|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 30, 2013David ShawStanford – 27 THE MODERATOR: Coach Shaw. COACH SHAW: First I have to say, can't say enough about our seniors. Fourth‑ and fifth‑year guys, undefeated at home again. Another 10‑win season. Beaten five ranked opponents. About to play our sixth. USC, ranked after they play us, make that seven. To come and fight every single week. Puts this program amongst the elite. You have to say it now, we are amongst the elite, to have this many 10‑win seasons in a row. Every single week against really tough competition. Can't say enough about those guys, the way they've put this program. We have to rest up, get all our bruises healed and get ready for one heck of a football game next week. Q. Coach, you beat five ranked teams. It's hard to imagine somebody giving you this much of a fight as Notre Dame did tonight. What were they doing? What was the problem against them? COACH SHAW: Was there a problem? Tyler Gaffney rushed for 190 yards. They're really good. Stephon Tuitt, one of the three top defensive linemen in the nation. He's phenomenal. Best defensive lineman in the nation didn't play tonight. They're really good up front. We knew we had to keep pounding, we knew we had to keep fighting. We knew they were going to come back. They're that good of a football team. I can't say enough about what Devon Cajuste was able to do in the first half. Change of field position twice, make a huge, unbelievable catch for a touchdown. I thought in spots Kevin Hogan was phenomenal. Missed two throws, they made us pay for it. But we came back, we fought. We knew it was going to be a tight ballgame. This is a really good Notre Dame football team. We knew it was going to come down to the end. Thankfully Wayne Lyons ended the game for us. Q. Was there ever consideration considering what's at stake next week to rest guys? COACH SHAW: With the guys we have that are nicked up, it happened anyway.  You saw Zach Hoffpauir come in there play the nickel to give Owusu some rest. Owusu had been beaten up a little bit. You saw Aziz Shittu get in there. Henry Anderson has been nicked up. And then Josh Mauro, we thought he would be able to come back. Couldn't push off that leg. Got aggravated in practice. We thought it was going to be fine. Couldn't play today. We had to play a lot of guys anyway. I would love to see the look on my seniors' faces if I said I wanted to rest them for next week. If you could imagine asking Shayne Skov to rest against Notre Dame, I'd have to ask and get out of the way. These guys wanted to end the season right at home and be undefeated at home, and they did that. Q. You talk about tangible evidence. Did you talk about that, the trophies? COACH SHAW: Absolutely. It was first team meeting. First team meeting on Monday I showed them a picture of the trophy. Freshmen hadn't seen it. It was here for three years, then it was gone. I wanted to make sure they looked at it. When we talk about it, people can jump on and off our bandwagon, tell us they love us, tell us they hate us. But when there is a trophy on the line, you win the trophy, all you do is point to the trophy. There's no defense. There's nothing you can say, they can say, we can say about it. You win a game, you get a trophy. There it is. Put it in the Hall of Fame, and you're happy bit. Actually the Hall of Fame is going through some renovations, maybe we'll keep it in my office. Q. Do you think at that point your defense decided to control the game? What was going on those last three possessions? COACH SHAW: I've been called conservative. I've been called other things, which is fine. I love my staff. I think we do a good job. When we get a lead, we don't mind if you know it. It's going to be the offensive line, Tyler Gaffney and great defense. It's tough to play the whole field and hopefully make a team one‑dimensional against our defense. They're down a score with not a lot of time left, they have to throw the ball. Our pass‑rush was good tonight. We didn't get as many sacks as we wanted to. But we put pressure on the quarterback. We made it hard on him. I thought Coach Mason did a great job mixing up coverage, between man and zone, trying to disguise some looks, hopefully put the quarterback in some tough situations. The kid came out and threw the ball well. He made some great throws. But thankfully our guys got hands on some balls. Thought both our corners played really well. We gave up a touchdown. Both those guys came back and battled. Made some big tackles, but also made some big plays on the ball. Q. You were in this position last year. Different team, different year. How do you feel after everything you've gone through about how your team is entering the title game next week? COACH SHAW: We talked earlier in the week about the road matters while you're on the road, but if you get to the final destination, then what you went through is worth it. We talked the beginning of the year about being in the PAC‑12 championship game. That's all we talked about. We made it there. We had ups and downs, we had bumps and bruises. We lost some guys, had some guys step up. We lost a couple games. But when you look up, we're where we wanted to be, a 10‑win team in the PAC‑12 championship game, and it's going to be a heck of a game next week. Q. Will you watch the Arizona/Arizona State game? COACH SHAW: I don't know if I have the emotional energy to watch another football game. I'm going to have some dinner with my family. I'll see that game early in the morning and I'll be able to rewind it. Q. If you had lost this game, that personal foul call against Alex Carter would have been a big play. What did you think of the call? COACH SHAW: It's one of the biggest plays in the NFL and in college. I talked to the officials about it. It happened last year in the NFL, I can't remember which game. You don't want to hit a guy high. You don't want to hit him in the head. You set a target for the middle of his body. As you're coming to him, you start to engage the tackle, the guy slips and falls. So that wasn't intentional helmet to helmet. It happened. The referees have to throw a flag. They have to. My question to them is, What do I tell my guys? That's all I care about. I understand the flag got called. What do I tell my guy who is trying not to hit the guy in the head, he's going lower to hit him in the chest, the guy slips and falls, we hit him in the head. I think it puts both of us in a tough situation. The rule was there for protection, and it has to be called. I understand it, but it's hard to tell our guys what to do. Q. You watched the way that Alabama lost. Williamson had a chance to go for a 52‑yard field goal. Did you even think anything about that? COACH SHAW: First of all, I didn't really see it. Somebody told me about what it was. Everybody was screaming about something. I didn't know what it was. No, that wasn't even a question. We said 50 maybe if the game was on the line. But we weren't going to try a 50‑yard field goal, not with where he is right now. He's good closer in there. He's been kicking the ball really well. By the time we get to the bowl game, he'll be back to his normal range. But we're not going to do that this week or next week. Q. Did you think this was Tyler Gaffney's best game at Stanford? COACH SHAW: Boy, that's so close. What he did against Oregon I thought was phenomenal. Didn't have the same amount of yards, but the way he carried guys, those four‑yard runs were unbelievable four‑yard runs. But this one was pretty special. He knows what it's about. When we get a lead, we get into the fourth quarter, they know what's coming, we know what's coming. That last run might have been his best run ever. That last run, there wasn't a big hole. He squeaked through it. There was a guy after the hole. He took that guy for a ride. Can't say enough about him. Every time I look at him, thank goodness he didn't stay with baseball. Q. You said before you're called conservative when you keep the ball tight. Do you have a conversation with Derek during this, Go ahead and run the ball, my defense is going to take care of this? COACH SHAW:  No. We had a quick conversation about that fourth‑and‑one, whether or not to go for it, try to seal the game. With a seven‑point lead, I didn't want to take that chance and give them good field position and momentum with only a seven‑point lead. So we were going to punt that. That was the only time we talked about it. Everybody knows what our mode is. We get a lead at the end of the game. Now, we took a couple shots on third down versus man coverage. We kind of under‑threw one. There was some contact there. But their defensive back made a heck of a play for the interception. Tried Ty on another one. Had another chance. But we'll still do those. If people are going to press the box on the third down, give us a chance to take a shot, we'll take a shot. But for the most part we get in the fourth quarter with a lead, we'll run the ball downhill. I got to say this, too. I thought Anthony Wilkerson played a heck of a football game. He was fast. He was physical. He ran through arm tackles. Excited to see him go out as a senior against Notre Dame very well. Q. You got pretty heated with the ref after Hogan's interception. Was that because you thought it hit the ground? COACH SHAW: We were just discussing hand fighting and what should be called and what shouldn't be called. Q. With Josh Mauro, is he expected to be back next week? COACH SHAW: Yes. I expect it. The trainers expect it. We'll be cautious with him early in the week again. See if we can get him up late in the week. It was close. He was probably 80% or so. But Josh plays so hard, there's no pulling back. It's not that big. It's not that bad. But it was bad enough to say, You know what, let's be smart here. Hopefully we'll get him back for the next two games. Q. Davis Dudchock had two catches in his career entering the game. How big was he at establishing Hogan's rhythm in the short passing game? COACH SHAW: Awesome. You guys know in particular around here how much we value the tight end position. Davis has had great practices all year. We haven't put him in a lot of situations. But he's been so good the last few weeks we put him out there and just let him play. He made two catches. One of those balls got tipped. He jumped up, made a heck of a play. We trust him. He's done a great job. Can't say enough about him once again. Playing a senior game against Notre Dame, made some great plays. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|