STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 22, 2022

Tanner McKee

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 15, Arizona State 14

Q. Tanner, pretty prolific game for you, over 300 yards passing, but none got in the end zone. Do you feel a void when that happens, or are you just happy with the five field goals that got the win on homecoming?

TANNER McKEE: Yeah, I obviously have a lot of things to learn from, a lot of things to improve on, but I came off the field and I was like, wow, that was a messy one to Coach Tavita, and he was like, well, you've got to win the messy ones.

It was enough to get the W, but obviously not enough moving forward. A lot of things to work on, a lot of things to get better at, but obviously happy with the result today.

Q. Just talk about what it's like having a kicker in Josh Karty, and how much -- obviously the goal is to get in the end zone every possession, but how much pressure does that take off of you when you know that, hey, if we don't get this drive done, you've got a kicker behind you like Karty that's almost an automatic three points?

TANNER McKEE: Yeah, it's huge. Like you said, our goal is to score a touchdown every single time. We're not playing out there to try to kick field goals, but it is nice, when we come up a little short, that Karty can be himself and can be automatic and get those three points because, as you can see, today was huge.

Yeah, it's definitely a huge weapon that we're going to use. Hopefully we'll be able to keep him off the field a little bit more by scoring touchdowns, but he's been doing great. So super excited for him.

Q. There seemed a couple times that you were a little hesitant to take off and run. You got sacked a couple times where you kind of looked like you were going to take off and then something caught your attention or something else. Could you just touch on maybe if you feel like you're going to end up running more in the future or if there just wasn't a read that you liked?

TANNER McKEE: Yeah, we'll see. I feel like they did a good job of dropping guys late, running some pretty funky coverages. So just trying to play football and react. Honestly, when you're out there, you're not thinking about a ton of different stuff.

As a quarterback, your job is to deliver the ball into the play makers' hands, and that's what I try to do to the best of my ability. When that doesn't work, obviously I feel comfortable using my legs and running. Yeah, that's basically it.

Q. Casey ran 32 times last week. This week you throw 57 times. I guess what went into that change from last week to this week? Also, if Casey's not able to go next week, could we expect more of you throwing a lot against UCLA? Was this good practice for that?

TANNER McKEE: Yeah, I mean, last week they ran a ton of Cover 2 and made us run the ball, so that's what we did. That's what's great about our offense. We're just going to take what the defense gives us. They ran a ton of one hide, a lot of Cover 1, a lot of Cover 3, so we tried to take advantage of that and throw the ball as many times as possible.

Yeah, obviously we did throw a ton.

Q. And do you feel that prepares you for next week against UCLA?

TANNER McKEE: Yeah, I think so. Definitely a lot of things to iron out and a lot of things to get better on as far as a timing standpoint or me anticipating where guys are going to go or just different routes.

I said it before there's a few routes where we usually have Mike out there, but obviously he wasn't playing. So just getting comfortable and getting timing down with the other guys just so we don't have the dumb miscommunications when it should be an easy completion and we just don't get the conversion.

Q. Could you talk about what your emotions are like as a quarterback or just as an offensive player in general when the game is on the line and it's up to the defense to get a stop. Just kind of what's going through your mind there and just kind of emotions when you see -- yeah, when it's out of your control. Just how do you kind of deal with that emotionally?

TANNER McKEE: Yeah, it's kind of funny being a quarterback because you want to amp everybody up. You want to get super fired up. You want to bring the fire and you want to bring the juice, but internally you have to be cool, calm, collected, focused. This is my job. I'm thinking about a ton of different things. I can't be too frantic or things like that.

I mean, I have a lot of trust in our defense. They've proved it before in the season. Last week and again this week, that they're clutch in big time situations.

So just having a lot of confidence in them, being on the sidelines, trying to be a leader, trying to be a captain as much as I can. Yeah, just try and help in any way I can.

Obviously when we're off the field, there's only so much that we can do, but given run/pass calls or getting the guys juiced up or telling them on the sideline or things like that.

Q. Is there a sigh of relief to finally get this first conference win? How much more does that -- gratifying does that feel now that going down to L.A. that you guys got at least one conference win after that big win in Notre Dame?

TANNER McKEE: Yeah, it's big. Obviously it brings a lot of momentum. I think it just shows that we can be really good when we play up to our standard and our expectations, at least from an offensive perspective. I feel like in no way was this game up to our standard or our expectations. There's a ton that we can grow on, a ton that we can improve on.

But Coach said we're never going to play perfect. We have to play with the bumps. Obviously it gives us momentum, and we're very excited to go down to L.A. and play our best game that we've played so far.