STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 21, 2023

Gaethan Bernadel

Postgame Media Conference

UCLA 42, Stanford 7

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Gaethan Bernadel.

Q. Can you talk about how well Ethan Gerbers played?

GAETHAN BERNADEL: He did a good job of being able to extend the play. Obviously we didn't see him on film. We seen more of 3.

I wouldn't say we weren't prepared for him. I feel like whatever coach calls is perfect sought after and thought of.

But he did a good job extending the play. We came after him a lot tonight. He was able to do a good job standing in the pocket and making the throws he needed to make.

Q. Did you know which quarterback to expect tonight? Were you expecting to see this much of Gerbers?

GAETHAN BERNADEL: We didn't really base our game plan based off of who was coming in the game. You could put whoever at quarterback, but our game plan was going to stay the same.

Like I said, we seen 3 more. We seen 4 come into the game and nothing really changed on the defensive side of the ball.

Q. Second straight game that you guys fell behind really early, halftime shutout. What do you think is going on with the slow starts?

GAETHAN BERNADEL: Coach Taylor talked about it. We have to start fast. We can't be a team that doesn't play well in the first half, then come out second half and start scoring and stopping the offense. We have to start faster. That's one thing we need to do better.

Q. You went down with an injury. Are you good there?

GAETHAN BERNADEL: Yeah, I'm doing better now. I'll be fine. Thank you.

Q. In terms of stopping offenses like Washington in the future, what do you think you need to improve on the most?

GAETHAN BERNADEL: Coach April, our defensive staff, come up with key points every week. Two of those points that stay on every week is when you're deep, you're deep, and rush lanes. I feel like we need to get to the quarterback more.

We got after him a lot tonight with the pass, sacked him a few times. Stay consistent rushing the quarterback. The deepest man stay deep.

Q. What did you do well to get TFLs?

GAETHAN BERNADEL: Our coaches do a great job of scheming things up. Watch film, talk about it. It's our job to execute it as far as moving the front, as far as running different things they seen on film. Just being able to be prepared and make the adjustments.

Q. You had 10 penalties as a team. What kind adjustments do you need to make to avoid those?

GAETHAN BERNADEL: Just be smarter. You know what I mean? Just be smarter, especially when we have the ball on offense and defense. We're not refs, they call what they want to call. Maybe we don't agree with it. We have to take it out of their hands, play clean, play smart football.