Cal FB: Cal at Auburn (9.7.2024) Postgame Presser - Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox

Yeah you mentioned several times the failure to close out those tight games at the end. And this is obviously a big statement coming in SEC territory to take that lead What did that mean to the team? Well, it creates confidence. It validates the work you put in all that, all the things you do in the offseason and fall camp gives you validation. And it's great to be able to watch the video and learn some lessons because there'll be lessons to be learned, but come out with a victory against a really talented team in a in a hostile environment. It's a big win. Justin Ferguson, Associated Press. Auburn scores in the first drive Yeah. Anything you guys do differently from that for that opening drive to I'm just kind of no yeah no I mean I think it was settling in on the first drive. We had a, a couple losses and man, we were a little aggressive and hitting our run fits fast on some of the RPO stuff. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't anything that, uh, they made some good plays and you got to give them credit. They made good plays and we didn't make enough. And then I thought we settled down and played real competitive really all the way through. Had the one drive there in the fourth we had, I think it was three 15 yard penalties, you know, the two PIs And then the targeting, which it's really hard to stop them when you when you do that. But the guys kept competing and did it all day. And the five takeaways were the difference. Justin, you've seen your fair share of defensive slugfest here. Yeah. Do you get to describe the defensive grinding you? Yeah, I mean, just taking the field and against a really talented team, uh, a good football team and, you know, stepping up to the challenge each and every time. And I, those guys are competitive guys and really proud of them. The defensive coaching staff deserves a ton of credit. I mean, obviously the players, you know, Teddye and Nohl, we can go down the list of guys that impacted the game, but those guys are awesome playing together and those those kids were prepared to play. So Peter Sirmon and and Browning and Tre and TB and Vick, those guys deserve a ton of credit. Not a lot of people knew Teddye Buchanan before this season what do you think they know now? Well, he's a really good football player. You know, we knew because we had played against him prior. And Teddye's a talented guy. He's physical, but it's his approach that's as impressive as anything. I mean, when you're around the building with him, the way he approaches meetings and walkthroughs and practice, he's just a total professional and there's not much that he's not prepared for. And it doesn't mean he's going to be perfect, but he's he's going to be in the right places and he's going to play really hard. And if somebody gets a play on him, they're gonna have to earn it. And so I think he had you told me he's got a he had 11 tackles and tackles for loss and sacked the quarterback. I mean he was noticeable today you guys as an offensive long term his last season 30 games zero turnovers and plus plus 18 and takeaways now just how much of a huge a difference is that for you and yeah I mean huge and we talked about coming into today you know wanting to be +2 to +3 and you know offensively there was some tough sledding against a really, you know, talented front. And you know, there was times when we were we were kind of playing that field position game and maybe we'll get to him. But if we don't the punter was big today, really big. And, you know, protecting the football and not giving it to him. I mean, that's the only sacred thing in the program. There's no sacred coach or player, but the one sacred thing is the football and they took care of it today. Coach It looked like the team was really kind of relishing in the fans support at the end of the game. The post-game celebration. I think I heard it was over 5000 fans here that travel to Alabama. Can you talk about what that means to the program? Man, I mean, that's the loudest 5000 group of 5000 people I've heard. If that was the number, it seemed like a lot more than that. And obviously an incredible venue, this environment we knew coming in and be a great environment and loud and I mean, that's why you play college football is to be in these environments and then to be able to run off the field and see all those smiling faces right there in the corner wearing blue and gold. That was special. So we appreciate them. Thank thank you all. Who came out and who couldn't come that watched on TV. And we appreciate all you, old blues and young blues. Just this time last year, if we're honest with you guys. Yeah. What type of growth of players and this people and what they did. Yeah. And it's just kind of a part of that process is sometimes guys are you just need an opportunity and both those guys will expect to continue to grow and get better. But I think the number one thing that shows up in environments like this when maybe practice it's not as clear is when they get in these competitive environments, when the lights are on and there's 80 whatever thousand out there and it's loud and you know, some guys are just like that gives them energy and they love that. And I think those two guys are like that. You know, I think Nyziah's like that because, you know, a month ago we talked about this last week. I don't know if any of us would have thought Nyziah through two games would have done what he's done. So I think that's just a part of maturation and guys getting opportunity and being prepared when they get the opportunity. Any other questions? And a really good question. Coach Doug Parrish football organically. I've lost my voice from cheering you know Nohl Williams got an interception he basically turned into an offensive player. I was thinking to myself, Oh my gosh, you know, what is Coach thinking about playing him on offense and yeah, I think Nohl's playing pretty good defense right now. We'll keep him there for right now. We also had him back there on the long field goal. You may have seen that right at the end of the half and that's another opportunity for Nohl to get it kick return. He gets the opportunity there. But I think for right now he's getting enough run. Playing on defense will keep him there. He's doing a really good job. He's playing really well. And then my second question, coaches like with 4:40 left in the half punted to and you have it was like 41 yard line it looked like you wanted to be aggressive like you normally do it, go for it and then you call the timeout what transpired there. That was one where we were punting it? Yeah we were getting the ball in the second half You know just listen there's analytics and we have all that stuff and there's the book says this, the book says that, but at the end of the day, you got to do what you think is right for the team. And we were going to get the ball to start the second half of how the defense had settled in. And, you know, maybe we could pin them and potentially get the ball back. And if not, stop them. Let's let's go to halftime and come out and get the ball in the second half. Didn't want to do something greedy and give them the ball in the go zone where they're in four down territory immediately right before the half. So yeah, right wrong, indifferent. The book says I think the book there said to go but you know, I don't know like at some point the human beings got to consider all the context or if not, the book's just going to be coaching the team. I think that punt was landed at the what. Yeah, I think he had two inside the two two yard line. Yeah. I've got we got a lot of faith in him. Yeah. Yeah. All right We're going to go to Zoom now. And the first question comes from Matt Moreno of Rivals. Go ahead. Now, what about these 24 games in the end of some of them, you guys did win this one in one game. And what does it mean to what you guys are trying to build? Well, I think, like I said before, it it builds confidence because there's really no way to build confidence without demonstrated performance. I mean, I think you can prepare the best you can, but to truly be a confident player, you got to go out and and demonstrate it. And I thought the guys did that. It validates the work they put in, in the meetings, in the walkthroughs, all the things we're asking them to do. And now the key is that we continue to get better. I mean, this can't be the best we play all year, you know, like we got to continue to grind and get better and I'm excited to get back and watch the tape and, you know, we'll celebrate. But we got a game next week and we'll get in the 24 hours to enjoy the win. But we got a lot of football left to play. Next question will come from Jeff Faraudo from Cal Bears on SI Justin, can you tell us how Ferndando is doing is being played back at end? Also, I'm wondering how Jaydn was today. Was it just well, probably combination of all those things. You know, he was gutting it out, trying to go he was dinged up a bit. Jaydn was. And I appreciate him making that effort. And it was also tough sledding against that front. They're really talented in that group and made it hard on us. And Fernando, you know, after the game, he he was bouncing around like he usually does, and he had kind of a similar type thing happen in the bowl game and, you know, kind of everybody holds their breath and then he bounces up off the ground. So we'll hopefully get some great news. But he seemed fine. Post-Game You talked about the first half. He played 19 for 21 and they obviously started bringing a lot more pressure in the first half. he was nearly perfect one throw away. Yeah, it was. Yeah. I mean, that's a really good 19 of 21. I mean, when you complete the ball to our team, like the chains are going to move and we kept the ball. Didn't mean we score every time but man he had that he had two touchdowns in Nyziah. We move the chains we were on the field a lot more. I think at the end of the game today we were you know, in terms of the play count, we had what, 13 more than they did. And I think the time of possessions of almost 10 minutes, that's a big deal in a game like this. So, yeah, what a heck of a half. I mean, he really did and he played. He was really calm and I thought he was going through his progressions. Well, he was really good on the sideline just communicating. So thought he did a heck of a job. Is the quarterback competition kind of over? Well, he obviously did a great job today. You know, I think what we're doing right now is enjoying this win. I also think Chandler came in and gave us a really valuable couple reps there. I wish we could have got him one more shot on that around play, but he had a huge first down for us. So I really like the quarterback room, but I think obviously Fernando, especially in the first half, did a heck of a job and there will be a look at the tape as an offense. Quarterbacks, running backs, O-line receivers and see what we can do a better in the second half. We'll go to Jak Curtis from Cal Bears on SI can't hear you Jake Yeah all right we go to Joaquin Ruiz from the Daily Cal go ahead Joaquin it goes you guys had 11 penalties for 77 yards you know you played it. Well, we got to be better pre-snap, number one. And we have to be better pre-snap penalties happened in a game, you know, especially when you're playing a really talented roster with hand placement and guys pulling away from you like penalties come up. We want to try to eliminate them as much as we can, but we got to get rid of the pre-snap stuff and we practiced a lot with Silent Count and some clap and we did not do a good enough job on offense managing the pre-snap stuff. So that'll be one area. We can definitely make big, big strides on defense. You know, the PIs, those those were tough. And then the the targeting call you know all three of them on one drive that was difficult. So obviously we have to continue to coach the players and use great technique so we can play aggressive without getting penalties. That's the one more. You know, you talk about those being frustrating, but on the other end, you have countless timely plays today. Can you talk about how big those are? The road environment? Yeah, it's just going to take a while because there were so many big plays, like there's going to be ones that are obvious, the interceptions are obvious, and then there's going to be plays in a drive on offense that might not jump out to you, but if we don't make that play, we don't have a chance to end up scoring, you know. So the punters, another one like the punt team and downing the ball, like there's just so many of them. If you want to talk about a couple more than happy to. But it's going to be hard for me to go through them all. All right. We'll wrap this up with the last question in the room here from Thomas. Justin know you said earlier in the week So, yeah, it's yeah, week to week right now. It's unfortunate. We've had a number of injuries on the offense. You know, the two wideouts two O-linemen, Jaydn. So I'm really proud of the way the guys are, have stepped up, especially in a tough environment like this. And we're going to need those guys to get back as soon as possible. You know, you want to get your team as healthy as possible and their starters for a reason. But again, it gives guys an opportunity. You know, I don't know if Nyziah Hunter, if we know exactly where he would be without, you know, those opportunities he got So I guess that's the bittersweet part of it. But we need to get those guys back. And that way we can continue to be more, more and more productive on offense. But I thought today, I mean, all in all, just a team victory, you know, offense did what they had to do, special teams and then the defense obviously with the takeaways. I mean, that was the difference. So I think. All right. Thank you.