STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 7, 2024

Troy Taylor

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 41, Cal Poly 7

TROY TAYLOR: Excited for our guys. Complete win here for us: Special teams I thought was phenomenal, offensively we finally got it going, and the defense I think was exceptional the entire game. Disruptive on first and second down. Great third-down defense. Our guys really controlled the game the entire evening.

Q. So just talk about two things: Tiger Bachmeier's touchdown on the punt return, and then also what kind of went into the decision to have him returning kicks?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, Bryce (Farrell) was down for this game. Just didn't feel ready to play physically, and so Tiger stepped in. Got a lot of confidence in him. I thought he was going to fair catch the ball and luckily he didn't.

Made somebody miss and picked up an unbelievable amount of great blocks, and then he showed off his speed a little bit.

Q. So how did the punt return change the momentum of the game and get you guys going the rest of the second half?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, I think there were two things. When we got stopped inside the 5 I think they (Cal Poly) had a lot of momentum. They had done some good things. Our defense did a great job (responding). Cal Poly got a first down and we forced a punt, then we were able to call timeout and save some time.

And then we had some big plays going down the field. That was huge going into the half 14-7. I think that was helpful for a young team to have a little bit of a momentum.

Coming out (of halftime), again, the defense got a stop early on. Gave up one first down and was able to get the ball and make an exceptional return.

So quickly turned from a 7-7 game to 21-7 game and had some momentum and rhythm. Then our guys were in attack mode and they did a great job.

Q. I know any win is a good win. I know you don't want to talk about the past and all that, but you do know that you kind of had the monkey on the back of not having won here in almost two years. How good is it to get that monkey off your back?

TROY TAYLOR: Like you said to begin with, all the wins are difficult and tough. All teams got good players and good coaches and they prepare and give it all.

So any time you win -- the goal is to win every time we go out there-- just really proud and happy for our guys. You know, the next step now is having a great -- learn from this and having a great bye week and get ready for Syracuse and moving on.

Q. Elijah Brown came in during the fourth quarter and quickly leads a touchdown drive. Evaluate what you saw from him today.

TROY TAYLOR: Really good. It what we've seen since he's been here this spring. Exceptional anticipation, exceptional accuracy, composure. There is reason why the guy was whatever, 44-2. He's a very composed, really talented player. He's going to be a good one.

Q. You mentioned Bachmeier's touchdown, but you got a lot of big plays on special teams and in different phases: The faked punt, the blocked field goal, so many different things. What does that do on the sidelines for the rest of the team when you're getting that kind of production out of special teams?

TROY TAYLOR: That's a great question. I think when we had an assignment error on our first drive and got hit in the backfield and fumbled and our defense came on, did a nice job and got a block by our special teams, that was massive. They then did it all game.

I thought the field position was pretty good for the most part. You know, so I think there is sometimes a real opportunity when you have a little bit more depth than the other team in special teams.

And then Emmet Kenney has been exceptional. Really been exceptional. Yeah, special teams was a definite win for us this evening, and felt like it was last week, too.

So it was closer (last week), but I thought we did a good job on special teams week one. We are going to have to continue that as we get into the ACC games.

Q. Ashton's instrumental in the run game, but the flipside is he takes a lot of hits. How do you balance him getting going but also I know you want to save him for the season?

TROY TAYLOR: You're right. You're absolutely right. There is a limit to how many hits you can take. The thing about Ashton, he's one of the biggest, strongest, fastest guys on our team, and he's tough. It's a part of his game if he's playing is to run the football. We got to play to his strengths.

The other side of that is, yes, we got to give him more balance with runs to the running back, and we'll hopefully get that from our young offensive line. You know, got some young guys playing. They did some good things, but definitely need to improve and improve quickly in order to balance just the quarterback runs.

Q. Following up on that, if there were one thing looking at the stats that would be concerning for you is that you really didn't get a whole lot of production out of your running backs in the run game. That kind of was the same thing last week, really almost last year. How do you change that?

TROY TAYLOR: Just continue to work. You know, like I said, the quarterback runs were pretty good for us, so that's going to be a benefit for us.

But just got to continue to work. I mean, we're a young team, so the jumps have to be significant every single week when you're playing with young guys.

We'll come in tomorrow and watch the tape and move forward quickly. So the trend has to be upward each week with young guys, because we're not satisfied with playing games close; we want to win them.

We're going to play with young guys. They got to get better.

Q. You touched on the offensive line, but kind of a new lineup out there. What went into that decision to have the starting five that you did?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, we got some athleticism with (Luke) Baklenko and (Kahlil) House. Obviously House is -- he was senior in in high school last year, so that's tough moving into the college level and playing.

But where we are right now as a program, freshmen got to come in and play and be able to contribute. And they're talented. But we will move guys around. Levi (Rogers) ended up coming back in and playing most of the game. Brought him back in and he did a nice job.

Really about just giving ourselves an opportunity to win in real time. Not waiting for four, five games to figure things out, but being bold and taking opportunities to get guys in and see what they can do.

Q. Sedrick Irvin had a couple big catches out of the backfield. What makes him so effective in that?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, really tough kid first and foremost. Pretty versatile. I think our backs are versatile. They're young but versatile guys that have the ability. Got a chance to see Chris Davis Jr. play a little bit and (Micah) Ford and then Sedrick Irvin.

Feel really good about all those guys, young guys getting a ton of experience. They did some good things but need to progress next week.

Q. You guys had a 17-point third quarter. What was the message coming out of halftime to allow that to happen?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, I think the message was we got to continue to play well on defense like we have the first two quarters and get it going on offense.

And then our whole message for the entire game was to be physical and execute for four quarters, from the beginning. Cal Poly came out and did some really good things. The trick play was pretty impressive.

It was really about, like any game, sustained focus and passion for the game and realizing and believing in yourself that eventually the tide or the game is going to move in your favor.

Now, you certainly have more belief after you've done it a few times, but hopefully we'll build on this and do it a number of times this year and gain our confidence and realize at some point the game will turn in our favor.

Q. You mentioned the bye week. A little early for a bye week, but you don't have a choice in that.

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah.

Q. What do you plan for the bye week?

TROY TAYLOR: Yeah, the bye week, I mean it's hard to predict where a good bye week will be, so I don't look too much into that.

I think we got a couple games on tape and have a big game coming up and now we have an opportunity. Hopefully we'll healthy. Haven't talked to the training staff yet. Get an opportunity to progress and improve, and then get better for our first ACC game.

So it'll be just like we always do: evaluate what we've done, what we can do to improve, what we can do to improve the schematics, and what we're doing to give our guys a better chance. Building on their talents.

Then just continuing to hone in on our skills and hopefully be a better team in our next game than we were today.

Thanks very much. Go Card.