Opening statement
First of all, really good win by our guys today. I do want to say that it was great to see Willie Taggart. We've seen each other in the off-season, and he's doing a really good job there. They've got some young guys that are going to be really good.
Years past, it was non-stop between Stanford and Oregon for the Pac-12 North, and I think give Willie a couple years and the guys that he's been bringing in, the guys that they are bringing in, they're doing really well.
Tonight was a bunch of things for our guys that I'm really excited about. First and foremost, dealt a tough hand on the offensive line. Really thought, you know, Walker Little was going to be able to go. Kind of got the word this morning, that's why you didn't hear about it before that. Thought he was going to be fine. Just couldn't go.
Devery Hamilton played well (early) in the season, he came out and played well again today. Then he went out, and then we had to make a couple more changes and adjustments. Coach Bloomgren did a phenomenal job with those guys. Didn't matter who was in, those guys played really well run game, pass protection-wise.
So proud of how those guys played. Bryce was great in the first half. Got banged up. No reason for us to put him back in with the score the way it was. We left him out. Got a chance to see our young back, Trevor, get after it a little bit, which was exciting.
I thought Cam (Scarlett) had a nice day as well. But to me, the story of the game for me is Keller Chryst.
Keller played so well, so composed. Handled all the protections and all the running game and made big-time throws. It's a shame he got an interception, instead of a touchdown pass, just J.J. missed that one. But we knew we were going to come back to J.J., and J.J. came back and made some plays. And J.J. was today what he (has) been for us the last two years: A big play receiver. Trent Irwin came in and made big plays as well on third downs, getting open on routes.
I thought we played a good, complete game today on offense.
Defensively it was tough stopping the run early on. That running back is special. We saw him his junior year in high school, and we knew he was going to be special. He's tough to bring down.
Second half, thankfully, able to get Harrison Phillips back, which was a big difference in the running game. And Peter Kalambayi as well. To bring back two senior captains really made the difference, in my opinion, in the running game in the second half.
Thought Quenton Meeks' interception was unbelievable. It was great. He was covering somebody else and came off to make the play. Casey Toohill, those always end up being deflections and not interceptions, but great job by him grabbing it and holding on to it. Nice to get some big turnovers.
Kudos to special teams. First blocked punt we've had in a long time. I heard it was years, but it's been a while. You get that scoop and score, and it was great. All that hard work and effort those guys put on special teams going out to the different blocks we have every week, it was great to finally get one.
Questions? Or did I cover everything?
Q. If Bryce Love leaves after this season, are you going to recruit that rabbit?
Shaw: "For some, that might have been the highlight of the night. I'm just convinced -- I'm sure there are other rabbits, I'm convinced it's the same jackrabbit that I see three times a week over by Maples. It just kind of hangs out over there and doesn't seem to bother anybody. So I guess he got lost. But that was a nice diversion today."
Q. What about the development of Curtis Robinson who had a team high seven tackles, blocked the punt, great all-around game? What about him?
Shaw: "His ceiling is so high, so high. The blocked punt, he was moving so fast. We knew he's got the speed and explosion. It takes a while sometimes for guys just to show it all the time on game day. There is a hit he had on the kickoff cover two where he passed three guys and made a huge hit.
This guy's got the potential to be very, very good. We're going to keep pushing him and stay on him. At some point he'll be a game changer around here. He's got the skills and abilities to rush the passer as well as drop in coverage.
"Thankfully we have some older guys right now that are going to continue to show him the ropes. Anderson is kind of training him as well. But you saw a little bit of what he's capable of tonight."
Q. Had the score been a little bit different, could Bryce have come back tonight?
Shaw: Possibly. There was no real reason to. As soon as he went down with the score the way that it was, I never really considered putting him back in. He had already played really well. He had already done what he does, which is break long runs, and I knew we had a long way to get ready and long time to get ready for the next game. So we were already putting him on ice."
Q. Kind of the same question about did he Devery Hamilton, but also in terms of how Devery is doing, first look, and also the challenge that the line was able to deal with tonight, once again, Chris not sacked, neither was KJ. Once again, neither was close to being sacked.
Shaw: So much credit to Mike Bloomgren, the way he's worked with those guys and the depth and versatility that we have. I think Devery's going to be a special tackle at some point. He's just a baby. He's just getting his feet wet. He's got so much ability.
"Walker Little has a chance to be special. David Bright is a guy that saves us, being able to move from left tackle to left guard. If we need to put him from right tackle to right guard ... he can do that as well. Getting Nate back in the groove was big. A.T. Hall is playing the best football of his career. Not to mention Jesse Burkett. Jesse's playing the best football of his career as well.
"When those guys are playing well up front, as we like to say, everybody else gets to eat. So the quarterbacks are able to stay clean in the pocket, make some big throws, and guys made some plays. Very excited about what we did in the passing game today. We've worked so hard in the off-season, and it hasn't really shown up like we'd like it to. But I was excited about what we were able to do."
Q. Are you able to give us any other details on Bryce's situation, nature of the injury, or whether you expect him to be ready for Oregon State? Got to ask.
Shaw: Yeah, there is no mandatory injury report in college football. That is the NFL. Next question?
Q. You called the timeout before the blocked punt. Was there something you saw?
Shaw: No, we have so many duplicate numbers, so we have these zipper jerseys which are so cool, but sometimes the zipper still gets stuck. So we had to make a quick switch. There was no reason to try to rush it, so we just took a timeout so we could get the jersey switched.
"Connor Wedington put on the 30 jersey which we kind of use for different guys when we have duplicate numbers, and he had to check in before he went back there. That was it. The call was going to stay the same. We just had ten guys on the field."
Q. Tough to hear question about the late start times and people not seeing great performances by Stanford running backs.
Shaw: Well, two things. First thing I'll say, I usually don't see the board, but because of the score and I was looking up to see something, I saw one of the tweets which was something like, 'Hey, Stanford, I'm so proud of you but I'm really sleepy.' Which I thought was awesome.
"But, hey, our TV contract is what it is. Like I said last week, it's been really good for all of us for the most part. It really has. This is the one negative is that we don't have the ability to change the games -- the time of these games.
"Now, that being said, we'd love to see a few games in our conference at night and we'd love to see the rest of them during the day, and that's something that hopefully we can with work towards in the future.
"But our TV contract is what it is. Like I said, it's been mostly good, but this is one of the negatives. You've got two really good teams, and nobody on the East Coast sees anything past the first half. So that's just something we have to deal with for now."
Q. How long have you been working on the Jay Tyler to Ryan Burns pass combination?
Shaw: Three weeks. Three weeks. And they're at that point where they started to roll my eyes every time I installed it, saying, Coach, you're never going to call that. I kept saying, Just wait. It's one of those things you work on week after week, so you work out all the kinks. Make sure you're ready to call it. Make sure everybody knows exactly what to do. They see it versus different coverages.
"So we've been working for three weeks, and I installed it on Tuesday. I believe it was Tuesday. I kind of got the eye roll and the kind of like, 'Okay, Coach.' But we talked about it, and it was a perfect look that they gave us and we saw it, called it, and the guys executed it."
Q. So how did you know that Burns was going to be wide open?
Shaw: Well, that's why you call those things. When you see something on film -- we thought it looked good the last three weeks, but we really wanted to keep repping it and getting better, and better, and better at it. And Ryan's a big, fast athlete with big hands. Every time we've thrown it to him, he's caught it in practice. So we figured it would work, and it did."
First of all, really good win by our guys today. I do want to say that it was great to see Willie Taggart. We've seen each other in the off-season, and he's doing a really good job there. They've got some young guys that are going to be really good.
Years past, it was non-stop between Stanford and Oregon for the Pac-12 North, and I think give Willie a couple years and the guys that he's been bringing in, the guys that they are bringing in, they're doing really well.
Tonight was a bunch of things for our guys that I'm really excited about. First and foremost, dealt a tough hand on the offensive line. Really thought, you know, Walker Little was going to be able to go. Kind of got the word this morning, that's why you didn't hear about it before that. Thought he was going to be fine. Just couldn't go.
Devery Hamilton played well (early) in the season, he came out and played well again today. Then he went out, and then we had to make a couple more changes and adjustments. Coach Bloomgren did a phenomenal job with those guys. Didn't matter who was in, those guys played really well run game, pass protection-wise.
So proud of how those guys played. Bryce was great in the first half. Got banged up. No reason for us to put him back in with the score the way it was. We left him out. Got a chance to see our young back, Trevor, get after it a little bit, which was exciting.
I thought Cam (Scarlett) had a nice day as well. But to me, the story of the game for me is Keller Chryst.
Keller played so well, so composed. Handled all the protections and all the running game and made big-time throws. It's a shame he got an interception, instead of a touchdown pass, just J.J. missed that one. But we knew we were going to come back to J.J., and J.J. came back and made some plays. And J.J. was today what he (has) been for us the last two years: A big play receiver. Trent Irwin came in and made big plays as well on third downs, getting open on routes.
I thought we played a good, complete game today on offense.
Defensively it was tough stopping the run early on. That running back is special. We saw him his junior year in high school, and we knew he was going to be special. He's tough to bring down.
Second half, thankfully, able to get Harrison Phillips back, which was a big difference in the running game. And Peter Kalambayi as well. To bring back two senior captains really made the difference, in my opinion, in the running game in the second half.
Thought Quenton Meeks' interception was unbelievable. It was great. He was covering somebody else and came off to make the play. Casey Toohill, those always end up being deflections and not interceptions, but great job by him grabbing it and holding on to it. Nice to get some big turnovers.
Kudos to special teams. First blocked punt we've had in a long time. I heard it was years, but it's been a while. You get that scoop and score, and it was great. All that hard work and effort those guys put on special teams going out to the different blocks we have every week, it was great to finally get one.
Questions? Or did I cover everything?
Q. If Bryce Love leaves after this season, are you going to recruit that rabbit?
Shaw: "For some, that might have been the highlight of the night. I'm just convinced -- I'm sure there are other rabbits, I'm convinced it's the same jackrabbit that I see three times a week over by Maples. It just kind of hangs out over there and doesn't seem to bother anybody. So I guess he got lost. But that was a nice diversion today."
Q. What about the development of Curtis Robinson who had a team high seven tackles, blocked the punt, great all-around game? What about him?
Shaw: "His ceiling is so high, so high. The blocked punt, he was moving so fast. We knew he's got the speed and explosion. It takes a while sometimes for guys just to show it all the time on game day. There is a hit he had on the kickoff cover two where he passed three guys and made a huge hit.
This guy's got the potential to be very, very good. We're going to keep pushing him and stay on him. At some point he'll be a game changer around here. He's got the skills and abilities to rush the passer as well as drop in coverage.
"Thankfully we have some older guys right now that are going to continue to show him the ropes. Anderson is kind of training him as well. But you saw a little bit of what he's capable of tonight."
Q. Had the score been a little bit different, could Bryce have come back tonight?
Shaw: Possibly. There was no real reason to. As soon as he went down with the score the way that it was, I never really considered putting him back in. He had already played really well. He had already done what he does, which is break long runs, and I knew we had a long way to get ready and long time to get ready for the next game. So we were already putting him on ice."
Q. Kind of the same question about did he Devery Hamilton, but also in terms of how Devery is doing, first look, and also the challenge that the line was able to deal with tonight, once again, Chris not sacked, neither was KJ. Once again, neither was close to being sacked.
Shaw: So much credit to Mike Bloomgren, the way he's worked with those guys and the depth and versatility that we have. I think Devery's going to be a special tackle at some point. He's just a baby. He's just getting his feet wet. He's got so much ability.
"Walker Little has a chance to be special. David Bright is a guy that saves us, being able to move from left tackle to left guard. If we need to put him from right tackle to right guard ... he can do that as well. Getting Nate back in the groove was big. A.T. Hall is playing the best football of his career. Not to mention Jesse Burkett. Jesse's playing the best football of his career as well.
"When those guys are playing well up front, as we like to say, everybody else gets to eat. So the quarterbacks are able to stay clean in the pocket, make some big throws, and guys made some plays. Very excited about what we did in the passing game today. We've worked so hard in the off-season, and it hasn't really shown up like we'd like it to. But I was excited about what we were able to do."
Q. Are you able to give us any other details on Bryce's situation, nature of the injury, or whether you expect him to be ready for Oregon State? Got to ask.
Shaw: Yeah, there is no mandatory injury report in college football. That is the NFL. Next question?
Q. You called the timeout before the blocked punt. Was there something you saw?
Shaw: No, we have so many duplicate numbers, so we have these zipper jerseys which are so cool, but sometimes the zipper still gets stuck. So we had to make a quick switch. There was no reason to try to rush it, so we just took a timeout so we could get the jersey switched.
"Connor Wedington put on the 30 jersey which we kind of use for different guys when we have duplicate numbers, and he had to check in before he went back there. That was it. The call was going to stay the same. We just had ten guys on the field."
Q. Tough to hear question about the late start times and people not seeing great performances by Stanford running backs.
Shaw: Well, two things. First thing I'll say, I usually don't see the board, but because of the score and I was looking up to see something, I saw one of the tweets which was something like, 'Hey, Stanford, I'm so proud of you but I'm really sleepy.' Which I thought was awesome.
"But, hey, our TV contract is what it is. Like I said last week, it's been really good for all of us for the most part. It really has. This is the one negative is that we don't have the ability to change the games -- the time of these games.
"Now, that being said, we'd love to see a few games in our conference at night and we'd love to see the rest of them during the day, and that's something that hopefully we can with work towards in the future.
"But our TV contract is what it is. Like I said, it's been mostly good, but this is one of the negatives. You've got two really good teams, and nobody on the East Coast sees anything past the first half. So that's just something we have to deal with for now."
Q. How long have you been working on the Jay Tyler to Ryan Burns pass combination?
Shaw: Three weeks. Three weeks. And they're at that point where they started to roll my eyes every time I installed it, saying, Coach, you're never going to call that. I kept saying, Just wait. It's one of those things you work on week after week, so you work out all the kinks. Make sure you're ready to call it. Make sure everybody knows exactly what to do. They see it versus different coverages.
"So we've been working for three weeks, and I installed it on Tuesday. I believe it was Tuesday. I kind of got the eye roll and the kind of like, 'Okay, Coach.' But we talked about it, and it was a perfect look that they gave us and we saw it, called it, and the guys executed it."
Q. So how did you know that Burns was going to be wide open?
Shaw: Well, that's why you call those things. When you see something on film -- we thought it looked good the last three weeks, but we really wanted to keep repping it and getting better, and better, and better at it. And Ryan's a big, fast athlete with big hands. Every time we've thrown it to him, he's caught it in practice. So we figured it would work, and it did."
