Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Notes and Quotes
October 05, 2003 | General
OSU Football
vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
Oct. 4, 2003
Postgame Notes
• Darrent Williams' two punt returns for touchdowns are the most by an OSU player since at least 1959 (as far as records on hand go). His 78-yard punt return for a touchdown in the second quarter was the school's longest punt return for a TD since R.W. McQuarters also scored on a 78-yarder against Texas in 1997 (McQuarters also had an 82-yarder against Louisiana-Monroe that season). It was also his first career TD on a punt return. He added a 59-yard score in the third quarter.
• Vernand Morency rushed for a career high 189 yards, besting his previous high of 108 set against Louisiana Tech last year. His 68-yard scoring run was the longest for OSU since he went for 76 yards also against LA Tech.
• D'Juan Woods 18-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter was the first scoring grab of his career.
• Greg Richmond recorded two sacks and now has 15 career sacks, placing him eighth on OSU's career sack list.
• Rashaun Woods has now caught at least two passes in 36 consecutive games. His streak of 28 games with at least four catches in a game ends.
• With two TD passes on the night, Josh Fields now has 45 in his career, four behind school leader Mike Gundy (49 from 1986-89).
• Wide receiver Kenneth Williams and Corey Hilliard made their first career starts.
• Jamie Beeghley scored his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter.
• Greg Jones ran for a career high 30 yards on four carries.
• Greg Gold's 51-yard run in the fourth quarter was a career best. He also scored his first career TD and finished with a personal best 65 yards.
• Oklahoma State is now 6-0 all-time vs. Louisiana-Lafayette ... the Cowboys went undefeated (4-0) in non-conference play for the first time since 1996 and have won their last six non-conference matchups ... the 56 points scored was a season high.
Postgame Quotes
OSU Coach Les Miles
On unlikely upsets
'When you have all day before you play, you have an opportunity to read the paper, to see other scores. It is very obvious that when West Virginia lines up and plays No. 2 ranked Miami and plays them off their feet, and when Baylor lines up against Colorado and plays them off their feet, there are many opportunities to not play your best and be upset. I am thrilled at how this football team played. In my mind, they saw an opportunity to win a game that, in my mind, the opponent could have taken a less than strong performance and made it a very difficult game for us to win.
On the rest of the season
'We are 4-1 and not without a price. it looks like we might be nicked up at two positions that we can't afford to lose. Someone will have to step up and play. We look forward to getting into Big 12 play, which is the meat of the schedule. All of our attention will turn to some ambitious goals within this conference.'
On the big play of the backups
'In college football if someone gets hurt, someone steps up. When someone gets the opportunity to play, they make the best of it, that's the way a good football team goes.'
On Darrent Williams
'Darrent (Williams) has great speed and has the ability to take it in the end zone and he was just looking for the opportunity to do that. You can tell that when he went in there, he went in to take it to the end zone. We are very fortunate to have both he and Gabe (Lindsay) who can both handle punts and get us great return yards.'
On Vernand Morency
'Vernand Morency had a heck of a day. Morency had a great week of practice. He really was pointing towards an opportunity and that opportunity was given to him and he made the most of it. There was no reason to take him out. We feel like we have a well manned tailback position, it's not just one deep. If there is a guy who has the tendency not to show great concern with the ball he's carrying we'll put another guy in. if that guy responds, he stays in. He had a great week in the off-week and this week. He proved a number of times that he was ready to play in this game and given the chance, he did well.'
OSU Players
Vernand Morency
On being a backup
'I'm just grateful for the opportunity. I prepare myself week in and week out like I'm going to start. It can get frustrating but that is just life. You just have to wait and be patient.'
On long touchdown run
'It felt good. The line did a great job and the receivers blocked. You can not ask more from 11 guys.'
On tough past year
'My mom and dad raised a fighter. I just want to show people that I can play. Once the opportunity presents itself I can come through.'
Darrent Williams
On going after the punt return record
'Coach told me to stay loose. Everyone kept telling me we're going to try to get the record. It was on my mind but I didn't think they would punt the ball to me again.'
On schedule so far
'Everyone thinks that these teams aren't going to give us a game, but they are coming out here and trying to beat us. They feel if they beat us they are going to get on the map. We're just trying to get better every week. Everybody says that we haven't played anybody, but they are not on the field playing the teams we're playing.'
On punt return touchdowns
'The first return we had a wall return and I didn't get too many yards. We told the coach that the middle was wide open. So next time we did a middle return and after the first wave I saw nothing but field. The second one was a wall return. I made a couple people miss and I saw nothing but orange jerseys.'
D'Juan Woods
On punt return touchdowns
'You have to look for points in other aspects of the game. Darrent did a great job of keeping us off the field. I joked with him about taking our reps. '
On stepping up
'The ran double coverage on Rashaun. They rolled a safety over on him. When that happens other receivers have to step up and today was my time. '
OSU Locker Room
Greg Gold
On his first career touchdown
'That play is mainly designed for a cut back. I took it outside and at about the 30-yard line I ran out of gas, so I need to work on that. But the touchdown itself felt good because I haven't scored since my senior year in high school.'
On preparing for Kansas State
'We need to clamp down on the passing protection, continue to work on the running game and go from there.'
Antonio Smith
On the defense
'I think we played pretty well. We had a lot of pass rush going tonight, the inside guys were getting up the field, Greg Richmond got a couple of sacks and Khreem Smith got out there and showed what he could do. Overall, I think we got a lot of pressure on them and the defensive backs kept up pretty good tonight.'
On Louisiana-Lafayette
'That first pass surprised us, but after that we settled down and buckled down and got our stuff together.'
Louisiana-Lafayette Head Coach Rickey Bustle
On the beginning of the game
'We had some opportunities in the first quarter to maybe get some things going our way, but we didn't cash in on it. We gave up too many big plays. It doesn't matter where they come from, it's that they happen. We gave up two of them on our punt team, and they made a long run on a blitz.'
On OSU's special teams
'I think that young man (Darrent Williams) is a heck of a returner, we said that going into the week. I know we missed a couple tackles right their in front of him, and if your gunners don't make plays down there, you're going to have some problems. On both of those returns, our gunners could have made tackles down there and didn't make them.'
On what he takes from this game
'I think the biggest thing is, offensively, we did move the ball pretty well a good part of the night. We didn't do it in the middle of the game when we were struggling but we came out early and got the ball, I thought we ran the ball better, I thought Eric (Rekieta) did a nice job, and defensively, other than the one long run, they didn't earn but 14 offensive points in the first half.'
Opposing Players
Fred Stamps
Senior Wide Receiver
On the game
'There is not much that you can say. When you have the chances to score early and you don't. We had a lot of opportunities, but just didn't take advantage of them. We didn't have too many short series because we had a lot of fight.'
On giving up big plays
'I feel that this team has a lot of fight, but we gave up a lot of big plays. You just can't do that and expect to win a football game.'
Eric Rekieta
Senior Quarterback
On the defensive pressure from the line
'Oklahoma State did a great job of bringing it. I didn't have long to sit back in the pocket. They did a really good job of coming after us. They are a really physical unit.'
On Oklahoma State
'The Big 12 had better watch out for them. This is a good team and they are going to upset some people.'
On gaining experience
'Playing someone with this type of talent is a great experience for us. It will do us good when we get into conference and are not playing someone as good as Oklahoma State. It is just a great experience to play in this type of environment.'
On the first quarter's play
'We came out pumped up. In our first play we threw a long pass that helped us to set the tempo. We were ready to play and kept moving the ball. We got frustrated that we couldn't put it into the end zone. When we got into the red zone, their defense just locked up and did a nice job.'
