On Monday, Stanford football had their weekly press conference despite having a bye week for this coming week. Interim head coach Frank Reich, running back Micah Ford, and inside linebacker Matt Rose spoke to the media, sharing their thoughts on the loss to Hawaii and the early bye week. The reason why they didn’t call a call timeout towards the very end of the game when they had three left and Hawaii was marching down the field was due to the analytics.
On Monday, Stanford football had their weekly press conference despite having a bye week for this coming week. Interim head coach Frank Reich, running back Micah Ford, and inside linebacker Matt Rose spoke to the media, sharing their thoughts on the loss to Hawaii and the early bye week. Below are some takeaways.
Note: The press conference begins at the 3:30 mark of the video.
VIDEO: Stanford Football Weekly Press Conference | Bye Week #1
Reich highlighted the importance of improving in the red zone. That was a major point of emphasis during fall camp and the lack of success in that realm against Hawaii on both offense and defense only amplifies that importance.
Reich made it clear he values analytics. The reason why they didn’t call a call timeout towards the very end of the game when they had three left and Hawaii was marching down the field was due to the analytics. They just never had an optimal time to use them according to the analytics. That made sense, but if I’m being honest, it still would have made sense to extend the game as much as possible. Valuing analytics is good, but I think it’s better if they be used as a tool to advise you, not necessarily something that explicitly tells you what to do.
A question I asked was about what they could have done to get more out of tight end Sam Roush, who had only three receptions for six yards. Reich feels like had they executed the offense better, Roush would have had a better day. There were opportunities they had that they missed. He feels like execution was the biggest issue there. As a quick extension of that, they in general missed opportunities for some big plays in the passing game and he’s confident they’ll make that improvement.
Reich felt like the defense had a good plan for the game. He feels like they did a good job of eliminating pass completions over 16 yards. All about keeping everything in front. He felt happy with that aspect overall, though the last drive could have been better. It should help to have Collin Wright and Scotty Edwards back in the secondary. Both were out for the Hawaii game.
On running back Micah Ford, Reich said he was really happy with how he played and it was no surprise. He said Ford has established himself as their lead back. He loved how Ford got the tough yards and showed a lot of determination on that front. He also liked how Sedrick Irvin Jr. and Cole Tabb ran as well. Reich said they’ll continue to have a running back by committee approach so as to take pressure off Ford.
When asked about the interception Ben Gulbranson threw, Reich said it was a spectacular interception by the safety, so credit there. Reich said it was a situation where they were up three and were on the 25 yard line. They were hoping to run a naked boot and make a simple throw given Hawaii was gonna play the run. He didn’t feel like the play call was bad. Just an amazing play by the defense.
Switching gears to Ford, he felt like he overall had a good game as he rushed over 100 yards. That said, he still wasn’t satisfied as they were unable to win the game. He was pleased to find the end zone, though. He liked the game plan they had with the running game and how he was able to get in the end zone. Ford feels like he gets stronger as the game goes on, so that helps.
As for the running back room as a whole, Ford feels like Irvin and Tabb both did a good job taking pressure off of him. He has full faith in them to step up if he ever needs a break. He knows what is expected of them as a room.
Ford does feel like having an early bye week will help them. Getting this week to improve and focus on what they can do better he sees as a benefit. Just about taking advantage of this time.
Ending with Rose, he felt like the defensive coaches had a good game plan and the linemen did a good job setting him up with chances to get so many tackles (12 solo and 13 overall). Relentless pursuit of the ball is the key. That said, he wants to win the game and feels bad that they came up short.
On the defense as a whole, Rose feels like they did a lot of good things. Just gotta get better in the areas that need improvement and build on the good things that they did. All about staying confident and building on that. A good example of that was them being able to score on that strip sack. Keep those kind of plays coming.
Like Ford, Rose likes the chance to have an early bye week and use this week as a chance to get an early jump on BYU. He sees that as a benefit.
Lastly, Rose said they didn’t talk to Clay Patterson about his Tik Tok dance penalty. He said Clay knows what he needs to do and there wasn’t any need talk to him about it. Given he’s a graduate student with a degree from Yale, Patterson should know full well that he needs to play smarter. Hopefully for Stanford’s sake, he’ll do that because he otherwise made two key plays in the game.
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