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ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: STANFORD v WISCONSINDecember 27, 2012Derek MasonTrent MurphyChase ThomasPASADENA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes? Q. Derek, when you look at Wisconsin's running game on tape, why is it so effective? DEREK MASON: Tell you what, it starts up front. I mean, I think any time that you have an offensive line that goes 6'6" plus, 320 pounds plus across the board, they're able to do a good job of moving the line of scrimmage and creating gaps increases for their running backs. When you talk about Montee Ball, you're talking about one of the best in the country, Doak Walker Award winner. He's got speed, size, and great vision. Finds seams and creases, and the one thing that he's been able to do is get better as games have gone on. So I think this group is formidable. They're probably one of the best that we'll see all year, and that presents a challenge. Q. Chase, Trent, if you could both comment on this. This defense prides itself on the party in the back field mentality, and obviously sacks and getting to the quarterback are such a big part of your game. Does it change the mentality or how does it affect the way you go about this sort of a match‑up with a quarterback who may only throw the ball 10 or 12 times in an entire football game? STUDENT‑ATHLETE: We've always preached the fact that we had to stop the run and aren't right to rush on third down. We have to earn first and second down, and put us in a third and long situation where we know they're going to have to throw the ball to get this first down. That's when we really pin our ears back and get after the quarterback. STUDENT‑ATHLETE: Yeah, it's not going to change the way we play. We're still going to be us and do what we do best, and that's play aggressive. But we've always been a stop the run defense first, so that's our first priority, and then after that we'll get after the passer, hopefully. Q. Derek, can you talk about just the nuances of having an entire month to prepare defensively for one opponent? DEREK MASON: Yeah, I think really for us we tried to make sure‑‑ Coach Shaw did a great job in terms of scheduling our practices and making sure that we didn't overload these guys. I think what happens is the tendency is to make sure that you go back and look at the entire season, the whole body of work. Really, when you look at Wisconsin, it's really the tale of two teams. First half of the season, second half of the season. So for us, we really concentrated on the second half of the season, and we looked, as a coaching staff, we've looked at the early part of the season, and really for our guys, we made it about the here and now. We want to stay in the present. For us, these guys had a healthy chunk of time off. Trying to get their legs back, trying to do a good job of just compartmentalizing the information and getting it down to the finest nuances so that when these guys understand tendencies, and they really know what they're going to see and what to expect. Really, for us, we made it more about us. Back at home, it was more about Wisconsin. Now that we're here, it's more about us. We're in the game week mode. Every time we get into game week mode, we make it less about our opponent and more about us. We know what we have to do. We know the job at hand. We've got to continue to prepare what happens on first down, second down, third down, and keep making sure we do what we do in situational football. That's our strength, and that's what we do. Q. Chase or Trent, for those of us that know Ben Gardner, what type of guy is he like? I know reading the clippings and stuff like that, that the mullet's gotten some traction. So talk about that as well? STUDENT‑ATHLETE: I think the mullet itself speaks a ton about Ben's personality. But he's a tough, kind of nitty‑gritty guy. He's under Coach Hart, and he's getting after him every day in practice, so he can't be any other way. That's kind of how he plays on the field. He's just a tough guy. STUDENT‑ATHLETE: Yeah, he's a bit of a cowboy. He loves stirring it up out there. It's fun to watch him play. Q. Can you guys talk about, and certainly for you, Chase, this is officially your last game‑‑ just the emotion that goes into the possibility of finishing your Stanford career with a Rose Bowl win? CHASE THOMAS: It would be awesome. You know, every year we've preached Rose Bowl, win the Pac‑12 Championship, get to the Rose Bowl. The other two years have been great. The BCS games, but we didn't really know where we were going those previous two years. This year we finally earned our bowl spot. We earned our right to play in the Rose Bowl by winning the Pac‑12 Championship. That makes it that much more special. It's definitely going to be a really important game just to go out the right way here. DEREK MASON: I'll expand on that question meant for Chase, because you look at having a guy like Chase Thomas who comes back for his fifth year. You know, it's incredible to have guys who believe enough in what we do and in the program and in their abilities to come back for a fifth year and do what he's done. Lot of people don't do it; a lot of people take the leap, but he came back and provided such great leadership for this group. This group is a blue‑collar group top to bottom. I know the perception that's out there about Stanford in terms of it being out there on the farm and what happens in terms of our student‑athletes and in terms of the intelligence factor. But let me tell you something, when you talk about playing football, these guys play football. They're football junkies. They love football. They bleed red and practice hard, as hard as any group I've ever coached, NFL, college or any other group. This group when they talk about earning the right to rush the passer. You look at what this group has done, and it's obliviated the records that were here before them. With a group that knows very little about going into the season. This is a prideful group. This group works extremely hard at doing the little things. We talk about fist to fingers. This group is one big fist. They don't care about the individual accolades. All they care about is the win. I tell you what, that's a special group to coach. Not one time did any of these guys ever talk about any of these individual things like a lot of groups talk about. We set one goal at the beginning of the year, and that was winning the Pac‑12 Championship. If you look at the last five games of the season, and how that road went, it was as tough as any road in the country for any team. For us, I'm grateful and feel blessed to have coached a guy like Chase Thomas and Trent Murphy. These guys are two of the best. They've shown it week‑in and week‑out. When they talk about the Stanford 2012 team, the hallmark of this team is sitting right here next to me. At the end of the day, good group, great team, but more than that, a blue‑collared group that achieved more than what most people give them credit for. So with that being the case, thank you. Q. Derek, is this a game between mirror images or is that a fallacy? Is every team different? What is your thought on that? DEREK MASON: I think you're right. You look at what Wisconsin did down the stretch and that football team got better. Coach Alvarez is going to have that team ready to play. This is a physical group that's got one goal in mind. They've been here a couple of times. They want to walk out of here with some hardware. So do we. We didn't come here to get a t‑shirt or a hat. We came here to win. I think when you look at these two groups, it's going to be as a good a football game you can find across the country. This is going to be two groups that have storied programs, that have a lot to prove in terms of this one game. So it's going to be fun. We're looking forward to it. Q. Trent, can you talk about what jumps out at you about this Wisconsin offense? You guys have watched a lot of tape to this point. What is the first thing you see? What are the biggest concerns that you guys have defensively? TRENT MURPHY: Probably the biggest thing is their combination of speed and power, really. They have some athletes. They've got some guy that's if they can get on the edge, they'll outrun you and they'll go the distance. But they're not just kind of an edge sideways running team trying to outspeed you. They've got every offensive lineman over 320, 340, and there are some big old boys that are going to come off the ball and try to move you. So probably between the athleticism, speed, and power off the ball, that's kind of the biggest concern. Q. Trent and Chase, do you have any recollections of the last time Wisconsin played Stanford in the Rose Bowl in 2000? CHASE THOMAS: Yeah, Ron Dayne was the running back, right? Q. How old were you? CHASE THOMAS: I was 11. TRENT MURPHY: I was 10. Q. And that day did you think we'll be playing in the Rose Bowl some day? CHASE THOMAS: I wasn't thinking about the Rose Bowl when I was 10. I was probably out chasing dogs or something. Q. Did you catch the dogs? CHASE THOMAS: Absolutely. Absolutely (laughing). Q. Derek, you talked about Wisconsin's season being a tale of two halves. Can you take that a step further when you look at their last two games because of what they showed offensively against Ohio State and Penn State was certainly different than what they showed offensively against Nebraska? DEREK MASON: Well, I tell you what, I think for them, and I definitely don't want to speak for Wisconsin, but when you look at having to play an opponent twice like in Nebraska much like we've had to versus UCLA, it's a tough task. You look at things that you've done before, and you try to modify and tweak what you do. But that last game, you watch Wisconsin, and it was a dominant performance. I mean, that's the Wisconsin that we've all grown to know and respect. Really, for our group, our group looked at the Nebraska game and says that's Wisconsin. That's who we're going to face. We know what they're going to do. It's not just Montee Ball. I mean, everybody talks about Montee Ball. But when you talk about the three‑headed monster they have at running back, it goes much deeper than that. Each one of those guys is averaging‑‑ I mean, Montee Ball may have the lowest average per carry of the three. So when you look at what they do and how they do it, and how they come at you with the jet sweep and the wildcat, there is much to prepare for. These guys are good. They've pushed the envelope just in terms of what their expectations are. They know right now that they're in the midst of having a chance to win the Rose Bowl, and that's what they came here to do. When you look at this Wisconsin group, they're better than good. They're exactly as advertised. That's why they're sitting here in the Rose Bowl. Q. Coach Mason, can you talk about two guys that seem like they've had a lot of growth this year, Henry Anderson and Alex Carter? DEREK MASON: Well, when you look at Henry and Alex, I think what you see is a product of great leadership. At the end of the day, we don't do a very good‑‑ well, we do a good job of putting those guys, the guys that can play right away, we don't look at red shirting. We try to put those guys in situations where we feel like they can be successful. But I think it's on the group that you see up here. It's on our older guys. Our older guys have been able to ingratiate those young guys and help them understand exactly what the S on the side of the helmet means. Those guys have had to work extremely hard to get on the field. I know they're talented, but talent is not good enough. I know Alex Carter has played in big games as a true freshman. At times he's played well, and at times he's played poor. But these guys have done a good job of being able to talk to him and letting him know, it's okay. Just do your job so the ten other guys that you're playing with can do theirs and you'll be okay. So for a freshman corner to step into the Pac‑12 and face what he faced this year, I thought it was outstanding. Henry Anderson, it was just his time. Henry, being a third‑year player, red shirting his freshman year, getting some time his sophomore year and then coming into his own this year, it was just a matter of time. You sink or swim in this program. For him, he found a way to put on some floaties, work through last year. And now when the opportunity came, he took advantage of it. We needed him to step up and that's exactly what he did, and he did it early. But you know what, these guys pushed him to be better. They asked him, what do you want to be? Do you want to be good or do you want to be great? The answer was great. Well, if you want to be great, let's show it. When we talk about blue collar, those practices get long and hard. We demand that those guys run. Physically run. Get done the things that they need to get done. That's what those young guys did. But these guys helped those guys along the way, and I truly believe that those guys are going to go on to have great careers here. But that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to lock and reload if your program is set the way it needs to be set. Right now we feel like we're in that mode. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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