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ROSE BOWL GAME: OHIO STATE VS WASHINGTONDecember 30, 2018Ben Burr-KirvenPasadena, California Q. Last game, do you find yourself reflecting? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I haven't been that reflective honestly. I think I probably will be when I'm done but it's hard to think about other stuff when it just feels like another game week. You have so much work to do, prep, 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 to this program, do you feel like there's no doubt you're leaving it in a better spot? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Oh, yeah, definitely. I think if you look at where we were when we first got here, the key was trying to get guys in who were great guys, but also top talent, and now I think you're kind of seeing that. The recruiting class we've been getting the last couple years, at the start it doesn't really matter but if you look at the rankings it's a whole different ballgame to what my class was supposed to be. It's pretty cool to see and for the foreseeable future we're going to be a powerhouse. It just going to be a pipeline. Q. What is that next step for this program? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Obviously you want to get the national recruits. You want to get the attention and show that you're a team that can be reckoned with. You don't want to be, oh, they are pretty good. You want people to be, oh, it's Washington. We have to win the big games, and I think the next couple years hopefully we'll see them back in the Playoffs and that kind of stuff but I don't see any reason why that can't happen. Q. Couple New Year's shoutouts back home? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Just want to say happy new year to all my friends and family back home in the Bay Area. It's awesome to be down here for the Rose Bowl. Q. Such an historical event, the 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 in one of the most historic Bowl games in the country. Q. Happy new year for all your fans around? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Happy new year to all the dogs' fans and hope you guys have a great time watching us play in the Rose Bowl. Q. What can you tell young people today about what's the keys to success? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing is to find something you're passionate about. I think for me that was football from a young age, I knew that was something I wanted to do with my life, and I think when you have something that you can really put your passion into and focus on, it can put you on a path that's going to lead you to success. Since I was 7 years old, that's what I wanted to do, and when you have something like that, just like a rock in your life, it makes you so focused and teaches you about hard work and the dedication that's required to succeed. Q. As you're playing and progressed and got better, is there a certain time, a year, high school, college, that you felt like you're really comfortable on defense and you could see the defense, the field, the plays coming at you? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think probably my junior year of high school. I played linebacker when I was a kid in Pop Warner and that kind of stuff and when I got to high school, I was bouncing around playing whatever they needed me to play. I went back to linebacker my junior year and that's when I was kind of like, all right, I've got this and I knew I could do it at a high level and knew I could do it in college and beyond that. My junior year in high school is when I really started to feel it. Q. Being able to go to the Rose Bowl and Scholar Athlete in the same year, does that mean to you? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: It's pretty special. It's awesome to be Scholar Athlete of the Year. It's cool to be recognized for more than just what I'm doing on the field. It's nice that people notice what I'm doing off the field, too. It's pretty special to have such a cool year for me alone, but to be 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, so it's been a really special season. Q. We asked fans on Twitter to submit questions for you to answer. So do you mind if I just pull them up? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Yeah, go ahead. Q. Actually there are some ones that are specifically for you. One is, what's your favorite color? If you want to answer that one, you can answer that one. But I thought a pretty good one also was what's it like knowing you're representing the Pac 12? Do you want to answer that one? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Yeah, sure. It means a lot to represent the Pac 12. I think our conference kind of gets looked down on a little bit. They think we don't play as good of football on the West Coast, so it's always to be out here in a Bowl game and try and go out here and show that we play real good football in the Pac 12, and there's a lot of great talent out here and hopefully on the 1st, we can show that to the rest of the country, 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 country and that's what you always want to see in a football team. It's the immovable object against unstoppable force, and who is going to be the one that breaks first and who is going to be the one that crumples. It's the match that you want. It's the best of the best going at it, so I think there's a lot of reasons to watch this game. Q. What are some of the other reasons to watch it? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I mean, it's the Rose Bowl. I hope people want to watch the Rose Bowl. I grew up watching the Rose Bowl. I grew up in California. It's the biggest game in the country. It's one of those I hope people want to tune in and see a lot of us playing in our last game of college football and hopefully people want to see us play one last time. Q. There were two pretty big games yesterday and a bigger game a week from tomorrow, so things have changed. Spoiler alert in life: Things will change. But for a player, it's like, to you it's still a pretty big game despite the changes in college football? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Oh, yeah, it's the Rose Bowl and that's never going to change. It's different now with the way the Playoff system works, but it's the Rose Bowl and over a hundred years of football and it's always some of the best teams in the country matching up. Just the way it works, it would be easy just be like, oh, all that matters now is the National Championship. I think for us, the guys playing in game, we know how much it means and our fans know how much it means, too. Q. What do you want people to know about this Washington team? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I hope people respect us. I think that's the biggest thing. It's easy for people to overlook Pac 12 football. They think they are not as good as the Big Ten, SEC, and I get it, people are asleep and don't watch our games. I hope people know that we have some good football players and Washington is one of the best teams in the country. We've been that for one of the last few years and are showing it and I hope people watch us and come out respecting us a little bit more. Q. Why should people respect you? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: We're good. We're a good football team and have good players across the board. Our defense probably has three or four guys that will be in the top three round in the Draft. If you're overlooking us thinking we're not good, you're going to be disappointed then because you're going to turn on the tape and see a good football team. Q. It seems almost that if you don't make the College Football Playoffs, people don't think you're good. Obviously you disagree? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think people probably do think it, but there's only four teams that make it and there's a lot more than four good teams in the country and I think the way the Playoffs work, it comes down to just judgment calls. So it's hard to subjectively be like, oh, well, those are the best four teams. It's hard, the way teams match up, you can't know until you get there; so it's a weird system right now and I think, you know, 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 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've got good playmakers and they have got good playmakers. We know they are going to make plays. We don't expect to play a perfect game. They have good players and I think it's going to be a dogfight and it will come down to the fourth quarter. Q. There have been a bunch of Bowl games recently that have been blowouts. Why do you think this won't be a blowout? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Obviously I know coach and the way we prepare. I met Coach Meyer a couple days ago at Disneyland and you can tell he's a similar type of coach. When you see those Bowl games where things slip, it comes down to fundamentals and guys are not tackling and not playing the way they played all year. 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: I think my parents instilled in me at a young age the importance of academics. They know I loved sports and that's what I wanted to do but sport isn't forever and you have to focus on other things, too. I think from a young age, I knew that and I kept doing my best in the classroom, too. Q. Curious the fact that you guys are Pac 12 champs and are not 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 talking with your fellow teammates would be good for college football? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Obviously it's tough to figure out the scheduling and how all that would work because we play so many games already and you would have to add a couple more weeks to the season. I think it would be a good thing for college football. I think it's hard to say that there's only four teams that should be playing for that because there's so many good times 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 and I don't know how you fix it. I don't know how you expand it and how that works, but I hope that they will eventually, yeah. Q. And it creates a scenario where the Rose Bowl, you can't help but feel this is like some kind of consolation prize almost because you're not playing for a championship. BEN BURR-KIRVEN: I think maybe you can fall into that trap, but I think especially with the Rose Bowl it's kind of hard to have that because it's the Rose Bowl. This is the game this we all grew up watching and I think that people understand the importance much the game. I mean, it's a match up 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 and 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 excitement, so 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 the way it works with the Big Ten and Pac 12. That's just the nature of it, but I hope we can make this first matchup pretty fun. Q. It's been a while since both programs have been here. Do you sense that this does hold kind of a special vibe? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: Oh, yeah. 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. For us, it's been 18 years since we've been here and 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 like I said, the Rose Bowl really has been the pillar that our program first grew up on. Q. Did the coaches try to give you a history lesson on that type of stuff? BEN BURR-KIRVEN: We definitely have some of the old alumnis [sic] come in and talk to us about the game and that kind of stuff but it's hard to not know. When you're in Seattle you see the trophies and you know the stories. You know all the players and it's one of those things where it's kind of ingrained in Husky Football. It's always about the Rose Bowl and it's always been that way and I think it's obviously different now like you said with the playoffs but it's the Rose Bowl and always will be that game. I think for Washington Football, especially for Pac 12 teams, it's hard to not get excited about going to the Rose Bowl because it's been the premiere Bowl game for us for a long time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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