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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: STANFORD v ARIZONA STATEDecember 7, 2013Tyler GaffneyShayne SkovTEMPE, ARIZONA Stanford – 38 SHAYNE SKOV: I mean, just that it's been an incredible ride. Every single week this team comes out and fights hard. Win, lose or draw, we played our hardest, and it's a pleasure playing with my teammates. I think when you play with high quality and high character guys, it makes it that much better, so this is a by-product of the effort we put in year round and the effort we put out there on the field. So that's all I have to say. TYLER GAFFNEY: The best family you could ask for in a football team. We've had some downs this year, but we love each other, and to be in this opportunity is all can you ask for. Q. Tyler, were you surprised at all by how many big plays the offense was able to rip off against this defense? TYLER GAFFNEY: Not surprised at all. They're a stout defense. But we practiced making the big plays, we do it all week, all season, it's about execution, and we went down and we were successful. Q. You guys dominated ASU in the way no other team has this season. Is there something about the way you match‑up with them schematically or personnel‑wise that led to that, and was this maybe two or three of your best efforts, maybe Oregon being the other? SHAYNE SKOV: I think we came out with the effort and intensity every week. The end result may not be what we want sometimes or what people expect, but it's about the guys in our room, so we hold ourselves to the highest standard. I mean, ASU is a great team, but I don't think there is anything in particular that makes a difference. When we come out and we execute and we don't make mistakes, we're going to win football games. So, I think, I face our offense every single week, and we've got tons of talent. We've got tons of talent on defense. We're going to come after you offensively, defensively and attack the live scrimmage. It's what we do, and we were successful today. Q. Shayne, in the third quarter, obviously after they missed the field goal and they came right down and they were on the 1‑yard line, they had a couple of cracks from there. They brought in Eubank. Did you guys just anticipate that that was what the call was going to be in the fourth down play? It was Hoffpauir grabbing Nelson. I was wondering if you could describe exactly what happened then. SHAYNE SKOV: On fourth down, we've seen them in the red zone. They have a tendency to run pass, like the power play or sneak, and so the second they reloaded the tight ends, we knew what was coming, and Hoff made a great play. Kudos to our D‑line. I mean, creating and establishing that line of scrimmage so we could make that play. It's a group effort, and we were locked in and ready to go. We were going to fight for every single blade of grass at that point. Q. Tyler, where did you watch the Rose Bowl last year? And you had mentioned before the game that he came up to you and said this is why you came back. How much was the culmination of your decision and your return to Stanford? TYLER GAFFNEY: This is exactly why you come back. This is what you play for. This is what you ask for in College Football for these opportunities. In the Rose Bowl I was actually at the game. I was with the fans having a great time, watching the boys win another championship. Q. Tyler, what were you able to do in the first quarter, early in the first half, to move the ball so successfully? TYLER GAFFNEY: It was the O‑line. They opened up the holes, and all they asked from me was speed and to run the ball. Then we opened up the passing game from there on out and that set the tone. Q. To see the 49 on your arm, can you talk about the emotions after the win seeing Ben and all the fifth‑year seniors celebrating with them? SHAYNE SKOV: Yeah, I think we've probably got more fifth‑year seniors than any other team in the country. So for him to go down was tough. Man, he puts his heart and soul in every time he takes the field and every single practice. But I mean, I've been there. I've been hurt. And to see what he's going through and his attempt to come back, I mean, our heart goes out to him. So this one to a degree is for him. We take the field with him every time with him in mind. Q. So many times this year on the road you've had a lead and teams have fought back and made it interesting at the end. You guys never let that happen in this game. Was there any specific talk of that coming in on the sideline to never let this game be close at the end, because it seemed like it was about to get close, but you guys never let that happen? TYLER GAFFNEY: The first game was a perfect example of that. We stomped on them and they came back. We couldn't let that happen. Couldn't let the foot off the gas pedal there, and we emphasized that. From there on out, from the first time we played them, we emphasized finishing games. We had some ups and downs of doing that, but this was the championship. We can't let anything slip from here. Q. There is a lot of talk on the ASU side of thing this is week about how they're a completely different team since the last time they faced you guys. Going into this game on film and during the game, did you notice any differences in ASU, or did they seem like a similar team to the last time you played them? SHAYNE SKOV: I mean, they've made changes, but the way this team operates and the way we function, it's about us. Doesn't matter what people say out side of the guys in our locker room. Offenses will change, but what matters is what we do defensively and offensively. We have to set the tone. We never want to adjust or have to adapt. We want to be the ones setting the tempo and forcing people to adjust to our style of football. We went in with, I think, the same approach we go in with every single week. So I think we do what we do, and we're going to stick to it and play hard. That is just our recipe for success. Q. Shayne, when you mentioned that you feel your team has more fifth‑year seniors than anybody in the country and having been part of such a great run the last few years, what do you feel you leave behind and what do you see from the young guys building the program forward when you all leave? SHAYNE SKOV: It's all based on effort and being trained. I think we've had the fabulous opportunity of watching other guys come before us, Dave DeCastro, Andrew Luck, Bo McNally, there are so many guys that I can look to and say not only are they great human beings, but they're great leaders. So you learn as a young guy coming in, what that standard is and what that expectation is. When it's your time to lead, you follow in the footsteps of those guys. So we as a group, all of us fifth‑year seniors have had a lot of great role models to look up to and learn from. And hopefully those young guys, we are demanding the same of them. When it is their time to step up and we are all gone, they step up and they improve. It's a collective effort, and it's one guy after the next. We have to teach everybody. Q. Tyler, you came very close to going out of bounds on that first run. Were you looking at during the replay review, were you looking at the tape of the play on the screen or what was going through your head? TYLER GAFFNEY: Close only counts in horse shoes. I was concerned about it. I know how close I was to the sideline, but they would have said something. Somebody on‑‑ it was on our sideline, somebody would have said something and let me know. But no one said anything. They kept it positive and let me know it was a touchdown. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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