How much evaluation of the first six games did the players do during the bye week? Shaw said he looked at all the film. How much do you go back and watch?
"Personally, I like to go back and look at the things I feel I'm struggling with, so that those two practices we had during the (bye) week -- because there are no repercussions if you screw anything up -- I like to try to work on those things or work on something new that I can add to my game. That was the biggest thing that I did. I didn't want to spend too much time dwelling on the past because we have to move forward. I was only looking at what I could fix for myself, and what I could make myself better at, and keep it a little focused on me for those days. Now it's time to get back to what we can do as a group to get better and go from there."
A lot of guys have been hurt up front and have had to play hurt. What changes for you during a game with your mindset or physically when you're not 100 percent?
"Most of the time it doesn't change a whole lot, it's just your body naturally can't do things to the best of its ability. Most of the time you have adrenaline running and the last thing you're thinking about is, 'My neck hurts or my shoulder hurts or my knee hurts or my foot hurts.' You don't think about that. You just do it and after the play you go, 'Oh, crap.' It doesn't really affect your mindset a whole lot. Sometimes your body won't allow you to do things to the best of your ability. But you're always playing hurt, especially at offensive line. You're never ever feeling great. That's just how it is."
What would you say is the psychological state of the team right now?
"We know that we have what it takes to win. Everybody knows that .. we have the talent to absolutely run these next six games. It's just about getting on the same page and building off of what we've done well. Now that we know our strengths halfway through the season, use those to the best of our ability. Come together not only as a team but as brothers and find a way to get this done, because everything we want is still in front of us. Nobody can take that away from us except for us."
Is it a motivating factor for you guys that you still 'control your own destiny'?
"Oh, yeah. It took some guys a second of, 'Oh, we lost two games.' Guys, it's fine. We can still go accomplish everything we set forward which is to win a Pac-12 championship. From there it's out of our hands. Let's go take care of that and take it one day at a time. Get better every day and win every game that's put in front of us."
What do you think this team does best right now?
"No one can cover our receivers. That's a for sure. No one can cover our receivers. Honestly, I felt like we've done a pretty good job running the ball but there's always a lot of guys in the box and that makes things very hard. It's always been like that. Teams always stack the box to try to stop our run and I feel we've done -- not a great job, by any means -- but we've done a pretty good job getting that done. It's just that there are a lot of free hitters. That makes it tough. Hopefully if we can continue to throw the ball well it will pull somebody out of there and give us more of an opportunity to do that."
Does it affect the confidence of a young offensive lineman if they continually hear we're not doing as good a job as we can running the ball? As an older player is it part of your role to reinforce the good things you're doing?
"Yeah, of course. The thing about playing offensive line is that you really don't know what's happening around you besides what's happening right in front of you. A lot of the times you don't really know what's going on in the game and you have to tell them, 'Keep doing what you're doing.' If you think about more than just your job, especially you have to play as a unit and trust the guy next to you ... it will affect everything. Just keep doing your job and everything will be fine. This guy will fix his thing. Don't change a thing you're doing. That's the only way you can get to them. When I was first playing I was freaking out about it and over time you learn you can't do anything but control what's in front of you."
Kevin Carberry is a new offensive line coach so there are a lot of firsts you guys are encountering together. What has stood out to you about working with him to try to solve some of the problems you've faced?
"I enjoy working with him. He knows a lot about the game. He has taught me a lot about the game. It's just trust. We get a lot of crazy looks and when he says, 'This is what we have to do', just have to do it. It's as simple as that. The thing about playing against us is people do things they've never done before and we have to adjust on the field. Everyone has to be on the same page on the field, listening on the bench, because we do come out there and go, 'I have never seen that before. They've never done this before.' Let's (adjust) our plays to it and we'll get to it. The biggest thing I'd say is the on-the-field adjustments. Listen to what he has to say and go from there."
Is it going to be weird seeing Casey Tucker on the sideline?
"Gosh, that's going to be so weird. He's one of my best friends. I love him to death. I wish him the best. I'm excited to play against him. I don't really get to play against him. I actually got to play against him in high school. He beat me three out of the four years. Hopefully we can get some revenge."
The preseason assumption was that with this line, Bryce Love and the offense it would score at will. Obviously that hasn't happened, yet. There are a lot of factors. Do you feel things are where they need to be confidence-wise?
"The thing that is very clear is that every person who has played has the ability. Everyone who plays on this offensive line is very good at football. Right now we're having a hard time putting it all together at the same time. It's always one person here or one person there. Then we get it all right and there's a free hitter, someone we can't account for. We've had a very hard time putting it together. When we have put it all together you see it. Bryce goes for 50-something or 25 in the red zone against Oregon. As soon as we get consistent on that front it's going to be really, really good. I feel like we've made strides towards that."
You feel it's close?
"Yes, we're so close. It's incredible how close we are."
"Personally, I like to go back and look at the things I feel I'm struggling with, so that those two practices we had during the (bye) week -- because there are no repercussions if you screw anything up -- I like to try to work on those things or work on something new that I can add to my game. That was the biggest thing that I did. I didn't want to spend too much time dwelling on the past because we have to move forward. I was only looking at what I could fix for myself, and what I could make myself better at, and keep it a little focused on me for those days. Now it's time to get back to what we can do as a group to get better and go from there."
A lot of guys have been hurt up front and have had to play hurt. What changes for you during a game with your mindset or physically when you're not 100 percent?
"Most of the time it doesn't change a whole lot, it's just your body naturally can't do things to the best of its ability. Most of the time you have adrenaline running and the last thing you're thinking about is, 'My neck hurts or my shoulder hurts or my knee hurts or my foot hurts.' You don't think about that. You just do it and after the play you go, 'Oh, crap.' It doesn't really affect your mindset a whole lot. Sometimes your body won't allow you to do things to the best of your ability. But you're always playing hurt, especially at offensive line. You're never ever feeling great. That's just how it is."
What would you say is the psychological state of the team right now?
"We know that we have what it takes to win. Everybody knows that .. we have the talent to absolutely run these next six games. It's just about getting on the same page and building off of what we've done well. Now that we know our strengths halfway through the season, use those to the best of our ability. Come together not only as a team but as brothers and find a way to get this done, because everything we want is still in front of us. Nobody can take that away from us except for us."
Is it a motivating factor for you guys that you still 'control your own destiny'?
"Oh, yeah. It took some guys a second of, 'Oh, we lost two games.' Guys, it's fine. We can still go accomplish everything we set forward which is to win a Pac-12 championship. From there it's out of our hands. Let's go take care of that and take it one day at a time. Get better every day and win every game that's put in front of us."
What do you think this team does best right now?
"No one can cover our receivers. That's a for sure. No one can cover our receivers. Honestly, I felt like we've done a pretty good job running the ball but there's always a lot of guys in the box and that makes things very hard. It's always been like that. Teams always stack the box to try to stop our run and I feel we've done -- not a great job, by any means -- but we've done a pretty good job getting that done. It's just that there are a lot of free hitters. That makes it tough. Hopefully if we can continue to throw the ball well it will pull somebody out of there and give us more of an opportunity to do that."
Does it affect the confidence of a young offensive lineman if they continually hear we're not doing as good a job as we can running the ball? As an older player is it part of your role to reinforce the good things you're doing?
"Yeah, of course. The thing about playing offensive line is that you really don't know what's happening around you besides what's happening right in front of you. A lot of the times you don't really know what's going on in the game and you have to tell them, 'Keep doing what you're doing.' If you think about more than just your job, especially you have to play as a unit and trust the guy next to you ... it will affect everything. Just keep doing your job and everything will be fine. This guy will fix his thing. Don't change a thing you're doing. That's the only way you can get to them. When I was first playing I was freaking out about it and over time you learn you can't do anything but control what's in front of you."
Kevin Carberry is a new offensive line coach so there are a lot of firsts you guys are encountering together. What has stood out to you about working with him to try to solve some of the problems you've faced?
"I enjoy working with him. He knows a lot about the game. He has taught me a lot about the game. It's just trust. We get a lot of crazy looks and when he says, 'This is what we have to do', just have to do it. It's as simple as that. The thing about playing against us is people do things they've never done before and we have to adjust on the field. Everyone has to be on the same page on the field, listening on the bench, because we do come out there and go, 'I have never seen that before. They've never done this before.' Let's (adjust) our plays to it and we'll get to it. The biggest thing I'd say is the on-the-field adjustments. Listen to what he has to say and go from there."
Is it going to be weird seeing Casey Tucker on the sideline?
"Gosh, that's going to be so weird. He's one of my best friends. I love him to death. I wish him the best. I'm excited to play against him. I don't really get to play against him. I actually got to play against him in high school. He beat me three out of the four years. Hopefully we can get some revenge."
The preseason assumption was that with this line, Bryce Love and the offense it would score at will. Obviously that hasn't happened, yet. There are a lot of factors. Do you feel things are where they need to be confidence-wise?
"The thing that is very clear is that every person who has played has the ability. Everyone who plays on this offensive line is very good at football. Right now we're having a hard time putting it all together at the same time. It's always one person here or one person there. Then we get it all right and there's a free hitter, someone we can't account for. We've had a very hard time putting it together. When we have put it all together you see it. Bryce goes for 50-something or 25 in the red zone against Oregon. As soon as we get consistent on that front it's going to be really, really good. I feel like we've made strides towards that."
You feel it's close?
"Yes, we're so close. It's incredible how close we are."
