California Head Coach Sonny Dykes
Opening comments
"I'm disappointed in the way the night played out. I thought going into halftime we were in a pretty good position, and then we came out in the third quarter and didn't maximize our possessions on offense. We punted them down inside the 10-yard line and gave up a big run, a 90-yard touchdown run. That was the momentum swing. At that point, Stanford had the momentum and we never seemed to get it back.

We have to be able to play better defense. That's what it comes down to, ultimately. You can't give up 350 rushing yards against anybody and expect to have a chance to win. That's clearly something we need to get fixed. That puts a lot of pressure on you offensively. You feel like you have to score every possession and you can't do that against a good defensive football team.

I thought Stanford did a great job. Christian McCaffrey is a once-in-a-lifetime football player. He's as good as advertised and I thought he played really well tonight.

We'll look at the tape tomorrow and be really disappointed in the missed opportunities because I think there were a bunch of them. Disappointing, but we'll keep working and find a way to win next week against UCLA.
 
On mood in the locker room following loss
"We talked about being a disciplined football team; what that takes and what that means – the level of commitment that it takes to succeed in college football and in the Pac-12. We need to continue to get better at the details. We're a team that doesn't a have a tremendous margin for error, and when you don't have that, you have to be really good at the little things. We're not quite good enough at them yet.
 
Our guys will be motivated to play Saturday. We'll play incredibly hard. I'm not worried about the motivation. I don't worry about this football team in that way. These are good kids. We have a great culture in our program. I'm really proud of the culture we have, what kind of young people these are and how they represent the university.

On needing to  improve tackling:
"The best way to improve tackling, honestly, is recruiting. The better athlete you are, the better you tackle. We can tackle all we want to, we can tackle dummies, we can tackle each other in live situations, but so much of tackling is how good an athlete you are."

Everyone in this league has good position players, and it's going to be hard to tackle those guys in one-on-one situations all the time.

The leading tacklers in college football these days are your safeties. Our top eight safeties, not one of them dressed in this game because of injuries.  We're beat up, and those guys are the guys that tackle for you. We have pretty good players if they're healthy."

California Players
Davis Webb, QB
On the feel of locker room postgame:
"It sucks, losing to your rival in Stanford, and the scenario we were in to lose that game, it's not fun for anybody. We're a little beat up right now, but this team will be tested for how badly we want to finish this season strong. We haven't beaten UCLA in a while either so it's a great opportunity for our team, and we look forward to getting back to work tomorrow and finishing the season the way it should be."
 
On the quick pass game and success with it:
"I think their d-line is one of the best in the Pac-12, one of the best in the country. Solomon Thomas is probably one of the best interior guys in the country, so they were just good up front and they were able to get pressure on us all night. We were able to establish a little bit of a run game. We were able to throw for a lot of yards on quick stuff, and towards the end of the game, we saw that we could run by them a little bit. We just have to play better. If we play well, we're going to win. We just can't make the stupid mistakes. If we don't make the throws or don't make the catches, you know, don't do our job, we're going to lose. Our margin of error is very slim, and the games we win we don't really mess us and the game we lose we mess up, so it's not that hard. We just have to get better and get after UCLA next week"
 
Chad Hansen, WR
On if rain played a factor in dropped balls:
"As a football player, you want to say no, but I mean the truth of the matter is yeah, it does effect it, but it effects both teams. That's why you play the game. It does affect you as a receiver, but it affects the other team, so there's nothing to complain about"
 
DeVante Wilson, DL
On facing Christian McCaffery:
"He's a great player. He's going to have tremendous success in his career. We just didn't get the job done in stopping him in this game. He's a hell of a player."
 
Jaylinn Hawkins, S
On losing to rivals and losing bowl eligibility:
"It's just very tough losing a rivalry game, and losing a game period. But this game was very special, and we just have to keep fighting. We have to have that never-give-up attitude as a team and never give up, no matter what."

Stanford Head Coach David Shaw
Opening Statement:
I'm very excited for our seniors to keep the Axe. Every senior class we've had recently graduates never lose the Axe, never losing a Big Game. I'm proud of those guys – different guys playing different roles in different years. Going out with the Axe is awesome and I'm proud of those guys. Cal's a good football team, I don't care what their record is. They have some explosive guys on offense. They have an outstanding quarterback, some big-time receivers, one heck of a runner that breaks tackles. It was tough to contain them in the first half. First play of the game, we had talked about it, we have to keep these guys in front of us and we gave them a clear path to the end zone. There's four guys on that team that if you give them a clear path to the end zone, they're going to take it. We had to battle back, but I love the character of this football team. You look at two losses in a row, no finger pointing, nobody losing faith or losing trust in what we're doing. We had a quarterback switch, come back and lose a tough game to Colorado, all of those things happening in the course of this year, injuries left and right and we've never stopped working. Our practices were phenomenal. We get to the game tonight and we're down early, and we fought back. We go down again, and our guys fought back. Great drive at the end (of the first half). We talked about finishing drives with a score. Great job by Keller (Chryst) and the offense in two minutes, getting that field goal right before halftime and taking the lead. These are things that we want to do, going into the half with the lead, come back out there, put the defense out there and try to get a stop. And in the second half, what else can you say about Christian McCaffrey that hasn't already been said? Great football player, one of the best in the nation. Offensive line is playing really well and he's been healthy. That's what happens when he's healthy – he's special and he took the game over."
 
On McCaffrey's Performance:
"I don't know what else I can say. Two years, I've kind of run out of words. The bottom line is, he's not the biggest guy but you can't tell him that. He runs like a big back. He's going to run in between the tackles, he's going to make people miss and he has the speed in the open to finish the runs in the end zone. An up and down year for us, offensively, but he's been one of those mainstays. How he works and how he leads the team on the offensive side, and when we need him to come through, he comes through. Every day – not just in the games – I'm just impressed by him every day."

Stanford Players
Christian McCaffrey, RB
On breaking the Big Game record for rushing:
"It's a huge honor for me. It's an honor I share with the O-line, the fullbacks and the receivers. Keller (Chryst) blocking down field … all those guys. Any type of accolade or anything like that isn't just me. It takes all the guys out there and I am just really lucky and thankful I have those guys in front of me."
 
On Keller Chryst blocking down field for him:
"It gets you juiced. You see someone like that grinding for you it makes you want to work hard for him as well."
 
On winning the Big Game:
"Any time you win the Big Game it's a fun one … not only for this team but for this school."
 
Keller Chryst, QB
On first start and win in the Big Game:
"Growing up I saw a few Big Games in person but doing it myself was pretty cool."
 
On McCaffrey getting the Big Game rushing record:
"It's incredible, every time he runs I want to turn around and watch him the second I hand it off. I give a lot credit to the guys up front who pave the way for him."
 
On the weather:
"We were able to run it very well, and our line did a good job up front. Having a good run game opens up the past game, so at the end it all started feeling better."
 
Dallas Lloyd, S
On playing more man-to-man this game than all year:
"We have corners, nickels and safeties, that can go out and our fast, strong and physical and great athletes. You know they will lock down on those receivers. We really respect Cal, they have great receivers and even better QB. I have all the respect in the world for them and I am just grateful we got the win today."