Miami will face Stanford in a Friday night ACC clash. The Cardinal currently sit at 1-0 after surpassing the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in a Week 0 matchup. Here on CanesInSight we've been getting fans ready, providing numerous articles on the website about the upcoming matchup.
Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard is back at his alma mater. Prior to Stanford, he served as the quarterbacks coach for the Washington Commanders. He played quarterback in 2008 for the Cardinal, leading them to a record of 8-5.
Pritchard spoke with the media ahead of the Cardinal matchup against the Hurricanes. Here are some key quotes he has to say ahead of the game.
On what went wrong for Stanford in the fourth quarter against Hawaii: I mentioned this in the postgame press conference. Obviously we want to be a team that plays holistic football, and especially with how I'm positioned in working with the offense more closely, kind of day to day, of course my first thought is, we have to do a better job sustaining drives late in that game to not just give our defense a chance to breathe, but to also continue to put pressure on the opponent, on Hawaii there. And we didn't do a good enough job of sustaining drives, right? We came out a couple of three and outs that didn't sustain drives for us, and that was part of the issue. And then on defense, a couple of miscues, some missed leverage, some different times that we could have just—we had opportunities to get off the field two of those drives that were extended by penalties. That happens, but just kind of contextually things that kept those drives alive that we can clean up and get off the field on defense. So, you know, it's a little bit of everything.
On Davis Warren's performance against Hawaii: I thought Davis was efficient throughout the day. I thought he did a nice job of, you know, with his eyes and making his way through progressions, of finding the open guy. I thought we already talked about the finish of the game, but when it really counted, I think he did a nice job of taking the offense down the field to go punch that thing in to take the lead back. And I thought he did a nice job just overall just operating the offense. For a game one, we didn't play it perfectly, but relatively clean in terms of just the operation of it, getting to the line of scrimmage, getting the play call, and allowing us to execute.
On how Stanford views Friday’s matchup against Miami: They're all opportunities to find out who we are. That first week was an opportunity to find out who we were, and we did. We learned stuff about ourselves, which will position us going into this week to learn even more. And, so much of that for us is the way that we think about competition is it is competition to develop and be the best version of ourselves every day. And what's cool about our sport and the space we exist in is, like, you get immediate feedback, right? And not just when we practice against each other and compete against each other, but when you go into a you play against an opponent, and you get to watch the tape and find those learning lessons and be able to grow from them. Excited about this upcoming week, because it is another week to learn about ourselves and where we can continue to grow against an outstanding opponent. Like we're fully aware of the challenge in front of us and the quality of this team coming into Stanford Stadium. And what's interesting is it's a little bit counterintuitive, when it comes to a matchup like this, in that it is about us. It is about what we do. And, of course, at the same point in time, you can't lose sight of the talent that's across the ball from you, the schemes that they run, the personnel, and making sure that you're doing everything you can to find a winning edge there.
On Stanford’s confidence from last year’s matchup with Miami: That's interesting. So much year to year. It's one of the things I love about our sport, is it is— of course there are things I think we talked about this last week, like what do you learn from the tape a year ago, from the Hawaii game a year ago. And of course there are lessons you can pull forward from, whether it's guys that are still on the team who are just learning off the tape and their technique, or if it's kind of about how the game went and the essence of the game. I think at the end of the day, when you think about a matchup like this, and I just talked about it kind of with the tension that lies within specifically who the opponent is and the opponent not really mattering. Like I think that's the space that we have to continue to live in because, when you look at last year's game, we ran a different scheme. They have a lot of new players. They obviously won't be exactly the same because I'm sure, like many coaches, they go and do their studies and say, Hey, how do we want to change what we do? How do we want to adjust to our personnel? And so we're fully expecting new wrinkles. Not a new look completely, but you really go into this game. It's the first game for them this year, and so they will be a much different team, and we will have to apply our rules and play really fast.
On what felt different for Tavita Pritchard in his first game as a head coach: I think I tried to hold my expectations really loosely going into that game, knowing that I had never coached a game as a head coach. Here's what's really interesting, is I kind of compared it. I was speaking with my wife, Caroline, after the game, and she asked a similar question. She was like, Well, what was it like? What was it versus your expectations? And I actually drew a strong connection to playing quarterback, because I remember being and playing quarterback on the field, being in the huddle, being in the helmet. There is so much mentally and physically and emotionally on your plate. You take the physical part out of it for me, other than the couple times I ran down the sideline. But you really just have to do a good job of maintaining focus and switching focus. And it did take me back a little bit to playing quarterback, because, like, in those situations, if you don't just focus on the task at hand, you can really lose track and lose sight of what you're doing in that moment. And I think the interesting thing and the difference maybe of being a head coach now is there were times I had to kind of strategically zoom out and make my lens bigger to check in with the defense, to check in with the special teams, to kind of look at the whole situation. And that's where it was a little bit different. But just in terms of having to move that focus around and maintain focus, it was really similar to playing quarterback.
On Darian Mensah’s fit in Miami’s offense and how Stanford plans to defend him: He's a talented player, and we know that he's a guy that we're going to have to affect him in the pocket. We're going to have to get him off the spot. We are absolutely going to have to do a great job of staying in our rush lanes and, covering some really talented skill players on that side of the ball. I also know, having been around Coach Cristobal in our former conference, that they're going to be a physical team, and they're going to do their best to impose their will on our defense. And that's a challenge that we're going to have to rise to that occasion. And so he fits in that system because, you know, as a talented, like player, thrower of the football, distributing the ball, like he's going to have some opportunities, right, to make that happen. It's on us to make it really tough, right? So sticking in coverage and, like I said, kind of get him off the spot and get after him in the pocket. And we will have our work cut out for us. We know that this is going to be, you know, a big part of the challenge is making sure that we're able to kind of meet their physicality.
Stanford head coach Tavita Pritchard is back at his alma mater. Prior to Stanford, he served as the quarterbacks coach for the Washington Commanders. He played quarterback in 2008 for the Cardinal, leading them to a record of 8-5.
Pritchard spoke with the media ahead of the Cardinal matchup against the Hurricanes. Here are some key quotes he has to say ahead of the game.
On what went wrong for Stanford in the fourth quarter against Hawaii: I mentioned this in the postgame press conference. Obviously we want to be a team that plays holistic football, and especially with how I'm positioned in working with the offense more closely, kind of day to day, of course my first thought is, we have to do a better job sustaining drives late in that game to not just give our defense a chance to breathe, but to also continue to put pressure on the opponent, on Hawaii there. And we didn't do a good enough job of sustaining drives, right? We came out a couple of three and outs that didn't sustain drives for us, and that was part of the issue. And then on defense, a couple of miscues, some missed leverage, some different times that we could have just—we had opportunities to get off the field two of those drives that were extended by penalties. That happens, but just kind of contextually things that kept those drives alive that we can clean up and get off the field on defense. So, you know, it's a little bit of everything.
On Davis Warren's performance against Hawaii: I thought Davis was efficient throughout the day. I thought he did a nice job of, you know, with his eyes and making his way through progressions, of finding the open guy. I thought we already talked about the finish of the game, but when it really counted, I think he did a nice job of taking the offense down the field to go punch that thing in to take the lead back. And I thought he did a nice job just overall just operating the offense. For a game one, we didn't play it perfectly, but relatively clean in terms of just the operation of it, getting to the line of scrimmage, getting the play call, and allowing us to execute.
On how Stanford views Friday’s matchup against Miami: They're all opportunities to find out who we are. That first week was an opportunity to find out who we were, and we did. We learned stuff about ourselves, which will position us going into this week to learn even more. And, so much of that for us is the way that we think about competition is it is competition to develop and be the best version of ourselves every day. And what's cool about our sport and the space we exist in is, like, you get immediate feedback, right? And not just when we practice against each other and compete against each other, but when you go into a you play against an opponent, and you get to watch the tape and find those learning lessons and be able to grow from them. Excited about this upcoming week, because it is another week to learn about ourselves and where we can continue to grow against an outstanding opponent. Like we're fully aware of the challenge in front of us and the quality of this team coming into Stanford Stadium. And what's interesting is it's a little bit counterintuitive, when it comes to a matchup like this, in that it is about us. It is about what we do. And, of course, at the same point in time, you can't lose sight of the talent that's across the ball from you, the schemes that they run, the personnel, and making sure that you're doing everything you can to find a winning edge there.
On Stanford’s confidence from last year’s matchup with Miami: That's interesting. So much year to year. It's one of the things I love about our sport, is it is— of course there are things I think we talked about this last week, like what do you learn from the tape a year ago, from the Hawaii game a year ago. And of course there are lessons you can pull forward from, whether it's guys that are still on the team who are just learning off the tape and their technique, or if it's kind of about how the game went and the essence of the game. I think at the end of the day, when you think about a matchup like this, and I just talked about it kind of with the tension that lies within specifically who the opponent is and the opponent not really mattering. Like I think that's the space that we have to continue to live in because, when you look at last year's game, we ran a different scheme. They have a lot of new players. They obviously won't be exactly the same because I'm sure, like many coaches, they go and do their studies and say, Hey, how do we want to change what we do? How do we want to adjust to our personnel? And so we're fully expecting new wrinkles. Not a new look completely, but you really go into this game. It's the first game for them this year, and so they will be a much different team, and we will have to apply our rules and play really fast.
On what felt different for Tavita Pritchard in his first game as a head coach: I think I tried to hold my expectations really loosely going into that game, knowing that I had never coached a game as a head coach. Here's what's really interesting, is I kind of compared it. I was speaking with my wife, Caroline, after the game, and she asked a similar question. She was like, Well, what was it like? What was it versus your expectations? And I actually drew a strong connection to playing quarterback, because I remember being and playing quarterback on the field, being in the huddle, being in the helmet. There is so much mentally and physically and emotionally on your plate. You take the physical part out of it for me, other than the couple times I ran down the sideline. But you really just have to do a good job of maintaining focus and switching focus. And it did take me back a little bit to playing quarterback, because, like, in those situations, if you don't just focus on the task at hand, you can really lose track and lose sight of what you're doing in that moment. And I think the interesting thing and the difference maybe of being a head coach now is there were times I had to kind of strategically zoom out and make my lens bigger to check in with the defense, to check in with the special teams, to kind of look at the whole situation. And that's where it was a little bit different. But just in terms of having to move that focus around and maintain focus, it was really similar to playing quarterback.
On Darian Mensah’s fit in Miami’s offense and how Stanford plans to defend him: He's a talented player, and we know that he's a guy that we're going to have to affect him in the pocket. We're going to have to get him off the spot. We are absolutely going to have to do a great job of staying in our rush lanes and, covering some really talented skill players on that side of the ball. I also know, having been around Coach Cristobal in our former conference, that they're going to be a physical team, and they're going to do their best to impose their will on our defense. And that's a challenge that we're going to have to rise to that occasion. And so he fits in that system because, you know, as a talented, like player, thrower of the football, distributing the ball, like he's going to have some opportunities, right, to make that happen. It's on us to make it really tough, right? So sticking in coverage and, like I said, kind of get him off the spot and get after him in the pocket. And we will have our work cut out for us. We know that this is going to be, you know, a big part of the challenge is making sure that we're able to kind of meet their physicality.
