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ROSE BOWL GAME: OHIO STATE VS WASHINGTONDecember 29, 2018Greg GainesPasadena, California Q. What are your thoughts? I know you're a Husky now, up in Washington, but California kid. What is it about this state and football? There's over 30 guys on this team playing on this Husky roster. GREG GAINES: I think a lot of guys on any team really come from either California, Texas, or Florida. There's a lot of population, so a lot of good football players come out of there. Q. As you've grown up, though, in this state, there's so much competition as a little kid growing up and everything? GREG GAINES: Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of really good high schools in California, northern and Southern California. It makes us better going into college, I think. We're used to that competition already. Q. I know you're a Seattle guy now and you're used to the rain and all that stuff. I've lived there my whole life. What is it about California you love so much being back? GREG GAINES: It's definitely nice being in the nice weather, but it gets a little hotter than this usually. It's pretty nice right now. Q. Tell me about this team and what makes this team so special right now for you guys? GREG GAINES: I think it's just like we've been together for a long time. We're all in that like Coach Pete era now. We're all like those OKGs, and we all just fit together really well. There's no cliques in the locker room and no fighting or anything like that. Everyone loves each other. I think that's really the key to our success is we all just fight for each other. Q. What's one thing he's done? If you could put one stamp, one word on what Coach Pete does that's so impressive to you. GREG GAINES: I think he just changed the culture in the locker room. I remember when I first got here, like the seniors were mean to the freshmen, you know, how like it normally is. Now we just switched that culture around and now we include everyone and make everyone feel like they're important and respected. I think it just makes like the whole team more cohesive. Q. How much fun has this been? You've got Disneyland and the prime rib last night. It's been a fun ride, but you've got a game coming up as well. GREG GAINES: Yeah, it's definitely fun. You've just got to focus at practice, and when you're at something fun like that, you get to focus on that. You get a little time away from football. All the other hours of the day are for football. Q. What's the biggest challenge with this Ohio State football team that you look at? GREG GAINES: I think keeping that quarterback contained is going to be hard. Dwyane Haskins is quite the athlete. He was on the Heisman ballot. That's definitely going to be one of the challenges we're going to face on defense for sure. Q. How does it feel to be back in Southern California, close to home? GREG GAINES: It feels pretty cool. I mean, I haven't been back in a long time. My parents moved out of Southern California to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. Whenever I go home, it's to Coeur D'Alene. So I haven't been back in like three years or so. So a lot of stuff's changed in my little hometown. It's pretty cool coming back. Q. Did you have a chance to go down there? GREG GAINES: Yeah, I went down there with my wife's family at like Christmastime. We had two days off for Christmas and stuff. And I was just like 30 minutes away in La Habra. Q. What's changed? GREG GAINES: They put in a lot of stuff. Our football stadium is brand new. We've got turf and stuff. It's pretty cool to see. They've changed a lot, like the shopping centers and stuff. They've got a Cane's now. That's nice. That's big time. Q. Was it cool to see how the La Habra stadium had changed and all that? GREG GAINES: Yeah, for sure. They added like a huge section of stands. They redid -- we had like a crappy grass field, and now it's all turf. It looks really nice, and it's pretty sweet, yeah. Q. Jealous? GREG GAINES: Yeah, I wish that was there when I was in high school. Q. For sure. Going to have a lot of friends and family out at the game next week? GREG GAINES: Yeah, it was definitely a struggle getting tickets. I had to buy a few. Yeah, I'll have quite a few people there. Q. How many, do you think? GREG GAINES: Probably like 12. Q. What's been the marquee moment for your senior year here? Do you have a specific moment that stands out? Has it not happened yet maybe? GREG GAINES: I don't know. I think winning the Pac-12 Championship is always cool. That's definitely one of the top moments. And getting an interception was a pretty sweet moment for me. Q. Yeah. So tell me about the interception. Was that your first career interception? GREG GAINES: That was my first interception in my entire career, yes. Q. Even going back to when you played? GREG GAINES: Even Pop Warner, high school, nothing. Q. When's the last time you had the ball actually in your hands? GREG GAINES: In high school, I used to run the ball. I was a running back in high school, and tight end kind of. Q. How did it feel when you got it? GREG GAINES: Well, I was on the ground. I didn't get to run with it or anything. It was nice just getting a turnover in a big game. It was kind of fun. So never had that happen before. Q. Which game was that? GREG GAINES: Stanford. Q. Growing up in the area, did you ever dream that you'd be able to play in the Rose Bowl? GREG GAINES: Yeah, definitely, I always like -- my uncle was a big UCLA guy. He played football there back in the '80s, and I remember watching games, like at UCLA, and just thinking about like playing in the actual Rose Bowl, like the Rose Bowl game would be incredible. I've never actually been to a Rose Bowl, but I'm definitely excited, and I've dreamed about it for a long time. Q. Do you have any ideas about what it may feel like when you step onto the field and see the stadium split in half like that? GREG GAINES: I don't know. It holds like 105,000 people in there, and it's going to be packed. That's going to be awesome. Never played in front of that many people before. Q. During your recruiting process, were you getting looked at by USC, UCLA, all the Pac-12 schools? GREG GAINES: Yeah, I little bit, but I never had any offers for Pac-12 teams. I think they might have offered me later, but I'd already committed to Boise State, and then when Coach Pete switched over to Washington, I was committed there almost immediately after. Q. What was it about Coach Petersen that -- obviously, it wasn't just Boise. It was Coach Petersen's appeal. What was it about him? GREG GAINES: I just think that he seemed like really genuine and really cared about his players, and he cared about the academics too and not just football. That was something I wanted to be a part of no matter where it was. I really liked Boise, but I came up here and took a visit to Washington, yeah, upgrade to Pac-12. I'm in. Fine with me. Stick with Coach Pete. Q. How did that genuineness come across during the recruiting process? It's such an emotional process. GREG GAINES: Yeah, you can just kind of tell when people are like blowing smoke just to make you feel good or special. Coach Pete wasn't really like that, and it was kind of cool, and that's one of the reasons I decided to go with him. Q. Just like more grounded conversations? GREG GAINES: Yeah. Q. Greg, we've been asking everybody, it's been 18 years since Washington has been to the Rose Bowl. What do you think it was about this specific team and this group of guys that has this program back in this game? GREG GAINES: I just think it's like -- it's our like connectedness to each other, like we all play for each other. We're not a bunch of individuals. We play as a team. We have a lot of good individual talent but nothing like -- like that doesn't really matter, you know. We just play together. That's how it works. Q. A lot of the guys yesterday and this morning have said resilience, this team is just resilient, overcoming adversity and kind of the culture. Would you agree in the locker room that's kind of how you define it? GREG GAINES: For sure. That culture, it used to be back to like the 2014 team, there was so much talent on that team, like Danny Shelton, Hau'oli Kikaha, Marcus Peters, tons of guys, Shaq Thompson, and they were like -- the next year we had just a random group of guys. Those are all gone. We thought our defense was going to be terrible. I think it was just that culture, like we just played for each other, and we're like a tight knit team, and it really showed. We had an even better defense than we did the year before. Q. So you talk to the group of backs about this, but the defensive line, you decided to come back this year for your senior year. How important is it, especially coming back, to send these guys out the right way? GREG GAINES: It's definitely important. We want to end on a win, you know. This is my last college football game ever. So definitely want to win it. Q. Everybody talks about their passing game. They have a pretty good running game as well. What is it in their running game? GREG GAINES: They like to run a lot of stretch and Vegas type runs, gaps team. So their O-line is pretty physical. They're big dudes for sure, and they've got a pretty good back too. It's definitely like a lot of people overlook the run, but they do that run to keep you honest, and they're pretty good at it. Q. Ben mentioned a couple days ago that, when he came, when you guys started your careers, you guys were kind of overlooked in a sense. Now the last class is a bunch of big tough guys. As you've seen this program grow, how mind blowing is it, and how would you describe it? GREG GAINES: It's nothing incredible. I think it just comes down to the culture of our team and how we just come together as a team and we play for each other and stuff like that. Like it's not a bunch of individuals. It's just us as a team. Q. You've been around a while. Who does Dwyane Haskins remind you of? GREG GAINES: I don't know. He's definitely super athletic, and we're going to have trouble containing him. That's going to be our biggest thing. I don't know. He's kind of like a Mariota kind of guy maybe. Like got that ability to scramble and run and throw on the run. Q. Have you been out to the field yet? GREG GAINES: The Rose Bowl? We haven't been there yet. I think we go tomorrow. Tomorrow, I don't know. Q. You played there? GREG GAINES: Yeah, we played there earlier this season. Q. How different is this going to be? GREG GAINES: It's going to be way different. Last time we were there, there was like 35,000 people. Q. There wasn't that many. GREG GAINES: Yeah, I don't know, it was bad. I remember thinking it's like a high school game, like a spring game. It was unbelievable to me. Definitely going to be different this time. Q. Does grass make any difference for you? GREG GAINES: I slip once in a while, but not really. It's a little different, but we should get used to it. We're practicing on grass all week, so that will help. Q. If you had a preference, grass, turf, does it really matter? GREG GAINES: Definitely turf. Q. Really? Why is that? GREG GAINES: You just get better grip. Definitely better grip with the cleats. Q. Definitely better than in Pullman? GREG GAINES: Definitely better than Pullman. I was falling, sliding everywhere in that game. It was hard. Q. Did you hang out with the linemen at Disneyland? Were you guys all together? GREG GAINES: With Ohio State's O-line? Q. No, you guys. GREG GAINES: Oh, yeah. Q. Tell me how you guys fit in the rides and what your highlight was. GREG GAINES: It's definitely not easy to fit in roller coasters anymore. Anything with the top lap bar that goes over your shoulders, I don't really fit in because my chest is too big. They have to come up and slam me into the thing. Q. Just like football? GREG GAINES: Yeah, you've got to cross your legs over and sit sideways to get the other lap bars down that go this way. It's definitely not comfortable. Q. Who was the worst? Who had the hardest time getting in? GREG GAINES: I think Kaleb McGary has the hardest time getting in rides because he's 6'8", or 6'9", something crazy like that. Q. I know Trey was worried. GREG GAINES: Yeah, Trey is the same thing, same height. It's not easy fitting in those rides. I don't even know if they got on Space Mountain. That was a tight fit for me, and I'm 6'2". Q. But he was making fun of Sean, saying he didn't know if Sean would be able to get in there. GREG GAINES: That's funny. He's too short? Q. I didn't say it. GREG GAINES: Geez, that's mean. Q. What are you looking forward to the most for the Rose Bowl? GREG GAINES: I don't know, just playing in front of 105,000 people is going to be pretty sweet. Q. Last game? GREG GAINES: Last game ever. Q. Are you going to try to stuff your helmet and all your gear into a bag and sneak off with it? GREG GAINES: I think we get to keep our helmet and stuff, I don't know. Yeah, I'm going to try and steal most of my gear. Q. This is a team that had a few really tough losses this year, but you guys bounced back. You finished the season out strong and then put on a tough performance in the Pac-12 championship. What is it specifically about this group of seniors and their leadership, do you think, that sort of allowed this team to come together? GREG GAINES: You know, we've got a lot of good guys, a lot of like really good leaders on this team like Ben and Jojo McIntosh right here. These guys definitely like bring our unit together even more. We have a lot of seniors in each position group too, which helps lead for each specific unit. And then once all the units get together, we form a great defense, and we play for each other. I think that's what it really comes down to is just like the culture of our team. Q. You guys were at the Lawry's Beef Bowl last night. You went to Disneyland. What has it been like being part of this iconic Bowl game? GREG GAINES: It's definitely cool. Growing up nearby, I definitely wanted to play in the Rose Bowl my whole life. It's definitely been a dream of mine. And it's kind of cool, I haven't been to Disneyland in like eight years. That was cool. I was like remembering all the stuff when I was a kid. I've never been to Lawry's before. It was really good prime rib. So that was awesome. And it was all you can eat too. Q. And then, obviously, Ohio State has a really good offense, but you guys have one of the best defenses in the country. How would you describe the way your defense plays, maybe to someone on the East Coast who hasn't been able to see you guys play? GREG GAINES: Physical and fast. That would be it. Q. So very few college football coaches have won 80 percent of their games as a coach. Petersen is one of them. Why do you think it is that he's been so successful for such a long period of time? GREG GAINES: I think it's just the way that he can like transform a culture and build a culture of a team like the right way. Like everything we do, it's about being real men and just being for each other, and it's not about us, it's all about the team, and just stuff like that I think is really what it comes down to. We all just play for each other, and I think he instills that in us, and I think it works really well. Q. When you talk about the edge the coach has, is that his edge, or are there other things too? GREG GAINES: Maybe his edge would be his attention to detail. I remember people talking about Don James would walk around and pick up trash off the ground in the locker room, and Coach Pete does that exact same thing. He'll be walking down the hallway and see a little tiny scrap of plastic or something and reach down and pick it up and throw it in the trash. Attention to little details like that is what it's all about. Q. I hear from guys who played at Washington for Don James and for Petersen, years later will remember those details and stories. Do you think that's prepared you for life after school? GREG GAINES: Yeah, definitely. Coach Pete always says, if you look at the small things, there are no small things. Q. What have you enjoyed most about your career? GREG GAINES: I don't know, just making lifelong friends probably and just having that brotherhood. It's going to last for the rest of my life. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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