Miami 45, Stanford 6
TAVITA PRITCHARD: I have a statement. All right. Can you guys hear me okay? I thought, first of all, hats off to Miami. They came in here and showed they're a really good football team. They played a good game. We missed the mark, especially early on and, you know, would have loved to have seen us play better early and see where that game goes. But we got to respond better to some of their scores and we didn't. That's part of competition and we know that. I'm excited for what we're going to learn from this and how we're going to grow.
That's the message to our team right now is what can we learn and what are the space we can grow in? And, again, I'll just finish by saying that's a good football team and we didn't play as well as we could have tonight. That's what we're excited about.
Q. Hi, Coach. What was the plan on covering Toney tonight. Where do you think things went awry?
TAVITA PRITCHARD: It's too simple to say tackle him. For a guy like that who's really good with the ball in his hands, it's about relentless pursuit and when you do have those opportunities, we have to play with great leverage and swarm to the ball. It really is about team tackling and making sure that you are leveraging the football. When you have your opportunities, getting him to the ground.
He showed he's thought of the way he is for a reason. He's really special with the ball in his hands.
Q. Hi, Coach. With the amount of pressure from the defense that Davis was facing tonight and how often he had to maneuver out of the pocket, what did you see from him that maybe you liked in how he was trying to manage it and where do I think that could improve with handling that pressure?
TAVITA PRITCHARD: It was really -- I was proud of the way that Davis played tonight in managing the different situations that he had to, getting the ball out of his hand in shots, protecting the football, not turning it off.
Against a defense like that, you know there's going to be some spots where there's pressure. I thought he did a nice job handle. I thought our guys fought all night. Not that it was the cleanest, but that's the thing that we can clean up and that's the thing that we know when we get better those spaces, that's where we're going to take steps as a team. We know that so much of it is going to be about how we continue to progress up front, at the quarterback position, all over the place.
Q. Specifically on the slow start, was that a mental preparation aspect of your guys or was there something schematically that Miami did or them just being a vastly more talented team. Talk about the slow start. What could have maybe accounted for a quicker start than what you guys got?
TAVITA PRITCHARD: You know what? As I think about our start, and obviously I get to watch the film here at some point. What it felt like is that we went out there and we made some mental mistakes early. I could have called it better when we got down there in the red zone that one time or the first time in the first half.
All of us share a part in it and I think -- I can't quite put my finger on what exactly it was, why we didn't play well enough early on, but that's why I coach. That's why we get to do what we do and figure out what it is exactly. But it's hard to put my finger on it at this point.
I just know that missing the mark early on not changes the complexion of the game but was a big part of the reason that the game continued to go the way that it was. We didn't apply enough pressure to Miami early enough in the game offensively, defensively and the game went the way it did.
Q. I guess it's a two-part question. Caden High, real good in the first half. Didn't play in the second half, so first of all, did he get dinged up? Was it precautionary? I know he was coming back from injury? Also what can you say about him as a weapon and what he gave you guys.
TAVITA PRITCHARD: Yeah, you saw Caden when he was out there. He's a warrior, first and foremost. He means so much to this football team. We knew we were going to manage his reps tonight with him coming off of something and was proud of the way he played when he was in there. He obviously makes us better. That's something that we have to manage and make sure that the season's not one game and so we had that on our minds and we were managing that.
I was so proud of the way that he came out and played, having not practiced here in a couple of weeks and, yeah. He means a lot to this football team.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach?
Q. I'm kind of curious how you manage trying to keep guys reps also when you're down by 30 points or whatever, making sure guys also don't get injured. Just kind of what's the philosophy behind that? How long do you want to keep guys in without guys getting injured when it's a blow-out situation? Managing that side of things as a coach. What's the philosophy there?
TAVITA PRITCHARD: So much right now is about growing our team and about the focus not so much being the result. It really is about when we are in there, whoever is in there, maximizing our reps and, again, putting on film who we say we are with the energy that we play with, with the focus we play with.
In those spaces, it is on our mind that when a game starts going a certain way, making sure that we're finding the right balance of not just getting guys experience but, again, continuing to grow and become the team that we want to be. I would say it's a constant balancing act of making sure that we're doing both.
Q. After two games in six days, how are you going to treat the next two weeks?
TAVITA PRITCHARD: We got to get better. We got to get better at football. That's the space this team will continue to live in. We all got to go home, look in the mirror and say what could I have done better tonight? And I have plenty I could have done better and I know I'm learning and growing as a coach.
Our staff is going to do that, our players are going to do that. So much about these next couple of weeks are how much better can we get as quickly as we can do it? That's what it's going to be about for us these next couple of weeks, just improving.
Q. In these two games from Davis, obviously different circumstances but you have the 300-plus yard performance in week zero and then today. In terms of how he fits in the scheme and him being this addition, how do you see him just continuing to grow and fit into the scheme even more?
TAVITA PRITCHARD: I know we're an offense-second drive the ball and score with Davis. I know that with him at the helm, again, the way he processes, the way he takes care of the football, how accurate he is, I know that this offense has somebody at the quarterback position that can help drive the team down the field and the way that he leads, he will give us the opportunity to do that. Again, now it's just continuing to grow.
Football is the greatest team sport in the world. Unfortunately, as important as the quarterback position is, he's not out there by himself. I think we can continue to grow as a full team, as an offensive unit. Again, there were spots tonight where we move the football. We converted. We got down in the red zone a couple of times. We got to finish. I think that's what that spoke to. We got to find consistency and we got to finish in the end zone. All right. Thanks so much.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports