STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 18, 2023

Ashton Daniels

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 15, Cal 27

Q. Ashton, in general what's the mood of the team after this one?

ASHTON DANIELS: Yeah, I think you can kind of guess what it is. That's a huge game for us. We couldn't come through. We fell up short plenty of times. Extremely frustrating. Everyone is upset.

At the same time, we know we have to flush it and move on for next week.

Q. Talk about the preparation getting ready to go for this game after being a little banged up.

ASHTON DANIELS: Yeah, shoutout to the whole training staff. Everyone there, they've done a great job with everyone this year. They did a great job with me this week, you know, making sure that I was healthy and ready to go and braced up and protected.

So, yeah, I was in there a lot making sure that I felt good and that I felt comfortable enough to come out and play tonight.

And I did, so, yeah, huge thanks to them for making that happen.

Q. Ashton, good news is you will be able to go against Cal again; the bad news is will be in a different conference. What is your feeling about this being the last Pac-12 game? And then of course the big game next week against Notre Dame.

ASHTON DANIELS: Yeah, I mean, there is pros and cons to it. This is a great conference. I've been in it for two years.

Now, on the positive side, I get to play in a conference where, you know, it's a lot of great competition and a lot of teams on the east coast, so I get to go back home a little bit. I know that's how a lot of the guys feel.

So, yeah, we're excited for that. Of course we're upset that we lost our last Pac-12 game.

Then on the flip, we just have to flush it and be prepared for Notre Dame. They're an outstanding team. They're going to come in hungry and we have to be prepared for that. We need to go get a win.

We haven't won a single game at home this year. That's extremely frustrating for us and we know that, so we're going to have a lot of the motivation and fire for next week.

Q. What did you see on that long touchdown to Tiger?

ASHTON DANIELS: Yeah, they were in the coverage that we were expecting. Tiger had his guy beat right down the middle and I knew that all I had to do is just give him a chance.

He's an outstanding, outstanding receiver and he's extremely young. Extremely impressive that he's going to go out there and make catches like that, and that's built trust and confidence in our relationship, you know, knowing that he can do that and that he's a reliable guy that I can give a chance to and he's going to go make a play.

It's extremely comforting for me, for the whole offense, the coaching staff and all that good stuff.

Q. Just thoughts on Karty's performance even not just tonight and the season, but what does he mean to the team, his leadership, all that stuff?

ASHTON DANIELS: Yeah, Karty is outstanding. He's the best kicker in the nation, hands down. Shouldn't be up for any kind of vote.

You know, when we pass the 50 yard line we know there is a pretty high chance we're going to come down with some kind of points, whether it be a touchdown or a field goal.

Driving down, you know, I'm certain that even if I can't make a third down conversion, knowing we have a safety blanket like him that's going to go get us three points when we need it the most.

You guys saw it out there tonight. Outstanding. Lights out. No matter how far, he's going to make the field goal. He's an amazing leader. Special teams did an extremely good job tonight. Unfortunately offense, we couldn't go down and make it happen at times, especially when we had great field position, all this kind of stuff.

Yeah, I'm extremely happy for him and extremely happy to see what he does in the future.

Q. You talked about not winning here at home. Huge win in Colorado and then of course last year you guys won in South Bend. So being that you guys want to defend the home field next week, there is also Notre Dame wants very revenge on you guys. Is that in the back of your minds?

ASHTON DANIELS: Yeah, we know that. Not only is it because of that, but we also know that anybody is going to want to come in here and beat us. You know, I think that we went out last year and had an amazing game.

Yeah, they're going to be pissed off, upset about that, and come out with some fire. They want to finish the season off strong, all this kind of good stuff.

But for us, I think we just have to bear down and get back to what we're used to. Clean up the fundamentals and the small things, and I think once we start tuning those things in, we're going to be an extremely successful team.