Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State University
2-4 , 0-3
Texas
5-1 , 2-1
OSU Postgame Quotes
October 13, 2001 | Cowboy Football
Oct. 13, 2001
Final Stats?|? Quotes?|? Notes
OSU Coach Les Miles
On turnovers "I lost count after five turnovers. You cannot spot even a poor team five more opportunities at the ball than you have. It's been a reoccurring theme since day one. Our team has to find a way to control the football when it's in our possession. It's just that simple."
On how to correct the turnover problem "If I have any magic on how to correct that, I obviously haven't used it. All we can do is drill it, make it a part of conscious thought and play the ones who don't fumble. That's the way I approach it."
On the effect of Texas' rushing game on the defense "I felt like defensively we had them stymied early. They did not quite know how to handle us. I really felt like there was a point when they got their rushing game going, but I really thought that had we covered them a little bit better in certain situations, they might not have gotten their rushing game going. I can't tell you which action really happened first. It was the combination of both that hurt us."
On missing Roger Bombach, Michael Cooper and Fath' Carter "We certainly did miss them. I know that Darrent Williams had a touchdown pass thrown in his direction. I liked his fight. I'm glad that we had an opportunity to see a very talented freshman. I'm sure that we missed Roger Bombach, Michael Cooper and Fath' Carter. I'm sure that there was a cost associated with missing their experience in the line up. I can tell you that the guys who went in there did play lights out. We just needed the veterans to not turn it over and to play above and come after this team. That didn't happen today."
On Tatum Bell and Richard Schwarz "Tatum felt well enough to play, but not necessarily the whole day. We were going to play Richard, deservedly. We tried to look for who was the hot hand in the rush, but it was very difficult to get any hot hands. They were kind of bottling us up in the rushing game early on."
OSU Players
Richard Schwarz
On defending the run "We had schemes to block every run they had. It is just that they made plays. Every play is a battle. They won some and we won some.
On turnover "We work on ball security a lot. I mean that they just caught us a bad times. One ball pops up or they get one hand on it and it's a turnover. Everyone is just going out there playing. Not turning the ball over is not what I think about. I just have to go out there and do my job."
On change of momentum "After they got up 17-10, I realized that this was going to be a battle and we were going to have to fight harder."
On starting "I didn't know I was starting until the second play of the game. I was ready to play because I knew I was going to play a lot this week. I would have been ready to play if it had been the second quarter."
Aso Pogi
On getting off to good start and then losing it "We lost our momentum. We just cannot turn the ball over. I think that was the difference in the game, we turned the ball over and they didn't. That directed the rest of the game. We have to make better decisions and hold on to the football."
On first drive "They gave us everything we excepted them to give us on the first drive. They went man free which was exactly what we thought they would do. We did everything we wanted to do against their defense. When they came back out, they zoned us for the rest of the football game. They gave us a totally different look."
On turnover situation "It is really frustrating. We can't turn the ball over. That decides a lot of football games. In our case, it has been a huge part of what the turnout is going to be. We had too many turnovers on offense and one on special teams. I think pretty much every one was a reflection of what they did on offense. We can't do things like that. "
Dwayne Levels
On Chris Simms "That was the plan, to throw him off and not let him get in a rhythm. He is a solid quarterback. He can't beat you by himself, but he can make plays."
On losing intensity "We have to maintain our intensity. We can't play two good quarters and then back off. We have to maintain our intensity. It is something that can be fixed. I think we have shown what can happen when we don't play four solid quarters."
On establishing run "We were expecting them to establish the run. We knew they were going to come in and try to run."
OSU Locker Room
Chris Massey
On Texas "They are a proven team. They came out here, and we jumped on them quickly. We just have to keep on and stay on them.
On his kickoff return "It was something we've been working on all week because we knew that they are a sprint team. They like to run to the ball. If we could get it on the back side, we had a lane open to hide in."
Rashaun Woods
On the team's thoughts while leading 10-0 "We were talking about not turning the ball over. We knew a big reason for us losing before was that we turned the ball over. After we scored, that was basically the main thought. We did not keep from turning the ball over, and that hurt us."
On his philosophy "I just try to come out and do whatever I can to help the team win. That's all I can do."
On playing Iowa State next week "If we go down there and play well, we should be able to win. If we give ourselves a chance to win, we ought to pull it out.
On the effort level "Our theme this year is to win. We're going to do whatever it takes to win. That didn't happen for us, but everybody could see that we were trying. We gave 100 percent."
Texas Head Coach Mack Brown
On the game
I am really excited about the win. You have to give Oklahoma State credit for jumping out to a ten point lead to start the game. Our guys made four great plays on third down and I thought we were in the right position, but they just made the plays. I thought it was going to be a tough day because this is usually a tough place to play. When we got the ball back our young tailback (Cedric Benson) fumbled and we were down 10-0. I felt pretty good that they were not able to run the football. If a team cannot be two-dimensional it will come back to hurt them before the game is over. The defense took over at that point and our offense had a great drive to start the second quarter. The long drive right before the half was critical and then their miscue on the ensuing kickoff pretty much put them out of the game. I am pleased that our guys came out and played well in the second half. I do not think there was a letdown or a hangover, it is credit to Oklahoma State for playing well. If we were not ready to play this game we would not have come back and played like we did."
On playing Cedric Benson
"We felt that our running game got off track last week and we did not get Cedric (Benson) in the game and we know he is a good football player. We have been concerned about his protection so we had to force that on him. We met with him a lot more last week and told him we had to get him to pass protect, we are at mid-season and cannot run him in and out anymore. It is a key to the other team we run when he goes out there and we throw when he comes out. He had to be the fullback today and he was that. He did not start out very well, but he was tough enough to go back out there and play hard throughout the game."
On how Benson sparked the offense in the first half
"Their defense was really excited because they did not do well last week against Missouri. We had a couple of penalties and some stuff came up that we did not handle very well and then there was the fumble. Our offense got tough and Benson had some key runs that was the difference in jump-starting us to get going in the second quarter."
On needing to win this game
"We feel like we are a top ten football team. We were all so disappointed last week that we did not score more points and that we had turnovers. Understanding that that were a tough game, and they (Oklahoma) were a great team, but we still need to be a great team. We have put ourselves in position to be one at time and coming to Oklahoma State and losing would have put us out of everything we needed and there were some people who thought we would play poorly today. Aso Pogi challenged the team and thought we were going to lay down because you play hard one week and you don't the next. Anybody who questions the toughness of this team right now would be wrong in my estimation."
Texas Players Quotes
Chris Simms
On Career Day "Of course it feels great, but I just have to take it in stride through the good and the bad. I'm very happy of my performance and the way our offense performed, but I'm not going to get too excited and be content."
On Being Down Early "We were very relaxed, we did have a problem moving the ball the first two series. There was a little confusion with the crowd being loud and we just couldn't get in sync. We knew once we would get going, it would be ok."
On Colorado Next Week "This win got us in the right frame of mind and it was good to see everyone come together. Colorado is a good team and we need to play well to beat them. We needed this bad to get us back on the right track."
Cory Redding
On Being Down Early "They got up 10 and we decided to get it rolling too. They came out giving it everything they had and made their surge, but we rallied up and started making plays."
On Changes on Defense "We didn't make any changes. We just knuckled down, started playing football and executing plays."
On Vasher's Interception "That was real big, they could have scored another touchdown by making some plays, instead it put our offense back on the field and allowed them to go to work."
