Watch: Qwuantrezz Knight on Lessons Learned, Holding Off Stanford Late

QWUANTREZZ KNIGHT

Finishing the game?

It just took guts, do you know what I mean? Guts to finish the game. Like you said, last week, we weren’t able to go in and absolutely finish the game the way we’ve been coached. This week, during practice, that’s the main thing that Coach Kelly talked about. We have to finish, we have to finish, we finish. Bruins finish. And, you know, this game got down to a fourth quarter game...we knew Stanford wasn’t just going to roll over. Deep down out here, we knew we have to come finish this game and that’s what we did.

Dorian finishing?

Oh man, that was great. Dorian literally put the team on his back. He was really down bad throughout this whole game, took a couple hits and it was great to see him go in, and literally ‘I’m going to go win this game for us.’ I think he went down one play and came right back in and threw a touchdown, so that was amazing. I told him, that’s what we need from you.

Run defense?

Just having the guys up front, I feel like we have a great group of guys up front, that’s not just pass rushers ... that are literally just going to run to the ball all the time. That’s what we do. Even on the back end, the secondary, the linebackers, everybody on the team is just going to run to the ball.

Last year’s Stanford game creep into your mind at all?

Most definitely. Once we got to that 21-21 mark in the fourth quarter, I said we’ve been here before. We’ve been here with this team last year, and we’ve been here before with the team last week. So we’ve had two examples of what not do to, and what to do. So, I feel like we finished very well today.

Carl Jones performance?

Carl Jones, he’s definitely a great player. Me and him have conversations all the time because we basically have the same job and we say ‘It’s going to be me or you.’ We’re basically saying ‘I’m going to make the play or you’re going to make the play.’ Carl Jones is going to have a nice season, and I’m excited to see what he does.

Martell Irby?

Oh man, you should have seen me on the sidelines. I was jumping more than the cheerleaders were. Once he came to the sideline, I told him ‘Yeah go, go go.’ That’s what we do when we make tackles like that. Don’t stop your feet, just keep going. That was a great example of that so I actually picked him up and gave him a big hug after he came over to the sideline.

Statement with this win?

Yeah, most definitely. We definitely did that but it’s not about making statements to us. It’s about doing our job. Whatever the other people see from that is up to them, but I feel like we come to practice every day and just do what we do. Do what we do, and we’ll be alright.

What changed with Stanford offense?

I feel like they just made a couple of plays and we didn’t. They hit us in a cover two, and I think No. 6 did a good job in taking it to the end zone. Just getting back in on our defense and just doing what we do, we’ll be alright.