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FOOTBALL POST-GAME QUOTES
Stanford 24, at USC 23 (Los Angeles, CA - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum)
October 6, 2007
STANFORD
HEAD COACH JIM HARBAUGH
On Tavita Pritchard
"I don't know if there's ever been a game where there has been a team that was a 40-point underdog and a guy making his first start that approached it the way Tavita Pritchard did the entire week and tonight. He had a gleam in his eye from [last] Sunday on. He had a chance to play in this game, and he took it head-on. He played great. He was a true warrior. We found another warrior. He was excited and into the game from the very first snap. He played his heart out and so did our team."
On His Players
"I give all the credit to the Stanford Football players. They played like their lives depended on it. They played smart; they played sound. They just won it."
On Whether He Sensed His Players Could Win
"It was really from pre-game on. They went out in pre-game and just warmed up. A lot of times you see a team that's nervous. They get over-hyped, and they spend it all in the pre-game warm-ups. I knew that they were locked in pre-game. It was just a pretty even demeanor the whole game right up until the end when we took the knee, then I think it sunk in to our guys, but they played four quarters and 60 minutes with an even demeanor."
QUARTERBACK TAVITA PRITCHARD
On The Victory
"I don't think it's really set in with everybody. It hasn't really set in with me yet ... I'm beside myself right now. I don't really know what to do."
On The Memory Of The Victory
"I'm going to tell my kids about it."
On The Game-Winning TD
"We had him [Mark Bradford] singled up over there. Mark is an incredible athlete and an incredible receiver. I just gave him the chance to go make a play on a ball, and he did that. He did that perfectly, and I was very, very excited when that happened. I saw him jump up and grab him, and I sprinted toward him to try to jump on him, but everyone else was already there. It was crazy."
On The 4th And 20 Completion To Richard Sherman Just Before The Game-Winning TD
"Coach [Harbaugh] called a play, and I couldn't really hear him because that place gets really loud, so I called my own play ... I got the coverage I wanted, and found Sherm [Richard Sherman]. Sherm did a great job getting open on that, and I just hit him."
On Stanford's Defense And His Play
"The defense just played incredible tonight. I can't say enough about what they did. Even when I was still trying to get into the flow of things, they were keeping us right in it by getting the ball back and stopping them. They just played their butts off tonight, as well as the offensive line. They gave me a chance to get acclimated to the game. It definitely slowed down midway through the first quarter and progressively got better throughout the game."
WIDE RECEIVER MARK BRADFORD
On The Win
"It's a great feeling. We've worked so hard. We've worked for it. I'm happy for this win."
On His Game-Winning TD Catch
"It's one of those things, where I knew the play was coming to me. I see the ball in the air, and I'm just thinking I've got to make this catch. That's one of the things he [his recently passed away father] told me, so that's what was going through my head."
On His Teammates
"I just love being around the football players on this team. They're like my second family. It's more therapeutic for me being around them and going to war with them, and banging heads with them."
On His Decision To Go To Stanford [Instead of USC]
"I just couldn't pass up the chance to go to Stanford. Coming from where I come from in the inner-city not to many people get recruited from where I'm from at Stanford. I had to take the chance and go to an academic school and prove that I can do that."
On What This Win Means For Stanford For The Rest Of The Season
"I think it will be a huge step forward as far as building confidence in our players and knowing that we can play with anybody in the country. We're always saying it to ourselves, but it's another to go out there and do it. We went out there and played hard."
OFFENSIVE GUARD ALEX FLETCHER
On His Feelings After Seeing Mark Bradford Make The Game-Winning TD Catch"It was unbelievable. I knew we had to finish. Two years ago we did the exact same thing, and we didn't hold them on defense. That was in mind. I knew it wasn't over, especially against a team that good."
On What He Said In The Huddle Before The Game-Winning TD
"We've worked so hard for this and this is the time. It's going to be the time right here."
On Tavita Pritchard
"Tavita makes his first career start right here against USC in the Coliseum. He just wrote a story; it's unbelievable. He played unbelievably. He had so much poise in the huddle. He wasn't freakin' out."
On The Victory
"I knew in the fourth quarter we could win. I knew."
On Coach Jim Harbaugh
"Coach Harbaugh instills confidence upon us. He has the most confidence I've ever seen, and it just rubs off. He was confident [before the game]. He told us to just worry about ourselves and worry about playing the best you can and have a good time. And we did have a good time."
On The Pressure On USC
"The pressure the whole time was on them. We weren't supposed to win. I played as relaxed as I could, and I just felt like things were clicking. Once things are clicking, obviously anything can happen."
OUTSIDE LINEBACKER CLINTON SNYDER
On The Significance Of The Victory For Stanford Football
"It's more than a landmark [victory]. It's a great step for us that we need as a program to show people that we're not the old Stanford. I think this win proves that. Maybe the games in the season before this didn't, but I think this game will turn things around for us. But, they're not going to give it to us. We have to keep working. We have to keep getting better every week in practice. That's what coach [Harbaugh] is going to do. We're not going to be satisfied here. We have the rest of the season to go."
On How The Win Feels
"I didn't know how it would feel. We haven't done this in a long time."
On His Feelings After The Win Over USC
"It's incredible. We came into this game with only a win against a WAC team [San Jose State], and we weren't performing like we knew we could. This game, we came out and grounded it out, and performed the way the Stanford Cardinal needs to perform in the future."
On What Was Different In The USC Win Compared To Other Games
"All the little mistakes we were making the other games didn't happen. We got some good breaks on defense with all the turnovers. It's a game of turnovers. Whoever wins the turnover battle usually wins the game. We got those turnovers on defense and helped the offense out by giving the offense good field position, and they made good adjustments. They moved the ball down the field and scored some points for us, and we came out on top."
On Whether Stanford Believed It Could Beat USC Before The Game
"We believe we're going to win every game, sometimes it doesn't work out for us. If you don't go into the game believing you're going to win, you're not going to win."
On What The Team Said On The Last Defensive Stop
"We said focus and finish, which is what we've been saying all year. Focus and finish is a big thing for us, all throughout the summer workouts. That's what we stress, finishing in the fourth quarter. We went out there and got a good stop on defense."
On What Went Though His Mind When Bo McNally Made The Game-Winning Interception
"It's awesome; it's a dream. This is a great win for the program. Just to see him catch that ball and slide down there knowing that the game is over and we had won the game is just great."
On His Motivation During The Week
"No one expects us to do anything, and we used that to our advantage. We had nothing to lose. We go out there, and we play loose. We played like we knew we could play. We're not afraid of them. We were laughing the whole week. Everyone was saying they were overrated. We watched the film. We knew who they were. They were exactly who we thought they were when they come on the field. We can compete with anyone out there, and I think we proved that tonight."