STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 27, 2026

Tavita Pritchard

Postgame Media Conference

Stanford 34, Georgia Tech 27

TAVITA PRITCHARD: The big message to our team this week was improve, was be the best at getting better, and we were really focused in practice of just having a phenomenal week of practice and doing our best to make sure that showed up in the game because I felt like the two weeks before Duke, we practiced well. That obviously didn't translate to the field like we wanted it to, and I thought this week it did more.

We still had some spots and we have some spots that we can get better, that we can improve, but was proud of the way especially that our guys finished the game.

You think about the second half, and a week ago we were down 7. We came out. We know how that game finished. But this week we came out, we were down 10, and that ended up being a 24-0 run to start the second half.

So I was really proud of the way our guys came out with a concerted effort to start that half well. Defense got stops. Offense finish and capitalized opportunities that we had to go punch it in the end zone.

Yeah, again, was proud of the way our guys trained and finished. I think we can finish "finish" the game a little bit better, but again, that's on me to make sure that we are coaching all those points down to every situation to make sure we can put the game away when it's there for us.

Q. What was the key to your second half success? Was there an adjustment you made?

TAVITA PRITCHARD: You know what, what's funny is going into half, we were talking about tackling and getting the guys on the ground, you know, and just using our fundamentals of wrapping up, because I thought there were a lot of opportunities in the first half to get guys down that we just weren't finishing.

So it was less about just some magic pixie dust that there were different calls or different this or different that, but I thought our guys just did a better job of executing the fundamentals of what we were doing.

So, you know, I think the defensive staff, Coach Chard and those guys are doing a good job of mixing it up and making sure that we're playing to our personnel. I thought our guys just did a great job of executing the calls that were out there and making the plays that were there to be made.

Q. Davis Warren, 360 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions. Did you expect that from him? Can you talk on his performance?

TAVITA PRITCHARD: Yeah, I expect a lot out of Davis. He is operating this offense at a high level. We put a lot on him. We put run checks on him and protection checks on him, and like I said, he's playing at a high level.

He's protecting the football. He directed us down the field a number of times tonight, not just throwing the football, but with his legs. Then again, getting us in and out of plays that were favorable looks for us.

Yeah, I do expect a lot out of him, and he knows that, and we coach him hard, and he handles it beautifully. He's such a leader in that locker room, and I can't say enough about the player he is and is becoming.

Q. In terms of all those fourth downs, can you talk about it is confidence it gives your team to convert those and what goes into deciding to go for those in the first place?

TAVITA PRITCHARD: We're data and analytics guided. We're not driven. So we're certainly aware of what the numbers are telling us to help inform some of those decisions.

There were some spots where you're in that part of the field where do you punt, are you at your kick line, and we were in some of those positions to make some aggressive calls. It does give us confidence that our guys can go out there and execute in those moments.

I was proud of the way some of those receivers showed up as well, Caden High, Nico Brown, in a lot of those moments. Again, was proud of the step that we took, especially because so much of our conversation this week has been around just improving and getting better. It's a whole lot more fun to do that in a win than a loss.

Q. Just talk about kind of what you got out of your receiving corps tonight, Nico Brown, Caden High, Jordan, Zion, all those guys. Talk about what your receivers gave you in this one?

TAVITA PRITCHARD: You've heard me say this before, Ben. Building a receiver room like a basketball team. Every guy has different skill sets, and you try to lean into those things.

I thought Coach Bratton just did a phenomenal job of getting that group ready to go, because when we go back and watch that tape, there are a number of different receiver personnel combinations that we're using to get guys in there, keep guys fresh, keep guys doing what they do well. But also, you know, just getting guys in there playing and competing so that they can be giving it everything when they are in the game.

So you do see the ball being spread around. Again, that speaks to Davis. That speaks to the offensive line because Davis was having time to sit back there and go through a lot of his progressions.

So these are things we can keep building on because what they know is if we keep getting better and they keep working on their skills, they see that they get opportunities to do it in the game, and that's something I know is incentive for them to keep playing together that way.

Q. Davis did a good job scrambling on some plays, the type of the mobility he showed in this one.

TAVITA PRITCHARD: I thought that was big late. They were showing us defensive looks where they were playing a little more coverage and playing some three safeties where they were trying to take away some of those especially intermediate throwing lanes.

Davis did a nice job of not running too early, but exhausting the progression there and then finding some scramble lanes which plays such a huge role when he can add that in and go pick up two and three first downs a game that it's hard for the defense to account for all of it.

Q. I'm just curious your thoughts on the running game, what you got out of Sedrick and Micah. Not the most yards per carry, but they got enough for you tonight. Just talk about how you evaluated the running backs?

TAVITA PRITCHARD: Obviously want to go back and watch the tape on maybe some of the specifics that were going on, but I did think they were running hard, and I thought we gave them some opportunities to find some creases.

Credit that I do think those two interior D-linemen, they are really good players, and they're hard to move off the ball, and they're really active. They do a great job kind of holding the point of contact.

We knew it was going to be a challenge for us in this game to just kind of continue to commit to run the football, but I think what they did as much as anything was they allowed us to, again, give the threat of being balanced, you know, and I do think there's more in the running game there.

We'll go back and I have to go back with Coach Heff and look at exactly, hey, is it schematic, are there some different things we can do to put our guys in better positions?

But I thought just watching it with the naked eye, I thought those guys ran hard all night, and I thought our guys up front, man, just kept staying at it. Again, I thought there was good finish with our energy and our focus. Yeah, we can finish better.