Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. Tulsa Postgame Quotes
August 31, 2017 | Cowboy Football
Oklahoma State vs. Tulsa Postgame Quotes
OSU Head Coach Mike Gundy
Opening statement:
"I thought our guys played well. We have to do a much better job at taking care of the football. Those things frustrate me. In order for us to have the season that we would like to have, we have to take care of the ball and we essentially gave them 10 points. Those things frustrate me. (Jalen) McCleskey knows better than that. His ball security was absolutely terrible and that's something that we'll continue to work on. Mason (Rudolph) knows better than to do what he did. Scrambling out of the pocket, playing in a two-minute situation, he's got to throw the ball away. I was not pleased with that, offensively. Our guys know that we don't crack back in blocking below the waist. I don't know that we've ever done that. Then we had procedure penalties with two veteran guys. Those are things we have to clean up in order for us to continue to play well."
"Our defense needs to do a better job on third and 20. I don't know what it was, I don't have the stats, but they had to have been 80 percent at third and 10 or more. They worked hard to get them at third and long and to stay on the field."
"I liked our explosiveness when we started the game. We have a lot of explosiveness and we have a lot of guys that can make plays. We've got receivers that can catch it and running backs that can run it pretty good. That's not a secret. I thought our defense played great. We gave up a lot of yards late in the game, but for the most part I thought they played really well with the exception of third and long, which is unusual. They were healthy through the game, which is important, and we got to play a lot of players."
"I thought our special teams was okay. Matt Ammendola rushed that field goal at the end. He's really fast and you can see how the ball hooked, kind of like with your golf swing. I thought our punting was good. We've got a long ways to go. Obviously it's a good start. Even though we've got a veteran team, you're always nervous for the first game. You don't know what you're going to get. We'll work them out tomorrow, give them the day off Saturday and come back to work Sunday."
On if he was surprised that they were able to overwhelm Tulsa:
"Yes, and again they're young. I've said this and I mean this, Coach Montgomery is a great football coach. What they do is good and it's been proven over the years. I hate to speak for them, but when you have an inexperienced quarterback, it's difficult to do things. I was pleased at our run defense. I thought that was very good and really set the tone for the game."
On the offensive line play:
"Without watching it (on tape) I was pretty pleased. Tulsa has a few guys that are really good up front, and they've got a big guy inside. Mason caused his own sack and the other time he got hit on the outcut that we scored on and probably had a really good chance at being intercepted because (Aaron Cochran) got beat on an up-and-under move and got up in his face and he couldn't release so the ball kind of fluttered out there. It didn't look good when it was halfway. For the first game, I liked how we played up front. I thought we run blocked pretty well. I thought (Justice Hill) made a lot of guys miss. That's what good backs do. Over half the time in college football it isn't blocked correctly or someone defeats a block, so the running back has to make guys miss."
On how he liked the performance of the backup running backs:
"I liked what I saw from J.D. (King) from a standpoint of thinking he ran physically and protected the ball really well. Early in your career, those things are really important to prove that you're physical enough to compete at this level and take care of the ball. I thought he did a good job of that. He showed a little bit more burst in the open field than I thought he had. Then, LD (Brown) made a couple of plays and showed that he has the chance to run the ball a little bit. I thought we got some good play from those guys and blocked them pretty good at times."
On if stopping the third and longs is on the front seven or defense as a whole:
"It's everybody. They were 16-of-26 (on third downs), and I'm willing to bet more than eight of them were third and 10 or more, which is generally a conversion rate of about 18 percent. Without being able to spit it out right now, I'm going to guess it was everybody. That's something we've got to get better at. You've worked too hard to get to that point. Everybody is fired up for third and 15, and we've got to get off the field."
Offensive Coordinator Mike Yurcich
"By no means did we play a perfect game. We're going to chase that perfect game and can't turn the ball over. Just minor things that actually turn into big things. We have to make sure that we get better every day. I don't think you can sit here and gloat about anything. You have to learn how to improve and that's the process and that's what it's all about."
"It's not a challenge with our guys because our guys are team guys. They understand that somebody might get eight catches one game and they may only get two. It's really dictated on what the defense is giving you and it's important that the quarterback knows where to distribute the ball."
Defensive Coordinator Glenn Spencer
"We did great stopping the run, did a tremendous job. I don't think they had anything on us. They had a 55 yarder but take that away and pretty good night with a team that fancies itself on running the ball."
"We have to find answers. We have to get more disciplined in our pass rush lanes, all that's correctable. Nothing schematically really hurt us at all. But it was just the effectiveness of their quarterback running the ball and losing contain a couple of times. (We) had a lot of tremendous stops out there though."
Wide Receiver James Washington
On getting the regular season started:
"It was a lot of fun to get back out there with my guys. There's just something about it that it feels like a long time coming. It was a lot of fun to be back out there on the field again."
On the performance against Tulsa:
"We showed tonight that all of the hard work and preparation that we put in during the offseason has paid off."
On whether it takes time to rediscover his in-game connection with Mason Rudolph:
"I feel like it doesn't really take a lot of time to get in a rhythm again. We have so many guys and we all have that connection with him across the board. Just like Coach (Kasey) Dunn always tells us - when your number gets called, be ready to go out and make a play."
Safety Tre Flowers
On the regular season beginning:
"It felt great to get back out there again. It's been a long offseason and it feels like we've been practicing for forever. It was also nice to go out there and get the win to start of the year 1-0."
On the defense's takeaways from the win over Tulsa:
"We showed that we can stop the run, and I feel like we did a good job with containing the run. We missed a couple of tackles and assignments, but we can rally back from anything."
On the secondary's performances:
"I thought we performed well, but we're still hungry. We're going to watch the tape from tonight and I'll have my grades for our performance on Monday. I thought our young guys played well. They did better than I did in my first game. They showed composure, made some plays and did a good job tonight."
Center Brad Lundblade
On the win over Tulsa:
"It felt really good to get back out there and play a game again. We've been at it for about four weeks in camp and just getting back out there in a game setting felt really good."
On the offensive line's performance:
"I thought it was good. Like any first game, there were a few mistakes and things that we have to clean up. I feel like we were able to establish a run game and protect Mason (Rudolph) pretty well though. Obviously, we had a couple of hiccups and we've got some things to clean up, but overall I feel like it was a pretty good first game."
On the offensive line's ability to both pass and run block effectively:
"One of the things Coach (Josh) Henson emphasizes a lot is our technique. We've really hit hard on that during camp and we want to be technically sound in both areas has really helped us out I think."
Defensive Tackle DeQuinton Osborne
On starting the season off with a win:
"I feel amazing. I put a lot of hard work in this offseason and I just wanted to see it pay off. As a team, we've been putting in a lot of work and it paid off tonight. As a defense, I think we did a great job. We had a great effort defensively tonight and it all came together for us."
On how the defense handled a diverse Tulsa offense:
"I feel like we handled their offense well. Our coaches had a great gameplan and put us in some different positions with our personnel to be successful. We had a solid gameplan and that helped us to be successful tonight."
On the speed and athleticism of the defense:
"I feel like we performed well tonight. We do have a lot of speed on defense. We also have a lot of talent on defense, so it was good to see that come together tonight to help us get the win."
Tulsa Head Coach Philip Montgomery
Opening Statement
"First of all, I want to say congratulations to coach Gundy and his staff and their football team. I thought coming into it they were probably the most talented team I've seen them have. They have a lot of weapons. Their quarterback is playing great and it doesn't look like they missed a beat. They're a very well coached team and they did a nice job today. I'm proud of our guys continuing to fight and grind. You know, we're young, but that's not an excuse. We've got to step up and be ready to play. We'll go back and look at this tape and get an opportunity to correct those mistakes. Then we have Lafayette coming to town and we have to be ready for them, because that's another good football team."
On what he learned about his team:
"You know, just like the play by McKinley (Whitfield). Those are things we preach about in our program. We're going to fight for 60 minutes and it doesn't matter what the score is or whether we're on top or we're on bottom. I was really proud of the way our guys continued to fight and grind. In some of those explosive plays early, we're actually in pretty good coverage. The first one to Washington, Kerwin (Thomas) was right there. We just have to finish that play. Same thing with Reggie (Robinson II). He's right there, we just have to finish that play. Those explosive plays happen. But you have to move on. But again, a talented group, a talented quarterback, and we have some guys trying to step up. We have some young guys who got a lot of experience tonight. So hopefully we can build on that and continue to grow."
On Tulsa's line of scrimmage play:
"Honestly, I thought they ran the ball much more effectively than I was foreseeing them doing. I thought their offensive line did a nice job schematically. I thought they had us in some gap things. But I thought they ran the ball much more efficiently than what I really had planned. Hats off to their offensive line and what they did. On the flip side of it, we didn't run the football effectively. One of the things that really hurt us was our first down plays. We weren't doing a good enough job on first and 10. We ended up in a lot of long-yardage situations. Those are things we have to get better at."
On the quarterback rotation moving forward:
"I don't know. We'll just have to go back and look at the tape and we'll kind of see where we're at. I thought Chad (President) did a nice job today. Really, I thought both quarterbacks did a nice job. Our plan coming in was we're going to play Chad for two and play Luke (Skipper) for two. Then we were just going to go with the flow at that point. I thought Chad came in and did a nice job of extending plays. He picked up a lot of those yards with his feet and threw the ball effectively. He had a couple of deep balls that really should have been caught and that were really, really close. Those are plays we have to make. I thought we have to continue to grow at the quarterback spot and at the receiver spot. But we had some young guys step up. Josh Stewart made a nice catch there on a third and long or fourth and long, I don't really remember. But (Justin) Hobbs made some good catches in there. Keenen (Johnson) had a couple of good catches. Nigel (Carter) was in there working and so, we have to continue to keep growing. I thought we took some good steps tonight in that direction."
Quarterback Chad President
Overall:
"It felt good. Just getting the jitters out after the first drive. Offensively we had some good sparks and some bad sparks. We have to go back, watch the film and get ready for next week."
Something he thought he did well, but has to work on:
"I thought I threw the ball well. I just have to be more consistent with it. But I thought a couple times that my eyes weren't in the right spot or where they should be."
Learning from OSU:
"There is a lot to learn from them. It is a great team. They played great tonight and we had a few mishaps."
Safety McKinley Whitfield
Playing against OSU's offense:
"It was pretty tough. Because we came in knowing that they were pretty good and had a great receiving core and things like that. But we came in with a mindset, and we weren't thinking about them. We just came in, tried to play our ball game and do our best."
On James Washington:
"They have James Washington, a wide receiver who can go out there and catch the ball. It was a challenge, but we have to bounce back."
On Mason Rudolph:
"He is a great quarterback. He is probably going to be a top-10 draft pick this year, in the first round, I would imagine. He passes the ball well and reads the defense well. He is probably one of the best quarterbacks I have seen or played against in a long time. He is a competitor."
OSU Head Coach Mike Gundy
Opening statement:
"I thought our guys played well. We have to do a much better job at taking care of the football. Those things frustrate me. In order for us to have the season that we would like to have, we have to take care of the ball and we essentially gave them 10 points. Those things frustrate me. (Jalen) McCleskey knows better than that. His ball security was absolutely terrible and that's something that we'll continue to work on. Mason (Rudolph) knows better than to do what he did. Scrambling out of the pocket, playing in a two-minute situation, he's got to throw the ball away. I was not pleased with that, offensively. Our guys know that we don't crack back in blocking below the waist. I don't know that we've ever done that. Then we had procedure penalties with two veteran guys. Those are things we have to clean up in order for us to continue to play well."
"Our defense needs to do a better job on third and 20. I don't know what it was, I don't have the stats, but they had to have been 80 percent at third and 10 or more. They worked hard to get them at third and long and to stay on the field."
"I liked our explosiveness when we started the game. We have a lot of explosiveness and we have a lot of guys that can make plays. We've got receivers that can catch it and running backs that can run it pretty good. That's not a secret. I thought our defense played great. We gave up a lot of yards late in the game, but for the most part I thought they played really well with the exception of third and long, which is unusual. They were healthy through the game, which is important, and we got to play a lot of players."
"I thought our special teams was okay. Matt Ammendola rushed that field goal at the end. He's really fast and you can see how the ball hooked, kind of like with your golf swing. I thought our punting was good. We've got a long ways to go. Obviously it's a good start. Even though we've got a veteran team, you're always nervous for the first game. You don't know what you're going to get. We'll work them out tomorrow, give them the day off Saturday and come back to work Sunday."
On if he was surprised that they were able to overwhelm Tulsa:
"Yes, and again they're young. I've said this and I mean this, Coach Montgomery is a great football coach. What they do is good and it's been proven over the years. I hate to speak for them, but when you have an inexperienced quarterback, it's difficult to do things. I was pleased at our run defense. I thought that was very good and really set the tone for the game."
On the offensive line play:
"Without watching it (on tape) I was pretty pleased. Tulsa has a few guys that are really good up front, and they've got a big guy inside. Mason caused his own sack and the other time he got hit on the outcut that we scored on and probably had a really good chance at being intercepted because (Aaron Cochran) got beat on an up-and-under move and got up in his face and he couldn't release so the ball kind of fluttered out there. It didn't look good when it was halfway. For the first game, I liked how we played up front. I thought we run blocked pretty well. I thought (Justice Hill) made a lot of guys miss. That's what good backs do. Over half the time in college football it isn't blocked correctly or someone defeats a block, so the running back has to make guys miss."
On how he liked the performance of the backup running backs:
"I liked what I saw from J.D. (King) from a standpoint of thinking he ran physically and protected the ball really well. Early in your career, those things are really important to prove that you're physical enough to compete at this level and take care of the ball. I thought he did a good job of that. He showed a little bit more burst in the open field than I thought he had. Then, LD (Brown) made a couple of plays and showed that he has the chance to run the ball a little bit. I thought we got some good play from those guys and blocked them pretty good at times."
On if stopping the third and longs is on the front seven or defense as a whole:
"It's everybody. They were 16-of-26 (on third downs), and I'm willing to bet more than eight of them were third and 10 or more, which is generally a conversion rate of about 18 percent. Without being able to spit it out right now, I'm going to guess it was everybody. That's something we've got to get better at. You've worked too hard to get to that point. Everybody is fired up for third and 15, and we've got to get off the field."
Offensive Coordinator Mike Yurcich
"By no means did we play a perfect game. We're going to chase that perfect game and can't turn the ball over. Just minor things that actually turn into big things. We have to make sure that we get better every day. I don't think you can sit here and gloat about anything. You have to learn how to improve and that's the process and that's what it's all about."
"It's not a challenge with our guys because our guys are team guys. They understand that somebody might get eight catches one game and they may only get two. It's really dictated on what the defense is giving you and it's important that the quarterback knows where to distribute the ball."
Defensive Coordinator Glenn Spencer
"We did great stopping the run, did a tremendous job. I don't think they had anything on us. They had a 55 yarder but take that away and pretty good night with a team that fancies itself on running the ball."
"We have to find answers. We have to get more disciplined in our pass rush lanes, all that's correctable. Nothing schematically really hurt us at all. But it was just the effectiveness of their quarterback running the ball and losing contain a couple of times. (We) had a lot of tremendous stops out there though."
Wide Receiver James Washington
On getting the regular season started:
"It was a lot of fun to get back out there with my guys. There's just something about it that it feels like a long time coming. It was a lot of fun to be back out there on the field again."
On the performance against Tulsa:
"We showed tonight that all of the hard work and preparation that we put in during the offseason has paid off."
On whether it takes time to rediscover his in-game connection with Mason Rudolph:
"I feel like it doesn't really take a lot of time to get in a rhythm again. We have so many guys and we all have that connection with him across the board. Just like Coach (Kasey) Dunn always tells us - when your number gets called, be ready to go out and make a play."
Safety Tre Flowers
On the regular season beginning:
"It felt great to get back out there again. It's been a long offseason and it feels like we've been practicing for forever. It was also nice to go out there and get the win to start of the year 1-0."
On the defense's takeaways from the win over Tulsa:
"We showed that we can stop the run, and I feel like we did a good job with containing the run. We missed a couple of tackles and assignments, but we can rally back from anything."
On the secondary's performances:
"I thought we performed well, but we're still hungry. We're going to watch the tape from tonight and I'll have my grades for our performance on Monday. I thought our young guys played well. They did better than I did in my first game. They showed composure, made some plays and did a good job tonight."
Center Brad Lundblade
On the win over Tulsa:
"It felt really good to get back out there and play a game again. We've been at it for about four weeks in camp and just getting back out there in a game setting felt really good."
On the offensive line's performance:
"I thought it was good. Like any first game, there were a few mistakes and things that we have to clean up. I feel like we were able to establish a run game and protect Mason (Rudolph) pretty well though. Obviously, we had a couple of hiccups and we've got some things to clean up, but overall I feel like it was a pretty good first game."
On the offensive line's ability to both pass and run block effectively:
"One of the things Coach (Josh) Henson emphasizes a lot is our technique. We've really hit hard on that during camp and we want to be technically sound in both areas has really helped us out I think."
Defensive Tackle DeQuinton Osborne
On starting the season off with a win:
"I feel amazing. I put a lot of hard work in this offseason and I just wanted to see it pay off. As a team, we've been putting in a lot of work and it paid off tonight. As a defense, I think we did a great job. We had a great effort defensively tonight and it all came together for us."
On how the defense handled a diverse Tulsa offense:
"I feel like we handled their offense well. Our coaches had a great gameplan and put us in some different positions with our personnel to be successful. We had a solid gameplan and that helped us to be successful tonight."
On the speed and athleticism of the defense:
"I feel like we performed well tonight. We do have a lot of speed on defense. We also have a lot of talent on defense, so it was good to see that come together tonight to help us get the win."
Tulsa Head Coach Philip Montgomery
Opening Statement
"First of all, I want to say congratulations to coach Gundy and his staff and their football team. I thought coming into it they were probably the most talented team I've seen them have. They have a lot of weapons. Their quarterback is playing great and it doesn't look like they missed a beat. They're a very well coached team and they did a nice job today. I'm proud of our guys continuing to fight and grind. You know, we're young, but that's not an excuse. We've got to step up and be ready to play. We'll go back and look at this tape and get an opportunity to correct those mistakes. Then we have Lafayette coming to town and we have to be ready for them, because that's another good football team."
On what he learned about his team:
"You know, just like the play by McKinley (Whitfield). Those are things we preach about in our program. We're going to fight for 60 minutes and it doesn't matter what the score is or whether we're on top or we're on bottom. I was really proud of the way our guys continued to fight and grind. In some of those explosive plays early, we're actually in pretty good coverage. The first one to Washington, Kerwin (Thomas) was right there. We just have to finish that play. Same thing with Reggie (Robinson II). He's right there, we just have to finish that play. Those explosive plays happen. But you have to move on. But again, a talented group, a talented quarterback, and we have some guys trying to step up. We have some young guys who got a lot of experience tonight. So hopefully we can build on that and continue to grow."
On Tulsa's line of scrimmage play:
"Honestly, I thought they ran the ball much more effectively than I was foreseeing them doing. I thought their offensive line did a nice job schematically. I thought they had us in some gap things. But I thought they ran the ball much more efficiently than what I really had planned. Hats off to their offensive line and what they did. On the flip side of it, we didn't run the football effectively. One of the things that really hurt us was our first down plays. We weren't doing a good enough job on first and 10. We ended up in a lot of long-yardage situations. Those are things we have to get better at."
On the quarterback rotation moving forward:
"I don't know. We'll just have to go back and look at the tape and we'll kind of see where we're at. I thought Chad (President) did a nice job today. Really, I thought both quarterbacks did a nice job. Our plan coming in was we're going to play Chad for two and play Luke (Skipper) for two. Then we were just going to go with the flow at that point. I thought Chad came in and did a nice job of extending plays. He picked up a lot of those yards with his feet and threw the ball effectively. He had a couple of deep balls that really should have been caught and that were really, really close. Those are plays we have to make. I thought we have to continue to grow at the quarterback spot and at the receiver spot. But we had some young guys step up. Josh Stewart made a nice catch there on a third and long or fourth and long, I don't really remember. But (Justin) Hobbs made some good catches in there. Keenen (Johnson) had a couple of good catches. Nigel (Carter) was in there working and so, we have to continue to keep growing. I thought we took some good steps tonight in that direction."
Quarterback Chad President
Overall:
"It felt good. Just getting the jitters out after the first drive. Offensively we had some good sparks and some bad sparks. We have to go back, watch the film and get ready for next week."
Something he thought he did well, but has to work on:
"I thought I threw the ball well. I just have to be more consistent with it. But I thought a couple times that my eyes weren't in the right spot or where they should be."
Learning from OSU:
"There is a lot to learn from them. It is a great team. They played great tonight and we had a few mishaps."
Safety McKinley Whitfield
Playing against OSU's offense:
"It was pretty tough. Because we came in knowing that they were pretty good and had a great receiving core and things like that. But we came in with a mindset, and we weren't thinking about them. We just came in, tried to play our ball game and do our best."
On James Washington:
"They have James Washington, a wide receiver who can go out there and catch the ball. It was a challenge, but we have to bounce back."
On Mason Rudolph:
"He is a great quarterback. He is probably going to be a top-10 draft pick this year, in the first round, I would imagine. He passes the ball well and reads the defense well. He is probably one of the best quarterbacks I have seen or played against in a long time. He is a competitor."
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