Oct. 13, 2001
Stanford head coach Tyrone Willingham:
ON THE AMOUNT OF TURNOVERS FOR STANFORD:
"I think what we knew coming in, and had talked about all week, was that this is a very opportunistic football team. If you gave them opportunities, they would cash in. The interception, fumble and blocked punt were all turned into points and if you spot a team 21 points, you make it very difficult to recover from that deficit. That's just too many points to give away to a good football team."
ON WHETHER OR NOT THE GAME'S MOMENTUM CHANGED ON ONE PLAY:
"The bottom line is you have to make plays. If you look at the course of the day, they made the plays they had to make to put themselves in a position to win the game. We were very close but just didn't find the right time to break through with a key play."
ON THE WEATHER CONDITIONS:
"I think the heat was a factor. Players were lying down on the turf, we would have one guy go down, and then they would have one guy go down. However, good championship teams find a way to fight through those types of obstacles. One day it could be the heat, or the cold, or the humidity. You still have to find your way through."
TALKING ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF HIS TEAM:
"First of all, we expect our leaders to step up once we get on the field. That's exactly what Randy (Fasani) did for us today. He was able to get rejuvenated and come back in the second half. I think that this is a hell of a football team, and I'm proud of how we played. Unfortunately we didn't win the football game, so we didn't make enough big plays. I thought the entire game we had opportunities to do something on offense and defense, we just couldn't make them at the right time. The same thing happened to them, in that they couldn't put us away because we kept coming back."
ON STANFORD'S ABILITY TO STOP THE RUNNING GAME:
"We respect their run defense, but we also respect our ability to run the football. I think we have some excellent runners, some excellent blockers and our coaches do a good job of setting up the run."
Stanford quarterback Randy Fasani:
ON HAVING TO COME OUT OF THE GAME:
"I was dehydrated and dizzy. I felt like I was going to pass out going into halftime. I'm not sure what it was, but I started to feel better in the second half."
ON THE MATCHUP WITH JASON GESSER:
"His team won so he outperformed me."
ON THE DIFFERENCE IN THE GAME:
"It's like Coach Willingham said, they got 21 points off turnovers. I gave them seven points, our punt team gave them seven points and there were a few more critical errors."
ON STANFORD'S RUNNING GAME:
"I think our running game matches up well with any defense. However, there are some tough defenses out there that we still haven't faced."
Stanford running back Brian Allen:
ON HIS PERFORMANCE:
"I want to give credit to our offensive line for opening up some holes but our main concern is winning games. So you can have all the stats in the world, but if you don't get a "W"- it really doesn't matter."
TALKING ABOUT THE FLOW OF THE GAME:
"We made mistakes and they made mistakes but they made plays when they had to. I would have to say it was a good game by both teams but they made more plays in the end."
ON THE HEAT:
"The heat really shouldn't play a factor. I don't think it matters because you're going to be playing in all kinds of environments."
Washington State head coach Mike Price
ON WINNING AT STANFORD AFTER GOING 5-0:
"I really think this team is for real. I said before this game to myself that if we win this game, we are for real. We were seriously banged up, many guys had flu on the plane and Bush and Gesser were both banged up. We had to go deep and play freshmen, and they played their hearts out for us tonight. They played very well, but we have to get healthy and get ready to go again. We are for real and we should be ranked high."
ON PRESSURING FANSANI:
"We had a lot of opportunities to sack the quarterback, but Fasani did a great job of breaking and missing tackles. We missed tackles in the open field, their backs were hard to tackle. But for the most part, our defense played really well and we made plays today."
ON THE GO-AHEAD TOUCHDOWN PASS TO MIKE BUSH:
"That was a great throw and catch. I wanted to call that play, but was not sure how to get it in. I called it and that was exactly what Jason wanted to do."
Washington State's John Tippins
ON THE BALL CONTROL IN THE 4TH QUARTER:
"We just had to pound away to win the game, that is all we had to do. We came out and ran the ball and kept the clock running. It was mostly our offensive line that started the push."
WITH THE INJURIES, KNOWING THAT YOU HAD TO STEP UP:
"I just went in there thinking and knowing that this was going to be a team effort. I knew I had to step up for the team, and that is what I came here to do. We were focusing in on going to a bowl game, and with this win we clinched a bowl. That is what we had to do, I just came in here and stepped up. I am in Dave Minnich's shadow and I was just thinking about what he would do in this situation. I came here to step up and make some plays and that is what I did."
Washington State's Quarterback Jason Gesser
ON THE PASS TO MIKE BUSH:
"I told him just to sprint down the field and the I would get the ball to him. I got hit and I did not even see the catch, I just saw our sideline going crazy. I rolled over, got up and went to the sideline."
ON THE TEAM:
"We felt good coming in today and we knew what we could do on the field. We had some letdowns today, and need to improve on a lot of things. Our offense did not play half as well as we could have. We all know that and we will make some adjustments. We will continue to get better and better and just take one game at a time."