Nov. 17, 2001
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Stanford head coach Tyrone Willingham
ON HIS TEAM'S OVERALL EFFORT:
"We knew coming into the ballgame, that California would come in here and play their best football game. We have the utmost respect for Coach Tom Holmoe and his staff and we know that they have a lot of character, and how this has always been a closely-contested series."
ON NOT BEING ABLE TO PUT CALIFORNIA AWAY:
"I think the score indicated that they were always right there. But I think what happens in this football game, because of the emotions involved, is that its often hard not to come in and have emotions. Our guys were probably a little out of sync in having too much emotion and not enough ability to execute the way we wanted to. I think in the first half we had at least six penalties, and that number killed us. So it was an indication that we were a little more emotional than "surgical" in terms of our play."
ON THE PLAY OF STANFORD'S RESERVE RUNNING BACKS:
"We challenge our guys to step in when one player goes down, and today things weren't just quite where we needed them to be. So we had to rely on Kenneth Tolon and Justin Faust a little more than usual. I think they stepped up and kept us in the game and Cal's defense did a great job against of putting people in the right spot when we were trying to make plays."
ON BEING HEAVY FAVORITES IN THE GAME:
"I think its very difficult for young people to filter out everything they hear from the outside. I think for our football team, as much as we would like to say otherwise, it's very difficult not to hear that our opponents were 0-9 and the point spread was 24 points. I think all those things become very difficult. But you just have to hope that what you have is a mature and seasoned football team that has the ability to weather those types of storms. And I think our football team showed that kind of leadership, toughness and character. It can't always be beautiful, it just can't be a "Mona Lisa"...We are only concerned about that final score, and our young men did what it took to get us in that winner's circle."
ON STANFORD'S BOWL POSSIBILITIES:
We can't worry about things that we let get out of our control. We had some control on that earlier in the season, but we let two games slip and you can't do that in the conference, So once that is gone, we adjust our goals, set our sights on something new and that's the nature of our program."
Stanford quarterback Chris Lewis:
THOUGHTS ON THE GAME:
"That was one where you're just really glad that you came away with the victory. We made some mistakes that I haven't seen us make all year. Turnovers were big in this game, and we just can't have that. Our team is just fortunate enough that our defense came to play. If we think we can do that against Notre Dame, then we've got something coming to us. You have to go out and play Stanford football if we think we are going to win another game."
ON PLAYING A TEAM THAT IS HAVING SUCH A DISMAL SEASON:
"The coaches really stressed that this week. We know that in 104 years that we've played, all the games are basically close against California. You throw everything out when you play the Big Game because you know they will bring everything they have. They made some great plays, got a few sacks and we knew that they would come to play."
Stanford wide receiver Teyo Johnson:
TALKING ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE BIG GAME:
"We knew what they were capable of and its been that way throughout the history of the Big Game. We would have liked to put the game out of reach early, but that's just not the nature of this game. It's a great rivalry and we knew that they would come out here with their guns blazing and nothing to lose."
Stanford wide receiver Luke Powell:
ON HIS GAME-BREAKING TOUCHDOWN RECEPTION:
"It was just a short five-yard route and Chris (Lewis) had great ball placement and threw a great pass and put it right on my shoulder, making it easy for me to spin away from the defender. I just started running and was telling myself "don't trip, don't trip". It turned out to be a big play at the time and got us going again."
California Head Coach Tom Holmoe
"We played hard today. They played like we thought they were capable of all year. We played very well. We gave up some plays, but we never gave up, we played our tails off. Today we played well as a unit and as individuals. You have to give credit to that Stanford team. They tried to knock us off but couldn't, but every time we had a shot, that defense closed the gate. Their corners played exceptionally well. We had some chances on 3rd down, but their corners made some big plays. We tip our hats to Stanford, they made plays across the field."
ON RUNNING INTO THE KICKER PENALTY
"He (the referee) said that the punter needed a place to come down, and that he didn't have a place to come down. It's one of those things where they're (the referees) are going to make the call, and it can go either way. On that play, we knew we had a timeout and some time left, so we said if it comes clean, take it, but if you don't have it, stay away. It was not an all-out block."
ON GOING FOR 2 POINTS IN THE 3RD QUARTER
"Well, the first time, there was eight minutes left in the 3rd quarter. I didn't think that would be Stanford's last score. I believed we would get another shot, and that's exactly what we played for - the second time. "
ON FORCING TURNOVERS
"That helped keep us in the game. I told them we had to stay with them stride-for-stride, and then have a shot at the end - and we did, we had a shot at the end. They (Stanford) had a couple opportunities in the first half to put us away, but they didn't. I think every player on the team looked at each other and asked each other to come through, and that play right before the half was a great sign for us, since we staved them off and staved them off. I knew at that point we would be in the game. It was good to see the Cal fans support our team in a huge way. I think we earned back a lot of respect from people who didn't know if we could do it, and I'm thankful to our fans for that."