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ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: STANFORD v WISCONSINDecember 28, 2012David YankeyPASADENA, CALIFORNIA Q. Can you talk about the looks that Wisconsin gives you? They have like four guys kind of roaming around the field. DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, we've spent a lot of time looking at that package and a couple of other looking similar to that. Q. The three on three where they have three guys? DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, all of those crazy looks that they bring on third down. That is definitely what our offensive line has been preparing for, everything that they can bring. Q. When you guys face something that's a little out of the ordinary, whether it's a lead player? DAVID YANKEY: We've had a fair bit. I remember last year against Notre Dame they did the same thing with three guys in the middle. So we've definitely seen it before and know how to handle it. But they're definitely different from what we've seen before. Q. What is the key? Especially when they go with the two down and four guys? They use that a lot in the championship. DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, the biggest thing is communication. Everyone knowing who has who, so two guys go to one guy, and then a linebacker or D‑end just runs free. Q. Can you talk about some of the snaps that you take in tackle? Can you break that down? DAVID YANKEY: I'd say the bulk of my snaps for a tackle, you know, Andrus didn't play in a couple of games because of injury. Then also he would come in sparingly. But in the USC game, there were whole drives where I'd be at guard, and then the whole Washington State game I was at guard the whole game. Q. A couple of games, whole games you were there. DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, Washington State, a considerable amount at Oregon State. Then a lot of the USC game. Q. Is it hard maneuvering around back and forth? DAVID YANKEY: Early in the season in training camp, and look how a couple of the first games was a bit of a challenge. But I've gotten used to it throughout the season. It's become easier. Q. Talking about the defense you're going to face in this game, what do you think of their defense? DAVID YANKEY: They're a very good defense. They hold a lot of points. They have guys that are good enough and strong enough to win the battle up front in their front seven, and they just make plays. Q. When you look at the line in general, last year you guys lost a couple of players, you and Cam, and Schwartzstein come in this year, and it the younger guys come in. Sometimes that the line has been able to reinvent itself the last four years. DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, I agree with that. That's the mentality we want to take in every year. We always want to be at that high level. Just because guys who are talented leave, doesn't mean we want the program to fall apart because of the offensive line.  We talk about the tunnel workers union, and what some guys have worked to build three, four, five years ago, and we want to keep that going. Q. How does that work with you in practice? Coach Crook handles the tackles. Bloomgren handles the line. Are you switching back and forth that some days you're with the tackles, and some days you're with coach Bloomgren? DAVID YANKEY: Since I've moved to tackle relatively permanently, I do tackle individual with the tackles and then the whole line comes together. Q. Relatively permanently? DAVID YANKEY: That's good. That's a good way to describe it. Q. Which scheme would you remember, good or bad? And that loss, which was more powerful? DAVID YANKEY: I think it was probably the one at Oregon. Just going up there after the past two years, you know, they were both very tough losses. And you know, the only loss in the regular season just getting that win was huge. It was kind of a relief, and also led to us being in the Pac‑12 Championship, which has been our goal for the past five years. So that was definitely the one I'll remember for good. Q. The reason I ask is because when I talked to Ertz at Disneyland, he said we'll never forget the loss to Notre Dame. DAVID YANKEY: Oh, no, definitely not. But beating Oregon and being able to get to the Pac‑12 Championship game and come to the Rose Bowl is huge. Q. What do you see in those other guys? DAVID YANKEY: I see a lot of talent, lot of size. Guys that are really good right now as freshman, and guys that can be incredibly good. For them, the key is maturing and having that light go off or switch go off, which I'm sure it will some day because we've got a great program where we're going to get you ready to play. And I'm just excited to see what they're going to, because these players are going to be great. The offensive line and how good we've been can just be even more with the level of talent of these guys. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: I don't know. There were some games where our big people package kind of shrunk a little bit. We had a few more problems with it this year. People knowing a few things to kind of slow us down, so we've used up more as a mixer, I think, this year than we have in past years. But it's still a big part of our game plan. We love to put as many linemen as we can in, and just mash the defense and run the ball. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, I've heard their barge package or something like that is pretty big in their offense. Q. And your big guys? DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, they're very big. Q. What year are you? DAVID YANKEY: I'm a junior academically. But I played as a true freshman and then medically red shirted. So I'm technically a red shirt sophomore. Q. I wanted to ask you about (Indiscernible)? Is it surprising? DAVID YANKEY: You know, it's not completely surprising just because we've seen it in practice and we knew he could do it. But to be able to take it from the practice field to the game field mid season to be the starting quarterback, and the job he's done is absolutely incredible. It's awesome to see what he does. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, I think it was definitely pretty indicative of what was coming, and also even as a package group throughout the year, he's regionally just kind of quarterback driven runs, the read‑option game, and as the season progressed, his role got bigger. He threw a touchdown pass in the Cal game, and then suddenly the ball started kind of rolling. Q. Can you talk about Kulabafi? What is the story behind it? DAVID YANKEY: I don't know where exactly he got that. But it's pretty awesome. It's funny because he's such a quiet, stoic leader for our team, and it's good to see that he has a fun, relaxed side and has a good time. Q. Is that (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: I think it is. There is a competition between him and Justin Bieber. No, I'm just kiting. Justin Bieber was at the Clippers game where we were last night. Q. Are you guys going to go strength against strength? Is there something to be said (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: I don't think we like to think of anyone as immovable. We want to go up and play our game no matter who is across the ball. That is the last thing coach bloom leaves us with before every game. Forget what they do, it's all about what we do. So we're going to trust our technique. They are big guys, very strong, but we're excited to see what we can do against their defense. Q. How much of a role or how much do you expect from the offensive line? DAVID YANKEY: I don't know when it's going to happen or how much, but I'm sure he'll come into the game at some point. We'll see as the game plan gets more defined later in the week. But I'm always ready to switch positions, so... Q. Talking about the third down defense that separates guys. DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, I got asked about that earlier. It's pretty complicated. The biggest thing is communication, knowing who you have. Who is coming, who is not, which is obviously pretty hard with their walk around defense. But we've been looking at it for a while, and we're excited to see what they bring. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: Not this year. We had the walk around look last year against Notre Dame, is one I remember specifically where they had three walking around in the middle. So not as many guys, but the same premise. Q. (Indiscernible) is there similarities between Kevin, Montee Ball and Taylor? DAVID YANKEY: I'm not sure. I've seen Stepfan run a lot. But Montee Ball had like 40 touchdowns last year, and having another stellar career this year. But I don't know how similar they are. Q. What do you see as the biggest challenge for the offense? Is there anything specific? DAVID YANKEY: I think their biggest challenge is that they're asking you to beat them head‑to‑head straight up. They're not a high percentage blitz team. Their safeties play hard in the run game, and they practice against an offense similar to ours every day in training camp. I think their mentality is that they're just going to come in. They know what we're going to do. We know what they're going to do. And who is going to do it better. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: I don't think there will be too much deception. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: I think the coaches have to hold themselves back. Last year, you had a month to prepare, and it was like well, if they do this, we can do this. And it could keep going back and forth. At some point you've got to say, no, we're going to go in with our game plan and we're going to be ready for whatever happens. Q. Is that what the last few days are? You kind of concentrate on Stanford stuff and what you guys do after all this time. You worry about what they're doing? DAVID YANKEY: Exactly, we just want to solidify our game plan. Then we call Thursday our polish day. We want everything to look nice, and our last day with pads. And then Friday walk through. I don't know what the actual days are, we just go by a regular game week. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: I think a lot of guys are coming along really well. It was very similar to two years ago when David DeCastro were coming back and Jonathan Martin. People we had three open spots and people wondered how good we could be. But we worked on the program, the tunnel workers union. And we're just trying to carry on that tradition, working hard, always being ready. Focusing on our technique, and just being a good offensive line as a unit. So you've seen a lot of guys develop really well. Like Kevin Danser and Khalil Wilkes in those two guard roles. Then obviously the true freshmen who are just extremely talented and doing a great job for us. Q. Can you talk about how does Marinelli feel about you guys using the moniker? DAVID YANKEY: I think he loves it. I never actually got to play with him. But last year he came down to the Duke game, and gave everyone tunnel workers union beanies, everyone on the O‑line. So that was an awesome feeling. A guy who was one of the originators of that coming in and still being a part of it. Q. I think that was from his dad? DAVID YANKEY: Yes, sir. Q. Talk about the confidence level of being able to run? DAVID YANKEY: That's what we're all about. We have to be able to run it on anybody. So I'm pretty confident. We have been challenged before in the run game. And I'm sure we'll be challenged again, but that's what we hang our hat on, and that's what we're going into the game thinking. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, they're not all over the place in terms of blitzing. They're pretty stagnant in first and second down. You see a lot of the funk in third down. But the reason they can throw that funk at people is they get them into third and six, and third and six plus because they didn't let up efficient runs on first and second down. Q. Were you anywhere near Josh last night? DAVID YANKEY: I was at the table next to him, actually. Q. Did you what he was doing? DAVID YANKEY: So Coach Shaw had told the team don't go too hard. We'll set some guys loose. Josh Garnett is allowed to eat as much as he wants. So about halfway through the dinner, I turned around and was asking some of the guys how it was going. Sam Schwartzstein was right behind me at Josh's table. He said, Josh is on number‑‑ I think number three right now at that point. I was pretty surprised. Then I think he ended up with something like six or seven, something like that. But it's not surprising. He's a big guy and loves to eat. Q. Is he the biggest eater on the team consistently through the season? DAVID YANKEY: I think so, probably. He's one of the biggest guys. He's about 320, so... Q. Why would (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: I'm pretty sure the whole team had the two‑per‑person limit except for certain guys. I don't know if Andrus was one of the guys who they just set free. Q. What do you think of the NBA game and Disney? Has it been a valuable distraction? DAVID YANKEY:  You know, the great thing about our team is that I think we can handle that. We can go and enjoy those things and not get too wide‑eyed and bushy tailed and get in over our heads and just think about all the fun stuff. We enjoyed the Clippers game last night. Disney was a blast. But we're also here to work. The guys were excited to be at meetings yesterday morning. We had four days off at that point, but we got to go home for Christmas and no practice and Disneyland, and we just love to play ball. We're excited for this game. That is the reason all this other stuff happens. Q. (Indiscernible)? DAVID YANKEY: Normal Tuesday. Normal Tuesday practice. Q. So it will be the hardest practice? DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, today and tomorrow will be. Q. (Indiscernible) the guys yesterday were talking about how they look at that. Do you kind of reflect on that? DAVID YANKEY: No, not really. I remember the whole Cal week in general. I'm not sure how the offense was, after getting stopped like that on the goal line, it was really tough. Our focus was completely on moving on but learning from that and going into the big game, which is always one of the biggest games of our season, the rivalry between us and Cal. So we were completely focused on Cal at that point. Q. Do you remember seeing Stepfan talk to the offense afterwards? DAVID YANKEY: Yeah, because we didn't come out necessarily with a great practice. Our leaders really stepped up and got everyone going. Got the ship righted. Q. In terms of hangovers, I can't remember another game that you guys have played in in the last few years where it lasted as long as Notre Dame. Is that a fair assessment? DAVID YANKEY: It was a pretty tough loss to handle. We've actually been lucky enough to have only a few losses in the past couple years. So that was definitely a tough one to handle. Q. Talk about how the team kind of considers their offensive linemen to be play makers. Is that kind of the selling point? DAVID YANKEY: I think so. In terms of recruiting, you show guys that we have six, seven, sometimes even eight offensive linemen on the field. We weren't doing those big packages. The only other team that does it is Wisconsin, the team we're playing. And there is an opportunity for a lot of guys to play. You know, we do view the offensive line as one of the strong points of our team, and we'll continue that. Q. Did you ever consider yourself a play maker? DAVID YANKEY: No, no, I don't. I just go out and block and protect the quarterback, and that's my job. It's nice that people like to call me that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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