STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 3, 2022

E.J. Smith

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 41, Colgate 10

E.J. SMITH:

Q. This is the easy question tonight. Just walk us through that 87-yard touchdown. What did you see? Yeah, there we go.

E.J. SMITH: You know in that play, I was just supposed to follow my pullers. The linebackers ended up over pursuing, so I took it back side, had that long run.

My O-linemen blocked really well. I just executed off of those blocks.

Q. E.J., you got that run first play of the game. What's going through your mind? And then you get the fumble and the face mask. Which one will you be thinking about the most going into next week?

E.J. SMITH: I'm going to be thinking about all those plays honestly. Coach G teaches us every day about ball security and just being able to run the ball downfield. There's some times when I wasn't able to do so.

So I'm going to look back on my film and work on that throughout the week next week and just get ready for USC.

Q. E.J., good job describing the 87-yard run technically, but how did you feel emotionally to have that be your first play from scrimmage and score a touchdown?

E.J. SMITH: Honestly, it's a blessing. Any opportunity that you get to score a touchdown is a blessing. That's pretty much all that I can say.

We were preparing for this team all week, and it just happened. So that's all I really have to say about that.

Q. Can you describe the feeling of finally being the lead back for Stanford?

E.J. SMITH: It's a great opportunity to have. There's been great running backs in the past -- Christian, Bryce, and so forth. Just being able to have this opportunity, it's a blessing.

First game we didn't play to the best of our ability, but we just have to watch film and get better.

Q. One of the things that I feel like kind of went overlooked was your blocking abilities this game and how you were blocking the inside rusher coming in. So just want to talk about how you developed that process over camp and how it's kind of progressed in terms of your game from the blocking perspective.

E.J. SMITH: Pass protection is important. Coach G especially talks about it all the time. You can't pass protect. You have to pass protect if you're a running back. So it's really important just to work on that every day.

And for myself, just being able to improve every week, especially during camp, was important for me.

Q. Overall grand scheme of things, what do you think this offense showed out there tonight?

E.J. SMITH: Our resiliency. We had a couple bad plays throughout the game, but we're still able to overcome those. That's very important.

But at the end of the day, we still have to work and get better. We have 'SC and other teams down the road, so we just have to watch this film and just continue to improve.

Q. Just in general, how good does it feel to get a game under your belt? I'm sure after training camp and everything you guys are itching to get out here. Does it feel good to come in and maybe shake off some of the rust, get rid of some of those butterflies, and just kind of get into a bit of a groove? Just talk about how good it feels to have a game under your belt from that standpoint.

E.J. SMITH: It feels great, especially to come out 1-0. That was our goal. So just being able to go out and play the game that we love, it's a great feeling to have.

Nine months ago we were just getting prepared for the off-season. Now we're already in the season. So we're just all excited and ready to go.