	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ROSE BOWL GAME: IOWA VS STANFORD

December 27, 2015

Kevin Anderson

Pasadena, California

Q. What kind of a game are you expecting Friday? These are two pretty fundamentally sound teams that like to run the ball.
KEVIN ANDERSON: It's going to be a tough, grinding, physical game. It's probably not going to be too much flash. It's going to be old school, back and forth. It's going to be a good game.

Q. Do you like that kind of -- Iowa has a reputation of being really physical. Is that something you guys kind of welcome almost?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, definitely. I mean, we go against our offense in spring ball and in camp, and that's exactly what I think our offense tries to be like. So we get a lot of practice with it. It's a lot of fun.

Q. Is this your third trip here?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah.

Q. Is there any part of it where the novelty wears off a little bit?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Not really. If anything we know what to expect, so we're excited for certain things, and I've been a part of a winning team and a losing team. We know the difference. We know how much it stinks to lose and how fun it can be to win, so if anything we'll have that in the back of our heads and use that to help motivate the other guys.

Q. You guys are 5 and 6 in the country. You can't get any closer to a Final Four. In that sense is there disappointment coming so close to the ultimate prize?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I wouldn't say so. I mean, we lost a good two games that we had and if we didn't do that we'd probably be top four. You just play as hard as you can and hopefully it works out, but this year it didn't, I guess.

Q. The previous Rose Bowl teams had more sort of locked-down defenses. Is this year's team a little bit more bend but don't break? Is that a fair characterization?
KEVIN ANDERSON: It's hard to say. The defenses are different over the years. We've got guys who didn't have as much experience coming in this year, so it's a little different that way. But I'd say when everyone is doing their job and everyone is playing well, we can be a very good defense.

Q. Your red zone defense has really picked up the slack at times, the Washington State game being a good example. What have you guys done well inside the 20 that's allowed you to hold people to 3 instead of 7?
KEVIN ANDERSON: We've just had awareness that we are inside the 20 and kind of like third down, everyone says that third down we need to get after the passer, we need to get off the field, so it's the same thing in red zone, where we're in red zone we need to make them kick field goals. If we do that, we'll be all right. So awareness of where we are and the need and the urgency to get off the field.

Q. How much of a similarity between what you've faced in practice every day in your offense and Iowa's offense have you seen from looking at the film?
KEVIN ANDERSON: It's very similar. I'm just saying in camp and in spring ball we go against a team that likes to use a fullback like they do, and a team like Iowa uses a bunch of tight ends which we go against all the time, so we do have the advantage where we've gone against it for four spring balls and four camps, so definitely have experienced similar offenses.

Q. Could you have figured coming to Stanford to be in three Rose Bowls?
KEVIN ANDERSON: That's a good question. I don't know if I figured it. I obviously would want to, wanted to. I didn't know what to expect, really. I knew that it was a team that was on the rise and with potential to do something like this. But it's hard for a team that hadn't been to the Rose Bowl since 2000, 10 years, it's hard to say I expect to get three out of my five years.

Q. What did you see, and I know you got an up-close view, but what did you see that made you think this is the place I want to be, from a football standpoint?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Just the idea of mentality coming into work every day and work really hard. We have this saying that's kind of like the overarching motto, you're either getting better or you're getting worse or staying the same. I've been a part of some great defenses in this four or five years. Every year we change significantly. We'll be the best defense in the Pac-12 and then the next year it will be very different, so it was always changing, always different, and that's what I saw is that no one is satisfied to be good. In order to maintain being good, you have to change and adapt and always try to be better.

Q. So your junior year was the Sun Bowl year, your junior year in high school?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah.

Q. Do you remember going to any games that year?
KEVIN ANDERSON: That year I did not. Not that I remember. I went to a bunch. Obviously when I was committed I went to all of them.

Q. Do you remember them winning the Pac-12 in 1999? I don't know how old you would have been.
KEVIN ANDERSON: I was seven.

Q. Not much attention?
KEVIN ANDERSON: No.

Q. I heard you talking about the Iowa tight ends and fullbacks, but is there a team you guys have played (that resembles Iowa)? I was trying to think of anybody that would resemble Iowa besides what you guys see in practice. Maybe SC uses a little bit of fullback?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, they do. Notre Dame a little bit. They've got four good tight ends that they go against and some big guys. I think also the physicality of the offensive line, Notre Dame is a very physical, big O-line, so we've had comparison or we've used comparisons to those guys for Iowa. Kind of the mentality they want to come off the ball and punch you in the mouth, that idea.

Q. A lot like Michigan State and Wisconsin, too?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, I'd say so. Wisconsin was a wild game.

Q. I know it was.
KEVIN ANDERSON: But Michigan State did do that, too. They used a bunch of tight ends, yeah.

Q. Is there anything that you feel like you guys have learned about the Rose Bowl preparation itself that you think has helped you or will help you this week?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, a little. As I said, I've been fortunate to be part of a team that's won it and a team that's lost it, and there's such a big difference. Leaving here with a win makes the whole trip worth it. When we leave here with a loss, you have a sour taste in your mouth for the whole off-season. So I think it's the job of the people who have been to the two before to make sure everyone who was just down here for the first or whatever, second time, to make sure we're here to play and win the game. I mean, Disneyland is awesome, the Improv show is awesome, Lawry's is awesome, but when it comes down to it it's a business trip and we need to be ready to win this game because losing really stinks.

Q. Do you think the bowl preparation affects the off-season, the conditioning, the whole mentality?
KEVIN ANDERSON: For instance, this last off-season I had was by far the hardest. Obviously, we won the bowl game but we were also in the Foster Farms game, not a Rose Bowl or a Fiesta Bowl like it had been in the three previous years, and I think it definitely had an impact on the mentality of the off-season, and we realized we could go one way or the other. We could go to another non-New Year's Eve bowl or New Year's Six bowl, or we could have a chance and have a great season like we've had.

Q. So it was the hardest from a conditioning and strength standpoint and all that?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, and similar, as I said, how you're either getting better or you're getting worse. He's [Shannon Turlely] been Strength Coach of the Year for two years or something like that, he was just named it, and then he totally changed his whole workout program, his whole system. That's kind of a similar thing. It was definitely the most difficult and mentally and physically challenging.

Q. Something Christian McCaffrey has done that just made you think, I can't believe anybody did that?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Well, our joke is -- not our joke, but ever since he came, every now and then we'll be matched on him as a running back, and literally as an outside linebacker I think once or twice we've been able to cover him successfully, so it's kind of the kiss of death if you end up being matched on him and have to go with him.

Q. Did he play cornerback one day? Do you remember that?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I mean, he probably could, but I don't remember.

Q. How was the Disneyland trip?
KEVIN ANDERSON: It was awesome. It was a lot of fun. Going crazy with all the guys was a lot of fun.

Q. Any highlights, favorite rides or favorite moments?
KEVIN ANDERSON: I'm a big California Screaming guy, so me and a couple guys on the team went on that like three or four different times in a row, so that was a highlight probably.

So we kind of had a little strategy going in and we were able to hit all the rides we wanted to.

Q. (Inaudible.)
KEVIN ANDERSON: Exactly. It's our Monday of game prep, so we go to meetings and then practice.

Q. Anything that really stands out to you about Iowa's offense?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Well, they're very physical, very good, very well-coached team. They're not going to do anything too crazy but they're going to pretty much tell us what they are going to do and go and say we're going to run right here and we're going to challenge you to stop us, and most teams haven't been able to stop them. So we've definitely got a big challenge in that. It's going to be a good game.

Q. Do you think it's one of the toughest offenses that you've faced up against?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, they're probably the best team we've played all year. We're going to definitely bring our "A" game and be ready to go to battle.

Q. You've been here before. What can you take from that?
KEVIN ANDERSON: Yeah, everyone is excited. I think it's good that we've been and understand what it's like because there's a lot of fun aspects to it, because when it's time to get into meetings, get into practice, time to walk in, we'll have a lot of experience making sure everyone is ready to do that and ready to work and then when it's time off everyone can have a good time and hang out.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297