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ROSE BOWL GAME: IOWA VS STANFORDDecember 28, 2015Kyle MurphyPasadena, California Q. I'm working on a story on Coach Shaw, about how this is the first official year where it was all his guys. I think last year it was still kind of like a Harbaugh holdover. What does it mean from a player's perspective to deliver kind of a statement with all of Shaw's guys? Do you think that kind of shows that this is here to really stay? KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, for sure. I mean, obviously we don't try to win games and do well for people outside the program other than our fans. It's kind of all about us within the team and kind of doing the best we can, but kind of to answer your question, I know that was kind of a negative way to recruit Stanford for the last few years, saying that -- especially after last season was a little disappointing, people were saying, oh, yeah, it's come to fruition now, Harbaugh's guys leaving, all of Coach Shaw's guys kind of being the foundation and core of the program, and I guess we really kind of proved them wrong this year having a great year and turning things around. So it's great. It's great for the future of the program going forward, and obviously Coach Shaw getting the respect that he deserves and has rightfully earned through great recruiting classes and so forth and developing the team and program his unique way. It's obviously worked, and I think we have another top recruiting class this year from what I've heard. I don't follow those sites too much anymore, but yeah. Q. Speaking about great recruiting classes, you were kind of the first one. I know you officially had one before you guys, but that obviously was a lot of Harbaugh's work, but then he got that 2012 class, you were part of that, and you mentioned negative recruiting. Was there negative recruiting at the time, people trying to tell you don't go to Stanford because Harbaugh is leaving? Was that something you encountered on the recruiting path? KYLE MURPHY: The thing about it, not really a ton. I don't think a whole lot of coaches were trying to take shots like that, just because at the time everyone was pretty much losing to Stanford. I think that was Luck's junior year or senior year, so they were doing pretty well. Yeah, I think a lot of people maybe -- the biggest knock that Stanford that I probably did hear was that they wouldn't consistently be winning games and playing at a high level, honestly not falling back to where we were before, but I think people thought there was that Fiesta, Orange Bowl, back-to-back years, was kind of a little bit of a fluke per se, just having great players. But that's kind of when we came in. Obviously the class before us were great, great leaders and a ton of them are in the NFL right now, but that's where a lot of us kind of came together through the recruiting process. That's well documented, guys like Aziz and Graham Shuler, hitting up guys on Facebook and trying to get all rallied up. We could see it, we've got a special thing going here, might as well keep it going and kind of show the world that you can go to a top school in the entire planet and still play elite football. Q. Along those lines, was there a pretty big sense of urgency coming into this season since you guys did suffer a lot of those losses last year? Was there kind of that, we've got to get back to where we were before? KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, certainly. I mean, especially being an older guy, you kind of take that upon your back and on your shoulders. Last year with us being juniors, a lot of us were new starters, so we didn't necessarily see that kind of leadership, vocal role that maybe we could have, or it's a little more appropriate now being our last year and being a returning player. So we definitely had a sense of urgency starting in January with Coach Turley and his staff in the off-season trying to get everything ready, just putting us in different situations to be able to fight and overcome adversity and be able to find ways to win games, which is what it's all about at this level. Q. When did you realize that Christian was a really special football player? KYLE MURPHY: I mean, to be honest, I kind of -- I don't want to take credit for anything, but I mean, the first day in summer workouts our freshman year, no pads, no coaches or anything, but I could see something in him that was a little unique and special, so that was, what, July 2014. He was a little skinnier back then, not quite as physically -- the stature wasn't there. But I could see just the way he cut and the way he moved, and even though it was kind of a non-patterned practice but he was a little physical and he wasn't afraid to get his shoulder in there with some of the fourth- and fifth-year seniors. But I mean, I never really fully appreciated it until I saw him in the games last year I think it was. I don't know if it was his first touchdown, but pretty sure it was against Oregon State, he was lined up at receiver, had like a little slant route and caught it and then spun off when a dude was trying to tackle him and had like a 50- 60-yard touchdown. And then from this year, I would say there was one play against UCLA, I believe -- it was either UCLA or Arizona, one of those huge games he had. It was power to the left, and I think I'm pretty sure it was out of wildcat, man, and he just saw something backside, which on the power play you never take a backside. Just how it's designed, you've got someone pulling and the backside tackle is just turning and protecting the edge, but he has such good awareness and field position that he just cut it back and had like a 70-yard touchdown run. He just outran everybody. Everyone likes to give him credit for being fast and being shifty and not being afraid to be physical, but I think his vision and his field awareness is something that people don't always give him credit for, and just his way to find openings in the defense. Q. I think the only question mark really coming into this year was whether he could handle that full-time load as a running back. Did you have any doubts coming into this year that he could take the pounding, because he's not the biggest guy? KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, for sure, man. That was something that the coaches challenged him with a little bit, to put on some weight, and actually he's the hardest worker on our team and I think he did everything he could -- I think he's about 205 right now or whatever his weight is, but he really took that upon himself, and I had no doubts that he was going to be able to take the pounding that we needed him to. Honestly, we're not just running power and like every play like the Gerhart style, but just kind of the athlete and player he is, that kind of allowed us to do so many different things, and I'm not sure what his numbers are for touches per game, but it's up there, and thankfully he's stayed healthy the whole time. Q. I know you're still kind of studying the game plan, but what are your thoughts thus far on Iowa's defense? KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, they're pretty -- both our teams are pretty similar both sides of the ball, at least what I'm getting from the defensive guys, as well. But they're a fairly simple group as far as their game plan and what they like to do game plan-wise, but you can just tell by watching them on film that they're extremely well-coached, extremely well disciplined, and they're at where they're supposed to be every play doing what they're supposed to do. Just as a whole team defense, they're great in what they do, and it's going to be a big challenge for us, and they've had a great year in the Big Ten, which is one of the best conferences in the country. They're one of the top defenses coming out of that. So it's going to be a great challenge for us to see what we can do. Q. So this is going to be mean on mean, run the ball, run the ball, ball possession on both sides, ball control on both sides. In that Big Ten Championship, Michigan State ran like nine minutes on them down the field to win the game. Do your eyes perk up like that as an offensive lineman? KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, when you see a game like that that's running so much, it could be over in 30 minutes, and with how similar our teams are, it could come down to that last possession. That's where we really -- not thrive per se, but we really kind of enjoy that moment just like we were playing Notre Dame and we had that last drive, little two-minute drive to try to get 60 yards or something, and we were all kind of excited. No one was really scared or nervous to mess up, we were kind of more excited and relishing the opportunity to go down the field and win the game. Whenever that's the case and you've got an opportunity like that, it's never a bad thing, and you kind of always just want to seize it and do it for the glory and do it for your brothers. Q. How do you feel the defensive front stacks up to some of the others you've faced this season in the Pac-12? KYLE MURPHY: They're definitely up there. I know they've had a couple injuries, but guys have stepped up and played really well for them across the board. They just do everything well. You can tell they're coached well. One thing I will commend them for is they're never giving up. A lot of times other big plays will come up, and they're nonstop motor and never giving up. That's going to be big on our part, particularly up front, to make sure we finish our blocks and stay on them through the whistle and ensure they can't get to Hogan or Christian late and just try to make sure we can bust a big play when we have an opportunity. Q. So does that battle in the trenches from the Rose Bowl two years ago, does that kind of change the expectation for the battle coming into this game? KYLE MURPHY: As far as? Q. As far as your expectations, I guess. KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, I know we didn't have a great game against Michigan State. They were a great defense, as well. We're making sure we just have a sense of urgency going everything forward, making sure the little things in practice are executed, and guys really aren't -- making sure their focus isn't drifting away when it needs to. The Rose Bowl has put on a ton of fun events for us this week, and we're just making sure when it's time to have fun, we have fun, and when it's time to focus we're 100 percent locked in and ready to go. Q. There are conflicting reports on whether Josh is planning on going for the record tonight. Do you have any comments on that? KYLE MURPHY: You'll have so to ask him that. I don't want to answer on his behalf. I don't want to get too sick. If I get two full plates, that's pretty much the perfect meal to get me primed for bed, so I don't need anything more than that. Q. Ronnie said that on a good day Josh can probably put down nine or ten? KYLE MURPHY: That's probably true. We went to a comedy club last night, and they laid out a good portion of food for us, like a big buffet style of thing and we all had pretty good plates. And Josh was joking around, saying he was just priming his body for the Beef Bowl tonight trying to get his stomach that much wider. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. Q. What do you have to read when they bring that different package on a third down, they call it the Raider Package? KYLE MURPHY: So you know, we've been looking at that -- we had a week of practice at the beginning of December before we had a little time off and came up here, so our coaches prepare us well for all those sort of things, and those things are obviously a little more difficult just because they're not really aligned in a certain way, and it kind of turns into more just really trusting your pass set and your technique and kind of letting it unfold per se and seeing where they're at. I guess kind of similar to like a zone protection -- or not like -- a zone defense per se. But obviously I don't want to get into too deep a details. Q. Have you seen anything like that this year? Have you guys faced something like that? KYLE MURPHY: This year? Q. Or in the past? KYLE MURPHY: I don't think -- we might have. I think USC might have done something along those lines. We've definitely gone against it in the past. I'd say usually -- I know Oregon has done it in the past before. I'd say we probably go against a team that has that variation of blitzing and stuff maybe once, maybe twice a year. So we definitely have had our experience with it and have different ways to approach it and try to figure that out. Obviously it's worked real well for them, so we're going to have our work cut out for us, and obviously Coach Bloomgren who's in the other room prepares us really well, and we're confident that whatever he has us doing, we're just going to work and execute it as well as we can. Q. I'm sure you've watched film of Iowa and saw the drive at the end of the Big Ten Championship. Were you watching that? Were you guys playing that day? KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, that was championship weekend. Q. So was your game over by then or were you guys at night that night? KYLE MURPHY: Yeah, I don't remember watching it live. I caught just the highlights, and obviously I've watched the game multiple times. Q. What kind of an admiration do you have for what Michigan State did there to go 22 plays and eat nine minutes of clock with what was on the line there? KYLE MURPHY: You know, that's terrific, terrific offense at its finest. Kind of being a long drive like that and the combination of both having a game winner and pretty much melting the clock is pretty much like outstanding. That's kind of -- predictably for kind of physical teams, I'm sure us, Michigan State, Iowa would all say the same thing. That's the perfect way to be able to end a game. Whenever we have a lead we always talk about ending the game our way, which we love having nice little four-minute drives and melting the clock and being able to take a knee. So when you combine that with a winning drive, there's nothing really much else you can do as an offense that's going to make you feel good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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