Postgame Quotes
POSTGAME QUOTES
Stanford 22, UCLA 13
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
September 24, 2016
UCLA head coach Jim Mora
opening remarks
“Every loss stings. Every loss is a loss, and it doesn’t matter who you lose to. It stings. It stings when you lose like that. You played so courageously on defense and did such a great job against a really good team, and then it comes down and they make the play. Losing is awful.”
on Stanford’s success in its final offensive drive
“They made some plays that they hadn’t been making. We didn’t change coverages or our approach or philosophy. That’s a good football team. They have a reputation for being able to do that and they did it.”
on UCLA’s physicality against Stanford
“We played physically. I think that we are a physical football team, and we played hard and tough .I’m proud of how we played. When you don’t run the ball, we’ve got to get that fixed. But our physicality, we sure didn’t get pushed around. That’s for sure.”
on why UCLA struggled to run the ball
“We’ve got to look at the film to figure it out. We struggled to get yards on them all night. But they are a good team. We are a good team. They got us at the end.”
on why UCLA had trouble running ball
“That’s a great question. I need to get that answer quickly. It’s something that we need to come up with an answer for immediately. I don’t care who we are paying. I don’t care if we are playing the ’85 Bears, we need to run the football.”
on UCLA’s play call with four seconds left
That was essentially a Hail Mary and you have a guy wrap around, and Josh [Rosen] didn’t get it off before the guy got to him. That’s what you have to do is to get a shot. But hey, that’s the game.”
on Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey
“I don’t know what his stats are. I thought that we did a goob job, but he is a heck of a player. He just finds yards that other people don’t find. He’s so explosive and strong. He’s physical for his size. He’s a great player. I think that – and no disrespect to any other player – but I think that he’s the best player in college football.”
on UCLA passing to its tight ends
“Every pass play is designed with a progression in mind. And particularly with defenses, they’ll indicate where the ball should go. So when we drew those plays up, they gave the tight ends some space. It wasn’t anything that was done by design. It just happened that way.”
Stanford head coach David Shaw
opening remarks
“Coach Mora and his staff did an outstanding job. They kicked our backsides pretty well, early and often, both sides of the ball. They got us on both sides. We made too many mistakes and they made too many plays. Josh Rosen played really well. They ran the ball better than we wanted them to. They made some big plays. We ran the ball well at times, and we got stuffed at times. We gave up a couple of sacks. We turned the ball over, which is uncharacteristic of us. The bottom line is, we got down there, we trust out field goal kicker, and he made his field goals. We trust our defense. We had a fourth and one, and bad field position, and if we had been in good field position we would’ve gone for it, but with bad field position we don’t go for it. We never go for it. Not with that much time left and with the defense that we have. Coincidentally, I had that conversation with wife this morning about that exact scenario. Midfield, to our side of the field, fourth and one, and I told her that you punt. You punt every single time. If you have the defense that we have and the belief in what we do, that’s what you do. You punt. And you play great defense and you get the ball back, and you go out there and you execute the plays. Ryan Burns did not play a great game. Keller Chryst was slated to play the third drive of the game. [Ryan] He did not get pulled after the interception. But at the end of the game, Ryan was cool. He was calm. He ran the plays that he knew. He executed. Our receivers came through, bigtime. Trent Irwin had a big game for him. He made some big plays and got the drive started. JJ had a nice catch. The big one, we just put JJ out there one-on-one. He’s a big receiver with a ridiculous vertical. He’s got phenomenal range. We have a big quarterback who can give him the ball. So, thankfully we were able to score that last one. And then the defense, they finished the game.”
on Stanford’s comeback victory
It says a lot about the character of our football team. Now, the youth of our football team showed in the first three quarters – just the fact that we were in somebody else’s house. And you’ve got to come into somebody else’s house and play well. We didn’t play well. We took a lot of body blows. We had a lot of guys go down – both starting corners, our fullback. A lot of guys got hurt in this game. And everybody that we put in there stepped up and played well. And that’s what happens when you recruit well and you recruit great kids, tough kids, smart kids, guys that don’t bat an eyelash when things get difficult. That says a lot about the character of our football team. We have to grow up a lot. We have another short week against a great conference opponent in their house, where it’s going to loud and rocking and on national TV. It’ll be a great environment. But we better play a lot better than we played today. I’m proud of our guys, proud of Ryan Burns and JJ and our offensive line. Those last few downs with pass protection were great.
on the fourth and one situation in the fourth quarter
“We had a brief conversation [about going for it] before we made the decision. I knew that we wanted to punt it, but I wanted to hear from everybody. The time was fine. We had enough time. That was the decision was to punt it. But we had a conversation at that key point.”
Stanford 22, UCLA 13
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
September 24, 2016
UCLA head coach Jim Mora
opening remarks
“Every loss stings. Every loss is a loss, and it doesn’t matter who you lose to. It stings. It stings when you lose like that. You played so courageously on defense and did such a great job against a really good team, and then it comes down and they make the play. Losing is awful.”
on Stanford’s success in its final offensive drive
“They made some plays that they hadn’t been making. We didn’t change coverages or our approach or philosophy. That’s a good football team. They have a reputation for being able to do that and they did it.”
on UCLA’s physicality against Stanford
“We played physically. I think that we are a physical football team, and we played hard and tough .I’m proud of how we played. When you don’t run the ball, we’ve got to get that fixed. But our physicality, we sure didn’t get pushed around. That’s for sure.”
on why UCLA struggled to run the ball
“We’ve got to look at the film to figure it out. We struggled to get yards on them all night. But they are a good team. We are a good team. They got us at the end.”
on why UCLA had trouble running ball
“That’s a great question. I need to get that answer quickly. It’s something that we need to come up with an answer for immediately. I don’t care who we are paying. I don’t care if we are playing the ’85 Bears, we need to run the football.”
on UCLA’s play call with four seconds left
That was essentially a Hail Mary and you have a guy wrap around, and Josh [Rosen] didn’t get it off before the guy got to him. That’s what you have to do is to get a shot. But hey, that’s the game.”
on Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey
“I don’t know what his stats are. I thought that we did a goob job, but he is a heck of a player. He just finds yards that other people don’t find. He’s so explosive and strong. He’s physical for his size. He’s a great player. I think that – and no disrespect to any other player – but I think that he’s the best player in college football.”
on UCLA passing to its tight ends
“Every pass play is designed with a progression in mind. And particularly with defenses, they’ll indicate where the ball should go. So when we drew those plays up, they gave the tight ends some space. It wasn’t anything that was done by design. It just happened that way.”
Stanford head coach David Shaw
opening remarks
“Coach Mora and his staff did an outstanding job. They kicked our backsides pretty well, early and often, both sides of the ball. They got us on both sides. We made too many mistakes and they made too many plays. Josh Rosen played really well. They ran the ball better than we wanted them to. They made some big plays. We ran the ball well at times, and we got stuffed at times. We gave up a couple of sacks. We turned the ball over, which is uncharacteristic of us. The bottom line is, we got down there, we trust out field goal kicker, and he made his field goals. We trust our defense. We had a fourth and one, and bad field position, and if we had been in good field position we would’ve gone for it, but with bad field position we don’t go for it. We never go for it. Not with that much time left and with the defense that we have. Coincidentally, I had that conversation with wife this morning about that exact scenario. Midfield, to our side of the field, fourth and one, and I told her that you punt. You punt every single time. If you have the defense that we have and the belief in what we do, that’s what you do. You punt. And you play great defense and you get the ball back, and you go out there and you execute the plays. Ryan Burns did not play a great game. Keller Chryst was slated to play the third drive of the game. [Ryan] He did not get pulled after the interception. But at the end of the game, Ryan was cool. He was calm. He ran the plays that he knew. He executed. Our receivers came through, bigtime. Trent Irwin had a big game for him. He made some big plays and got the drive started. JJ had a nice catch. The big one, we just put JJ out there one-on-one. He’s a big receiver with a ridiculous vertical. He’s got phenomenal range. We have a big quarterback who can give him the ball. So, thankfully we were able to score that last one. And then the defense, they finished the game.”
on Stanford’s comeback victory
It says a lot about the character of our football team. Now, the youth of our football team showed in the first three quarters – just the fact that we were in somebody else’s house. And you’ve got to come into somebody else’s house and play well. We didn’t play well. We took a lot of body blows. We had a lot of guys go down – both starting corners, our fullback. A lot of guys got hurt in this game. And everybody that we put in there stepped up and played well. And that’s what happens when you recruit well and you recruit great kids, tough kids, smart kids, guys that don’t bat an eyelash when things get difficult. That says a lot about the character of our football team. We have to grow up a lot. We have another short week against a great conference opponent in their house, where it’s going to loud and rocking and on national TV. It’ll be a great environment. But we better play a lot better than we played today. I’m proud of our guys, proud of Ryan Burns and JJ and our offensive line. Those last few downs with pass protection were great.
on the fourth and one situation in the fourth quarter
“We had a brief conversation [about going for it] before we made the decision. I knew that we wanted to punt it, but I wanted to hear from everybody. The time was fine. We had enough time. That was the decision was to punt it. But we had a conversation at that key point.”