Oklahoma State University Athletics
Coach Simmons Monday Quotes
April 08, 2003 | Cowboy Football
On Reggie White's performance "He had a big game. Reggie stayed in Stillwater this summer and worked in the weight room and got up to 230 pounds and still retained his speed. He showed in the spring he could break tackles as well as avoid them. To me he is a big time back.
On the questions regarding Lindsay starting against Tulsa "There was never any question. To be honest what happened, we wanted to assure Tony he was all right and in order to do that he had to get an MRI to make sure his shoulder was sound. Once he did that and it showed there was just inflammation and that he could throw with the pain and not hurt his shoulder then he was fine.
On this week's contest against Southwest Texas "I don't much about them other than they are 1-1. I think we will be picked to win the ball game, my take on that is that we have to take each game seriously. For us to be the kind of team we want, we have to do that. You can't go into the ball game thinking you are going to roll them, when you do that you start to make mistakes. They are going to play well, it's a step up for them and they are coming here to prove something. The best way to handle that is to take it to your opponent early.
On any changes in the secondary "Right now we will stay with the same personnel in the secondary. We will try to get Ricklan Holmes in there but there isn't anybody else on the team to put in there. I am hesitant to put a freshman in there but we will make some structural changes. Chris Massey can play corner and our defensive staff will look at some things to shore the secondary up.
On the possibility of Aso Pogi getting some time in this weekend "I hope so. We wanted a lot of guys to see some time last week, but it didn't happen. We still have to get Aso some experience and we look forward to getting him that."
Tailback Reggie White On OSU's offensive performance against Tulsa "I thought that the offensive line came out and did a great job. I thought that Coach (Del) Miller came out with an excellent game plan. We just went out there and executed and the O-line came out there and made the holds that they have been taught to make.
On his confidence in the offensive line "I have been feeling confident ever since Coach Miller came this spring. I saw a change in the whole team. I saw a change in the offensive staff. We just went out there and did what we were taught to do.
On Southwest Texas "I really haven't looked at film on them yet. But I will learn a lot about them, starting today.
On having a test in the second half against Tulsa will help the rest of the year "It was excellent. It just showed that we are a different team. We are going to have times when we have to face that, but we are determined to win the game. We are going to have the courage to win the game, and we are going to strive to do what's right and do the things that we need to do to win the ball game.
On working out in Stillwater all summer "During the years that I was sitting, I noticed that to be the player you want to be, you need to condition yourself. That's going to pay off in the four quarters. Some guys might go home and sit around, but that's going to be the edge that we need when the fourth quarter comes. That's a change we made as a whole team. We were all up here conditioning ourselves and working with the strength coach. That paid off in the fourth quarter. I thought the whole team felt pretty good going into the fourth quarter.
On whether he played up to his full potential on Saturday "I never feel that I played up to my full potential. I made mistakes and we made mistakes, and those are the mistakes that we have to correct today. We can't have the same mistakes going into this game. I didn't play as well as I could have played; I made some mistakes.
On the camaraderie between him and Jamaal Fobbs "There is no controversy between Jamaal and I. This week might be Jamaal's week and Coach (Simmons) may want him to play. I'm going to be out there cheering for him. He told me that I had to keep going when I was tired. I'm going to do the same for him. Jamaal is like a brother to me. He always told me to keep my head up when I was down. We're going to stay together. We're in this together. We're going to work as a team.
On Tony Lindsay's performance "I think T played great. He's the leader of the offensive team. People were saying that he had off years and all of that, but he didn't let that get to him. He came out and showed what type of player he's going to be and what type of player he is. That just goes to show what type of person he is.
On this week's game being like last week's game "No, this week's game is not like last week's game. This is Southwest Texas, not Tulsa. We have to prepare for them. You never know what's going to happen from week to week. They could come up here and beat us if we took them for granted. We are going to prepare and practice hard as if they were Kansas State or anybody.
On pulling off big runs in the fourth quarter against Tulsa "I just so happened that the ball came to me. I think Coach saw some things that they were doing. It just goes to show you what kind of coordinator we have this year. He knows how to put us in the right positions at the right time; he knows which plays to call. He saw the we needed to run the ball so that we could run some time off the clock. You have to give credit to the O-line. They did a great job. It just goes to show you what kind of conditioning we have."
Offensive Tackle Josh Lind On OSU's offensive performance against Tulsa "It was pretty good for us. We should have put more points on the board than what we did, but the offensive line proved to ourselves what we can do. Reggie White had an outstanding game. it makes it easier for us when he does run like that. We need to get better at certain parts of the game. We were pretty vanilla the whole weekend. We still didn't show much of our offense. We're looking forward to this coming weekend.
On Reggie White giving credit to the offensive line "It feels great. We don't really get a lot of publicity about what we do as a whole. I got invited to the media luncheon for the first time ever, and this feels great. When he gives you props, it makes you feel good about yourself. As an individual, I felt as though I had a good game, but he (White) was the star of the game. When he says that the offensive line helped me get there, it makes me feel good. I feel like I did my job, and I really appreciate what he says.
On White having holes to run through "We came off the ball pretty well on Saturday night, I was really pleased with our offensive line. We still have some room to improve, but as a whole, we did pretty well.
On pass blocking "The Tulsa defense really didn't rush very hard. I'm not going to lie, they didn't really bring much of a pass rush. It will be interesting to see what happens when we play a team that brings a really strong pass rush. It made our jobs easier all day.
On whether Reggie White's 187 yards surprised him "I asked him to get 250. Tulsa has that scoreboard that shows you how many yards you rush for, and I told Reggie that I wanted it to say 250 before the game was over. I was so pleased with him. He averaged 7.5 yards per carry. That's unbelievable. I don't care who you are or what team you play for, that's phenomenal. I expected that to happen, but I didn't expect a touchdown on the first play. I don't know if I blocked anyone that whole play. Bryan Blackwood took my end and threw him into the linebacker, and I saw Reggie just rushing down the field. He shocked a lot of people. We saw what he could do two years ago with Baylor. He's had one year off, and it's time for him to shine. He's going to do a great job.
On being disappointed about not furthering the score after being up 21-0 "I was personally. I know a lot of the other guys were too. You could see it in their eyes. We should have scored a lot more points on that team than we did. That's why we're going to watch film today and see what went wrong and correct our errors so that we can score a lot more points this weekend."
Defensive End Zac Warner On the defense's performance "I thought that we played well at times. We were a little bit inconsistent in some of the things that we were trying to do. They came at us with a pretty good game plan and we had to make some adjustments. Overall, I thought we played all right. We definitely gave up too many yards and probably gave up too many points. With what we were trying to do and the game plan that they came at us with, we had to get our hands up and knock the ball down. We didn't get to the quarterback as much as we would have liked. Overall, having young players and it being the first game, some of that stuff probably needs to happen. But, we got the win, and that's what happens.
On getting prepared for this weekend "We have some corrections to make. We made some dumb mistakes that cost us some yards, and we had some young players out there that are just learning the game. Those guys know what they're doing; they just have to get it done. That's something that we have to work on, but I guarantee you that we will be a better defense as the season goes along."
