STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2024

Mitch Leigber

Postgame Media Conference

SMU 40, Stanford 10

Q. Mitch, talk about the first quarter, particularly rough as a secondary. What happened there? What could you have done differently?

MITCH LEIGBER: I think we just gave up too many big plays, too many explosives. That's something you always emphasize as a defense, limit the explosives. Like I said, we gave up too many. We settled down in the second half. We got to put it together for four quarters.

Q. A obviously freshmen playing big minutes, Cam and Brandon. What is your advice to them before they play on a big stage?

MITCH LEIGBER: No doubt, just got to play with confidence. We see those guys at practice. We have all the trust in the world in them to go out and perform. They're competitors. They come out every day and compete. They work hard. So just trusting their preparation, go out there, play fast, and the plays will come.

Q. What did you see from Elijah this week and out there tonight?

MITCH LEIGBER: Yeah, he's a great player. We saw flashes out there tonight. We just got to keep building as a program, stick together. At the end of the day we're a brotherhood. We just got to stick together, keep building as a program.

We got a lot of really good players. Like I said, just keep building, keep our heads up, move on to the next game.

Q. The results aren't what you want them to be. What has Coach Taylor done well to manage you guys through this stretch? How has he approached you mentally?

MITCH LEIGBER: Yeah, no doubt. Like I said, we just got to stick together. At the end of the day it's a brotherhood, like I said. We've had a few tough losses. We've played some really good teams. Just go to stick together.

All we can do is go back to work next week, prepare for whoever our next opponent is, just keep building and improving each and every day.

Q. 7-0 right out of the gate, then spirals to 21-0. How do you keep your mental composure, stay calm?

MITCH LEIGBER: Yeah, obviously that's not how you want to start a football game, giving up some big plays like that. You just got to rally together as a defense, put it in the past, just trust the defense, the calls we're getting, the rest will handle itself, so...

Q. You've had a stretch of playing against ranked teams. The rest of the schedule, no ranked teams left. Do you see that as an opportunity going forward?

MITCH LEIGBER: We look at every opponent the same. We always preach every week is like a one-game season. Looking at it in that aspect, just going to practice every day, going out and competing. No matter who the opponent is, we're going to play our brand of football, play fast, physical, play hard, go hard every play no matter who the opponent is.