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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: STANFORD v ARIZONA STATEDecember 7, 2013David ShawTEMPE, ARIZONA Stanford – 38 COACH SHAW: First of all, I've got to say congratulations to Coach Graham. He's done a phenomenal job all year. He's got great players the score being whatever it is. This was a tough‑fought game. It was a physical game. We saw a lot of guys on both sides, saw a lot of guys take hits. They played extremely hard all the way to the end. He got my vote as Coach of the Year also because I think he's done a phenomenal job. Congratulations to our guys, you know, for having a different year than last year. Last year coming out of nowhere, finding their way to the Rose Bowl. This year getting everybody's best game. We've got everybody's best game. They played great against us. We had two bumps in the road, and a lot of people wrote us off after that. But our seniors in particular, you heard Shayne talk about it. Our seniors never batted an eyelash. They never stopped believing. They said let's keep our head down and win as many games as we can and see where we are at the end of the year. Here we are at the end of the year going to the Rose Bowl. Q. You guys had a lot of explosive plays tonight. What was it that allowed you to be so explosive on offense, and how important was it to get a lead early? COACH SHAW: I think it was very important to take a lead early because Arizona State is phenomenal with the lead. They are really good with the lead. The way they can run the ball with the running backs and the quarterbacks. If you pressure them, then you've got 21 strong going over the top; and defensively they get really aggressive. But for us, we're the same way. If we can get a lead defensively, we'll be really aggressive, and offensively we can run the ball. Then when you drop the safeties down, we can make big plays in the passing game. That's how this team is built. We can come back. We've shown that we can come back when we don't have the lead. But we're at our best when we play with the lead. Q. As the BCS era comes to an end here, how do you assess what Stanford has been able to accomplish as a program? COACH SHAW: The only thing I can say is what the facts are. The facts are three teams in the last four years have won ten‑plus games, Stanford, Oregon, and Alabama. Four years straight, 10‑plus games. I talked to the seniors a month ago, you know, after the USC game and people were calling me names and they're leaving us and all that, and we have no issue with that. That's fine. That's what fans do. That's not a big deal to us. But I told the players what was at stake. What was at stake is their legacy. Forget about everything else. The legacy that they were going to leave at Stanford, and that was going out as winners. Going out as an elite football program, from where the program was, which was getting close. It was just getting close as they came on board, and to put it in four straight years, ten‑plus wins. Four straight‑‑ it's four, right, BCS games? Wow, that's a lot. Four straight BCS Bowl games. You talk about how many years ago being 1 and 11, and everybody should say we should drop down a level in football. It says a lot about those guys. It says a lot about what Stanford University has done, financially making it better for the coaches so we can have continuity with the coaches. We've got a phenomenal coaching staff, and keeping those guys over the years has been huge. Our guys, our seniors, our guy that's came back that could have left to the NFL, they came back and played. The Shayne Skovs and Trent Murphys who could have gone and gotten drafted this year, came back to play with our guys. I think we have an environment where that's not unheard of for us. Andrew set the standard there also, being in a place to be the number one pick overall. He said I'm not leaving my guys. I love playing at Stanford. I think the way that our guys play shows that they're passionate for football, but they're passionate for Stanford University. Q. Coach Graham was saying that he thought your team did more peripheral running than he had expected. I think I saw some three‑man pass rush. What did you do differently in this game than the first time around against them? COACH SHAW: Whenever we change things up, it is a tip of the cap to the team we are playing. We trapped Will Sutton. We double‑teamed and did a bunch of stuff. That's a sign of respect from us. The fact that we switched some things up, we didn't not be ourselves. But we switched some things up because we have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Graham and his staff. If we came and did the same things we did last time, they were going to make us pay. So, yeah, we did some edge running. We put Josh Garnett in the back field as a fullback and lead back for our quarterback. We did a bunch of different things that were a little bit different, but stayed true to who we were. We also knew we were going to have to make big plays in the passing game because they were a very, very aggressive defense, and you saw Ty Montgomery come with the touchdown catch. You saw Ty Montgomery come around and reverse. Then you saw Devon Cajuste made some huge plays. One with a guy draped all over him making a huge catch down the middle. And the big catch and run that led us into that 90‑yard touchdown drive. We need those plays against a team that's going to stack the box and try to stop the run. Q. I realize there are a lot of player who's might fit into this and contribute, but how much does Tyler Gaffney personify the way you want to play? And you mentioned Murphy and Skov coming back, but here's a guy who came back from another sport last year? COACH SHAW: There is no question. Tyler Gaffney has been the heartbeat of our offense all year. We started the season early on with him rotating a lot, and I have to say it again. I think Anthony Wilkerson has had a really good year. He's a good runner. He's someone who will probably get a shot in the NFL because he's that good, fast, explosive, big and physical. And those two guys rotated early on. But Gaffney, you just watch him and play after play he gets stronger, he gets stronger, he gets stronger. He just drags guys. You the guys start rallying around him. The receivers are out there blocking for him because they know any play could be a big play. So he's set the tone for us. Early on, when we were rotating him, he never complained. He came back off. Wilkerson would score a touchdown; he'd be the first guy off the bench to high five him. He loves playing the game of football; and he loves playing at Stanford. He's personified who we are all year. Q. Shayne said this team probably has the most fifth‑year seniors in the nation. How much do you cherish these men, these seniors going into this last game? COACH SHAW: Oh, man, this week we try not to get real nostalgic, especially with Trent, because Trent doesn't believe in nostalgia. But I'll introduce you to one of those guys at some point this week, just in passing, just to thank them for putting us where we are, because it's those guys that drove us. And as always, the head coach and the quarterback get way too much credit for everything. But our fifth‑year seniors, our guys that came back, even David Yankey, a fourth‑year senior, Kevin Danser, the Khalil Wilkes, all those guys that have been here for a long time that, as Shayne said, learned from the guys in front of them. David DeCastro set the standard for the offensive line. David Schwartzstein carries that on, and David Yankey carries that on. All those guys on defense, the Chase Thomases that set the standard for how we practice. Chase will be the first guy if practice wasn't going well, he'd be the guy running around at Coach Mason screaming at guys saying we've got to get this going. Now you see Shayne Skov and Trent Murphy taking that over. You can't win without leadership at the coaching position, but you can't live without leadership on the field. As I tell people all the time, when the game starts I'm half a field away. I can't play the game. We've to have leadership on the field, and we've had great leadership all year. Q. This is on the heels of you saying the coach and quarterback get too much credit. But with Kevin playing as well as he did tonight, especially on the stage that this was, what do you think that this does for him going forward for the rest of his career? COACH SHAW: You know the funny thing is, this is year one and a half for him as a starter. He's got two years left. He's got a lot of football ahead of him. He's not perfect. Nobody's perfect. But he's got a big arm. Can he make the big throws, and he's got a clear conscience. You know, he makes a mistake and he comes back fighting full speed. That's what I love about him. We can coach him up hard and beat him up and know he's going to fight back the next week. When given the opportunity and games are on the line in big moments against ranked teams, he shows what he's capable of. He could have well been MVP of this game as well. Gaffney is phenomenal, with you some of those step up in the pocket throws and runs, those are huge plays, and we don't win without those plays. Kevin's got ice water in his veins. He's got a short memory like all quarterbacks and pitchers need to have. But he played a heck of a game tonight and he's only going to get better. Q. Not only the first game but this game tonight your offensive line really came out and set the tone really in the first two or three drives you guys have had. How proud are you of your offensive line and how they've progressed as the year has come along? COACH SHAW: That's a great question. As many of you know and you've heard me say, you walk into our new locker room and the first thing you see on the left side of the locker room is the offensive line, next thing on the other side is defensive line. And that's purposeful. We don't win games without those guys. Those guys set the tempo. In a lot of games we have a size advantage, and we're going to lean on it. Our guys love that. They love to be physical. We love to run the ball between the tackles. Tonight we ran a little more along the edge, but we came back and slammed up inside. It's a tone setter. We love the four‑yard gains. It's not exciting for some people, but we love the four‑yard gains. It sets the tone for who we are. It gets us to third and management plays where we can convert and hopefully be a high percentage. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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