Sept. 2, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Stanford Coach Walt Harris
"We ran into a well-oiled football team. Their quarterback played tremendously, and their offensive scheme gave our defense all sorts of trouble. They ran and caught the ball better."
"I thought we protected the passer better this year. But you can't tackle like we did and win games."
On playing Oregon for the season opener:
"With as many young guys as we have, we are probably better off to face this scheme early on."
"We have to tackle better. We didn't do a good job on special teams. We need to do a good job blocking on kick-offs."
On the blocked kick returned for TD by A.J. Tuitele:
"That hurts, it makes it look worse."
"Gary Crowton has made a huge difference in Mike Bellotti's football program."
On Oregon:
"They are athletically superior and superior in depth."
On the fumble play that went to review:
"That made it pretty interesting. [The Officials] checked it out themselves, so we didn't have to challenge."
On Dennis Dixon:
"Clemens was outstanding, but Dixon is going to be a fine player for them."
Stanford player quotes
WR Evan Moore
"We were able to complete some passes early, but the defensive schemes they switched to are what really got us. In the second half, they were really daring us to run and we weren't able to."
"We had some opportunities to make big plays, but we just didn't make them."
Defensive Coordinator A.J. Christoff
"With our young defense, this is a very difficult offense to start the season, and we had a very difficult time stopping the run. They did an outstanding job with play selection."
"We gave up big plays when we missed tackles, which is something we have really looked to improve on in practice. We have to become a better tackling football team."
"I thought we were well prepared to come in here and give these guys a fight, and I don't think we really did that. You have to give them, and they're quarterback, credit. They did a great job."
On Oregon's defensive backs:
"They did a pretty good job. They are very well-coached, and they tried some different techniques and made some adjustments that worked well."
Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti:
Overall thoughts on the game:
"I'm frustrated by the penalties and by a lack of execution. There are just a couple of guys that we need to get ready to play on special teams and on defense and in transition situations to be able to execute the way we want to."
"I was pleased overall with our offense, defense and special teams. When you score on special teams and then hold a team to only one touchdown, that's awesome."
"We ran the ball very efficiently; I'm extremely pleased with that. That was one of the goals we had coming into this year. I do think we should have had more points considering the number of yards we had especially more touchdowns. I told the team before today that I don't want to settle for field goals, I want touchdowns."
Offense:
"Overall Dennis did a great job throwing the ball and the offensive line did a great job as well. When we are able to run the ball Dennis has time to throw the football which is an assessment of that offensive line."
"That's group of five started every single game last year has really improved their communication, the coordination together and their physical effort. They fought hard all game long and we need that to continue the depth in that line, but overall I'm very pleased."
Running game:
"There are two things that we are doing this year. One, our backs are more comfortable in this system, they understand where the holes open up are so they can really cut loose and accelerate and know where the holes should open up. The second thing, Dennis is doing a great job operating the offense."
Defense:
"They competed and they got better as the game went on. We need to work on our pass defense a little bit and variation of our man techniques. We're not necessarily going to out weigh or be taller than our opponents so we need to have better techniques, we need more help from our defensive line in terms of pass pressure and squeeze the pocket."
Oregon Player Quotes
HB Jonathan Stewart
"It's just an ankle sprain. I'll be fine for Fresno State. I was cutting to the left for a first down and someone landed on me.
"I have high expectations. I expected this. It was a good game. We won. I'm happy with it."
WR James Finley
"We talked about finishing. Last year we didn't finish off a few games we could have finished earlier in the game. That was our mentality in the second half."
"We've been studying film all week. We knew them to a tee. We knew what we had to do to beat them."
C Enoka Lucas
"Stewart makes us look good. We put up the holes, he puts up the numbers."
HB Jeremiah Johnson
"We've got a 1-2 punch. Jonathan [Stewart] can go out and bust a long run, then I can go out and bust a long run."
"Fresno State is going to be a tough one, but I think we can pull it off. When you go away it's always going to be tough. We just have to keep in mind that we're the better team."
QB Dennis Dixon
"Today was an excellent game. Coach had a plan to give Jonathan [Stewart] and Jeremiah [Johnson] the ball a lot to prove we can run it. It worked in our favor today."
"It's a great duo in the backfield. Then again, we've got a lot of weapons to the spread the ball to."
"I haven't really established my leadership skills to the point where I want. This offense has come a long way, but we have a long way to go."
CB Jackie Bates
"It was a good opening game for us. We came to play. Now we just go back to work on Monday."
"We're approaching every game as the most important game of the year. This was a big game for us. I think we made a statement today."