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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYJuly 26, 2011Andrew LuckDavid ShawLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA COACH SHAW: First, we're excited to be here. This is kind of the beginning. This is what helps us start ramping up. We know it's time to get going. I think for us as a team we always look at every opportunity as we have something to prove. We work hard. We try to win every game we play. We're a humble group, and this is our leader here, and he exemplifies that as far as how we do our work and how hard we work. That's pretty much what we're about. Q. Coach, can you just list what you bring differently and some of the similarities that you bring that is different from Coach Harbaugh? COACH SHAW: Well, I think the big thing is I would say similarity first is that we're both competitive. Everything we do is about competition, our practices, our meetings, everything we do circles around competition. The players feel that. We know even if you're not a starter, if you compete hard in practice, you'll get a chance to play. That's why we competed five running backs last year. Stepfan Taylor was phenomenal, had a great year, but we had other guys that earned the right to play. We do it at the tight end position, the receiver position, that's how our guys feel. We do it at the linebacker position. Some guys that don't start, if they work hard in practice they'll get a chance to play in different cell packages. So everything we do is vital, because what it all boils down to is our guys want to play and do the things it takes to win football games. And that is the environment that Coach Harbaugh created that I'll try to upkeep. Differences are minimal because our biggest differences are we have different personalities, and the same goals and same competitive drive. We like to teach. I see myself as a teacher and that's the environment that we've created down there. Q. David and Andrew, with the familiarity you guys have with each other, does it make the transition for you becoming the head coach a little bit easier on both of your parts? ANDREW LUCK: Yeah, yeah, I think so. It's definitely nice not to have to learn a new scheme, a new offense. Coach Shaw recruited me. He's been instrumental in my growth as a football player and ever since I've been on campus. Yeah, so continuity was definitely something that a lot of the players were hoping for when the coaching change was being made. It's definitely been easier for me, I think. COACH SHAW: I think it's been great. The focal point of every team is the quarterback, and having a quarterback that we know and that we trust and that will work his butt off. We got him in place. That helps me a lot. Now we just concentrate on what goes on around him. I think it's been a big part of my transition. Q. On the defensive side that changes there, and we're reading it's going to be a co-coordinator situation. Is that accurate and how much do you think it will affect the team? COACH SHAW: Well, we he do have are co-coordinators. Derek Mason will make the call. He's the associate head coach and coordinator. Jason Tarver, I gave him that co-coordinator title because he brought great stuff to us from his ten years in the NFL. So the mix of those two guys is phenomenal. They're like an old married couple. They finish each other's sentences. They argue, they have mini meetings within meetings. It's a fun thing to watch. At the same time, Derek knows he's making the call. There's going to be a lot of similarities. We've added a lot to the defense. At the same time we have some great defensive leadership in Shayne Skov, and Delano Howell and Michael Thomas and Chase Thomas guys that have played a lot of football at a high level. Those guys will set the standard of play. Q. Do you plan on for sure going pro after this year, because you'll have another year left? COACH SHAW: Great question (laughing). ANDREW LUCK: No, I'm doing this as my last college football season and approaching it like such. Q. I'll ask about the beard since we're all interested here. Is this something that's going to keep going to a specific time? Can you expand on? Is this a Brian Wilson thing? ANDREW LUCK: No, I honestly haven't thought past tomorrow about what to do with it. I never had a beard. I'm hesitant to call it a beard. I don't think it's quite there yet. I don't know. I'd never done it before, so why not try. We'll see if it lasts. When I get annoyed of it, I'll shave it. COACH SHAW: I just hope his helmet fits. Q. Who is the biggest influence on your career and what did you learn from him? And growing up in the ranks, how concerned was the lack of head coach options was a concern to you growing up in the ranks? COACH SHAW: The first question is a really tough question. I'd have to say my father because he's a football coach, and I grew up in this business. Since I've been coaching, I would say between 10 to 50 times a year just coming across people, I find people that tell me, hey, tell your dad I said hi. Tell him I always respected him. And that's what I want to leave. I want to leave a long string of guys that I've worked with and coached that say gosh I remember those years that I worked with Coach Shaw and I really appreciate how he helped me both as a football player and as a person. But I can't stop with just my dad because he's phenomenal. But Jon Gruden, I spent five years with Jon Gruden, and he beat me up. He trained me. He threw me in a dark room with mountains of tape to educate me. And I'm forever grateful to him as well as I am to Bill Callahan. Bill Callahan to me was the big reason I'm here right now. He taught me protections. He caught me the running game. It was nice with those two guys. At the time I didn't think it was that nice. But when I worked with those two guys it was hard, it was long hours, but I learned a lot of football. Besides that, playing for Bill Walsh for three years was an unbelievable experience because it was always like Bill was always a step ahead. Any room that he was in, he was the smartest person in the room, and to be around that is one of the reasons why I appreciate coach and being around a legend like that. It was instrumental in Jim Harbaugh's hiring process was all the more special for me. Q. The second part? COACH SHAW: The second part, I'll put it this way: I was taught as a young man you work your butt off and take what comes. Now if that means there's more or less after the coaches, et cetera, I think more than anything, when you have a chance to make your mark on a player, make your mark on a coaching staff, make your mark on a team, on an organization, a school, you do it in a positive way. When you do that long enough and you're good enough at your job, you get rewarded eventually. Q. Coach, most of the analysts when they're reviewing the 2011 edition of the Stanford Cardinal they'll acknowledge the talent coming back, certainly the quarterback that's coming back. But it seems there is always a caveat. There are always people saying that Jim Harbaugh gave the team an edge. Gave the Cardinal an attitude. I was wondering how you respond to that, if you respond to it at all, and just what you think about that criticism, I suppose? COACH SHAW: I agree with him. Coach Harbaugh came in and fought a lot of battles that I don't have to fight. My job is to maintain a competitive spirit. Like I said before, that is one of the things that he and I had in common. We were going to compete. We're going to fight. We have different personalities, but at the same time you can ask the guys when somebody crosses the line, I'll be nose to nose with them. I might not be yelling, but I'll be dead serious. There is a standard of play that we'll play up to, and it's my job that we'll do that. Q. Chris Owusu missed six games with injuries last year. I'm wondering how much you think your success depends on him being healthy and which players in this very otherwise inexperienced receiver corps are you expecting to step up? And who is going to coach the receivers? COACH SHAW: Well, I'll start with the last question. Pep Hamilton will coach the quarterbacks and the receivers. They'll work closely together. They're going to meet together. . I'll step in periodically. There will be times when we split, as he and I have talked. I might work with the quarterbacks, he might work with the receivers and we can switch at different times. He and I spent a lot of time getting on the same page the last couple of years and trust each other complicity. But for the most part coach Hamilton will coach both of those positions. Which part do you want me to answer next? Q. How about Owusu and the rest of your receivers? COACH SHAW: Chris knows. Since Chris's last surgery I haven't said anything to him besides play every game. That's all I said to Chris. I said nothing else. I said, Chris, I said, we'll practice accordingly. We will make sure we take the pounding off him in training camp. We need Chris to play in every single game. We've got a talented but inexperienced training corps around Andrew. But that's what training camp is. The best thing we have over their heads is the tight end group. If the receivers don't step up, we'll throw the ball to tight ends. We don't care. It's all about competition. Who earns that spot to play, they get to play. Q. Did you ever have a point in the off-season where you thought for a second or third time about your decision to come back? And how good or how much better can you and the team be this year? ANDREW LUCK: First, I didn't really think about the decision after I made it. I've been very happy. I haven't had any regrets. I love being able to represent Stanford University. I'm looking forward to doing that on the field this year. Secondly, I think you always can get better. You can always improve. I think this team has a lot of key leaders at positions that need leadership. Some great O-linemen, linebackers, secondary guys. So I think we can constantly improve and we'll see where we go from there. Q. How much has Coach Shaw meant to you in your development as a quarterback? ANDREW LUCK: He's been huge. Like I said, he recruited me here. It always seemed like my red shirt year when I'm out playing, it always seems like it would be Coach Shaw who would take me aside every now and then in practice and say, remember, you're preparing yourself to play. Don't just take these style team reps like they're nothing, and different little things along the way. Obviously he wasn't coaching the quarterbacks, per se, at that point. But he's been instrumental in teaching me the west coast system, and everything within this offense. So, you know, he's definitely been a big part of it the whole way. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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