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Nov. 5, 1997
Quotes on This Weekend's Game
STANFORD COACH TYRONE WILLINGHAM - Nov. 4, 1997
(On the last few games) It's very obvious that the number one difference between our early success and our slump right now is the absence of our run game. When that happens, I think it makes it very difficult to have success as a one-dimensional team.
(On running backs) We're very pleased with both Mike Mitchell and Anthony Bookman. They are two of the more outstanding runners in Stanford history, both in rushing and total offense. So we're very pleased with them and they are a very exciting portion of our offense.
(On quarterback Chad Hutchinson) I've been very pleased with Chad. I think Chad is doing an outstanding job for us this year. He is a very competitive young man. He has the size and the stature to continue his growth and development into an outstanding quarterback.
(On wide receiver Troy Walters) Walters is really showing himself very well this year. He's not only one of the better receivers in the conference, average catches per game, but he's also one of the better punt returners. So we're very pleased with what Troy has added to our football team.
(On the defense) Our defense is doing some good things for us. We've had some minor slumps. Their performance on Saturday was good enough if we could have generated enough on offense to win the game.
(On USC) I think number one as you look at this game, I lump both teams together to some degree. We're kind of licking our wounds to a degree and both need this ballgame to have some success as we finish the season.
(On offensive problems) I think it's a total problem. When you look at Saturday's ballgame, from a coaching perspective, we didn't give ourselves ample opportunity to run the football. We moved away from our run game a little too soon and I think that's my fault. Two, we've got to improve our execution and find better ways to attack the eight-man fronts that we're seeing.
(On Damon Dunn) Damon has been doing a good job for us at wide receiver. We also like his play in the kicking game, but this year we haven't really been able to get him off in the kicking game, so we're looking forward to something big happening in these last three ballgames.
(More on USC) In many areas, the Trojans are a very strong defensive team. You look at their secondary, even if they have been hit here or there, but their overall play has been fairly consistent. You look at their up-front people, they have some tackles inside that are very stout in their play. And they have some very aggressive and quick, explosive people. Claiborne has showed himself to be a very fine linebacker.
(On bowl hopes) It won't necessarily center on this game, but I think this is a very crucial ballgame into making that a reality.
JOHN ROBINSON - Nov. 4, 1997
The game Saturday, when you step back from the emotion and thepain of it, came down to surprisingly similar circumstances.Our offense against their defense. Their offensive against ourdefense. Neither team could run the ball.
I looked up at thescoreboard in the fourth quarter and they had -2 at one point,I think, and we had plus-30. Neither team could run the ball,They were able to get some opportunities to throw the ball,they threw the ball deep and made the plays against us. Thedefenses that they were playing and we were playing were notdissimilar in style. We did not make the plays.
Early on in thegame we felt like we should go with Mike Van Raaphorst becauseof his ability to throw accurately. He had demonstrated thatthe last couple of weeks on the practice field. We have talkedhere previously about how John Fox has struggled from anaccuracy standpoint, at least partially due to his ankleproblem. So Mike was the starter and he threw the ball wellenough. We had some opportunities early and we just didn'tcatch the ball.
It was our poorest performance as a receivinggroup. We just didn't function. We had worked on the noisefactor, if you had been to our practice, we had been playingnoise machines for the last month. I thought we would handlethat better.
I think we got out of sorts a little bit. Theywere stemming just before the ball was snapped.
I tried tolobby the officials as much as I could to say you can't do thatjust before the snap but I was not successful. Gradually as thegame went on we lost our poise. Our offense has been guilty ofgoing into the tank and all of the sudden unable to executemuch of anything.
I guess Stanford is going through some of thesame problems. We came back in the second half with John Fox,somewhat out of desperation. Mike had gotten dinged in the heada little bit and we thought John might be able to scramble andget some more time, and he did a couple of times. It was amiserable performance.
The noise is difficult there. And theystructure their defense to take advantage of it both bystemming at the last second and the kind they play. They'redifficult to play against in Seattle, but we had won and tiedup there and handled it. This offensive team just did nothandle it.
Conversely, defensively, our front played our best against a team that prides itself on running the ball. That's how they win, by running the ball and put some passing together. We felt like we had to stop the run and challenge them on the outside in the passing game. That's what we did, we stopped the run and played extremely well. Cedric Jefferson had an outstanding game. That's a great big offensive line and try to push you off the ball. We just didn't let them. Matock and Jefferson kept them standing there and the others were very quick to attack. This was Claiborne and Cusano's best game. Gibson and Antuan Simmons both did well tackling again. When you play corner and you're asked to play 1-on-1, you're going to lose some. The guy either makes a play or doesn't make a play. When we played Florida State early in the year, they threw seven, eight, nine deep balls and we made plays on all of them. Washington made plays on the balls that counted in this game and that's to their credit.
It's disturbing that our defense would play with the vigor that they played, and the offense didn't come even close to the same level of performance. On offense, when you're unable to execute the things you want to do, you're stymied. In our conference, with the kind of defense teams play, people come at you and make it difficult. We will see that same kind of defense this week. We're going to have to solve that problem.
We have made a decision to move Chad Morton over to offense (running back). Malaefou MacKenzie will not play this week, we haven't made a final decision but we're moving toward not playing him in the game this week. Delon Washington's knee continues to be kind of iffy. Petros Papadakis' got some shoulder problems so we need some help there. Ted Iacenda is probably out for the year, they're doing some more tests but there might be an impending scope to his shoulder. Other than that, I think we're OK. LaVale Woods will be in shoulder pads and shorts on Wednesday and if a miracle happens he might play a little bit. But he's still a couple weeks away.
Our football team is much like Stanford's. UCLA did to Stanford what Washington did to us. We both keep looking for the answer. Both are capable of coming out of this offensive slump and get going again. I don't have any other explanations for it. There's a lot of detail that we spend time on. We just have to make plays when we need to. We have to get our defense to stand up again and get this win. This game is very important to both teams. Both teams will play very hard.
(On R. Jay Soward's status) R. Jay got KOed. He wasn't snoring, but he was sound asleep when I got out there. I think he's fine. He has not been as consistent over the last couple of weeks. We're just all out of synch. He dropped some balls. But that can come back just as fast.
(On Daylon McCutcheon at WR) He was the only guy that caught the ball on Saturday. We will try to do that while keeping a balance, with him not getting too tired at corner.
(On the quarterback situation) Both are young guys working everyday to get better. John has some bright moments and some moments with nagging inaccuracies. He's working hard. He's getting another test on his ankle. Mike Van Raaphorst came from quite a ways back in training camp to where he has really improved and is really in a groove throwing the ball. Mike understands the game. It wasn't Mike that was rattled on Saturday. The interception he threw down the sidelines, he shouldn't have thrown it but it was an obvious pass interference call. It was a mistake on his part throwing the ball. They're just two guys trying to get better, trying to practice who have an expectation of good careers. I don't think there are any negatives. They're working hard and want to play. If one were to get something rolling, then all of the sudden we would go. I feel positive about both of them. They make errors, but just about every quarterback has struggled their first year. Unfortunately, they're suffering the residue of other problems offensively. In the skill position, there just haven't been as many plays as we had hoped.
(On tough not to have a starting TB, QB) Tough's a good word. We've struggled obviously with that and those are two critical positions. It just doesn't add up to a successful offensive team when your two main positions don't have continuity.
(On David Gibson) He's a tough guy and he plays going forward really well. He's a good tackler. He likes to tackle. Some kids when they play flag football they knock a kid down and pick up the flag. He's one of those guys. Other kids run around and try to pull the flag off. David is a natural tackler, a natural defensive player. He's in-between a linebacker and a defensive back in the traditional sense. With the types of defenses being played in the Pac-10, there are many more of those kinds of players. He's done very well. Antuan Simmons has done well at that too, he's probably more corner-like, size-wise. With Pearsall coming back, Antuan may find himself outside next year.
(On the defense's problems on third-and-long) There are a couple things. We need to get to zone more. We tend to linger in man coverage and get hit on a crossing pattern. We've done a better job with that, but we still get hit there a little bit. We've improved on zone coverage. If I recall, this last game, the ones that beat us were first-and-10 playaction.
(On the offensive line) The tackles, for whatever reason, had a poor game. The guards and center had a good game. Maybe it was hearing, but we didn't play well the further out we went. Chorak had hurt us, they were a little quicker than we were on the outside. But I thought our middle played pretty well. That's perplexing, for two weeks in a row our tackles played well but fell off the edge on Saturday.