|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: STANFORD v WISCONSINDecember 27, 2012Chase ThomasPASADENA, CALIFORNIA Q. Are you happy you came back this year? CHASE THOMAS: Of course I'm happy. I achieved my goal of getting to the Pac‑12 Championship and coming here to the Rose Bowl. It's been a goal of our program every year since I've been here, and it definitely felt like we had a good shot of doing that this year. We knew our defense was going to be good enough to get us here, and we had some playmakers coming back on offense as well. So we wanted to get here to the Rose Bowl. Q. The future of this program looks pretty bright. Do you think they'll compete for the national championship in years to come? CHASE THOMAS: Yes, I do. Our defense will lose three of us. Then the offense has a lot of guys coming back, a lot of talent coming back. So it's definitely the next two years or next couple of years, they're definitely national title contenders. Q. After the two losses, the Washington loss and the Notre Dame, I understand you and a couple of the other seniors talked to the team. How would you characterize that conversation? CHASE THOMAS: It was pretty much a test of wills to see who wanted to be great and who wanted just to be good. We challenged guys to work harder in practice. We challenged guys to prepare harder in the film room and in the weight room because we knew we had the talent. It was just a matter of executing. It was pretty much challenging them to give it their all, because we still controlled our destiny. We could still win the Pac‑12 Championship and still go to the Rose Bowl. All of those things are still ahead of us. And we needed to get those guys' minds in the right direction, and they accepted that challenge. Q. Somebody told me that Tuesday practice after the Notre Dame game wasn't a very good practice, that you and some of the other fellas were upset and that's what prompted it? Is that correct? CHASE THOMAS: I remember Coach Shaw at practice wasn't happy with that practice. The fact that a coach has to ask us to practice hard after a loss didn't sit well with us, with the seniors and the captains. That was definitely the main reason why we had that little players' meeting. Q. Where was it? CHASE THOMAS: In the locker room. Q. Was it yelling or what was it like? CHASE THOMAS: It wasn't yelling, but it was inappropriate. It was not like any finger pointing or anything like that. Just telling guys this is what we need to get done. If you don't want to do that, get out of the locker room right now, and if you do want to do it, let's go practice and they made up their minds. Q. Did you guys think you would make it here today with what transpired after that Notre Dame game? CHASE THOMAS: I definitely think it helped, for sure. We also made a personnel change with the quarterback and some other things that also helped our team in terms of production. So a combination of those two things definitely helped to lead us to victories down the stretch. Q. What was it like (Indiscernible) Ben Gardner was talking about the best game? CHASE THOMAS: It's definitely one of my favorite games I've played in in my four years here. Just to do it at their place and to silence that loud stadium of theirs, just to say that we beat Oregon again. We haven't been able to say that in two years. I was getting sick and tired of all the Oregon guys out there and all the fans. Q. You guys have done a great job against the run. I know UCLA's gotten in the Pac‑12 title game. What's going to be the key against Wisconsin out there? CHASE THOMAS: We're going to be physical up front. They've got some big linemen. They average like 6'6", 220 across the board. We have to get off blocks. In the Pac‑12 Championship game we stayed on blocks a lot longer than we did in the game before. I think that was a big reason why they were so successful against us. We have to get off blocks. We have to not let them recreate the line of scrimmage. We have to knock them back and get underneath their pads. What's going to be big for us is lining up to all their formations, and all those big minor formations they do on balance sets. Making sure guys can get lined up in the correct gap. It's going to be a big part of us being able to execute our game plan. Q.  (Indiscernible) does he look like anybody you've seen? CHASE THOMAS: He looks like Stepfan Taylor. He runs hard. He knows when to be patient. He knows when to burst through the hole and hit it hard. He's patient with his blocks. He lets the holes build for him, so he's got great vision. He's definitely going to be presenting a big challenge to us. But again, they've got two other running backs that are just as good. Q. The preparation between the layoffs and facing an interim coach. Is the preparation for this game any different? CHASE THOMAS: I think it helped to get a little extra time, going back to the fundamentals, what we call our fundamental rotation. Rotating and doing different drills like we did back in camp. Some of those things were lost in the Pac‑12 Championship game. So to get back and get those sharpened up. Now we get to focus on Wisconsin. Now we're down here, and we're going to focus on ourselves and playing physical. Q. Did you ever imagine when you signed up that you'd get to the Rose Bowl? CHASE THOMAS: We definitely thought we had a‑‑ at least my class coming in‑‑ we definitely thought at some point we could win the Pac‑12 Championship. But if you had said we were going to three straight BCS games and top it off with a Pac‑12 Championship game without Andrew Luck and those other guys that came into the class, that would be a little more doubtful. But it's been an incredible journey over my last four years here. And to be able to finish it off with a Pac‑12 Championship and a Rose Bowl, that makes it that much better. Q. (Indiscernible) what's it like winning the championship this year? How do you prepare for something like that? CHASE THOMAS: I think my position group didn't prepare to have on the quarterback, because we know we're going to have to pass the ball, pass rush is pass rush. We're going to get after them in the pass rush and put pressure on the quarterback just like you said. We have to stop the run first. We have to make them throw the ball. We have to win on first and second down to be able to put them in a third and long situation where they throw the ball. They ran the ball on 3rd and 12 this year. So that doesn't even do it always. So we have to prove to them that they're not going to be able to run the ball on us and get a first down, which allows us to do what we do best, which is pin our ears back and get after the quarterback. Q. Is it different? Because so many game plans stop the quarterback whether it's a running quarterback in the Pac‑12 or whether it's Barkley or what does this guy bring to the game? What's his role? Is he a facilitator? CHASE THOMAS: Yeah, he doesn't make mistakes. He doesn't turn the ball over. He knows when to check it down. He knows when to go up top with the ball. He makes the throws that they ask him to make. He's done a great job for them of organizing their offense and getting the run efficiently. When they ask him to throw the ball, he's done a pretty good job this year of it. So you can't just overlook him. Q. There are so many different styles in the Pac‑12 now. Does that help? There is one thing interesting about this league. It's so vastly different week to week. He faced an Oregon spread, a Rich Rod spread, a USC type. You guys have got to be adaptable. CHASE THOMAS: Yeah, it keeps it more interesting too not seeing the same offense week‑in and week‑out. Being able to adjust our game plans based on the type of offense we're facing. It definitely keeps it interesting for the players. Always love mixing it up. Like you said, there are so many good fast quarterbacks in the Pac‑12 either with Washington's press. You've got Oregon, Scott in Arizona, and UCLA. And even the Maynard guy at Cal is pretty quick. So there has always been a big priority on the quarterback and focusing on him and trying to take him away. But we don't feel like Wisconsin's quarterback will beat us with his legs. He can definitely beat us with his arms, but we don't have to worry about him running too much. Q. Is that lot of ways, I don't say this is the simplest proposition for you guys with the game plan, but the most direct, you know, in your face, you know what it is. It's not preparing for anything. You know what you've got to do. You know what they want to do. CHASE THOMAS: They want to put ten linemen out there and one running back. You know, create gaps for Montee to hit it. As a defense, we need to communicate well on where to get lined up, on balanced formations, and making sure everyone's in their correct gap so we can play a nice gap scheme defense and do what we do best. Q. What's it been like having Shayne back this year, and in contrast to not having him last year and his role in both roles? As the non‑injured player now and sort of the spiritual leader? CHASE THOMAS: It's great having him on the field. Just as you said, a spiritual leader. I'll yell at the guys and get them going sometimes. But I'm still to this day more of a lead‑by‑example guy, and Shayne can really get the guys juiced up. He's got the speeches down pat in the locker room. You know, he's got that Ray Lewis mentality of motivational speeches. He always gives the guys that extra bit out there on the field, and to know he's out there with us gives us a boost of confidence as well. Q. What was he like when he was injured? His role then last year? CHASE THOMAS: He was great on the sideline. It was hard to see him on the sideline being able to play with him the previous two years, and to have him not out there was hard for this team and for myself. Whenever he came out on the sideline and sat down on the bench, he was always over there communicating with us, and letting us know what he saw, what he thought we should do, and at the same time, we did have some good guys step in for him. That depth has really carried over to this year in particular. Q. What's it been like to be part of this run at Stanford? It's obviously unprecedented. Three straight 11‑win seasons. There were decades when this program was sort of a second‑tier. Now you're kind of the mantel piece. Lot of people thought it couldn't happen. CHASE THOMAS: Yeah, we were the first class in history to go to four straight bowl games and the first class to go to three straight BCS games. I think it started when my recruiting class came in with Andrew, David DeCastro and Jonathan Martin and Chris, Michael Thomas, those type of guys. We really took it upon ourselves to change this program to rebuild this thing the right way and stop being one of the pushover teams in the Pac‑12. The coaches did a good job of giving us that blue‑collar mentality. They put the right coaches in here and recruited the correct players with the same mentality that we had. It really transpired over the last couple of years and we've gotten this program back to where it deserves to be. Q. It seemed there was always a perception of high‑level academic schools that did not equate to great foot work. You look at Duke and historically Northwestern. You've been able to breach that and get over that. CHASE THOMAS: I mean, if you look at Stanford, we don't lower our standards for acceptance. I think this is the only school where I had to fill out my application to see if I got in. That was a long process. It was a lot more stringent than any other schools. So you look at all the other sports teams at Stanford, and they're all just as good in their sport as we are in ours. It's incredible how well we do at Stanford. Like you said, they have to be smart as well, but it doesn't matter. The coaches do a great job of putting us in right spot to be successful. We work hard, if not harder than any other team out there. So we've definitely earned our right to call ourselves Pac‑12 champions. Q. It seems to be a football thing. (Indiscernible)? CHASE THOMAS: Football is football. It's not going to change. If you get guys that know how to play the game, you get guys that know how to play the game. We're lucky enough to find the guy that's know how to play the game and also are very successful in the classroom. All you have to do is go out there and execute, and our guys do that. Q. I don't know if this is true, but I heard the stories when Harbaugh came in in his interview he said I think I can play 22 smart players (Indiscernible)? CHASE THOMAS: No, I heard a story where they had a list of a hundred guys. Like this is the hundred guys that we have to recruit, because these are the hundred guys that can get into Stanford. When Harbaugh got here, within two weeks that got to 300. He found‑‑ they did a great job of going out and finding the guys that fit in with our program, that were smart guys and could play blue‑collared football. He definitely did a great job of getting the right guys in this program. Q. Do you think the guys you've faced this year have prepared you for this game? CHASE THOMAS: Definitely. Facing Johnathan Franklin two weeks in a row, facing Kenjon Barner. Kenjon Barner might be as physical as Montee Ball, but he reminds us of the other running backs that they have in terms of their speed and quickness. We faced Ka'Deem Carey down in Arizona, who is one of the best running backs in the nation. And every day in practice, we have to face our own Stepfan Taylor, who most reminds me of Montee Ball, a Doak Walker finalist and award winner, and we've gone against two other finalists, so it's definitely been a benefit of playing all these great running backs in the Pac‑12. Q. Is there a pride factor facing all those running backs and shutting them down? CHASE THOMAS: It's pretty funny we have all these great running backs when Pac‑12 is known as a pass‑happy league. But it definitely goes to show we have great talent in the Pac‑12, and to be able to go up against those guys and become successful is definitely a pride booster. Q. (Indiscernible)? CHASE THOMAS: It's always hard to play a team two weeks or twice. Just like what you saw when Wisconsin played Nebraska the second time they found what was most successful against them and exploited it, and UCLA did that against us. But luckily we made the correct adjustments on the sideline and we were able to slow them down in the second half and come up with that victory. Q. How important is your ability to rush forward? CHASE THOMAS: It's big. We've been successful doing that this year. Dropping 7 guys back there and they do a good job covering, we get home. If they do a good job putting the pressure on the quarterback, he's probably going to make a bad throw, and our secondary's going to come up with the ball. So we always work together, the front end and back end, and we'll continue to do that in this game. Q. Ben Gardner said there were games when you guys have been on the sidelines and said you can get home with four. CHASE THOMAS: We realize what works and what doesn't work. We realize we can run stunts and just go straight rush. If it's being successful, we don't want to mess with it. There have definitely been games this year where that's been true. Q. Do you think Wisconsin's (Indiscernible) the variety of stuff they do? CHASE THOMAS: They do a great job. Making sure that speed and power, whether it's the jet sweep on the end or just putting nine offensive linemen out there and running the ball cut formation and getting first down. So they did a great job of playing Wisconsin football, and that is the Wisconsin we're accustomed to seeing. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|