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ROSE BOWL GAME: OHIO STATE VS WASHINGTONDecember 30, 2018Ben Burr-KirvenPasadena, California Q. Freshman year, you've come a long way. This last game, all that, have you found yourself reflecting at all recently? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I really haven't been that reflective, honestly. I think I probably would have been, but it's hard to think about other stuff when it feels like another game week. So much work and prep and practice, it's hard to have time to reflect on stuff you did a long time ago when you still have a lot to do. Q. Looking forward for this program, though, you feel like there's no doubt you guys left it -- are leaving it in a better spot? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Definitely. I think if you look at where we were when we first got here, still trying to get the culture in place, still trying to get guys in who were great guys, also top talent. And I think you're kind of seeing that. The recruiting class we've been getting the last couple of years -- obviously the start of it, at the end of the day it didn't really matter, but look at the rankings, whole different ballgame than what my class was supposed to be. So it's pretty cool to see, and I think for the foreseeable future I think we're going to be a powerhouse. I think Coach Pete kind of got what he wants set up now, and it's just going to be a pipeline. Q. What's that next step for this program? You mentioned the recruiting, just getting maybe just -- BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think it's -- obviously it's always you want to get the national recruits. You want to get the attention. You want to show that you're a team that can be reckoned with. You don't want to be: They're just pretty good. You want people: It's Washington. So I think it starts with you've got to win the big games, we've got to win the Rose, that kind of stuff, and I think over the next couple of years hopefully we'll see them back in the playoffs that kind of stuff. I don't see any reason why that won't happen. Q. Such a historic Cal event, Rose Bowl. What does it mean to play in the Rose Bowl? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It's really special. I'm from California. So I've been watching this game my whole life. And it means a lot to get to end my college career playing one of the most historic bowl games in the country. Q. What would you tell young people today, what's the key to success? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think the biggest thing is to find something you're passionate about. For me it was football. At a young age, I knew it was something I wanted to do with my life. I think when you have something that you can put your passion into and focus on, it can put you on a path to lead to success. Since I was seven years old, that's what I wanted to do. When you have something like that, a rock in your life, it makes you so focused and teaches you a lot about hard work and the dedication that's required to succeed. Q. As you were playing, as you progressed and got better, was there a certain time, certain year, high school, college, that you felt like you're really comfortable on defense, you could see -- you could see the plays coming at you? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think probably my junior year of high school. So I played linebacker when I was a kid in Pop Warner, that kind of stuff. When I was in high school, I was bouncing around, playing whatever they needed me to be. And I went back to linebacker my junior year. That's when I thought, all right, I got this. I can do this at a high level. I knew that -- kind of that year I knew I was going to be able to do that in college and hopefully beyond that. My junior high school is when I started to feel it. Q. Athlete of the year, being able to go to the Rose Bowl, having that accomplishment in the same year, what does that mean to you to be able to accomplish those two great things? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It's pretty special. Obviously it's awesome to be scholar-athlete of the year. It's cool to be recognized for more than what I'm doing on the field. It's nice when people notice what I'm doing off the field. It's pretty special to have a cool year for me alone, but also being in the Rose Bowl with my team, my last game as a Husky, I get to play in the biggest bowl game in the country. It's been a really special season. Q. So we asked a few fans on Twitter to submit questions. What's it like knowing you're representing the Pac-12? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It means a lot to represent the Pac-12. I think our conference kind of gets looked down a little bit. They think we don't play as good of football here on the West Coast. It's always special to be in a bowl game to go out here and show we play good football in the Pac-12 and there's a lot of great talent out here. And hopefully on the 1st we can show the rest of the country that, too. Q. What is it about this matchup Tuesday that should make people watch this game? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think you're looking at one of the most explosive offenses in the country against one of the best defenses in the country. And I think that's kind of what you always want to see in a football game is kind of the immovable object and unstoppable force, who is going to break first, who is going to be the one that crumbles. I think it's one of those things that it's kind of the matchup you want. You want to see the best of the best going at it. I think there's a lot of reasons to watch this game. Q. What are some of the other reasons to watch the game, any other reasons? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It's the Rose Bowl. I hope you want to watch the Rose Bowl. I grew up watching the Rose Bowl. I'm from California. It's the biggest bowl game in the country for me. It always has been. It's the game. It's one of those things I hope people want to tune in, get to see a lot of guys, this is our last game playing college football. Hopefully people want to see us play one last time. Q. There were two pretty big games yesterday. There's an even bigger game a week from tomorrow. So things have changed. Spoiler alert, things will change. For a player to -- to you it's still a pretty good game despite the changes in college football? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It's the Rose Bowl. That's never going to change. I think obviously it's different now with the way the playoff system works and all that kind of stuff. But it's the Rose Bowl. It's over 100 years of football and always some of the best teams in the country matching up. I think that -- just the way it works. Obviously it's easy to be like, oh, what matters now is the National Championship; I think for us the guys playing this game, we know how much it means and I think our fans know how much it means. Q. What do you want people to know about this Washington team? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think -- I hope people respect us. I think that's the biggest thing. I think it's easy for people to overlook Pac-12 football. They think we're not as good as the Big Ten and SEC. I get it, people are asleep, they don't watch our games as much. But I hope they know we've got good football players out here, and I hope that people -- that we at Washington I think are one of the best teams in the country, and I think we've been that for the last few years, we've been showing it. And I hope that when people watch us, they go away impressed and that they respect us a little bit more. Q. Why should people respect this team? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: We're good. We're a good football team. We have good players across the board. If you put on a tape, you'll see that. You'll see our defense has three or four guys in the top three rounds of the draft. I think if you're overlooking us, thinking we're not good, you're going to be disappointed then because you're going to turn on a tape and see a good football team. Q. It seems almost if you don't make the playoffs, if you don't make the College Football Playoffs, people don't think you're good. Obviously you disagree. BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think probably people do think it, but there's only four teams to make it, and there's a lot more than four good teams in the country. The way the playoffs work, it comes down to judgment call. It's hard to subjectively be like those are the four best teams. And it's hard because the way teams match up, you really can't know until you get there. So it's a weird system right now, and I think hopefully down the road it will expand a little bit. But I think with the four teams, it's hard to say those are the only good teams in the country because there's over a hundred college football teams that play football, and I know there's a lot more than just four good ones. Q. What do you expect what kind of game do you expect Tuesday? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It's going to be a fight. I think both teams are going to come out swinging. We got good playmakers; they've got good playmakers. We know they'll make plays. We don't expect a perfect game. They've got good players. It will be a dogfight. Probably comes down to the fourth quarter. Q. You think it's going to come down to the fourth quarter. There's been a bunch of bowl games recently that have been blowouts. Why do you think this won't be a blowout? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think obviously I know Coach P. I know the way we prepare. And I met Coach Meyer a couple days ago at Disneyland. You could tell he's a similar kind of coach to Coach Pete. When you see bowl games where things -- it comes down to fundamentals, guys aren't tackling, guys aren't just playing the way they play all year, and I think that it's pretty hard to not get up for the Rose Bowl, so I expect both teams to come out firing. Q. What do you attribute your academic success to? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: My parents instilled at a young age academics. They loved sports, knew that's what I wanted to do, but sports isn't forever. You have to focus on other things. From a young age I've known that. It never went away. I kept doing my best in the classroom, too. Q. With the fact that you're Pac-12 champs, aren't getting a chance to play for a National Championship, when you see people talking now about the chance of expanding the playoff even more than four teams, is that something that you personally -- and in talking with fellow teammates, is that something you think would be good for college football? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It's obviously tough to figure out how the schedule and all that stuff will work because we play so many games already and you have to add a couple more weeks to the season. I think it would be good for college football. It's hard to say that there's only four teams that should be playing for that because there's so many good teams in college football. And there's more than four conferences. There's all sorts of stuff. It's hard to say no to that because when you just look at the teams that miss out on it, there's so many good football teams that should have a shot at that that can't with the current system. I don't know how you fix it. I don't know how you expand it and how that works. But I hope they will eventually, yeah. Q. Creates a scenario where, even the Rose Bowl, you guys probably in some ways can't help but feel like this is some kind of consolation prize almost because you're not playing for a championship. BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think maybe you can fall in that trap. I think especially with the Rose Bowl it's hard to have that, because it's the Rose Bowl. This is the game that we all grew up watching. And I think that people understand the importance of the game. It's a matchup against two of the best teams in the country. And I think, yeah, it's a bummer that it doesn't have the same weight it used to when it was the National Championship, that kind of stuff. But I think that for the guys playing, none of the guys on our team feel that way. You can feel the energy in practice and the excitement. I think we're good to go. Q. Is it crazy that Ohio State and Washington have never played in the Rose Bowl? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Yeah, that seems pretty impossible with the way it works with Big Ten and the Pac-12. But I guess it's just the nature of it, and hopefully we can make this first matchup pretty fun. Q. And both programs it's been a while since both of them have been here. And do you sense that this does hold kind of a special vibe to it? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Yeah, I mean, I can't speak for their fans, obviously, but I know for Washington, the Rose Bowl is kind of the game that made our program when Don James was here and all that stuff. So I think for us it's been 18 years since we've been here. I know you can just tell around Seattle before we came down here how excited people are. It means so much to everyone to be back in this game and hopefully bring back a win. Because the Rose Bowl really has been the pillar that our program first grew up on. Q. Did the coaches or anybody try to give you like a history lesson on that type of stuff? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: You know, we definitely have some. We have some of the old alumni come in and talk to us about the game and that kind of stuff. But it's hard not to know. When you're in Seattle, you see the trophies. You know the stories. You know all the players. And it's one of those things where it's just kind of ingrained in Husky football. It's always been about the Rose Bowl. It's always been that. It's obviously different now with the playoffs. It's always the Rose Bowl, and it will always be that game. I think for Washington football, especially for Pac-12 teams, it's hard not to get excited about going to the Rose Bowl. It's been the premier bowl game for us for a long time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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