Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Stanford Quotes
Nov 1 (Sat)
5:00 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Mel Tucker
General
“That was a very good team win for us, with offense, defense and special teams playing complimentary football and playing together. We talked all week about guys playing for each other and playing for the man next to you. I saw that out there today. In order to win a game like that, you have to have the discipline to do your job on a consistent basis and you have to be physical. It was a very physical game. Our guys, when we needed to make plays, were able to execute down the stretch and get the job done. My hat goes off to our fans. Our fans have been tremendous here in Boulder for us. It makes it a really tough place to play for our opponents. Our players are energized. It is a great atmosphere. They pack it in there every week. They have hung in there with us. That just goes to show you what type of program we are building here. We have a great university and great support from everyone. Our players believe in what we are doing, and we believe in our players. The Buff Nation was very strong today.”
On The Defense
“In order to play good defense, you have to hold people to low numbers. The most important stat is scoring defense. To hold a team to 13 points or less is really our goal. We played probably our best defense of the season in that regard. Guys continue to chop wood, play hard, be physical and have relentless effort.”
On The Final Drive
“It was good to see. The discipline to do your job and execute. Everyone working together to do their job. Trust that if you do your job the man next to you is going to do his job. That is how you are able to put drives together and move the ball. There was poise and patience. It was really a physical football game. We were able to step up in the fourth quarter and get some physical runs, finish in some short yardage situations and move the chains. It was really good to see.”
On Laviska Shenualt Jr. Returning From Injury
“I’ve said it every week. He is a tough kid and cares about this team. He is going to give us what he’s got, and he is going to show up for us. That was a prime example. Big time players make big time plays in the crunch time and that’s what that was.”
On Getting Pressure On The Quarterback
“We knew that if we got them to third down, we would be able to attack their protections and get to the quarterback. We just really needed our rush and our coverage to work together. The past three or four games on third down we had been able to get to the quarterback. We have been able to hit him. We just needed to have some sound coverage behind it. It is a credit to [Defensive Coordinator] Tyson Summers and our entire defensive staff. They work really hard with our players to teach, motivate and develop our guys. We are playing a lot of young players. We started two true freshman corners today. They played every snap. It is a credit to those guys. To those coaches and our players to continue to stay with it and continue to keep chopping.”
On The Game Winning Field Goal
“It was a really good snap, hold, protection and execution. He hit it clean. I was really happy to see it go through. It was an outstanding moment and really for him. That was something that doesn’t happen often to get a walk-off field goal like that. First time since 2007 against Oklahoma.”
On K James Stefanou And The Next Man Up
“James has a hip [injury]. He is banged up. He was available for maybe some shorter deals. We have confidence in Evan [Price]. Anyone we put on the field we have confidence that they can get the job done. It has been like that the entire season. Not necessarily in the kicking game, but with the offense and defense the next man has had to step up and get the job done. We have a tremendous amount of faith in our players and in our preparation that when they are called upon, they can step up and make plays for us.”
On Stanford TE Colby Parkinson
“He is a hard matchup. He is a really good player. When you have a player like that, he is going to make some plays. We just had to keep coming at him and try to tighten up the coverage and fight for the ball. When he catches the ball you have a hard time getting him on the ground. They look for him. That is what great players do. They make plays. Everyone we play has some really good players. Stanford is no different. That is a very well coached and hard-nosed football team. It was a great football game.”
On Importance of Getting the Win in front of Recruits
“Our recruiting is strong. There were a lot of really good players in attendance. Guys that we want. The Buff Nation is a very exciting and has an explosive type of atmosphere. The crowd is so into it you can feel the energy. You can feel everyone pulling in the same direction. Our fans our extremely hungry. Buff Nation deserves a winner. We are going to accomplish that through developing the guys who we have on our roster and continuing to coach those guys, and through recruiting. It is impressive to our recruits and their parents when they come to Boulder and they take in a game and see what we have to offer.”
Stanford head coach David Shaw
General
“Bottom line, we knew it was homecoming. Colorado has been playing really well at home, they played really well against USC and had a chance to close that game out. We knew it was going to be a tough game for us. They are very aggressive in all three phases. I thought for the most part that we handled it well but we didn’t make enough of our plays in order to pull away in this game. We had the lead a couple different times. We had a chance to extend the lead—call it a game of inches. Simi [Fehoko] had a chance to make that play in the back of the endzone, but we had to settle for a field goal. In the second half, we had the opportunity to score a touchdown, but we didn’t make the opportunity. We didn’t get the touchdown, so we had to kick a field goal and then missed the field goal. Defensively, after Simi’s big play we had the lead and all we had to do was get a stop and get the ball back. We just couldn’t get a stop so that is where we are at right now. We battled for three quarters, but we got to be better finishers.”
On what he thought the turning point game
“That’s the problem. There were many turning points. It was a back-and-forth game. Their quarterback played really well. He is an experienced and athletic guy. He is a strong and physical guy, he is hard to get on the ground. We made moves a couple of times to get the ball out of his hands and he threw a couple balls away. They also have a couple dynamic players, that dog-gone number two. He is a special player and we had a chance to tackle him a couple times, but we just couldn’t get him on the ground. You know, if we stop him on that fourth down, we have a chance to win the game. He made more plays than we did.”
On Colorado’s defense
“They just played really well. The third down plan for us was good. We made a couple plays in the second half and made some adjustments. The movement on the defensive line, which we have seen all year, but they had a couple of deals where they ran some stunts up front and we didn’t do a good job picking them up. Like I said, we still made a big play on third down which gave us the lead, but we just couldn’t hold it.”
On how hard it is playing on the road
“Every game is hard to win on the road. Teams play better at home. That’s why it is called home-field advantage. These guys have played well here. We needed a great effort, particularly on the defensive side. We had to keep them out of the endzone, and we couldn’t do that a couple times. Defensively, they had shown earlier in the year that they weren’t blitzing that much but the last couple games they have been blitzing a lot. We had a lot of blitz protection issues that we thought that we had solved. We did a good job for the most part, but some of those key third downs we got too much pressure and had some chances to make some big plays but just didn’t.”
On Stanford’s young inside linebackers
“They made some plays. Like a lot of young guys, they are fast, athletic and made some plays but we missed a couple of things. We knew that going into it that we have some young inexperienced guys against some experienced guys on the other side. You hope that the plays that you make outnumber the plays that you don’t make. But I thought that we got great effort and intensity from those guys. As a whole, we didn’t make enough plays.”
On the Simi Fehoko Touchdown
“Bottom line is that if we can get protection, we have the receivers and tight ends that can make some big plays. Colby Parks made two big catches on third down and Simi had some nice big plays. But it starts with the protection, if we get the protection then we give a chance for those guys to do something special.”
On Positives from the Defense
“Holding a team to 13 points for most of the game is pretty good in this conference. I thought a couple times we had a chance to really pin them back. We had field position advantage a couple times, but they got a couple first downs and put us back in our own end. You would love to get those stops where we had them pinned in and had some positive field position. We let them out a couple of times, but we still got enough stops. We just needed those big time stops in the fourth quarter but we just didn’t get them.”
Colorado Players
QB Steven Montez
On the win
“It feels good. We will take this momentum and hopefully we will get some good work into the bye week and then hopefully come out strong against Washington in two weeks.”
On moving forward
“We still have a lot of things in front of us. We can still do the things that we want to do if we play good football and play fundamentally sound and play as a team. We get this bye week, get dudes and get their legs back and get them healthy again, and then hopefully have a good week of practice going into Washington. It is all about the bye week first. We have to take it one week at a time. Even if we don’t have a game this week, we need to have a good week of practice.”
On the defense
“They played phenomenal. You guys already know that. They played their butts off. I believe that if they don’t play the way they did today then we don’t have a shot to win that game. All the credit to them. I am very happy that they got it done the way they did. They were very dominant.”
On the team's mindset
“We are just hungry. Everyone is hungry and ready to work. We understand that if we win these next two, we can become bowl eligible. That is a big thing for us. You can’t look ahead and focus on the second game so right now our focus is Washington. We are going to have our focus on them for two weeks. Hopefully we get two full weeks of work in and hopefully are really prepared and locked in mentally.”
On Laviska Shenault Jr.'s fourth-down conversion
“You saw it just gave everybody a jolt of energy. The O-line, running backs were fist pumping and everyone was excited. I was screaming and talking a little bit. When Viska goes and makes those plays that he does all you can do is sit and admire him. He is such a great player. We are really lucky to have him.”
On gaining confidence
“It gives us some confidence. We have had these opportunities in the past and have come up a little bit short. This time we put it all together and everyone was on the same page and mentally focused. We were playing really physical football. We ran it down the field. When you do that it is tough to stop you. Hopefully we can keep that going for these next couple of weeks.
DB/LB Davion Taylor
On the win
“It feels good. It has been like five weeks since we have won a game. It feels good to get a victory. We are going to take 24 hours to celebrate it and enjoy it, and then start focusing on Washington.”
On making big plays
“The last two plays I had a feeling they were going to get him [Stanford TE Colby Parkinson] to the sticks. I tried to make sure there was great eye discipline and focus on the things we predicted this week. The next play was the same thing. Having eye discipline and not looking back at the quarterback and try to make a play. That is what I did. This defense as a whole—we know our expectations coming into every week. We just try to meet those. We gave up 30 points the last couple of days and this game we were trying to make sure they didn’t score. Even though they got that one through the middle, we just tried to focus on being a run stop defense and trying to stop them being physical. Making sure we were in the best shape and we will focus on those things this week. We did that every day we got better. it showed on the field today.”
On Evan Price's game-winning kick
“I was excited. We believe in our kickers. That is why we put him in a position to make the kick. We were waiting for him to make it and when he made it, we were excited. We weren’t surprised because we believe in him and he practices every day at practice. We were very excited and rushed the field because it was exciting to get a win after all these weeks.”
K Evan Price
On kicking a game-winner
“That was my first game-winner. I just went out there and wanted to pretend it was just a practice kick, just do what I normally do trust my holder, trust the snapper, trust the line. Everything just went right.”
On what it means to start
“It was a ton of fun. As a kicker, you just got to be ready because you never know when something's going to happen. Injuries, missed kicks, whatever. Whatever it may be, you just got to be ready. Whether it’s second string, third string, it doesn't matter because you never know when you're going to go in.”
On if he was worried about playing today
“In the beginning of the week, our starter James was having some injury problems. We're figuring out during the week whether he's going to play or not. Then we found out by I think Thursday that I was going to be starting. I just tried to treat it like a normal game, whether I was playing or not. I just don't want to overthink anything.”
On his feelings when the kick went through
“It's just a surreal feeling and a lot of people put it on me for making that kick. It's just one kick that I made to get us there and the team’s amazing drive on offense. Defense is playing incredible the whole game. I just did the last one percent of it.”
On what it means to play with his brother
“It's incredible. I can’t ask for a better ending to his senior season. He's playing, I'm playing. It's working out for us and I just try to cherish these last couple games we're going to have with them.”
WR Laviska Shenault Jr.
On getting banged up in the first half
“It's the game of football. I'll be all right. I can't quit now, there's no point in quitting so I'm getting though any way impossible.”
On initial winning reaction
“Finally, finally we got this one. Shout out to Evan [Price]. He’s a freshman too. That's big for him. Blessed to be in a position that I'm in.”
On game-changing plays
“Tony Brown was supposed to be in a slot, and he wanted to switch with me. You know me, I'm a big competitor. I want to do stuff when there’s pressure and stuff on the line. I was thinking, give me the ball because it was it was an option to give me the ball or give it to the running back. I guess Steven [Montez] trusted me. I live for moments like this.”
On nerves of the final play
“I had to walk to the other side [of the field]. I was just thinking, ‘hopefully we make this.’”
On injuries
“I don’t have a lot of words to say about that, It’s very frustrating. I was raised the right way to keep going, keep going and keep pushing.”
On first-half injury
“In that screen, I got to the sideline, ran the dude over but my leg stayed there. It didn’t move with me. It just stayed there. It kind of hyperextended I guess but I was fine.”
On having a second bye week
“It’s big for me and the team. I definitely need this time to be able to get back right from another setback.”
On finally having a victory
“When that field goal went in I was like, ‘thank God, finally.’ Everybody in the middle [of the field] was celebrating and I was on the sideline like, ‘finally’. I think this will help the team, big time.”
LB Nate Landman
On the win
“It is huge. Going through that adversity and then having this emotion being positive, it is huge for this team. We are going to be able to build on it and it is going to fuel the rest of the season.”
On building conference
“It is huge for our mindset and for the confidence of this team. This game is going to be able to boost our confidence going into this bye week and into the next week. It is something we can look back and fall back onto. I’m proud of the way the defense played today. The offense came out there and drove the ball down the field. Today worked because we played a complete game.”
On the defense
“It is huge. We came out there and didn’t do anything crazy. We did our base stuff and got back to the basics. That is what our emphasis was. Doing the little things better and getting back to the basics. Not playing outside of ourselves.”
On if the team was aware of its streak of allowing 30 points
“You have it in the back of your mind how many points you’ve let up. You see it every week. At the end of the day it is who scores more points. If our offense gets more, than we don’t really care. I think we did a great job today and I love seeing that low score.”
On where the team goes from here
“Going back to practice. We played a great game but there are little things we need to work on. We gave up that long [79 yard] touchdown on 3rd-and-16. We can’t do that against the next two opponents. Those are good teams and they will take advantage of that. Doing the little things better.”
On pressuring the quarterback
“We wanted to get him flustered. I think we do a great job on third down with pressuring the quarterback and confusing offensive lines. We wanted to get him off his mark because he is a great quarterback and an accurate quarterback. We felt that if we got him off his mark it would be in our favor.”
CB Tarik Luckett
On finally playing a full game
“Last week I did get a full one [game] too. This week just having a home game, you know, that was just amazing seeing all the fans out there for Homecoming. Coming in was just a great experience.”
On getting more comfortable
“Every time I go out there, I just try to do my best. I know, coming from receiver to corner, a lot of people don't think I can do that, but I'm just trying to prove them wrong.”
On time playing corner
“Probably about half of season of senior year. That's probably about it.”
On finally getting a win
"The vibe in the locker room is just is unmatched. That's what you really play for. Just getting that win. A hard fought fourth quarter, game-winning field goal. I love it. Having a good time with our brothers.”
On trying to finish the season strong
“Every week we come here with the same mentality that we're going to dominate. It doesn't matter win or lose. It’s not about the other team. That's what coach says all the time. It's all about how we play. We just come in, do everything our hardest and try to win.”
On breaking the losing streak
“We've had our ups and downs on defense, but I feel like we come together every day and try to get better. That's all we can do. It just feels good to say that I'm stopping them every play and just knowing that you dominate your match.”
WR Tony Brown
On the postgame feeling
“Not going to lie, it definitely feels good. It's a great feeling to get back to that happiness. Obviously, we had that losing streak, but it feels it feels great.”
On huddle pump up
“It was earlier in the week. Coach Tucker showed us a video. He told us to chop it down the field. We want to keep chopping and chopping at that tree. Just keep running the ball and keep pushing. That's what we continued to do. We kept chopping it up. Obviously, we got the win. It was images of us from Colorado State and Nebraska, and how we kept fighting. There was a guy in the background talking about how to chop a tree and to just keep pushing. That's what motivated us all week. You could see coach on the sideline chopping it up. That's what we continued to do.”
On pass interference late in the game
“I knew it was coming. [Steven] Montez looked at me, so I knew I had to get open. I got open, but he threw a good ball, the DB came up and interfered with me, so it was a good call, but that that should have been a touchdown. It's something that Montez and I really work on a lot in practice, him throwing me the ball and leading me into the end zone. It was just a little short, but it was a good call.”
On not getting rattled under pressure
“No, that's what you don't want to do. When you panic then everybody else panics, then stuff won’t go right. We teach ourselves to stay calm, do your assignment, do what you got to do, and execute. That's what we did. We stayed calm. When you stay calm, things usually go right. So, that's what we did. There was a lot of adversity, but we pushed through it.”
On what it felt like for the game to come down to the last possession
“To be honest, that's not really what I'm thinking about. I'm just really focused on what I got to do. If it had to come down to what just happened, then it had come down to whoever wants it more. So, we wanted it more.”
On the defense
“They are doing an amazing job, there's no doubt. In practice, they've been making a lot of stops, so the credit goes out to them. They're the ones that really won us the game. Defenses wins championships, so the credit goes out to them. They did a great job.”
On finishing the year strong
“It would mean a lot. Coach Tucker came in and tried to change the culture, and he did. He's changing the culture. I don't know if everybody can see that, but he is definitely changing the culture. That's what we want to do. We want to finish strong so that when we leave CU, it will feel great.”
On ending the losing streak this year compared to last year
“I think it's more of being poised in adversity. Last year we weren’t really calm. I think things got out of hand. That was last year. When Coach Tuck came in, he was cool, calm and collected. I don't know if you've seen throughout the year, but when things are not going right, he's calm. He tells our guys to get it right, to keep pushing, and just cut down on our mistakes. He talks to the players the right way and that's the kind of coach you want.”
On where the team has matured the most
“I think the mentality of this team. It's a lot different than it was last year, I think we're more focused. We're focused on our individual assignments. When we do our individual assignments, we come together as one and we get things done. I think the mental part of that is what I see a lot. For me, from last year to this year, I saw a lot of things that I needed to improve on. I did that in spring ball and fall camp. I believe I improved a lot, but at the same time, there is still some things that I need to work on, but I improved a lot from last year.”
On if it was hard to focus during the losing streak
“When you're locked in and focused, no it's not. You just need to be locked in, focused, and do your assignments. That's all that really matters, just do your assignment, trust the guy next to you to do their assignment, and we'll get stuff done.”
On being vocal during the losing streak
“Having a losing streak sucks. You want somebody to step in and say something. For me being a quiet guy, I felt like I had to say something. Not just to yell at the guys, but to tell them about the reality of the situation. What was going on and what we needed to do and how we needed to come together as a team and change it.”
Stanford Players
QB K.J. Costello
On playing against CU's defense
“They do a good job and their defensive coordinator does a good job showing a lot of different looks. We’ve seen every look that they showed today on tape. I think they did a good job mixing it up. They came out and executed.”
On CU getting multiple sacks
“My eyes were downfield, so I’ll see on the tape on the flight home and figure it out. It’s part of the game. You play quarterback and you’re ready for teams to pressure you on third downs.”
On the difficulty of handling the hits from the defense
“It wasn’t difficult. You adjust your chin strap, look at the sideline and get ready for the next play and you’re ready to go.”
On the lack of touchdowns in the redzone
“It had a dramatic effect on the game. I think we were there four or five times. It puts stress on your defense countless times to hold [Colorado] to field goals instead of touchdowns and I think they scored more touchdowns than we did and that won them the ball game.”
On missing the chance for a fourth-quarter comeback
“It’s frustrating. I want the ball in my hands to win the game but it’s part of the game. There’s offense, defense, special teams. I knew when it was like six or seven minutes left in the game, I was treating that drive to win it. We didn’t do it. 3rd-3 and we didn’t convert. 4th-and-inches and we punt. You hope the defense can get a stop So we can come back and win the game. It didn’t happen. That’s life.”
On the challenge of handling the loss
“I think it’s good. It motivates the guys in the locker room. We can feel a little salt in the locker room post game. You can feel it from me, from the staff. We come here to win football games. We didn’t win so we go back to work on Monday and get ready to go after Washington State.”
WR Simi Fehoko
On how to bounce back after the touchdown call was reversed
“Sometimes we’re going to get that call. Sometimes we’re not. But that’s not really the point. My foot was out. We just had to regroup and try again.”
On the morale after his touchdown
“I went straight to the sideline and you know everybody was jumping around hyped. We were all juiced after that and we just had to go down and close it.”
On watching CU's final drive
“It’s obviously really tough, you know, seeing the defense out there. I know they’re able to make these plays and able to stop them. You know they can, but it’s tough. All in all, I speak for the offensive guys saying you know we all want to get back out on the field and were all rooting for the defense as well. I mean, it’s tough.”
LB Casey Toohill
On the difficulty of stopping CU on third downs
“A lot of it had to do with our execution and physicality on third downs. I don’t think they showed us anything we weren’t prepared for, but they played a bit harder than we did. They got a little extra push and that what really matters on 3rd-and-short. We didn’t get in many 3rd-and-longs.”
On defense adjusting after the first drive of the game
“We kind of [shook off] our first drive, we weren’t playing ourselves. Personally, I made a few mistakes and that’s just what happened but once we settled down, we started playing more of our style of football.”
On defensive gameplan
“To approach the game like any other. They play really well at home. They played well against USC in the past, so we knew we were going to get their best shot and we weren’t up to that.”
On not stopping CU in the fourth quarter
“It’s really disappointing. We didn’t finish at any phases of the game. Especially on defense at the end we just weren’t good enough and that’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the truth and we have to deal with it.”
On playing against Laviska Shenault Jr.
“He’s a great player and played great today. With any guy like that, we’re just very aware. We study but we didn’t have our game plan centered around him but we were aware of how talented he was.”
On the defensive mentality in the fourth quarter
“We wanted to make stops and that’s what you have to do to be a great defense. You have to stand up and stop them and we didn’t. Our focus was right but our execution wasn’t.
On whether or not young players set the defensive unit back
“No. It’s a good excuse if we want to feel better about ourselves but I think we just didn’t execute. We made too many mistakes and didn’t play hard enough. Those are better explanations in my mind on why we didn’t win.”
On the loss
“When we don’t do our jobs, don’t generate that final push [to get a stop] and [lose] one on one matchups it’s hard to win. We had too many critical instances where we didn’t win.”
On message to teammates going forward
“We have to learn from the film and be better finishers. We have to practice harder. We have an [up and coming] three-game stretch with no [bye week] we just got to go as hard as can and finish these games.”