STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2024

Hank Bachmeier

Postgame Media Conference

Wake Forest 27, Stanford 24

Q. Can you walk us through your emotions today? You family out there. Your brother on the other side. Tight game.

HANK BACHMEIER: Yeah, no, I was telling -- like I interviewed after the game and I was telling them this morning I was bawling crying. I got really emotional. I didn't expect to be emotional like that. My grandmother texted me and she just texted me, it's nothing. It's just like 17th avenue and Lemoore, California, playoff game on Thanksgiving day.

For some reason why, just brought me a lot of emotion because I think it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to play your little brother. Like I said, only took me six years in college football to play my little baby brother.

Yeah, it's just incredibly emotional just to be able to come back home, sort of come back home and be with so much family. Feels a hell of a lot better to get the win too.

But just, yeah, like I said once in a lifetime opportunity. Incredibly honored and blessed to be able to be in that position.

Q. You're from Lemoore, California?

HANK BACHMEIER: I'm from Murrieta, California. My grandmother, family are from Lemoore, which is Fresno area.

Q. Did Stanford surprise you on defense at all?

HANK BACHMEIER: No, I mean, they played -- as far as schematically, what they did on tape was very similar to what we saw. Kind of slow mesh a little differently, but they played really hard. Obviously my brother goes there so I'm always rooting for them when we're not playing them.

You know, they play really hard. They're great people and obviously a great university. Yeah, they stayed pretty much similar on tape to what we saw. They play really hard.

Q. Hoping your brother would return that kickoff at the end?

HANK BACHMEIER: I mean, I was pissed at one point because he caught a third down I think on the one they tied up it up on. I was like, damn it, he caught that one. That was a bummer, but happy for him at the same time.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

HANK BACHMEIER: Yeah, I mean, Taylor, for him to be able to do that, the whole special teams unit, this was a complete win. I don't know how many penalties we had. Couple different -- you know, there were some calls. Hell, I think that pick, whatever.

But there were some different calls that we were just getting behind the sticks a lot, so it was kind of an ugly day for us on offense. We just kind of kept shooting ourselves in the foot, and credit to the defense. Had a ton of turnovers.

Yeah, special teams at the end of the game, Matt making that field goal to put us on top. It's just a complete team win and for us to be able to do that couple weeks in a row is huge I think, especially going into the bye week that we can close out strong.

Q. (Regarding simultaneous interception.)

HANK BACHMEIER: Yeah, yeah.

Q. But in a game that felt like it shouldn't have been that close, how do you guys go about cleaning up?

HANK BACHMEIER: Yeah. Yeah, what did we score, 24 points in the first half? Yeah, so obviously didn't have a great second half. I think every drive we got behind the sticks from penalties. That's killer. It's an ugly win but eventually -- you're not going to win games if you keep doing stuff like that.

Like I said, incredibly grateful to get this win, but a lot of stuff to clean up. We got play with composure and just not make those mistakes.

I think it's not going to be that close. Really happy to get this for the guys.

Q. Four wins on the road. How do you transition --

HANK BACHMEIER: Yeah.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

HANK BACHMEIER: Yeah, we got a Friday night game versus Cal. Coach Wilcox and his defense. His entire team played really, really hard. Really respect them.

And got a couple weeks to just heal up and kind of self-reflect and self-scout and see what we need to work on and clean up. I think you can only move forward from here.

Yeah, coach Clawson just talked about it, for us to be able to go 3-1 in the last four games is huge, especially the couple tough losses. You know, we're just resilient. We're a resilient unit and just really, really proud of the guys. Honored to be a part of this team.

Q. What's the difference now? Is you guys winning back-to-back, one-score games like this when you couldn't close the deal in the one-score games earlier in the season? What's the difference in the team now?

HANK BACHMEIER: Yeah, I think seeing is believing. I think it's Polar Express, Christmas movie, good movie. That's a quote from there. We did it. For us to be able to actually do it, you see it, you believe it, and we're capable of doing it.

Coach Clawson talks about a lot of our games are going to come down to one-score games. At the beginning of the year we didn't do it, but we have done it, we see it, we believe it and we're going to keep fighting.

Q. What was the it like to have only one of your family members sitting on the Wake Forest side?

HANK BACHMEIER: There was only one over there?

Q. Yeah.

HANK BACHMEIER: I saw my cousin or who was it?

Q. Yeah, your cousin sitting on the other side. Everyone else was sitting on the Stanford side.

HANK BACHMEIER: Damn. I don't know. I don't know. You know, Tiger, he's a sweetheart. If they want to sit with him, I get it. I'll take the win, so...