Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU Football Media Luncheon Quotes
April 14, 2003 | Cowboy Football
On UCLA "It is going to be a great game. We have a marquee team coming to Stillwater. The kids are fired up and it will be a great challenge. Their team speed is very good. They are a mobile club and defensively they get to the ball."
On playing at home "It was obvious last week that our kids are more comfortable on Lewis Field. We look forward to seeing our fans, friends, family and everyone in orange. Playing at home is a whole lot more fun that taking a bus anywhere."
On Charlie Ward "I think Charlie has a significant knee injury. They are taking an MRI. It is safe to say he will be out for a couple of weeks and may not be back this season. He was coming into his own and our team would have benefitted if he had been with us for the entire season."
On Cory Paus "UCLA is obviously comfortable with Paus at times, but not necessarily all of the time. They bring in the freshman (Drew Olson) late in the game to drive the team. They are both quality quarterbacks and make good decisions."
On playing a ranked team "We will face a team that is as talented as any team we will face this year. It calls us to play our best. I think there is less motivation this week, only this week our guys see UCLA coming in and get excited."
On running backs health "They have the chance to be better as a group than they have been the past three weeks. We did not extend any of the backs on Saturday, we got them out of the game as quick as we could. Hopefully a couple days of rest and another week of practice will benefit them."
On winning against UCLA "This is obviously a game that we would enjoy taking a victory away from and it would get us closer to where we want to be."
Senior wide receiver Terrance Davis-Bryant
On getting motivated
"I am already motivated for this game. This game is going to show where we are at as a team."
On UCLA
"I was watching film earlier. They have a lot of athletes and are very fast. We just have to match their intensity, and maybe we can play with them."
On being a must-win game
"I think every game is a must-win. If we can beat UCLA than that lets us know that we can play with anybody. It does not matter if they are ranked or not."
On Josh Fields
"I think Josh is doing well. He is sitting in the pocket and giving us a chance to get open so he can deliver the ball to us."
Senior defensive lineman LaWaylon Brown
On getting motivated
"It is not hard for me to get motivated. It is the first meeting between us and UCLA. I think everybody will be ready."
On the match-ups
"I think we match up with them pretty well. They are huge up front, and we have a couple of pretty big guys on our defensive line. I do not see any of us getting blown off the ball. I think it will be pretty evenly matched. It is going to come down to technique and whoever makes fewer mistakes."
On winning
"A win will boost team moral and confidence. It will be nice to have another win before we play SMU. A victory would be big for the program."
On team confidence
"I think we had confidence at the beginning of the season. Louisiana Tech just made the plays at the end to win. We have confidence in each other, the coaching staff and we have confidence that we can win. The Louisiana Tech loss did nothing to our confidence."
UCLA Coach Bob Toledo
On Oklahoma State "They are really athletic and have some outstanding players on the football field. We have some film of OSU from last year against Oklahoma and Colorado and they played some really good football. I look at their defense and four defensive linemen return and eight starters return."
On being on the "hot seat" and off the field problems "I try to put that stuff out of my mind. Number one, we have done a lot of good things here. We had a 20-game win streak , we won two championships (conference) and we were one play away from playing for a national championship. The last three years they talk about us being 17-17, but I look at it as we won five games three years ago, six games two years ago and seven games last year, so we made progress. We lost three games by a total of like 17 points last year and lost to the eventual champions (Pac 10) Oregon by one point. The thing about the off the field problems, that obviously is very disturbing to me and I am embarrassed by it because that's not me. I don't enjoy that part of it and unfortunately like everyone else kids make mistakes and hopefully they can learn from their mistakes and not make those bad decisions anymore. I don't feel that way (on the hot seat), I have a seven-year contract and I am sure that the university will honor those things. The administration has been super to me."
On coming to Stillwater to play Oklahoma State "I didn't schedule that, I know we'd like to play six, possibly seven at home. This year we play six at home and six away. I just play who they tell me to play and go from there."
On the possibility of his team overlooking Oklahoma State "I don't think so because when you look at the film, you see some real good athletes. When you look at last year's game against Oklahoma, they beat an excellent football team. Look at the Colorado game, they had them beat and Colorado had a great year. I don't think its hard to get their attention, if we were playing a lesser opponent, maybe so. Maybe that is what happened to Oklahoma State, they lost that first one and they regret that. They (OSU) will be ready to play us, I know that."
On OSU Receiver Rashaun Woods "I think he is outstanding. He's got size, he's got speed. He's definitely got to be a go-to guy. I'd love to have him on our program. He is a bigtime receiver."
On the possibility of defensive back Ricky Manning covering Woods "There is a real possibility at times, depending on their formations, that he will be matched up against Rashaun. They have other guys they can get the ball to also. They do a nice job on their offense of putting triples (receivers) to one side and putting him (Woods) on the other and screen a lot."
On Ricky Manning "Ricky doesn't have the size that Woods has, but he is a fierce competitor. He's got speed, he's got quickness and he is very tough. He had a great hit the other night (vs. Colorado State), he's a physical football player and a competitor."
On key matchups in the game "I like their front four, our lineman have to matchup against their front four. They have done a great job and have experience. I think their defensive backs are good too. I think kicking game wise, you look at Massey (Chris) who led the nation in kick returns last year, then you look at Davis-Bryant (Terrance), he is an excellent punt returner. We didn't do well in the kicking game last week and that is a real concern of mine."
