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ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: STANFORD v WISCONSINDecember 27, 2012Matt CanadaPASADENA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Curious how this quarterback situation has worked. Strange year. Can you trace how it works. MATT CANADA: Well, we came in and had three very, very good players competing for the job. Went through camp. Honestly, percentage‑wise, completions, they were very, very close. Danny O'Brien is the guy who transferred in who had some experience playing in games. He only had one interception through camp. He had taken care of the ball the best. That's how we based our decision, because it was very close. Each guy was close. Stave was a big arm. Curt had some leadership things that were great. We made a decision and went with Danny. Had some struggles early in the year, not all attributed to Danny. That's the beauty of our position. You get all the credit and you get all the blame. So we made a change. Joel played very well. Had a close game at Nebraska, one of the better environments I've ever been in. Came up short, but played very well. Then Joel got hurt against Michigan State, broke his collarbone. Then we went with Curt. Curt obviously played very well. Won two games, then lost two in overtime, won the last four games, won the championship game against Nebraska. Played very well. Q. You have a BCS game with Curt making his fifth start. Kevin Hogan making his as well. MATT CANADA: A little unique. With Hogan, I don't know what class is he? Is he a freshman? Q. Redshirt. MATT CANADA: Curt is a fifth‑year senior. They're very similar in where they are, so... Q. What do you see on Stanford's defense? MATT CANADA: Exactly what you expect from a Stanford team. Very smart, where they should be. They pressure people. Creating havoc with their scheme. Very well coached and they play very well. Q. How often do you use your extra offensive linemen? MATT CANADA: Yeah, I've been doing it a few different places I've been as well. We probably used it quite a bit in the last game. In this game it will be interesting how much each of us do it. There's such similarities in our approach, the fact that we do, and our team sees it. We'll use it as the game dictates. Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: There's probably not. We will use seven linemen quite a bit. I don't study them on offense. We'll bring in two extras. Q. How often do you do the wildcat? MATT CANADA: In a game? Overall? He scored four times on it last time. Q. 30, 40? MATT CANADA: In the season, something like that. That's fair. It's a package that I've used at the previous places I've been. Felt like it had a great advantage here because of the size of our linemen. I looked at Montee doing it early on. James had a better knack. There's some mechanics in being the quarterback, calling the cadence, the huddle, the way we do it by taking the quarterback out. Some will do it and leave the Q in the game so he can call the huddle. James is very good at it. Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: I didn't think about that for them. I wouldn't know anything about it. No, it didn't cross my mind, I didn't think about it. I can see it being interesting for them. Q. Especially this late in the season, playing in a BCS bowl game. MATT CANADA: It will be good. Q. How do you think Montee will stack up to what they do? MATT CANADA: The three‑down scheme is not as prevalent for us. We've seen a couple teams who have done it. It's a different scheme for us to prepare for up front. I think Montee will stick his nose in there, go around the ball, see what happens. Every game is unique, different, so... Q. Very much left for you to do with the game plan? MATT CANADA: Coach is letting us call. I'm running the offense, which is what I've done all year. He hasn't made any changes that way. He let us as a staff put it together, call what we're going to call, do what we're going to do. Q. You've gone through six or seven coaches. MATT CANADA: Obviously last year was a little bit different. Those guys all left to be a head coach or move up and be a coordinator. Obviously brought on by the head coach choosing to leave. Until we leave, we're all working for Wisconsin and our players. It adds some challenges for our players. I think there's a lot of emotions that have gone on for everybody through this process. Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: Probably wouldn't want to get into that really. Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: No, honestly. We were doing what Wisconsin did then. We evolved as an offense. We lost seven really good players from this team a year ago. I wasn't here. But on offense. Russell Wilson being the one that everyone talks about. Three offensive linemen, two starting in the league right now at rookies, one who went into a camp, a tight end who was a good player, a fullback who got hurt but was a good player. It took a little time for us to get going. It's a collection of things to get it right. Q. The fact that you lost five games, but were close games... MATT CANADA: We lost five games by six points in regulations, two overtimes. If you look at it, missed a field goal. We were very, very close. I think that showed. We kind of exploded there in the championship game. It was one of those tough years, but certainly rewarding. Q. What is the latest on Joel? MATT CANADA: He's cleared to play. Q. Is he number two? MATT CANADA: Joel is cleared to play. There's a chance you'll see him out there at times. Curt is our starter, though. Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: It was a unique year in the sense of how it all went down. We were in the championship game with two weeks left to play. Those games we wanted to win, we tried to win. We certainly had a lot of things to go. The weather dictated that a little bit, some of the plays we called. Those were all plays we had. They weren't all a first‑time run. They kind of ran in that game. Everybody kind of focused on them. Q. Have you ever called a game where everything seemed to work? MATT CANADA: That was a special night, no doubt about it. Q. More demanding challenge this time with Stanford? MATT CANADA: Different. You look at the results against Nebraska. But they're a very good defense. Through all that, that's gotten lost in everything that's happened. What we were able to do that day‑ I don't know what they were ranked on defense, 12th in the nation, they are the black shirts ‑ it was a great night. These guys are good. They're different. Three‑down scheme versus four. Different day. People on the outside don't understand. Certain teams give you the ability to do this. Why didn't he run this play more, it worked last game. Because it wouldn't work this game. Teams have different players, different strengths. They're a very good team. Nebraska, if you looked at them, they had an unbelievable blitz package by staying out of third down and long. Also some things we did formationally, we helped ourselves. These guys have had a month to get right on that. They're certainly an aggressive team. They're up there in tackles for loss, up there in sacks. A very, very potent defense. Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: Get pressure with three. They'll bring a guy at times. Their front is good. I know the one kid is not going to go now, but they're good. They're aggressive. Very, very good football team. Very good up front. They do a good job. They're well‑coached. They are. It's not clinic talk. They're gap sound. Each week, I think we can do this. Some weeks it works, some weeks it doesn't. There's always a chink. I'm sure they've watched us for a month, This is how they're going to attack us. I'm sure they're right. But they're well‑coached, smart football players. They do a lot and their kids don't make mistakes. Q. Do they feast on sacks? MATT CANADA: Yeah, a little bit. But it's a unique scheme because we all don't see the three‑down stuff. That was en vogue a while back, but it comes and goes. A week's time to prepare for that, it's a challenge. It works both ways. We've done some things a lot of people don't do with all the fly jet stuff we're doing. We've had some time to prep for what they're going to do versus two workdays in a week. It will be interesting. Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: Proudest? Just the way our kids believed. The way they believed. We hung in there, stuck together. Probably the proudest thing I had, one of our good players, just saying after it was over, Coach, I appreciate you taking every shot, standing behind us. There wasn't any finger pointing throughout the year. For me personally, that's my proudest from that game. Coach, you took every shot, didn't ever point a finger. Q. Who was that? MATT CANADA: I'll keep that with me. But that was rewarding. Q. Does it bother you when people say, Where was that before? MATT CANADA: Yeah, because people don't have any clue in all honesty. People have no clue about injuries, some of the things our kids went through that we don't talk about. Would have been very easy to meet every Sunday and say, He's really hurt, he's not playing because his backup is not as good, on and on and on. It's not something that our offensive coaches are going to do, that our players are going to do. We all stuck together, so... Q. (No microphone.) MATT CANADA: No. I mean, obviously there was something there as we look at where we were. You look at the Ohio State game. We played very well in that football game. There were a couple key plays. But we ran the ball very well on an unbelievable team. Went to Penn State, played in an incredible team in some weather. Came up a little short. We lost five games by six points in regulation. But I wasn't going to hold anything back. Our goal, I said it after the game, when you coach in the Big Ten is to win the Big Ten and go to the Rose Bowl. Our goal was to get to that game, which we did, and win that game, which we did. Q. What do you have left? MATT CANADA: There's always more left. We can draw up plays for days and days. It kind of went the way it did. I think there's a lot of focus on those few plays that were exotic that everybody wants to talk about. The plays that worked are the things we've done all season. Certain teams, like I said earlier, give you an advantage for something or else. Obviously we played them before. We had a couple wrinkles that we thought would help us, and they did, then the game got going the way it went. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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