Coach Patterson on coming to the Valero Alamo Bowl
“On behalf of the Athletic Director and the rest of the TCU clan, we are just excited to be in our second Valero Alamo Bowl against an unbelievable opponent and a very good friend of ours, David Shaw. For us to have an opportunity to possibly win our 11th ball game of the season and send our seniors out in style, we know we’re going to play a great opponent and we also know we’re going to play an opponent who’s very physical. We’re very excited about the matchup and to be able to stay in the state of Texas and be able to help our recruiting process and I look forward to getting back on a winning pace. We want to thank all of you for the opportunity to be in San Antonio on the 28th and get an opportunity to represent TCU one more time [this year].”
Coach Shaw on coming to the Valero Alamo Bowl
“All of us here at Stanford are so excited and so grateful for this opportunity to go to the Valero Alamo Bowl. I’ve spent some time in San Antonio, my wife and I have, and we absolutely loved it down by the Riverwalk and we just can’t wait to get back down there and experience the very well-known hospitality. I’m excited to see Gary Patterson again. Gary is one of the best coaches in America. Every year he fields an unbelievable team with greats guys that play really hard for him. His coaching staff and their character shows itself every single year. We’re excited for this opportunity to come and play a great team on national TV in a great venue. Can’t wait to get there.”
Coach Patterson on exceeding preseason predictions and how the football program performed this season
“One of the things we felt was that we had a group coming back that really works when we get into two-a-days. I told people before the season ‘I really like this group of guys’. They know how to work, they have a great time, and they treat each other right, they’re like family. You know, it was one of those groups that you love coaching: when you get around a group of guys that want to do right things and have a goal in mind. For us, our mindset is ‘Eyes up, keep climbing’ and we just go out everyday to prove that we’ve been the program that TCU has been in the past which we tried to accomplish this year. And we believe we’ve been able to do that. We’re excited about our season and how it turned out and we’re excited about the [Valero] Alamo Bowl and an opportunity to test ourselves against a really good football team, Stanford. TCU is excited. I think the Valero Alamo Bowl will have a great group of kids that will come and try to give a great ballgame and will try to represent TCU in the right manner.”
Coach Patterson on TCU’s defense and Travin Howard
“Travin is a typical TCU guy. He was a safety coming out of high school that can play many positions. He plays hard and plays hurt and banged up. He was out for a couple of weeks and came back for the Oklahoma game in the Big 12 Championship game. He is what every coach wants. You want 100 Travin Howard because he’s going to be a constant team player. He’s always going to do what’s right for the people around him and he plays really hard and he has a lot of athletic ability. And we’re going to need a lot of those guys in this ballgame.”
Coach Shaw on Stanford’s performance overall this year
“The biggest thing to say about our football team is with such high expectations of us at the beginning of the year, some of them probably a little unfounded with a lot of question marks going into the year, we started of the season at 1-2 with a lot of doubts and a lot of naysayers and a lot of things around the program or people saying things, but inside the program our guys got back to work. And one of the things I’ll say about this team is that we’re unbelievably resilient, which is to me the most important characteristic of any human being: ‘Can you bounce back from adversity’ ‘Can you bounce back from tough situations’. So to start 1-2 and then win 8 of 9 games after that and come back and find our way to the Pac-12 Championship game and then end up only 3 points down from winning that game, really only a yard from winning that football game, says a lot about our character and a lot about our toughness. And with Bryce Love to play that last part of the season on one ankle and to be in excruciating pain with hardly any practice and going every week thinking we’re best to sit him out, the day before the game he runs out there and makes some cuts and can kind of accelerate and says ‘Coach, I can go’. We throw him out there and just when we’re about to pull him, every single game he rips out a 30-40-50-60 yarder. He’s just an amazing person, amazing football player, and we’re going to need to give him as much rest as we can give him before we play TCU knowing that story defense they’ve got going there. We’re going to need him at full strength or as close as we can get him.”
Coach Shaw on Bryce’s character off the field
“As Coach Patterson was saying, you always have a few guys every year that you start to talk about and wonder if people actually believe what you say because it doesn’t sound real. We’re talking about a kid who’s listed at 195-200 pounds or whatever he is. But to lead college football in yards after contact says a lot about how tough and how physical he is. He loves to run the ball between tackles. He’s not a scat-back that likes to go outside. He loves to run the power play and right down the middle of the field, that’s just his mentality. And by the way, he’s Pre-Med and is taking biology classes. Last summer he worked in a stem cell lab doing stem cell research. He wants to be a pediatrician and be a doctor for young people. Every single day he smiles no matter how much pain he’s in. He loves life, and he’s a positive influence on everyone he meets. He’s just one of those guys in college football that we need to tell more stories about on every single team: these guys that are real people and are great people that you want your sons to look up to and be like.”
Coach Shaw on K.J. Costello’s development
“We have a relatively complex system that takes quarterbacks a while to take a hold of and we put a lot on his plate as far as calling three plays in the huddle and as far as having an extensive audible package, a ‘kill-and-alert’ system, and a pretty hefty wristband that takes a while to learn. And to go into his second year and being kept off the field because of an injury early on, and for him to come out and finish the game against UCLA and have one heck of a game against Arizona State. He came back later in the year and he’s a gun slinger. For him, he’s got a lot to learn to do everything perfectly, but what he is is gritty. He’s a fighter and when the chips are down, he’ll step up in the pocket and throw the ball as well as anybody in America. He’s got a lot to learn. He’s got a long way to go, but we know in the future he’s got a chance to be really special.”
Coach Shaw on final thoughts heading into the Valero Alamo Bowl
“I’m so excited. So much gets talked about in college football, a lot of things that don’t matter. But these bowl games are special. These bowl games are an opportunity to work with young people and get some extra practices. It’s also a way, as Coach Patterson said, to send seniors off in the right way against a great opponent in a great, cool venue. And with all those things that lead up to the game, you want to be apart of everything and enjoy the whole experience, and then come back and play one heck of a football game against a great opponent. I just can’t wait to get there.”
Coach Patterson on final thoughts heading into the Valero Alamo Bowl
“I would also second that. I think what people don’t understand is that one of the things I still fight for is bowl games. I think they’re a reward to the student athletes and experience for kids to get to go somewhere that they’ve never gotten a chance to go to before to not only play against a great opponent that you don’t normally get to play against, but also a chance to meet new people and experience something in your life that some people may never get a chance to do again. Even though we’re from the state of Texas, there are many kids that have never been to San Antonio so this will be their first time to be apart of the Riverwalk and be apart of the hospitality and to be apart of that kind of venue and that kind of game is truly a lot of fun. Again, not only do I want to congratulate Coach Shaw on his team because of the way they play and the way they do things, but also to the Valero Alamo Bowl for giving us both the opportunity to put on a great show and ballgame and know that no matter who wins and has more points, both of us [Stanford and TCU] are winners. Thank you very much.”