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ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: STANFORD v WISCONSINDecember 27, 2012Ed ReynoldsPASADENA, CALIFORNIA Q. (Indiscernible)? ED REYNOLDS: Right. I think for us guys don't play outside of themselves. We're a team that prides ourselves in being able to do your job and trusting the guy next to you. We work together as a front, as a line backing corps and as a secondary. When we cover well, the front can get home. And when the front gets home, the ball has to come out soon, and that's when we cause turnovers. So I think it's just that combination. Guys just playing within the system that Coach Mason and his staff has put together, it's been the formula for success this year. Q. It's funny, because Wisconsin's head coach (Indiscernible) in their championship game, they were almost able to tell Nebraska was lining up in some places, and that would be the case against you guys. For the most part have you guys 99% of the time been in the right spots throughout the year? I'm sure in some games there is a mental thing? ED REYNOLDS: Yeah, a lot of that happens early on in the season. But we take‑‑ we put in a lot of attention to detail when it comes to our preparation throughout the week. We feel like through that preparation is when everything is supposed to be hard. Come Saturday, that's when you're supposed to let it loose, and that's when you let everything go. That's when you have fun is on Saturdays. You can't play fast out there unless you know exactly what's going on. That is one of the things that our defensive staff definitely puts a lot of work in, given its tendencies and alerts and all the different formations that they've seen through their break downs. As a player, you have to go through the week and watch a lot of game film. That's one thing you get with bowl preparation, because you get that extra two weeks or three weeks from when you've ended your last game until now and you play on January 1. So with the extra time, you definitely get to know that team that much better. But like you said, Wisconsin's a great team. It's going to be a hard‑fought team, and smash mouth from both sides. They like to do little play‑action shots to hit you deep. I'm just excited about the match‑up, and to be back at the Rose Bowl and to win this hardware. Q. You guys did a good job against Barner and Franklin the first time. It looked like your run defense wasn't solid (Indiscernible). What do you think the key will be? ED REYNOLDS: I mean, Montee Ball is a great back. You don't get named the best running back in college football for nothing. They're great speed guys, long striders. I think all we have to do is I think that UCLA game, we kind of just did what we haven't done all year, and that is kind of play outside the system. And guys were not in the right spots. We've got to go back to the fundamentals. It's tackling. Finding gaps. Making sure as a secondary we're able to fill the holes when need be, and make sure tackles. It doesn't have to be a big hit. Doesn't have to be some huge shot, but it has to be the sure shot. In the end, we're going to play our style of ball and just go out there and have fun. Q. (Indiscernible)? ED REYNOLDS: That fly sweep? Yeah. They couldn't do it. Q. As a defender, if you're watching that, are you saying to yourself, okay, you should be able to defend at some point? ED REYNOLDS: Yeah, it's one of those things where you watch a game, and then being at this level, you don't just watch games for the enjoyment. You kind of just automatically kind of start seeing the game as a break down. It's just a thing that happens. But, yeah, it's one of those things where I feel like a bunch of us were sitting down watching them, like you know it's coming. You see it, you know it's coming. You know it's coming. Come on. Adjust somehow. I mean, Wisconsin did a great job with aligning it sometimes. But then they'd kind of mask it a little bit and line up in a different formation and get to it somehow. Which is a great thing from their coaching part. But through our preparation, we hope that as long as whatever we see in front of us, we can make the right adjustment that we've put in place and line up and play. Q. A question about the other side of the ball. I talked to the coach in a teleconference the first Sunday after (Indiscernible) he was talking about the difference made in the offense. (Indiscernible) how that's had a changed the dynamics of the team? Also just the success that Kevin had? ED REYNOLDS: Right. I think for us, when the change was announced and he was named the starter for that following week after Colorado, it was really just one of those things where, okay, it's not going to change us as a defense. We have to go out there and try to dot same things. Give our offense as many possessions as we can and put them on the short field. But in the end, we rallied behind them. The young guy, the red shirt freshman, and he's grown so much through spring ball and through camp that the coaches thought it was time to take that step. Early on he wins USC and just his progression to help along the way. In the end, Josh is one of the guys on the team that knows the offense the best. He's been there for the longest. He has his skillset where he's very mobile, and he's got an innate ability to get out and make a play with his legs and his arms. He's very smart with the ball, for the most part, over his four‑ or five‑game tenure. So just for us, we lost at Washington, tried to make that bounce back the next week. Then we lost at Notre Dame. Then we were like, all right, we've got to rally. As a defense, we felt like we played very good games in both of those, but not well enough. We just gave up a couple of explosives and didn't make the stop when's we needed to. So in the end we said we're going to rally around this guy, and help our offense like we've been doing this whole season. It's worked out for the best of us in that little game stretch he's had. Q. (Indiscernible) I know you're at the Rose Bowl, but does that Notre Dame game still bother you? ED REYNOLDS: Oh, yeah. It's one of those games that will definitely be cemented in the back of our minds. I feel bad for our seniors, because it's the last time they get to play them. But, yeah, it was one of those games where just the environment in itself, two hard‑nosed teams. It was definitely ‑‑ we were both in that position where either team after that win was going to be on the ascent or going to have to take a little dip in their season. We just didn't make enough plays in the end to come out with it. It was definitely going to be in the back of our minds until we played them again. But in the end, it was a fun game. It was exciting. We get them at home next year, so it's going to be great. That makes a difference. Q. Are you a junior? ED REYNOLDS: I'm a junior in the classroom, and a red shirt sophomore on the field. I have two more years. I think we have five fifth year seniors, and then we have ‑‑ I forget the number. We had our banquet and they told us. I'm not sure. But we have a lot of‑‑ this upcoming recruiting class is really small. So we'll be losing a few guys, but not too many. Not too many. Q. (Indiscernible)? ED REYNOLDS: This year? Yeah, yeah. Q. Are you in a situation where you guys are bringing up guys or something that you guys should actually be concerned about? ED REYNOLDS: For us every week, just like this week's preparation goes, our defense has to stop the run first and earn the right to rush on third down. As a safety and as a secondary, we fit where need be. Then just try to fill the alleys, fill the gaps when they open. If the running back can get to the second level, we have to make that sure tackle so it doesn't become an explosive play. It's not so much focused on the run. As a defense and front seven, that's what they do. We tackle when we have to, but at the same time in the secondary we have to watch out for that play‑action pass, so we can't get sucked up to the run too much. Q. Do you pride yourself on being a good tackler against the run? ED REYNOLDS: Yeah. I think it's a whole secondary, not just myself. Jordan Richards and Terrence and Alex Carter and Barry Browning and Devon Carrington, we all, as a whole secondary, we pride ourselves on being able to come up and make the sure tackle like in the UCLA Championship game. That's one thing I know for myself that I didn't do well enough of. There were times where I should have made up and came up and made that tackle, and I didn't. That's why Johnathan Franklin broke out a little bit. But I felt like all season besides that game we were doing a very good job of being able to do that. That's just something that we've been preparing through this bowl preparation to get back to. Just the fundamentals. Making sure we can get off blocks, coming up, making tackles, leveraging the ball. Just as a defense it's never just a one‑on‑one tackle. Even though it might seem that way on film. It's really just you hold your ground, shoot your gun if you have the angle. But the ten other guys are swarming. We pride ourselves in our pursuit, so it's really just making sure it's a team effort. Whoever has the ball, get them down. Q. Does playing a lot of spread teams in any way either help when you're coming (Indiscernible)? Does it help or does it hurt because you haven't prepared necessarily over the course of the year? ED REYNOLDS: Most of the Pac‑12 is a lot of spread. It's great to see in season, because it forces you to tackle in space and to move laterally with some vertical attacks. At the same time, USC, Oregon State, pro style team. So we see a little bit. Washington kind of implements it a little bit here and there as part of their scheme. But they're very‑‑ they can morph into pretty much anything. So in the end we see it. We go against our offense every day for three weeks in camp, and we go against each other every so often in practice during the season. So it's just great. It will be good to have this match‑up, because we feel very comfortable with it. Like I said, it's going to be hard‑nosed, running straight at you. Who is going to block? Who is going to get off blocks who is going to tackle? Who is going to break tackles that's pretty much what it's going to come down to. So we're excited. Q. You're going to Lawry's tonight? ED REYNOLDS: And then we're going to the Clippers game. Q. So what time is practice? What time do you get out of here? ED REYNOLDS: No, we have meetings and then I think practice isn't until like 2:00 or maybe even 1:00. It's either 1:00 or 2:00 for like an hour. It's like a regular Monday. Q. What do you see from Montee Ball? What is that challenge going to be like for you guys? ED REYNOLDS: Oh, he's an exceptional back. Good sized. Great open field speed. He's got great vision. Definitely him and his offensive line and even the guys outside the wide receivers, they block for him hard. This being his last year. You see a lot of similarities with him and Stepfan our own back. I feel like they're both in the top of the nation. He's just going to be making sure that we swarm the ball and tackle, because he runs hard. He breaks tackles. You see it on film all the time. He likes his spin moves. So you have to contain him with his spin move. So it's going to be a hard‑nosed match‑up all day. Q. (Indiscernible)? ED REYNOLDS: Oh, yeah. They definitely both have speed. They're both long striders. They look like they're not moving very fast, but they're putting grass behind them, which is one of those things that we've got to do to pursue the ball before the play and make sure you're running the right calls and just putting an edge to the defense. We have guys, and we just need to make sure we get 11 hats on the ball. Q. (Indiscernible) as everybody says he is? ED REYNOLDS: No, he's a great guy, a funny guy. I don't know if you saw him yesterday, but I think someone asked him how does he feel about being at Disneyland and how is the group going to be? And he was like, yeah, I don't know if Sam Schwartzstein is going to fit on any of the rides and ST might not reach the height limit. So I think it's going to be Ertz, myself and Ed really enjoying Disneyland today. He's a great guy, a great leader. It's been great that he decided to come back and help this team grow and teach some of the young guys, not just the outside linebackers, but young players on defense and offense how we do stuff in this program. It's really attention to detail and great discipline. He's been an exemplary example of that. Q. Would you like to see Shayne come back next year? ED REYNOLDS: Oh, yeah. I'd love that. It would be fun are us as a team, fun for the defense. I mean, you've seen him all year. He's very passionate, great instinctive player.  You know, if he decides not to, then an NFL team, it will be great to have him. Q. (Indiscernible) you said last year wasn't his fault. What is the biggest advocate for making him keep the mullet? ED REYNOLDS: I think it was Josh Mauro and some of his other defensive line mates, David Parry. Q. Because Lancaster cut his in the beginning of the year, right? ED REYNOLDS: Yeah, he cut his, and everyone was like what are you doing? Everybody was like what are you doing, man? Q. Did he learn nothing from the Fiesta Bowl? ED REYNOLDS: He was like, don't worry about it. It will be okay. When Lancaster cut his, Ben was like I've got to keep mine now. It's like his thing. His own persona, and it's been great for the team. Guys on the team love it. Q. When you look at Stanford, you guys don't fit the traditional mold of a Pac‑12 team. (Indiscernible) it seems like you guys are more a Big Ten team than the Big Ten team coming in. Is that sort of the sensor persona of this team that you don't fit the traditional Pac‑12 mold? ED REYNOLDS: Yeah, I wouldn't say we feel like a Big Ten team. Q. You're your own team? ED REYNOLDS: We're our own team. We're Stanford football. We go out and play hard‑nosed defense, whatever you give us, spread, pro style, whatever you put in front of us, we know we're going to be fundamentally sound. Line up, and 11 guys will pursuit of the ball and we'll tackle. Line up for the next play and make you drive the ball on us. Try to keep the ball in front of us when it comes to passing, and just be fundamentally sound. Then the offense, you know, with Andrew, you've got the points. I think he averaged like 35 points in the last two years. Q. It never changed? ED REYNOLDS: Right, it never changed.  It was just him understanding you take calculated shots and you still feed our running back. So no matter who it is, whether it was Toby or ST now or the stable of backs we have when it comes to Ricky Seale, Anthony Wilkerson or Remound Wright. You don't know who is going to get the ball. We just pride ourselves on being a physical team overall and being able to go out there and play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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