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ROSE BOWL GAME: IOWA VS STANFORD

December 28, 2015

Mike Bloomgren

Pasadena, California

MIKE BLOOMGREN: Nothing about this Bowl gets old. For my kids, they've had Mickey Mouse on the 25th and Santa Claus on the 26th.

Q. Disneyland happens to be super crowded because everyone wants to go then. With the passes you get, you just blow by the line. What was your favorite ride at California Adventure?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: In California Adventure, it's definitely Cars. My kid is nine and grew up in the Cars era. We think that ride is phenomenal.

Q. I'm working on a story for Kevin, third Rose Bowl, maybe unprecedented at the start, third Rose Bowl for a quarterback. Between Rose Bowl 1 and Rose Bowl 3, what's the difference in his stature amongst his teammates as a leader?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: I think in the first one, he was still the young guy that jumped in the huddle at Colorado, had ice water in his veins, and found a way to help us win, got us in the right play, and did a few things with his feet that were magical in terms of converting third downs.

The way we ended that year was unbelievable. What was it, Colorado straight to Oregon?

Q. Yeah, Oregon State then --
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Oh, Oregon State at home and then Oregon on the road. And they were No. 2 in America, whatever they were. Then we go to UCLA for a chance to play in the Pac-12, and then you play them again, and then the kids in the Rose Bowl.

I'm not sure any of us knew that first year what to expect other than he was steady Kevin and found a way to win these games and help us win.

This year there's so much of what we do that goes through him. He is a coach on the field. The way he prepares is very much like a coach, and it has to be and what we ask him to do to get us in the right play. I think that -- gosh, I don't think I tell Kevin thank you enough for making our job so easy, for getting us on the right play, for what he does for the offensive line. He just has come such a long way. He's always been able to throw the frickin' ball. He's always done a great job throwing the ball downfield.

In 2012, I felt like he missed opportunities down the field, and I feel like he's hit them a lot better since, on the play action passes, on the deep shots. So Kevin is certainly doing his part to help us be the most explosive offense we can be.

Q. I felt that, in 2013, he started hitting the deep balls and wasn't hitting the shorter balls as well as he did. This year he's kind of put everything together. What's been the key to that? Is there anything you can point to?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: I don't know that we can ever put a value on experience. In college football nowadays, you mentioned starting three Rose Bowls, but just having a guy that's essentially started for four years, they're so few and far between in college football now, I do think, if we didn't keep challenging Kev and putting more on his plate, he'd get bored with it because he's so smart. He doesn't want it to be easy. He wants more and more on his plate.

Our trust level with him has really gone up this year. What can't we do? What more can we put on his plate? Not just on the checks, but the no huddle as well. He's just been phenomenal. I think his leadership is another thing, we've talked about how it's increased every year, it's at the place now where you want it to be. It's where it makes your life as a coach easier.

I started to yell something yesterday at practice because it's not going the way we want it to, we've got to wake the heck up and stop missing assignments as an offense and start playing our kind of football, and I can hardly get my mouth open, and Kev is already on somebody trying to get this thing fixed from the inside. When you've got that kind of magic, that's when things are pretty easy as a coach.

Q. That's something I heard back when he was a freshman, he'd be more of a quiet leader. Now he's definitely more vocal.
MIKE BLOOMGREN: No question. He led by example and definitely worked hard. But now he is confident Kev. He knows he can make sure people are playing to the level we demand.

Q. It's a battle of wills, I guess, at the line of scrimmage. Stanford, everybody stamps you guys as the physical Pac-12 team, but you guys, I think that's kind of under selling the league and under selling what you guys do. But against Iowa, there will be a test of wills. When do you guys know that you've won it or when you've made headway in that?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: I think offensive linemen know it before anybody else. They can see the look in the guy across from them's eyes. You're seeing some body language and stuff like that.

Going into the Pac-12 Championship Game, there was no way we said, hey, we're going to throw the ball 13 times, Kevin is going to throw the ball 12 times in this game. We thought we needed to have balance to have explosive plays. Once we got a lead and it started going a different direction, we just kind of said, linemen, this is on you. The rest of us kind of handed the ball off to Christian and watched him work.

Q. When an offense gets to that point, you know you've won. As an offensive coordinator, you're calling plays that maybe you wouldn't call all the time, but you like pressing that button, don't you, the one where you know you're going to get four yards, five yards on a run?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Yeah, we take a lot of pride in those efficient four-yard runs. I don't know that our fans like them, but we sure do.

Q. The efficiency, you mentioned that, do you guys track that? I know that's one thing that kind of has become analytics, part of that pack.
MIKE BLOOMGREN: We do.

Q. What are you looking for?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: First and second down, we're looking for four yards or more. Third down, looking to move the sticks, and same with fourth down. The only time that varies is when you get inside the 5 yard line. From the 5 to the 3, we're looking for a two-yard gain; 3 to the 1, we're looking for a one-yard gain. We call it an efficient run and keep us ahead of the sticks and make it easier to call the next play.

Q. One thing you guys do a lot, I love the power play, and I love the way you guys run it. Christian has all the innate gifts you need. Was the last thing to fall into place the patience he shows? Because he has great patience. Or did that just fall into place?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: That is the last thing that fell into place this year. I mentioned in the other room, we really studied the Eagles, the pin and pull scheme, and when you watch LeSean McCoy in that system a year ago and all the tape we watched, he was so good being patient behind the line of scrimmage and then put on the ground and gone. I think Christian studying LeSean McCoy was a big deal.

And that scheme, as you talk about the power scheme, that's definitely something where we want to keep it tight and want to be able to go A gap, A gap, A gap, B gap, B gap, B gap, C gap, C gap, C gap, and have the patience to do that.

That takes a lot of trust, takes a lot of trust not to get the ball and want to be in a hurry. That is something Coach Taylor did an unbelievable job with Christian, staying on him about it and showing him the why. This is why you want to be able to do that. Like everything else in Christian's life, he's worked at it and come pretty close to mastering it.

Q. [On Kevin Hogan's play after losing his father...]
MIKE BLOOMGREN: He is a different player this year. Whether it affected him or not last year, that's probably a question for Kev. I can tell you that the confidence he has and how much he's grown as a human being as well as a player in the last year is unbelievable. I think he's grown into a confident man, if you will. He went from being a kid playing college football to he grew up really fast in those few weeks with his father. He's got a different outlook on life that he'll talk to the guys about openly. I think he's living his life to the fullest and trying to really attain excellence in everything he does because he knows that's the way his dad did it and the way his dad would want it.

Q. [On whether the loss of his father affected his play...]
MIKE BLOOMGREN: It might have been. We were just talking about that Rose Bowl run the first year. Comes into Colorado with ice water in his vein and then beats Colorado and UCLA in the championship game and then the Rose Bowl. It's hard to keep going, but he's done a pretty good job.

Q. [On including Kevin Hogan in different meetings...]
MIKE BLOOMGREN: So we started doing that -- I guess Kev was the first one we did it with. We did not do it with Andrew, for whatever reason. We just started really locking him into those protection meetings. I think it's very rare. I don't know anybody that's doing it in college football. I don't know anybody that would want to do it in college football because I don't really know that they trust their kids or want to train them the way Kev is trained.

For us, it's such a confidence. Gives his teammates such a confidence. Kevin is going to give us the right thing, all we've got to do is block our guy now.

Q. And just sit in the back of the room and enjoy it?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: No doubt about it, as coaches. And we also talk about how far he's come. In those four years, you had a Kev that was up there and kind of shaky voiced and kind of like saying, we're going to do this, almost in a question, like looking back to the room.

He doesn't even know we're there nowadays. It is his meeting. He is running it. He is in charge.

Q. How long has he been doing it?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: He's been doing it four years. Honestly, this year, he's been completely different, in terms of his presentation, how he prepares for even that meeting. Coach, you all ready? Okay, good. Then it's his room.

Q. What's kind of impressed you about Iowa defensively? They're very simple, very basic, but is that more difficult sometimes?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: It is because we're a gap scheme team and an outside zone team. When people move and they want to pressure, sometimes we get that ball popping on the perimeter, and we end up with a huge run. Because Iowa is going to stay and play and really fight you toe to toe, they're going to make us earn everything.

I look back at what they've been able to do this year, how frickin' tough and disciplined as a defense has been really, really impressive to watch and how they play together and how every fit is perfect in the defense. It's impressive. Impressive.

Now you look back at how that 22-play drive ended that game, there were some things that, you know, maybe they didn't line up to the right way or maybe they didn't call kind of in the same manner they had all year and maybe took some more risks in terms of pressure. You know, I don't know that they'll do that again. I think they're going to stay and not give us the big play by moving out of position. I think they're going to stay and fight us. Literally, I think we're going to have earn, not only every yard, but every inch.

Q. Have you played somebody like that this year?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Not that's going to be this base defense, as you would say. Now, on third and six, third and six plus, they're going to jump out there and be in what we call radar front. They're going to be doing the walkaround, and they're going to do some of that.

On first and second down, they are going to stay and play and make you earn everything is what certainly our numbers tell us and what the film tells us.

Q. Can you figure out what they're doing when they bring that stand up front? Is there a key?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: I don't know if there's a key. They do a lot of things out there. I think it's been a great package for them. One thing you see with other people is a lot of people do a great job in terms of assignments. Okay, we're starting it, we've got these guys, but then Iowa keeps going. They have a hat on a hat, but then Iowa collapses in the pocket. One of their defensive men gets off a block, and the quarterback's on the ground. That's what we've got to be sure we don't allow. We've got to string through those blocks and be able to anchor and give Kev time to step up and make those throws.

Q. What about Desmond King and the challenge he presents?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Very good player. Very good player. We'll have to be on our game. Great sets. Great with our hands. And then you just talk about the guys downfield, the back end guys are so frickin' impressive.

The way their defense plays together is something that you notice because the secondary is so good with those guys, because the rush gets there. It's one of those things that I'd be interested to sit in there defensively and hear how their defensive coordinator presents it because coverage leads to pressure and pressure up front leads to some of the bad throws and all those picks.

Q. This may be one of the most physical opponents you've faced this year, do you think? It's hard to say until it starts.
MIKE BLOOMGREN: I'll tell you after. Based on film, they're a very physical bunch.

Q. So what would be your points of emphasis with your guys in terms of attacking them?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: That's a great question. We've got to be good with our targets and our communication. One of the things I said over there is like you draw it up on the board, and because they don't maybe move as much as some teams, it's like a million plays. We try to pare down what we're going to do and get extremely comfortable with it. I think that's been the key for us.

Now, there's also like, we're going to run right at them, and we're going to try to impose our will like we do against everybody, but there's also got to be some counters to take care of how well they run over the top.

Their linebackers flow like crazy and do a great job. We've got to make them pay for some of those things, whether it's in the throw game off some run action passes or whether it's just counters or whether we can get Christian to get one of those cutback lanes.

Q. How long would you typically go in between running each particular play? Do you guys sometimes go a month without running a play in a game?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Certainly.

Q. You do?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Yeah.

Q. Okay.
MIKE BLOOMGREN: More our specials than our core stuff. There's some things where you can turn on a Stanford game, and you're going to see week in and week out. I guess one that I go back to is everybody gets on us about the wildcat, and that's been something that's been so efficient for us over time. They say, well, you tell them you're running the ball. Well, do we? Because we've had a lot of big plays throwing the ball out of the wildcat, including in our first Rose Bowl, we hit the reverse pass. USC in 2011. And we hit it against UCLA this year.

So you're talking about not only games in between, but years in between running a specific play that our guys put in in spring ball. We put it in in spring ball. We saw it again in training camp. They know it. It's nice the volume that our guys can handle.

Q. Do you guys ever run a play in a game that you didn't practice that week?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Very rarely, but it has come up. We have Coach Turner in the box, and he does a great job telling us what they're doing. Coach Pritchard is in the box, and sometimes they see things on game day we can't see on the sidelines. They're like, hey, we need to take advantage of this.

Again, we kind of know our answers in our system. Okay, they're doing X. Okay, maybe we can put this in. Those can be halftime adjustments.

There was even a time against Arizona where we simply diagrammed it on the board and went from the offensive line to the running backs, hey, this is going to be the first call this year, let's go. 80-yard touchdown. Life's good. I love it when a plan comes together.

Q. Was that Bryce Love?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: It was actually Arizona, and it was Barry. The one you're talking about was a halftime adjustment against UCF, screen to Bryce. That was something where we said, hey, let's try that. Again, getting the ball to those guys in space makes us look like good coaches regardless of what we do.

Q. Sure. It sounds like that's maybe more important against a team that plays the way Iowa plays?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: I think we're going to be searching for explosives. It's going to be hard to find those explosive plays against a disciplined defense that plays so well. So any time we can get the ball to a Bryce Love, to a Christian McCaffrey, to any of our receivers that have that elite speed on the edge, I think you've got a chance to maybe change field position or score. I think those are going to be few and far between in this game, but we need a few of them.

Q. The Iowa head coach has been there 17 years, what do you know about him?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Yeah, I think he's a fixture. I know a lot about him as an offensive line coach and how highly he's regarded in offensive line circles.

I think they run the wide zone play as well as anybody in the country in college right now. They do a phenomenal job. You just think about the program he's created and how tough those kids seem to be and how disciplined those kids seem to be. I think it goes back to how well coached they are.

So I think the perception is, at least my perception, is he's a heck of a coach that has a lot of people on the same page and pulling in the same direction.

Q. That's rare.
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Is that right?

Q. For a coach to be in one place that long?
MIKE BLOOMGREN: Very rare. Very rare.

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