they we're going to have a great result so that was just a testament to the coaching staff calling great plays and everybody on offense having all 11 guys execute their play and do their job and stay poised so it was a great job by the offense collectively and all safe to say it was the biggest game in your career yeah shout out to my defense man they kept my spirits High you know I didn't have the best you know first series so and shout out to the leaders you know keeping the juice you know so I I couldn't let those guys down so it was a collective effort Thomas done right for Califoria Fernando a smooth first half for you and a gritty and gutty second half from you how are you able to manage all the adjustments you had to make both in processing both an execution throughout the game yeah on offense we got started hot and second half Auburn's a great team Testament to their their Community their fans and their team and their coaches because they they they were doing great and and they came after us in the second half but it was still having that juice that no one's talking about it's the Synergy of our team it's the culture of our locker room and just the culture of the team leaders and no matter who it is we have everybody waving towels saying let's go there's no player hierarchy in in Cal it was everybody cheering each other on whether you had a great play whether you had a Soo play it was all of us coming together and maintaining that energy in front of 88,000 and no you're a season veteran you've seen it all throughout your time in college football who did you lean on when you said you had that tough first TR who did you lean on to help get yourself back in that game I'm lean on all the people in the debut group man shout out miles shout out Craig Jer Lou all the those guys man marus yeah Marcus feel me and my yeah free Marcus and my coaches man sto me you know you know just stay locked in stay locked in stay locked in so that's what I had to do Fernando uh did you come into this game thinking you might have to throw the ball quite a bit instead of the running game with your outstanding running attack we have an amazing running attack and that stems from coach blash all the offensive lineman and the plethora of running backs excuse me that we have we have you saw Javin Thomas Jaden not Callaway we have even I we just have so many guys I'm just blanking cuz we just we have so many guys but when it's my time to be called and my job need to be executed that's that's a part of our offense if we need to run the ball a lot then we'll do that if we need to throw the ball a lot we'll do that but we all have trust in each other whether it's running the ball throwing the ball what whatever the scheme is we all have trust in each other that everyone's going to do their job and that was a great job by our offense today and even in the end although we threw a lot Javin Thomas and Jaden I Callaway all those guys had pretty big runs and we're able to streak a nice touchdown and get a couple good drives going together with the run and congratulations guys Doug Parish here football organically I have lost my voice so excuse me I've been cheering on you guys and I love what I see out there I love the momentum I love the tenacity and know you get your ball you're getting your hands on the ball man often lately what is contributing to that uh just one win and all the work you know I play put in with my team in the offseason fourth quarter program going going through that with those guys and Coach B and all that shit's coming together now so we just got to keep it going and Fernando for you you are extremely tough out there you look like you got a little banged up and just like before you just got back up and that shows a lot of leadership talk to talk to us about that my teammates and quarterback is a different position but my teammates they go out there and fight every single down for me physically and and we all fight for each other so I know that I need to have my teammates back they have my back so we we have a really strong offensive culture like that and then also shout out football organically love love the podcast also I mean this guy he had like five picks and one of them like if people want to you know roast me or whatever I mean I could say I mean I'll go out for my boy I mean that one wasn't a pass interference and throughout playing fall camp and all that stuff I mean see no that's we are secondary I mean this is this is NFL secondary the cow defense had the takers a couple years ago which was great and they're just Legends in the cow history and this I believe this is the next group going against these guys it's tough It's really tough and null Marcus St Craig jier Zay and I I know I know I'm missing somebody or somebody so don't don't Rose me on that but I mean that's an explosive group and that's why receivers are getting so much separation because of the good good on good training that we had so you guys FR you brought it up um there's some controversial calls in the second half that that could have really been game changers that the interception could have potentially ended the game the the targeting call which seemed to be a shot by the shoulder instead of the helmet um how do you address that when you're on the sidelines you're trying to shake it off and stay focused that's that's a big thing and then two I've been here for this is my third year here and if I'm being entirely honest first year that I was here that that might have shooken us up and thrown us off the track but just because all the hard work we put into and the extremely strong culture that we've developed ad miss the transfer portal and we got so many so much good talent we've maintained that culture in the sideline of saying hey we have our backs no like you have my back I have your back going to each other so it's just great to see how this Cal team is really getting put together it's really something special just from all the offseason collaborative work that we did with offense defense you know when defense got together out of football when offense got together out of football I mean it just speaks Testaments to our team and our culture that hey they might not they might give us a little jab but we're going to dodge the next one and knock them out so it's good all right we're going to go to zoom now with Walkin RZ from the daily Cal hey Fernando um you talk about your receivers making big time plays today you guys were hobbled Jaden obviously was a little injured and receiving room overall was pretty injured can you talk about your connection with nah in you know two weeks now yeah I think all my passing touchdowns I've been through nah and that just speaks Testament he was a third string guy at the beginning of fall camp and he worked and worked and worked and we talk a lot we're really good friends on football and outside of football that's what builds that chemistry the extra route running and just having that friendship similar to Tron Mikey JB Maven that we all have outside of football but it's a testament to him Testament to all the receivers all the receivers made huge plays we come in here the secc DBS and we're like okay like we believe our guys are better not just as good as these SEC DBS that we go against every single day in practice so that gives us confidence and I'm really proud of everybody stepping up especially in an injured group or missing seen a couple guys but it's always the next man up and I'm really proud of z z and I've talked a lot because this is a situation I was in last year similar to his starting off third string and then playing a pivotal role in the team so I'm extremely proud of him yeah M Maro Rivals I one more real quick is that okay go ahead walkie um you know you speak of your role last year did you have a chance mentioned it before the game but did you get to talk to Sam Jackson at all today I'm really bummed I I wasn't able to because I believe that we had had an interview right after but I was really bummed I wanted to talk to Sam another one of my friends over there number four receiver Camden we play the same seven on seven teams and but I was able to talk to their defensive coordinator who's very pleasant number nine as Santa Samuel a lot of the SEC I mean it's competition but this guy he made sure that I was all right so Props to him he's a I mean he just speaks to his character and the Auburn's fans character and their Team character and so I wasn't able to talk to them I'll probably call him after and I don't know if I have this chance but I just want to make sure Thomas and J go get this I just want to say before we leave I want to say shout out to the burners for getting me this shirt I mean this is this is great I know a couple guys is just this is amazing and shout out to them all right Matt Mareno from Rivals go ahead no uh you know there is a lot made about their receiver Group after what they did last week you know over at Auburn was there any kind of special challenge for among the DBS in the secondary this week that you guys were just talking about maybe trying to neutralize them and what was the conversation like during the game as you guys were able to kind of really control things on the outside the conversation was just eliminate the vertical shots cuz we knew going into the game they're going to try to take their shots and then when the ball is in the air you know um it's our ball so no 50/50 it's our ball so I feel like he did a good job of that today you know the defense getting so many turn turnovers you know getting the ball back to Fernando and those guys Testament to our defense man so that was the main message just eliminate the ver vertical shots and then when something does happen you your next next play mentality next play mentality all right Jeff Fado from Cal Bears on SII yeah this is for Fernando Fernando can you tell us what happened on that play where you you got the first down on the keeper and you kind of look like you tweaked your knee a little bit and how how are you and also can you talk a little bit further about this meeting you this the leaders had last night who was involved in that when you guys proclaimed it Cal against the world yeah well good see it's fro although it kers it's always good talking to you and the the the Run similarly thankfully it wasn't the same but it gave me a flashback to the to the Bowl game when I hyper extended my knee there so but thankfully to our great training staff we get it checked out no update on it feels good though might just be the adrenaline but no but I definitely feel good and the leaders we had this year instead of two captains we had 11 Captain committee that we had that we rotate that's why you see different captains every game people on the committee consist of null Jack Andre Jaden Chandler TJ session miles Williams David Rees uh Craig Woodson [Music] Ricky X and then yeah X davier Carlton and then myself and whenever coach Willcox preps us for the schedule just gives us all the details of the keys who win the game we all come in after and talk as a team it's really important to have that culture as a team that we have each other's backs because love the coaches and the coaches know this we love them to death but at the end of the day we're the ones out there fighting with our brothers for our brothers so that was a great thing D David Rees was the one that really sparked it as he's had an instrumental leadership role that is elevated this team but every Everybody all those captains really LED and even if they're even the non-aps they let a lot and just be embracing Cal you don't need to be a captain to lead you don't need to be special marked or or whatever it be so really proud of the captains and the non- captain that stepped up and led so it was sort of the 11 of you in front of the whole team is that the meeting yes yes yes sir okay thank you all right last question in the room here from Thomas done for these two well for Fernando and N coach Wilcox has explained for years on end that this team needs to find a way win close games and win when it counts why is this the team that was able to get over the top in this situation this is a testament of what we did in the offseason what we talked about because every day I think we went into the mindset like we have to change the narrative we can't be losing these close games so what we put into the offseason just showing right now so we're just going to keep going it's the repetitiveness and I know there's a terrible saying the typic Cal stuff that people say on social media and yeah a lot of coaches and a lot of players that been here stepped up and said hey we're sick of this we're sick of this oh we would have been 10-2 if we scored five more points in the regular season we're done with that we realize that good teams and great teams they finish out and they close so whenever the offense whenever we're going against the defense on on long drives or the defense is on I know both huddles offense and defense were like we got to punch it in or we got to stop it we got to finish finish finish finish and that was one of our big emphasises this this off season to finish the play to finish the drive and to finish the game and as you see it shows up on a national stage here so I'm really proud of all my guys and no no no says the same about that and it's all about finishing and we did today but we have a long season ahead of us we're looking forward to carrying this momentum into next week in s State all right thank you guys