INSIGHT BOWL: VIRGINIA TECH v CALIFORNIA

December 26, 2003

Ryan Gutierrez

Aaron Rodgers

Jeff Tedford

COACH TEDFORD: I'm so proud of our young men. I think that they felt courage every week, doesn't matter what happened, they were down, when it was 21-7 everything, was going south for us but they never stopped believing in one another. Just very proud of the way the seniors were able to go out and the season that we had. What a great opportunity to play in the Insight Bowl, and we are very fortunate to win. I want to take my hat off to Coach Beamer and Virginia Tech, a great football team. Tremendous talent and the guys played very hard and with a lot of class. So it was a great football game. I'm just real proud of our guy to hanging in there, staying together and pulling it out.

COACH TEDFORD: Really, we didn't change a lot at the half. We talked defensively about tackling better, to make sure that we wrapped up around the legs and things because we were not tackling as well as we needed to. Offensively, we felt like we were stopping ourselves in the first half, and that was -- you know, little things, like getting the quarterback's foot stepped on and falling down, things like that. But, you know, it felt like if we just executed and did what we needed to do offensively, we would be able to move the football. It seemed like a pretty good second half. I think we held the ball quite a few times in the second half. I don't know all the stats or anything like that but not a lot. Just hang in there. It was a seven-point game at half-time. It's nothing new for us. And on defense, just tackle a little better.

COACH TEDFORD: Aaron was phenomenal. Did a great job of running the show today. Threw the ball excellent, made great decisions, pulled the ball down and ran it when he needed to. Put the ball right there over and over. I don't know that he made a bad throw all day long. He's a tremendous talent. There's no doubt about that. If we don't mess him up, he should have a big year next year.

COACH TEDFORD: Chase stepped up. That's putting it lightly because losing Jeff, when you lose your MVP, you lose an all-American receiver, it's a tough time for someone else to step up. I'm so happy that it was Chase. Burl had a big game; Vinny did some things. But we believed in all of them. People have stepped in on this team and filled voids when we've had injuries; John Rust following in for Garrett Cross when he went down. Our backs go in and out, those type of things. For Chase to come in today after losing Jeff and having a big game, I'll really, really happy for Chase because he's really suffered through a lot of injuries and it's good to see him have a great game in a Bowl game. Tyler, very happy for him. It's been an up-and-down year for him. You know, I'm very proud of the way he hung in there. They tried to ice him at end of the game. Not only did he do a good job kicking that last field goal, but he did an excellent job with kickoff all day. And, you know, he had a smile on his face coming off the sideline. I don't think there was any doubt in his mind that ball was going to go through the middle. Just very happy for him that he was able to pull that out. And a lot of times when that happens, the snapper and the holder and the protectors don't get enough credit. And it was a perfect snap, perfect goal by Reggie and great protection because they were coming after him.

COACH TEDFORD: Yeah, he showed a lot of confidence.

COACH TEDFORD: Well, I guess you have to ask yourself that because most that have comes from the media on how they respect different conferences whether it be from the East Coast to the West Coast or what-have-you. I think that bodes well for our conference. Virginia Tech is an excellent football team who beat Miami and very, very talented group. The Pac 10 is very strong from top to bottom. It really. Is there's a lot of parity in the Pac 10. And so, you know I just hope that -- you know, this helps. I'm sure there's a lot of other Pac 10 teams that have to play in Bowl games yet. I just hope we have done our part to solidify that it is a strong conference.

COACH TEDFORD: Well, we were looking to throw Randall passes down the field and Aaron did a nice job of checking it down to the backs a couple of times, and then also pulling done and running it. But he did a nice job of keeping it alive in the pocket. His initial read wasn't there one time I think and he pulled it down and hit the tight end over the middle. You know, just showed great poise today. I think if you watched Aaron through the season, there's no doubt that every week he just got more comfortable and showed tremendous poise and the talent is very obvious.

COACH TEDFORD: Well, it was back and forth, no doubt about it. Like I said at the beginning, I'm very proud of the way we went up, the first drive was great and then all of a sudden it was 21-7. You know, could have folded, but you're never going to find that in this team.

COACH TEDFORD: I don't know. I don't know. You guys watched it. I thought it as a pretty good game. It wasn't back and forth. I think the fans got their money's worth, no doubt about it. But those games happen all the time. The USC game was a pretty big game. But this is great to be in a Bowl game like this and have an ending like that. It was very, very exciting.

RYAN GUTIERREZ: Definitely. We expected smash-em-out football. They caught us off guard a little bit. We made some adjustments a little bit. Our corners did a very good job as far as the deep ball after we made those adjustments but definitely we thought they were going to hand it off to their Heisman contending running back and definitely back in the box with the safeties going up top and we had to make some adjustments.

RYAN GUTIERREZ: Definitely we wanted to come out in the half and set the tone. Special teams on kickoff did a really good job and set the tone for the defense and we really needed to stop. I think we played our best ball in the third quarter. I think you saw the true California Bear defense in the third quarter. The first and second quarter we were a little bit sloppy tackling-wise, but as far as the pass we did a better job of that in the third quarter.

AARON RODGERS: We were trying to work on the opposite corner, D'Angelo Hall. He is a great player. We were trying to work away from him and set up one-on-one match ups with Chase one on No. 1 and No. 8 and we were able to do that. The line gave me a lot of time today. I was able to sit back in the pocket and make my reads. We were really aggressive I think, especially that drive after we tied it; hit Chase down the sideline and hit Burl and we scored on the third play. Just wanted to be aggressive, come out and throw the ball. We thought we could before the game and we showed we have a good passing game.

AARON RODGERS: Well, I called it. Chase is a great player, playing great the last two months. Sorry to have -- to not be able to have Jeff in the game but, you know every stepped up all year. We lost McCoby (ph) and Burl stepped up, Vinny stepped up. And I knew that Chase was going to step up and have a great game. He has great hands. A lot like Jeff, he's big, strong runs great routes and I knew Chase was going to have a big game and he's a great player. He made great catches.

AARON RODGERS: I'm having fun, a lot more relaxed and played better. Once-in-a-lifetime experience to go to a Bowl, hopefully not for us, but just enjoying the moment. It's fun to just be able to play in a big game like this against a great opponent. We never panicked. There's no panic in this team we believe in each other, we have since day one. We believe in our coaching staff and the game plan they prepared for us and we knew if we just hung around that we were going to start making big plays and we did. Gave me great time today, we were able to move the ball down the field. They were expecting us before the game but after we put up 52 points, they realize what we are all about.

RYAN GUTIERREZ: Just to add, I think the key word here is trust. Coach preaches bouncing back from adversity and whatnot all the time. And so we have huge faith in the offense. When you have a guy like Aaron throwing the ball back there, you're really comfortable on defense going out and knowing, you know, something happened to catch a deep ball, touchdown like they did today. Aaron is going to come out and swing it, and that's what we trust our in offense. And I think the offense does the same for the defense. But that's definitely, definitely the biggest factor.

AARON RODGERS: Well, guys stepping up. John Rust played well. Brandon Hall probably had his best game of the year. We were just able to utilize different formations against them and they put us in some good situations where Brandon Hall caught the same pass I think three times, once on the final drive and we were just sitting right over the ball. And Randall had a lot of catches, J.J. had some catches, Evan had a couple of catches. We have a lot of good players.

AARON RODGERS: I hope so. I think there's definitely an East Coast bias in football. One of the reasons is we don't get a lot of televised games. And another reason is it's pretty late when our games are shown on the East Coast. Hopefully the nation got to see a good team. We are a good team. We beat USC and we played really well against a good Virginia Tech team, and hopefully they will realize there's a lot of good football on the West Coast.