Oklahoma State Quotes
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy
Opening statement:
“Alright that was a little more fun at the end. Great college environment, the homecoming crowd, the sound, the students, can’t get a better environment than that. It’s a big-time college football environment with two really good teams playing. Had a heck of a game. I was really proud of our guy’s defense adjustments at half time, our staff and our players. How they were able to slow it down a little bit, tackle a little bit better, made adjustments on the counter play, and cover pretty good. I think we ended the game with six freshmen playing on defense there towards the end. I know at kick off we had nine guys running down the field that had never played college football basically. So, we had a lot of guys that were banged up, nicked up, and we had to put some other guys into play. It is what it is and I’m proud of them, they did good. The coaches coached well, the players made plays in the end, made good calls in the end, defense made stops in the end, players made plays and they ended up being good. We had a 119-yard advantage in penalties. They had 14-for-119 and we had 0-for-0 so there’s the difference in the game. They have good special teams, I’m a special teams guy. We had a missed block, they blocked a punt on us, and we knew returns were going to be tough. Time or two they got us; we probably should’ve tackled a little better. They’ve been a really good third down team and we held them to 3-of-17 on third downs, which was good. We were 45% on third downs ourselves which has been good for us. So, I was really proud of our guys, it’s a great win for them. Looking forward to them enjoying it tonight then we’ll get back to work tomorrow and get ready for the next one.
On how the defense figured out how to slow Texas’ offense:
“Well, they made a couple adjustments on the running game, I say adjustments we just played it wrong. So, we had to tighten it down, we didn’t scheme watch, we just weren’t playing it right. So, we just adjusted, and the players understood it. Part of this game is making changes, come up with a plan, and absorb it then take it on the field. They did good, they took the information and I let the coaches coach an additional six minutes at halftime instead of me getting up. I just said to coach it up, get it fixed, and we’ll roll. That’s what we did, and I think they got it coached up. Then offensively we maneuvered pretty well, so we found some ways to move the ball and score some points. We broke tackles, made big plays, and did what we had to do.
On where this ranks in gutsiest wins:
It’s big time because we’re playing football like I’ve never seen before. When you’re in that situation that you’re playing defense and you have to stop a team that has seven NFL guys playing and you’re playing with a bunch of freshmen, it’s a bit scary. I think gutsy is a good term and that is about what they did. They just kind of found a way to get it done.”
On how far Stephon Johnson Jr. has come:
“A long way in this game, he made plays in this game. He has a long way to go but people are going to say a lot of nice things about him. He can put that in his pocket because that’s not going to do any good next game, but he’s played well today for a freshman.”
Oklahoma State running back Jaden Nixon
On the win:
“We were just out there just rolling. Back, forth, back, forth, back, forth. I know once our offense starts going, once they get rolling, they really can start rolling. Sometimes you have to find that one play that really just gets everything going. Our team is really good at staying focused, staying clear on our target and just getting the job done.”
On losing his shoe:
“I’m not going to lie, when I was running, I felt it and it went flying in front of me which is something that has never happened to me. Usually when you lose a shoe, it goes beside you or behind you but for it to go flying forward I was like, ‘Oh snap’ that’s my shoe!’. Our coaches always preach to us never give up on a play, so I just knew I had to keep going, shoe or no shoe. Plus, I wanted to score so for me it’s always a fight to go score whenever I touch the ball.”
Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders
On being labeled tough:
“Coming into this week, I focused on the mistakes that I made last week. That’s out of the way. We just have to make sure every play is a new play; every game is a new game. Can’t think about last week. Fix your mistakes and move forward. Really just forgot about it, it’s not really about being tough out here. It’s about doing everything I can to hold myself accountable and do my job. I’m not being tough; I’m doing my job. I play quarterback, it’s my job to be tough. You get knocked down, you got to get back up.”
On competing despite injuries to the team:
“We lost a lot of guys, but it shows our fight and grit There’s a lot of twos, threes and fours who got to play today. We worked our tails off. We trailed the whole game and that wasn’t fun. It just shows we have grit; we have fight. We’re going to fight until that last quarter says ‘zero-zero’ and that last whistle blows. We gave it all we had and just happened to make some more plays than them. So, it worked out in our favor.”
Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Kacey Dunn
On Stephon Johnson Jr.:
“His days are in front of him. I think he’s not in shock at all about the big stage. Obviously, we saw that tonight. I feel comfortable with him being out there and playing. Sometimes guys can get a little nervous or wide eyed… he just doesn’t seem to be phased by it.”
On mounting a second half comeback:
“Our offense is built to try to play fast. For us to be behind by two or three scores, isn’t a scary thing. A harder thing for us is trying to finish it when we’re ahead. We’re not an all up, smashing team. We’re a wide open, aggressive passing team. That’s just who we are, so it’s harder for us to spin it and go the other way. I don’t want to be behind, but it’s easier for us to play from behind.”
On utilizing every aspect of offense:
“We wanted to get the ball out and get our perimeter guys going. We wanted to get Brennan and JP going, wanted to spit the ball and make the big guys inside run a little bit and hopefully slow them down. They’re good. Give credit where credit is due. Texas’ front is very good. We just felt that if we could tire them out a little bit but make them run side-to-side, eventually we could get some run yards in there later in the game, and we got some. We were able to move the ball effectively enough toward the end of the game to try to pull back into it.
Oklahoma State receiver Bryson Green
On game sealing touchdown:
“It was a great play call. I just ran my route the best I could. Caught the ball, and I wasn’t even focused on the guy behind me, I was just focused on the guy in front of me and making him miss. Once I popped off, I could look at the big screen and saw nobody was behind me, so I might as well go for the touchdown.”
On Stephon Johnson Jr.:
“He’s a freak athlete. He’s a wiry, long receiver that is quick and can go for the ball, make a guy miss, all the above. He’s a great athlete, and I think you’re going to see a lot more of him in the future.”
Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason
On the adjustments the defense made at halftime:
"Numbers to the ball. We were short numbers early and as much as we were trying to get it adjusted, it wasn't until guys could see it, and truly see it, and understand it and talk through it, then it gets better. So, here's the deal, we're young, right? So, when you're young it's not like you're talking to veteran guys and making veteran adjustments. You're talking to young guys, so young guys need to see it and understand it and feel it, and halftime just seems to be a better feel for those guys because it's not frantic. It's the ability to be in the room and talk about what needs to be adjusted."
On beating a program like Texas:
"I think the outside world looks and the reality is, we play football too. They've got to go play, so do we. They're a good program, so are we. So, with that, it's a game that we won today, and we get a chance to lick our chops a little bit and heal up and go play Kansas State."
Oklahoma State defensive tackle Sione Asi
On how the defensive line played well despite injuries:
"We have a lot of veterans on the team, a lot of guys that stepped up, so that's why I love my D-Line room. Coach Richmond kept us honed in on everything, especially with our mind. But yeah, that was crazy."
On the defensive line bouncing back from last week:
"I think the biggest thing was just doing our job. Last week, a lot of guys were just trying to do too much. Even myself, too, we were trying to do too much. So, the biggest thing was just trying to do our job and also get number five down, heck of a ballplayer, and wrapping him up. The coaches made sure we practiced tackling, we worked on tackling, because we didn't do very good last week. We have good ballplayers, and we did lose Brendon and Brock, which is huge, but the guys behind them just stepped up each time and I'm proud of them for stepping up because that's big time."
Texas Quotes
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian Quotes
Opening Statement:
“14 penalties to none. We can’t get 14 penalties for 120 yards in just pure yardage, not to mention the yardage that you lose in positive plays that those plays get pulled back. We’ve got to clean that up, we’ve got to clean up the self-inflicted wounds in that aspect of the ballgame. Secondly, 3-for-17 on third down to 8-for-19 on third down, they were able to stay on the field and extend some drives and our inability to do so hurt us. We really struggled to find rhythm offensively to where I felt like today was a big-little day and that’s unfortunate because I think there were some things there when we look at the tape we’ll be frustrated when we see it. Defensively, we didn’t tackle. Their big plays they got came from us having them in our grasp and not getting them on the ground… Those are the four main issues coming out of the ballgame today that we’ve got to get rectified with the bye week coming up.”
On penalties throughout the game:
“I don’t think we were jittery at all. For whatever reason, we jumped offsides again and we had some procedural issues offensively. We had holding offensively, and we had pass interference defensively. So, there’s things that are correctable that we can get fixed and we will get fixed.”
On quarterback Quinn Ewers:
“He’s going to have a great career; he’s got a great career ahead of him. There’s going to be a heck of a lot better days than today that he’ll have. He’s at the young stages of his career so we’ll get back to work on the fundamentals, the techniques and the schemes to operate those things. We’ll make sure he’s going into the next game with a great deal of confidence that he can execute this offense and do it at a high level.”
On losing second-half lead:
“It’s very frustrating because for somewhere in there we lose focus or mental intensity. We just didn’t operate very good and a lot of it was self-inflicted wounds. Take nothing away from Oklahoma State, they deserved to win, but a lot of what happened today was self-inflicted wounds. They didn’t beat themselves and they kind of hung around and we started to beat ourselves. Correctable issues, but that’s our job as coaches to get them corrected so that’s going to be our focus moving forward.”
Texas linebacker DeMarvion Overshown:
On what it feels like to blow another lead:
“It hurts to the core. I’m hurting, everyone in the locker room is hurting. Losing a big game on the road, going into a bye week, it’s going to sting. It’s going to sting a little bit longer now that we have the week off but there was things, we talk about all the time and we just have to finish those. We got to be able to play complementary football, we have to be able to get them off the field on third down and like I said, it hurts. We just got to move onto the next one, take this bye week, get healthy, clean up some things and we’ll have another close one here in 13 or 14 days.”
On what went wrong today:
“It was just being disciplined, we had way more penalties today than we’ve had in a while. Being on the road, first quarter penalties may not hurt you until the fourth quarter, people don’t realize that. When you got players going down, the guys coming in have to be able to come in and not take a step back, they’ve got to feel like a starter out there. It’s tough, coming into this atmosphere, playing a really good team we’ve got to be able to hold our composure, be disciplined and make the plays we’ve got to make.”
Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron
On how frustrating the missed tackles were today:
“That’s just not like us, we’ve got to get that together as a defense.”
On who the leader is in that defense when players get injured:
“It’s just everybody on the back-end, wherever I’m at I’ve got to step up and I have to speak, we all have to get on the same page.”
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers
On what Oklahoma State did well to cause him to struggle:
“We just really didn’t execute to the level that I think we’re able to, we came out decent in the first half and we came out in the third quarter and didn’t execute the way that we can. We didn’t convert on third down, and that leads to what happened today.”
On what OSU did well to cover Xavier Worthy:
“I think they had a pretty good plan for them coming into the game, when you have someone of his caliber you have to prepare for him. I think they did a really good job in that aspect.”
Texas running back Bijan Robinson
On where they go from here:
“It hurts, it sucks. But we understand that we have a lot of the season left to play, we can’t let this game get into our rearview and it’s not the whole season. I just know we’re going to keep working hard and me and Roschon (Johnson) will keep being leaders and pointing this team in the right direction.”
On what OSU did to stop the run in the second half:
“They would come up in the box when they knew we were going to run the ball in critical situations. They did a really good job of getting past the blocks and into the backfield, but I don’t use that as an excuse or anything we just have to go out there and execute every time we’re on the field and when we get the run game going, it looks great. We have to go back on Monday, we have a lot of work to do during the bye week and then onto the next week after that.”
