Stanford head coach Frank Reich acknowledged the sting of Week Zero but emphasized belief in his players heading into Saturday’s matchup at BYU.
“As heartbreaking as any loss is, certainly a week one loss after a whole offseason of working hard and all the anticipation and excitement…we got to learn from that and we got to move on and we got to stay the course,” Reich said.
The message has been consistent to his team and especially quarterback Ben Gulbranson, who struggled in the opener. “That’s really the message not only to Ben but that’s the message to the whole team…continue to believe in what we’re doing, continue to believe in yourself and we just have to focus on executing our schemes.”
Reich admitted the wait for Saturday has felt long. “When you lose a tough game, an opener like that, this bye it seems like it’s taken forever for this game to get here. So I think our guys are excited about it.”
The challenge only gets tougher in Provo. “We’ve been practicing in the noise. We know it’ll be a tough crowd there. We anticipate the noise. That’ll be important for us to keep our poise,” Reich said of the 60,000-seat LaVell Edwards Stadium. “As far as altitude, I don’t find it to normally be a factor. You just can’t worry. These guys are in shape.”
Respect for BYU came through clearly. “This is a very well-coached team. Their schemes are very sound,” Reich said. “Defensively, I feel like I’m watching an NFL defense with everything they do. Their pressure package is quite sophisticated.”
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But the Cardinal coach circled back to effort and accountability as the standard. “The two things that we’re grading every day are, you know, is there relentless effort and are we dominating the details. And we’re holding people accountable to those standards every single day. Our players have embraced that. That’s why I believe that’s the formula for getting better every day.”
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