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ROSE BOWL GAME: IOWA VS STANFORD

December 28, 2015

Mike Bloomgren

Pasadena, California

An interview with:

COACH MIKE BLOOMGREN

Q. How about the wideouts, how much do they feed into your scheme so fluidly? When you're recruiting a guy, what do you look for?
COACH BLOOMGREN: We are so different. We are so different than many programs out there. You have to be a true student-athlete. You can't be what maybe the modern day student-athlete is, where it's a minor league for pro football in some realms. So we've got to get kids that are unique and that want the challenges on and off the field.

The other thing I would tell you is you've got to be tough to play in this offense no matter what position it is. I mean, you've got to be willing as a receiver to go knock that safety's head off, and that's what's going to allow the play-action pass to be so dynamic, and be able to hit those shots off the top.

But I just freakin' love these kids. You get to hear them talk and get to know some of these guys, you realize how fortunate we are, that I am, to get to work with them day in and day out. I mean, I'd take these guys in anything.

We had an opportunity to tour Sony Studios for the Coaches Dinner last night, and that was phenomenal. One of the things we did is went on the set of Jeopardy!, and I said give me these two guys, let's go. You want to brawl in the back? Give me these two, and let's go.

But I love these kids and how they really try to excel in everything that they do.

Q. The first thing your offensive group said when Christian [McCaffrey] came back from the Heisman to him and maybe that first offensive-only meeting?
COACH BLOOMGREN: You know, there was nothing said as a unit. A lot of us were with him in New York, and we were disappointed. We're very biased, and we love our guys. We think they got it wrong. We think the AP got it right. That's one of the things I did is I text them as soon as the AP came out, and I was like, well, at least we've got one of those things right. He fired back with: I guess AP stands for "all purpose," because at least they like my all purpose yards.

But he's so humble, and he's always so quick to point out everything his teammates do for him. He talks about Kevin's leadership and how it's helped him. Wow, I mean, Christian has been unbelievable this year on and off the field. He's so beyond his 19 years on this earth. You listen to him in press conferences and you watch his work ethic, you watch some of the things that he feels on the field that aren't natural for anybody, but much less a 19-year-old true sophomore.

Q. Lastly, Iowa, where do they present the most issues for you guys? How do you prepare?
COACH BLOOMGREN: That's the best work we can get is against our own defense because it's the only way you're going to match up to somebody as close to physical as Iowa's defense, and it's not going to be the scout team. It's going to be going to good on good work. We're going to be going against those linebackers like Blake Martinez day in and day out. That's going to be the best work for us.

Iowa is going to be -- I don't want to say vanilla, because it's the wrong term, but they trust their guys to line up and play great football and play a very physical style. So much so that there's not much movement, in the Pac-12 where you have all these different schemes and people flying in from vines on third down.

There's not a whole lot of that out of Iowa. You're going to see guys that are going to line up and base and play a physical style and really feel like they can man up. We talk all the time, I think they actually believe they can dazzle you with dance and they don't have to baffle you with BS. They're going to line up in front of you and try to fight you toe to toe.

I think a lot of us, when we saw this game, a lot of football people thought, wow, that's going to be a great battle on both sides of the ball, and it should be.

Q. Coach, can you get into the similarities of these two teams, just the structure, how you built it, what are some of the big comparisons you can make between you guys and Iowa?
COACH BLOOMGREN: I think as you look at the goal of the team, I think that both head coaches have a plan of how they want to win the game. Obviously it's worked out pretty good for both of them this year. But Coach Shaw, one of the things he charges us with is our formula of possessing the ball and scoring points every chance we can. Every time we get to touch the ball, we want to end with points. That's the goal and our offensive philosophy in a nutshell. Do what we need to do to score points. The other thing is play great defense. You see both teams have certainly done that.

I think as you look at it, it's been a heck of a year for us in terms of time of possession. I think we're over 35 minutes and we're the fourth team in 20 years to do that. I think that's a testament to our offensive line and how they've run the ball. With Christian, how Kevin's managed third down, and also to our defense, time of possession is always a team stat.

But I think when you can run the ball and play great defense and score some points, I think you've got a great chance in the modern era of college football in spite of maybe what some of the new-age people think.

Q. Is there one player on the Iowa defense that stood out to you guys on tape?
COACH BLOOMGREN: That middle linebacker, No. 43, is pretty good. [Josey Jewell] He's all over the place.

Q. When you come in and you're looking at a lot of different schemes like that and then you come up and line up against a defense that doesn't do a lot, is there a tendency to try to overthink it and who you're going to block with that or what you're going to do? How do you tell them to adjust to that?
COACH BLOOMGREN: I think the biggest thing for us as coaches is being smart enough not to put every play that draws up well against that structure on the board. You've still got to limit and figure out what you do best and what's going to fit best for your match-ups and really try to isolate those plays and work those plays, make sure everybody knows them as your core plays going into this game. So I think that's one challenge as a coach.

The other thing, because we normally have all those schemes to prepare for, it's been a challenge for our guys and a test of their maturity to continue to focus and really focus on the details. Does he give any alignment tips? Is there anything we can see? What does this mean out of my player? What can I take away on this particular pass rush if I'm setting this way?

They've done a great job of attacking the film in a different manner, if you will, really specific to the player and to their moves without having to worry as much about the scheme. With us being a gap scheme offense and an outside zone offense, when people move, we get some big plays out of that. We end up getting some explosive plays because our schemes just deal with it really well.

So when you play a team like Iowa that's going to stand there toe to toe with you, we're going to have to earn everything. So we're going to need all those one-on-one blocks to win.

Q. Does it help being at Stanford, high academics, that these guys can process so much information? I read over 50-some formations to your offense?
COACH BLOOMGREN: Oh, at least. I mean, the call sheet that we use is bigger than the ones we used when I was with the New York Jets in terms of the volume on it. But we like to say it's sophisticated simplicity. You know, what we think we do is we take those schemes and put them out there -- honestly, if we weren't using all those schemes, I'm not sure we'd be taking advantage of all of our players talents, if you will.

Part of that is the fact that they can comprehend and master a lot of different schemes. So we do utilize many schemes. We do have to pull ourselves back at times because of that, because you just don't have time to practice all the if/thens, if you have too much in the system.

But we're at a very good place for this bowl game in terms of our volume. I think our kids have a pretty good handle on it. Really excited to play this game.

Q. You talked earlier about Josey Jewell. What have you seen from him specifically on film?
COACH BLOOMGREN: Just sideline to sideline, making play after play, chasing things down. For a guy that reminds you a little bit of Blake [Martinez], one of our linebackers that can really run sideline to sideline. Just really impressed with how he never gives up on a play and how many plays he's able to make from whatever position he starts.

Q. How important is it going to be to make those linebackers go sideline to sideline, maybe get Christian in space in different areas?
COACH BLOOMGREN: Oh, it's of paramount importance for us to find a way to get Christian and guys like Bryce Love that have elite speed. Some of those guys, if we can do that, we're going to like our chances. But we have to lineup toe to toe and drive them off the ball a little bit and do what we do.

We've got to create a new line of scrimmage and create a physical style up there. We take a lot of pride in making people not want to finish games across from us, and that's going to be really hard to do with this group across from us in this game.

Q. How do you tweak the running game in terms of style and play calling to better suit what Christian does well?
COACH BLOOMGREN: I don't know that we've tweaked anything Christian specific. Christian's so good at everything we ask him to do. He is absolutely the easiest guy that we've had to call plays for. And as I sit there, I get a lot of comfort. I sleep well at night, and I get to spend more time with my kids because of Christian and Kevin and what they're able to do.

Christian's not going to take a negative run. He's not going to allow that thing to happen, no matter if we let everybody go, he's going to find a way back to the line of scrimmage and get us at worst, 2nd and 10. And at best he's had some of the best four-yard runs you've ever seen in your life, where he always finishes forward, always finds a way not to take a direct hit. So he is an outstanding runner.

So in terms of tweaking our offense, nothing really different. One thing we did in the off-season is we studied a lot of the Eagles stuff with LeSean McCoy when he was with them, and some of the pin and pull schemes out of one back and some of that stuff.

But that's been a very good addition for our offense this year. But it was not Christian specific.

Now our offense is Christian -- we want things to go around Christian for sure in the run game, but that just happens organically, if you will.

Q. I've been asking some of the guys what the first wow moment that they remembered. What is the first one that stands out in your mind?
COACH BLOOMGREN: So the guys get a jump start on us coaches. We're not allowed to work with them all summer. So when Christian came in as a freshman, they come in like June 22nd and do the whole off-season program.

Q. The first summer workout?
COACH BLOOMGREN: Exactly. So I guess they had more wow moments early on because we're on vacation. We're not allowed to be with them. But I heard all the stories. I mean, probably his first touch of training camp, you're just like, wow. Put his foot on the ground and exploded pretty fast right there. Then you see him kind of starting to master everything and his ability to be a receiver and some of those things.

Keep in mind, we've known about this kid since he was in 9th grade, and Coach Shaw played with his dad and has known about him even longer. But we've been watching this kid, so we knew how special we thought he could be. But to see him do it on a college practice field, that's a whole other deal.

Yeah, there were a couple wow moments to be honest with you in that first training camp.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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