With no team to prep for this week, Stanford football players and coaches are taking a break from each other and getting back to the books.
Head coach David Shaw said they aren't "off" but they won't be doing any formal practicing.
"This week they are students and we've got some non-football workouts," Shaw said. "They are hitting the weight room and doing some running. I think Andrew is going to get some guys together and just throw the ball around a little bit.
"I wanted them away from the coaches. We're going to take a break from each other so we can decompress and so they can [focus on] the first reason they came to Stanford. They are going to be great students this week. I told them it's time to turn all of those 'Bs' you guys have back in to 'As' this week. We'll get back into football next week."
For the coaches, there is no rest. Most of them are on the road recruiting -- while also breaking down potential bowl game matchups.
"We're recruiting like crazy this week," Shaw said. "We've plotted some possibilities schedule wise based on where we might be going. We're looking at a few different teams that might be our opponents. But we won't know until Sunday. And then Sunday night we'll make sure that whichever team we've watched, we're getting ready for and we put those things to the forefront. We'll meet with the players on Monday and we'll start getting ready."
Dinner date
Speaking of potential matchups. Most projections have the Cardinal going to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl -- where they would face the winner of Oklahoma-Oklahoma State. Shaw said he'll do his best to take in the game, but he also has plans he can't get out of.
"I'll probably watch it," he said. "I have some other obligations. I do believe my wife and I are going out to dinner that night. But I'll make sure I have some way to, at the very least, check the score. But I just can't wait until Sunday to find out who we play where we play so we can start zeroing in."
Zingers
A couple of one-liners left over from Saturday night.
Following the Notre Dame game, players were asked what they take away from their final game at Stanford Stadium. One reporter asked if they took a blade of grass to remember it by. To which Luck responded: "I don't want to remember the grass on this field."
Linebacker Chase Thomas on tight end Coby Fleener's touchdown-saving, penalty-inducing horse collar tackle: "It was pretty good form. I thought he was going to knock the ball out ... I'm glad he gave 100 percent because it gave us a chance to get on the field and they missed the field goal. It was a huge effort play."
Question to Fleener: "Who taught you how to do the horse collar?"
Fleener: "Chase."
As Shaw entered the post-game news conference, the players could be heard singing "Macho Man" in the locker room behind him. Who leading the songs? "Hard to tell," Shaw said. "But they really can't sing. I'll say that."
Fleener on catching Luck's school record-setting touchdown: "I think it's something I'll be able to tell my kids and grand kids when I'm watching Andrew on T.V. someday.
To which Luck responded: "Like he's not going to be playing. Let's be real."