STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 22, 2022

Shaun Aguano

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 15, Arizona State 14

SHAUN AGUANO: I think our kids played to the last whistle like I asked them to do. We weren't efficient enough on offense. Our defense did a great job, again, like you said, keeping them out of the end zone. 15 points shouldn't win football games.

Am I disappointed? Yes, I'm very, very disappointed, but I've got a team to make sure I take care of. So we'll get back at it.

I told them right before I came here is I'll never give up on them. They have two ways to go. We can get better than we were this week next week, or we can cash it in. They all told me they're all in.

So I'll make sure that I'm there for them.

Q. On the catch by Badger, from your take, could you tell if he was in or out? Did you see the replay like everybody else did? What was your thought as you think you're down there and then you're not?

SHAUN AGUANO: I thought his foot was probably out when I looked up there. And that's a moment we could have scored, to tell you the truth, but it didn't happen.

We wanted to rush our guys down there to kick a field goal, because if it was caught and it was out of bounds, the clock would have stopped and we would have had three seconds to kick a field goal for a win, but they called it out.

Q. What do you think happened the second half as far as how the offense stalled?

SHAUN AGUANO: I thought we had penalties to hold us back in the sticks. I didn't think we dominated the line to get ahead of the sticks in second and longs, trying to play catch-up the whole time.

I wasn't happy with us playing from behind and not being efficient on first downs. We made some big plays, but we never finished. We always stalled. I'm not real happy with that.

Q. What did you think about Emory's play?

SHAUN AGUANO: I thought Emory's play was solid. I'm going to go back and look at the progressions, look at his decisions on some RPOs. I thought he did pretty well. I thought he put the ball in places where we needed it to be, and receivers made some catches.

They're all going to miss some, but I thought he did pretty well off the cuff, but I have to go back and look at film.

Q. Stanford hasn't done a good job against the run, obviously. You were kind of up and down a little bit in that respect. Is that related to the offensive line kind of shake-up that you have to do? What factored into that?

SHAUN AGUANO: I don't know. I didn't think we dominated up front like we did against Washington. I've got to go back and look from a schematic standpoint what was the right schemes.

Whenever you shake up a little on the offensive side, then there's always some mistrust. I wouldn't say mistrust, but they're not comfortable with playing some. So I've got to go back and look at the film and see where the miscues were.

Q. Did you think of going to Trenton at all in the second half?

SHAUN AGUANO: I didn't because I didn't think Emory was playing bad, so I didn't. I try not to never second-guess myself in those decisions. That's what the outside world will always do, especially if you didn't get that win.

But I told my guys that I'm going to make the best decision, I think for them, to win the football game. We came up short, so I'll take the blame for all of that.

Q. Sasha had a career high receiving yards in the first half; then it kind of seemed like in the second half didn't get as many targets, third, fourth quater obviously. Got the target on that last. Do you feel like Stanford put a lot of emphasis on trying to take him away, or was it just not getting the ball to him in critical moments?

SHAUN AGUANO: I think in the first half we kept him honest on second down. We were in second and mid in those situations and second and mid and third and mid. Now we have a little bit more time because of protection schemes. Whenever you're throwing from second and ten and third and ten and guys are coming after you and those D-line are jetting -- what we call jetting, get going.

Then it becomes a little harder. Then they anticipate what the calls is going to be, mostly the pass.

Q. What did you think about the defense's performance, especially (No microphone)

SHAUN AGUANO: I thought they did a good job. I thought they did a good job of coming up and playing man.

That kicker was on target today. He made five field goals, and that was the difference. Did we play good enough to win? I thought we did. We've just got to be better.

Q. Stanford's RPO with how slow developing it is, it's tough to simulate. Do you feel like your preparation during the week was sufficient enough to prepare your defense?

SHAUN AGUANO: Yeah, I think so. It's always hard because it asks your whole defense to run to the football. Now you're telling the secondary you can't run to the football because you need to keep your eyes on all the RPOs.

They do a pretty good job. They caught us a couple times on hot routes and on screens because we brought pressure from the perimeter. But overall I thought we did a good job against their run, and they had to pass a little bit more. They've got big receivers and they're pretty good too.

Q. (No microphone)...the first half. The second half there was definitely a slew there. What did you think about that?

SHAUN AGUANO: I'm never happy with those penalties. I thought we did a great job in the first half playing disciplined football. There's a late hit outside. There was a holding. There was a hand to the face. Our guys are trying to play hard, and I know Khoury Bethley took it real hard that he made that mistake, but our guys to trying to play hard, and they're trying to play disciplined.

There's a little trip in there, and I expect that when you're competing, but overall I thought they did a good job with the penalties.

Q. It was a third and five where you guys ran the ball, second to last possession. What were you thinking about in that situation?

SHAUN AGUANO: It was an RPO that we handed off that they came up and played. We can go back and second guess, we should have gone for it. I think it was analytics says fourth and two to go for it.

But we didn't get those two, and we got stopped behind. I had the opportunity to make a decision to punt it, and I'm glad we did. I'm glad we did because we got the ball back to win the football game.

We didn't have any timeouts, but we practice that all the time. I thought we moved the ball down effectively enough to win that football game.

Q. You seem to get some defensive pressure, got a couple sacks today too, even had a corner blitz at one point. Is that something obviously you wanted to see?

SHAUN AGUANO: I wanted more pressure. I wanted us to attack instead of, like he said, the bend don't break. I thought we did a terrific job and held them to 15 points, and we should win those football games.

Offensively, we all take it pretty hard from the offensive and defensive side because I asked them to do their jobs. Sometimes you try so hard and you don't get that job done, but I'm going to make sure I put my hands around them, and we'll get back next week.