Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Notes And Quotes From OSU-TU Football Game
September 11, 1999 | Cowboy Football
Sept. 11, 1999
1999 OSU Football Postgame Notes
vs. Tulsa, Sept. 11, 1999
1999 OSU Football Postgame Quotes
vs. Tulsa, Sept. 11, 1999
Tulsa Players
QB Michael Wall
On the OSU defense
"Their secondary was fast like we thought that they'd be. We knew they were
big and we knew they were fast, but we thought that our guys would have an
edge because our guys are big and fast and they know what they're doing."
"Defensively, it seemed like they were always there. They were always around me and around where the play was. They just swung to the ball."
On the Tulsa running game
"We kind of knew it wasn't going to be there but with this defense they
bring so many in there. They bring one more than we have to block. We were
going to hit them with the short game and the short game kind of had some
faults in it. Then we tried to open it up with a little bit of the
five-step. We had some breakdowns in that. We really didn't have any solid
formations or sets of plays that were really succeeding."
WR Damon Savage
On OSU's defense
"You have to give a lot of credit to OSU. They put a lot of pressure on the
quarterbacks. They confused us a lot and made it really difficult for us to
get down field."
"They made a lot of big plays. They batted four balls down that I remember that were coming my way. They were getting pressure on the quarterback and he didn't have a lot of time a lot of times. They were confusing our offensive line and it made it difficult for us. My hat's off to them today."
1999 OSU Football Postgame Quotes
vs. Tulsa, Sept. 11, 1999
OSU Players
LB Terrell Knauls
On the domination of the defense
"I really think that TU was trying to focus on certain guys and they took
for granted our defensive linemen and they did a great job. Our defensive
linemen did an exceptional job today. They came through and made a lot of
big plays for us."
On the loss to Tulsa last year making a difference in this game
"It made a big difference, not only to me personally, but for the team as
well. We went down there last year and they wore us out all over the field.
They came up here and we put it right back on them. We showed them what the
Orange Crush can do. That's what it's all about."
DE Zak Warner
On the fumble he caused for a touchdown
"It was just a little quick three-step drop and the tackle came out and
tried to cut me. I just jumped over him and I saw that quarterbacks back
and I just tried to drive him into the ground. At first I thought it was a
safety. I didn't know that ball popped out and I looked up and saw Kevin
(Williams). I thought that Kevin had a touchdown so I ran off celebrating.
I guess Kenyatta (Wright) got it. It was a nice play."
WR Ethan Howell
On his role in the offense
"I just try to play my role. My role is being a big-play deep threat
position receiver. I just want to play my role and contribute to this team
as much as possible and get this offense going. If I'm the go-to guy, I'm
up to the challenge."
QB Ben Bowling
On his interception
"It was a little bad luck, but like last week I battled back from it. I had
a pretty decent game. It was a little scrappy on B.J.'s (Tiger) and my part
and we got the job done. There are still some areas that we need to improve
on. For the most part, we had a pretty good game."
LB Kenyatta Wright
On not allowing any offensive touchdowns
"I really don't call it a shutout until they get a goose egg up there. They
got down there and had some big plays on us and we had some dumb penalties
down there that gave them a chance to kick a field goal. I'm satisfied with
this game that we won, but we have to get better each and every week. They
should have had no more than 50 yards. They had a couple of good plays that
they shouldn't have had."
1999 OSU Football Postgame Quotes
vs. Tulsa, Sept. 11, 1999
Tulsa Coach Dave Rader
Opening statements
"We knew and had in our plan that we had to handle their pressure. Last year
we handled it. We did a poor job. We had some miscommunication. There were
some things for us to be a good passing team that can't happen. We allowed
that to happen today. I've said over and over again, when you play a good
defense they feed off of that and get a lot of momentum going. That really
put us in a hole. I thought our defense was playing really well. They kept
us there within two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. I really thought in my
mind, we were close. With the way things were going we were still within two
touchdowns. Get a turnover and maybe we will finally punch one in the end
zone and then we have a touchdown to make up and see if we can win this
thing. Then in the fourth quarter we give up three touchdowns."
On offensive line
"Today a bunch of things happened. They were getting off on the snap
extremely well. We didn't communicate our protection on too many occasions,
so we had one guy going left and another guy going right which meant that
there was a hole open up the middle. Probably a lot of that was due today
communication problems due to noise today. It was a bad deal to happen. We
learned some things. They threw a couple of blitzes at us today. Of course,
that is going to happen every game and we have to make adjustments to that"
On OSU
"No, not really. I think that last year we were hyped and this year they
were hyped and that is the way it goes. I go back to the very first series
when we had two guys open and we don't hit them. If we hit those we are off
and running, but it wasn't going to happen today. It is indicative of what
happened the rest of the game. They were playing very well on defense and
they are a very good defensive team. We knew what was coming."
On rotating quarterbacks
"Michael was getting hit time after time and we hadn't moved the ball very
much. Maybe it was good for Michael to come out and look at it and see what
was going on from the sideline. Josh came in and he has a little bit quicker
release he can get some things going and maybe he stays in there for a
while. It was just a time I thought to make a switch for those reasons and
see what would happen. Some things happened to him (Wall) that as a fan you
sit there and think, "Well that was the quarterbacks fault", and on more
than one occasion that is not true. He was not at fault. We had some orange
jerseys in our backfield way too many times.
1999 OSU Football Postgame Quotes
vs. Tulsa, Sept. 11, 1999
OSU Coach Bob Simmons
"I'm very pleased with the outcome of the game. I thought once again that our defense gave us ample opportunity. I thought that their play was tremendous. I liked the play of the offense. I thought that this time we converted both types of field position into points. The bottom line is that we walked away with the victory."
On his satisfaction with the quarterbacks
"(I'm satisfied) to a degree. I like the way those two guys (B.J. Tiger and
Ben Bowling) are both competitors. I thought that B.J. made some great
throws. He's got to make better decisions in those other situations, but
his athletic ability and Ben's allows them to be elusive and scramble. That
just adds another dimension in terms of what kind of plays we can call. You
can see that both of those guys have got arms. I'm pretty pleased with both
those kids."
On the play of the defensive ends
"I'll have to watch the film, but I know that the defense was all over. I
know that the ends and the linebackers had a lot of problems in protection.
The quarterback was down a lot. It came from the ends. It came from the
linebackers. It came from the secondary backs. I thought that our game
plan was very, very good. For a team that has pretty good receivers, I
thought that our defensive backs played pretty well. I thought that this
team would be a test for throwing the football, but when you're sitting
down, there's no way you can throw the ball."
On J.B. Flowers and Alvin Porter
"It's interesting that you brig up those two guys. J.B. is a fifth year
senior and Porter is a guy that we recruited early and came back. He's
turned out to be one of the best defensive backs around. Both those guys
are tremendous. J.B.'s a safety, but Alvin is a tremendous one-on-one
player."
On the defense's play
"If the defense can keep that kind of intensity up throughout the season,
we'll win some ball games. You have a defense full of seniors. You have
five linebackers that are seniors. You have guys that have a lot of pride
in ourselves, We said early in the season that the strength of this team
would be our defense. We recruited to the defense in bringing in some of
those defensive ends with a lot of speed. We have a chance to rank very
high defensively if we play with the same intensity throughout the season.
We will be a top-ranked defense."
