen, the amount of poise they have, getting thrown in the fire in games and still performing.

I'm really excited to see what they do in their future and their development, because I think they're some pretty special players, and you guys will probably see that in the next three years.

Q. Curious your thoughts on this. Any advice you could give the incoming freshman Stanford athletes given your experience? What is some advice you might give someone coming to The Farm next to fall?

THOMAS BOOKER: Shoot, there is a lot of advice that I would give. I think the first one would be like figuring out your time management skills. That will help literally everything, right? You'll perform better in your athletics when you're not thinking about all the schoolwork you have to do.

The other big thing is just understand that like you're going to fail at things. You know, that's kind of part of life, part of growing.

And be comfortable in failure. Obviously not too comfortable that you're doing it all the time, but naturally if you're a Stanford student-athlete you haven't failed too many times in your life before you came here, so could be uncomfortable, upsetting to have that happen to you at the next level.

But what kind of differentiates the good versus the great are the people that can take the failures and grow versus the people that get stuck in the mud with it.

So, yeah, that would be my probably biggest piece of advice is be comfortable with failure, with discomfort and things not going your way. When you move from level to level that's going to happen as you become acclimated. That's what I would say.