Oct. 20, 2012

CALIFORNIA HEAD COACH Jeff Tedford

On Cal's Offense:

"Offensively, that was a poor performance. We couldn't block them. There was too much pressure on the passer and we couldn't convert third downs. Give them credit, they played hard and were better than we were today."

On the Cal running game:
"This goes on everybody. We need to do a better job as coaches putting them in places to be successful. They won the line of scrimmage today.

On Cal's week of preparation:
"The preparation was good; the focus was good. We knew going in they had a great defense. They have been playing great defense all year. We knew we had to stay patient on the run game because they play real physical. We need to stay in manageable situations. The week was fine in terms of preparation."

On coming off two consecutive wins:
"Those were the last two weeks; this team is a different team. They are very stout to run the ball against. We need to get better to play against a group like that. They did a good job and we didn't."

On Stanford's offense:
"They play-action quite a bit; they threw some quick passes. One play-action got us. We did a good job stopping most of their runs. With as much as we were stacking the box to stop the run, they threw it on us some. Turning the ball over twice is killer. Typically they are going to be low-scoring games because their defense is really good. Unfortunately, the turnovers put them in position with a short field."

On Cal's offensive struggle:
"It is always frustrating when you don't score. We had an opportunity down deep and couldn't score. Of course it is frustrating when you don't score. It was a very frustrating day offensively without a doubt. We have to go back to the drawing board. We have to execute better."

On defending Stanford's tight ends:
"It is really important you stay disciplined on your eyes guarding the tight ends. You have to have a body in there to stop the run, and we lost the tight end once. That was a big play where we weren't disciplined with our eyes and let the tight end get behind us."

On Stanford's defense:
"Their defense is as good as any defense we have played in this conference for years. They are very experienced, very physical and very multiple. They do a great job. We knew going in that it was going to be a dog fight. You know they are going to get theirs, and we didn't have enough on our side to keep it going."

On not having a bye week:
"It is what it is; we aren't making any excuses. This is football, it is a tough sport. We have our schedule to play, and we are not going to make any excuses. We have a lot of tough kids playing their hearts out. We're in to this thing eight weeks and are banged up, but that is how football is. We are banged up and we are going to go back to work. We have to be smart in practice so we let them recover. I know they will go out there and lay it on the line each and every week. There are going to be bangs and bruises every week. We are just going to cinch it up and play."

CALIFORNIA PLAYERS

Josh Hill, S

On matching up against Stanford's Zach Ertz:
"It was a tough challenge for me. Coach put me in that position because he knew I could do it. He's a great player. He made a couple of plays and I made a couple of plays.

On the loss to Stanford:
"It hurts. A loss is a loss regardless who it is or how we lose. At the end of the day, we lost. We just try to keep positive vibes in the locker room because negative vibes won't do anything for us."

On Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor:
"He's a great back, probably one of the best in the country. We knew going in that it would be a physical game. He made plays like we knew he would. We just had to do our best to contain. I wish we could have done a little bit better to contain him but things happen."

On keeping Stanford off the board in the second half
"We played well in the second half. We came in the locker room and said we had to do a lot better than the first half. We're proud we held them, but it still wasn't good enough because we lost, so you can't be too excited about it."

Marc Anthony, CB
On the loss to Stanford:
"We have respect for every opponent we play. We give a lot of credit to Stanford and how big they played today. They came out and played a little physical. We expected that, but we just gave up a few big plays defensively that allowed them to score. We have to make sure we fix those things tomorrow after film."

On the Big Game:
"The Big Game is the big game itself. All the hoopla is there. It kind of gets us ready for the game. We use it as fuel for the game. The Big Game is the biggest game of the year. It's always fun to compete in it. Unfortunately, we didn't come out with the win."

On the backup quarterback throwing a touchdown:
Throughout the week (in film) we saw him come out in a few packages. They were all wildcat runs or pistol-like formations. It caught us of guard because he didn't throw the ball in film. You just have to expect the unexpected sometimes."

Zach Maynard, QB
On Stanford containing the running game:
"Stanford did a great job filling the gaps this afternoon. The run game plays a big part in the passing game, as well. It was a little struggle within the passing game this week."

On if it's frustrating after how well the offense played recently:
"It's a bit frustrating when you know in previous weeks you can run the ball effectively. The running game wasn't as strong. It wasn't there. I tip my hat to their defense."

STANFORD HEAD COACH DAVID SHAW

General Comments:

"I'm just very proud of our guys for bringing the Axe back home to Stanford. It was a great effort, particularly on defense, Dominating, suffocating defense. Chase Thomas, as usual, was phenomenal. Trent Murphy was off the charts. Ben Gardner gave us great push inside. Our secondary did a good job against a great receiver. I'm very proud of the way those guys played offensively. We ran the ball and did what we wanted to do to in the passing game to a certain degree. I would've loved to have finished that second to last drive without an interception. We need a touchdown there and put points on the board to seal the game."

On whether he anticipated stuffing Cal's run game:
"I want to say yes, but the question is can we do that and still contain Keenan Allen? That was a big question. I felt very, very comfortable with us stopping the run, but it was going to be at what cost? If we had to keep dropping down there and leave Keenan Allen one on one, we possibly were going to give up big plays. But we were able to do that and still give help over the top of a great player in Keenan Allen."

On if a particular corner back was assigned to defend Keenan Allen:
"No, we just played combinations. We tried to play with great leverage. When we played off him, we tried to have somebody underneath. When we got in his face, we tried to have help over the top. He still came through and made an unbelievable catch on that fourth-quarter catch. But the rest of the game we tried to keep him in check, and the guys did a great job."

On if Stanford has ever done a better job against the run during his tenure at Stanford:
"That's tough to say. Pretty close to that game a couple years ago, the game at USC. We scored 55 on them. As far as being able to stop the run and run the ball, that was probably the closest. I'm proud of what these guys did, and they were loading the box and doing some blitzes they hadn't shown before. They were tough, but I give a lot of credit to our offensive line. To be able to run the ball against a team that knows you're going to run it, and they're still stunting, blitzing and trying to run guys through, and we were able to get Stepfan to and through the line of scrimmage. I'm really proud of those guys."

On how he feels about playing a Big Game in October after today's performance:
"We'll take it wherever they put it. We'll play it wherever they put it. That's fine. We would love for it to be at the end of the year, but this thing's special. It's special to both sides. The week leading up to it. The anticipation that builds up in both areas. I think it's special. It's unique to college football. Wherever they want to play it and whenever they want to play it, we'll show up and give it our best shot."

On whether QB Kevin Hogan will play more in the future after his play today:
"He did pretty well, didn't he? Honestly, and I didn't ever want to bring it up until we actually did it in a game, but it's been something that we've been working on. We've been working on this since spring. It was a little different from Kevin. He hadn't done a bunch of this in high school, but he's got the athletic ability to do it. We got his feet wet early in the season with a couple of plays here, a couple of plays here, but really it's been practice. The last two weeks, really the last two weeks, that whole package has been called the Hogan Package. The last two weeks, that package has gotten better and better.

STANFORD PLAYERS

Stepfan Taylor, RB

On Stanford's big plays in the first half:
"We needed to make big plays in this game. They bring their best every time we play them. We needed that, and we needed to score on the road too to get it off of our shoulders. We can always get better and score more. So we're going to go practice."

On the scoring only in the first half:
"We have a great defense. We know that the defense is going to play their butts off and hold their offense down on points. We usually go out and score as many as we can on each possession, so we're going to go out there and get better at that."

On what was working well in the first half:
"Being able to remain balanced. Throwing the ball down field and running the ball. That's what we want to be, a balanced team. That's a good offense, to not have to rely on one thing. Like I said, we're going to go out there and get better."

Zach Ertz, TE
On being open during the game:
"I was pretty surprised. Unfortunately, I got chased down pretty quickly. I think that [Cal DB Marc Anthony] was moving pretty well. I think that it was good to get behind the defense as a whole."

On the coverages that they presented him:
"I think they played cover-zero and I think that it was one-on-one with me and [TE] Levine [Toilolo] other there, so I think that [QB] Josh [Nunes] made a great throw and the rest just happened."

On what he thought the key of their offense was:
"I think it was to get [RB] Stepfan [Taylor] going. He was the key cog in this offense. He had almost 200 yards rushing and we feel like if we can get that going then that's going to step up everything else."

Chase Thomas, OLB
On defending against Cal's rushing game:
"I think that the [stat sheet] said they had three [yards totals]. I didn't know it was that small. I guess all of the sacks and stuff brought it back. We preach stopping the run every week. It doesn't matter who we're playing. First things first, stop the run and make them one dimensional and then get after them in the pass rush. The defensive line did a great job getting off of blocks all night long. We separated edges on the defense and we kept the inside linebackers clean to come up and fill the gaps. It was a great collective effort by the front seven and even the safeties coming up and laying the wood. A great job by our defense collectively stopping the run."

On holding Cal to 3 points:
"It was huge. I think that our defense played with a big chip on its shoulder from last week. I think, actually, the whole team did. The fact that our offense kept their defense on the field gave us a lot of time to catch our breath, get our legs back and have plenty of time to rest. It definitely played a benefit for us to grind the rock all afternoon long and keep us off of the field.""