Justin Ferguson Associated Press uh Auburn scores on the first drive and you guys kind of hold him in check for most of the way anything you guys did differently from that from that opening drive you just kind of stick to your guns and and out no I mean uh I think it was settling in U on the first drive we had a a couple losses in man we were a little aggressive and hitting our run fits fast on some of the RPO stuff um yeah I mean it wasn't anything that uh they made some good plays you got to give them credit they made good plays and we didn't make it enough and then that was settled down and played real competitive really all the way through had the one drive there in the fourth uh we had I think it was three 15 yard penalties you know the two pis and then the target 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 takeways for the difference thas done right for California Justin you've seen your fair Sheriff defensive slug you've seen gr and grind like like no other how do you even begin to describe the defense grinding through each and every ask yeah I mean I think just taking the field and uh against a really talented team 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 uh the defensive coaching staff deserves a ton of credit I mean obviously the players you know Teddy and null and we can go down the list the guys that impacted the game but those guys put a awesome plan together those those kids were prepared to play so Peter Surman and and Browning and Trey and TB and Vic those guys Des over ton of credit not a lot of people in the nation do about Ted you can entering this year what do you think they know now well he's a really good football player yeah we we knew because we had played against him prior and Teddy's a talented guy he physical uh but it's his approach that's as impressive as anything when when you're around the building with him the way he approaches meetings and walkthroughs and practice he's just a total professional and uh there's not much that he's not prepared for and it doesn't mean he's gonna be perfect but he's he's gonna be in the right places and he's gonna play really hard if somebody gets a play on him they're gonna have to earn it so uh I you you told me he's got had 11 tackles and tackled for loss and sacked the quarterback he was noticeable today you guys had as an offense a lot of turnovers last season but through two games zero turnovers and plus I think plus eight in takeaways now just how much of a huge difference is that for you in your program that me huge and we talked about coming into today you know wanted to be plus two to plus three and uh you know offensively there were some tough sleding against a really you know talented front and uh 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 uh you know uh protecting the football and not giving it to him I mean that's you know the only sacred thing in the program there's no sacred coach or player but the one sacred thing is the football and uh they took care of it today uh coach it looked like the team was really kind of relishing and the fans support the end of the game the postgame celebration I I think I heard it was over 5,000 Cal fans here that traveled to Alabama can you talk about what that means to the program and to the staff and the players being able to celebrate them that's the 5,000 group of 5,000 people I've heard if that was the number seemed like a lot more than that and obviously an incredible venue uh this environment we knew coming in it' be a great environment and loud and I mean that's why you play college football is to be in these environments and then 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 you old blues and young Blues just this time last year Mendoza and jam and Thomas were sitting on the sideline no one really knew about them other than you guys yeah what what type of growth have they shown you both as players and as people and what they did today yeah and uh it's just kind of the part of that process is sometimes guys are you just need an opportunity and uh both those guys will expect to continue to grow and get better but uh I think that the number one thing that shows up in environments like this when maybe practice it's not as clear um 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 it's just like that gives them energy and they love that and uh I think those two guys are like that you know I think Isaiah is like that because you know a month ago we probably talked about this last week I don't you I don't know if any of us would have thought Isaiah through two games would have done what he's done so I think that's just part of maturation and guys get opportunity and being prepared when they get the opportunity there any other questions in the room quick question coach U Doug football organically my voice from Cherry um you know Williams got an interception and he basically turned into an offensive player I was thinking to myself oh my gosh you know what is coach thinking about putting him on offense yeah I think no's playing pretty good defense right now we'll keep him there for right now uh we also had him back there on the long field you may have seen that right at the end of the half and that's another opportunity for n to get it kick return he gets opportunity there but I think for right now he's getting enough run playing on defense we'll keep him there he's doing a really good job he's playing really well and then my second question coach is like with 44 44 left in a half I think it was like fourth and two and you uh it was like 41 yard line look like you wanted to be aggressive like you normally do and go for it and then you call it time out what transpired there that was the one we pun it and then you pun we were getting the ball in the second half it's kind 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 thought the defense had settled in and you know maybe we could pin him and potentially get the ball back and if not stop him let's uh let's go to halftime and come out and get the ball in the second half uh didn't want to do something greedy give them the ball in the go Zone where they're in four down territory immediately right before the half so yeah right wrong and different 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 gotta consider all the context or if not the book's just going to be coaching the team and I think that punt was landed at the what one yard yeah he had two inside the two yard punt I we got a lot of Fai him yeah awesome yeah all right we're going to go to zoom now and the first question will come from M Mareno from Rivals go ahead coach you've talked a lot about these one score games in the past being on the wrong end of some of them um what's how important is it for you guys to to win this one in a one- score game and what does it mean to what you guys are trying to build well I think like I said before 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 and 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 um 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 give him the 24 hours to enjoy the win but we got a lot of football left to play next question will come from Jeff pado from Cal Bears on SI Justin um can you tell us how how Fernando was doing he got it looked like he tweaked his knee and came out for a little bit and then he went back at the end also I'm wondering how Jaden was today uh was it just them stacking their defense to stop your run or was he just not his full self right now well probably combination of all those things uh you know he was uh gutting it out trying to go he was dinged up a bit Jaden was and appreciate him making that effort and uh it was also tough sleding against that front um they're really talented in that group and and made it hard on us um and Fernando uh you know after the game he he uh he was bouncing around like he usually does and uh he had kind of a similar type thing happen in the bowl game and 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 talk about the first half he played 19 for 21 and they obviously started bringing a lot more pressure but in the first half he was nearly perfect I think one of the two incompletions was thrown away yeah it was uh yeah amazing that's really good 19 to 21 I mean when you complete the ball to our team like the change are going to move and we kept the ball didn't mean we score every time but man he had the had the two touchdowns in Isaiah we moved 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 uh what 13 more than they did and I think the time of possession was almost 10 minutes that's a big deal in a game like this um so yeah what a heck of a half I mean he really did he played he was really calm and thought he was going through his progressions well he was really good on the sideline disc 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 uh enjoying this win I also think Chandler came in and gave us a really valuable couple reps there wish we could have got him one more shot on that around play uh but he had a huge first down for us um so I I really like the quarterback room but I think obviously Fernando especially in the first half uh did a heck of a job and then we'll be able look at the tape as an offense quarterbacks running backs o line receivers and see what we can do better in the second half thanks we'll go to Jake Curtis from Cal Bears on thisi we can't hear you Jake walking Ru from the daily C go ahead hey coach you guys had 11 penalties for 77 yards you know you're playing in a hostile SEC environment 88,000 how do you guys you know what do you say to your team to overcome that and ultimately pull out the win well we got to be better pre-nap number one we have to be better pre- snap there penalties happen 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 we practiced a lot with silent count and some clap um and we did not do a good enough job on offense managing the the pre-nap 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 uh the targeting call you know all three of them on on one drive that was difficult so obviously we have to continue to coach the players and and use great technique so we can uh play aggressive without getting penalties and then one more um you know you talk about penalties and those being frustrating but on the other end you have countless timely plays today can you talk about how big those are in a 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 uh 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 punter is another one like uh 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 J I know you said ear in the week you were hopeful that ke Tobias we gonna be able to suit up how CL up yeah it's yeah week to week right now uh it's unfortunate we've had a number of injuries on the offense you know the two two wide outs two lineman uh Jaden 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 uh you know you want to get your team as healthy as as possible and they're starters for a reason but again it gives guys an opportunity you know I don't know if naiah Hunter if we know exactly where he would be without you know those opportunities got so um I guess that's the Bittersweet part of it but we need to get those guys back um 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 uh special teams and then the defense obviously with the takeaways I mean they that was the difference