Oklahoma State University Athletics
Quotes from Monday's Media Luncheon
April 08, 2003 | Cowboy Football
On Missouri's quarterback "It is unfortunate that he went down because he was making good decisions and making big plays. After he went out (Darius) Outlaw came in their offense stalled, but that is a rival game and has always gone down to the wire."
On Missouri's defense "Whether it was Southern Miss or Texas, which are two pretty good football teams, it was our execution against those defenses were not what we wanted to have. They played great against Nebraska and we will have to go out with our game plan, with our offensive line, with the receivers, quarterbacks and block them and make them get tackles."
Changing of quarterbacks "I doubt it. We are looking at some things for discussion right now. I have not had a team meeting, but we have had a staff meeting. Obviously we have looked at film and tried to find out what would be the best solution that would benefit the overall offensive scheme."
Changing the direction "I don't think it is the direction in the things we are doing, it is understanding what we are trying to get accomplished. We have had some missed assignments in our routes, we have had some offensive linemen that have not blocked the right guy, and it has been a combination of a lot of things. It is our job to settle the players down telling them what we have to do to be a better team in terms of recognizing what defense's are doing to us and then executing the play. From a play calling standpoint we may do some different things as far as getting guys on the perimeter and helping them make decisions."
On the mistakes "The only thing I can do is stress those things and hope the guys understand that errors will not result in wins. At the same time try to get the right guys in there and look at what we are doing. Are we doing too much that the players can't understand what we are trying to do and, if that is the case, then simplify things for them."
On the mistakes in the secondary "When you line up in three deep then there is a certain alignment that you should take. I would think that our players would understand that you have to have some kind of awareness in certain situations. From a fundamental standpoint, we should always have a cushion in front of us and we cannot let a guy run by us. If you get them in third and long, you don't want to give them third and long. That's when it really breaks your team around."
On the impact of Texas' 96 yard touchdown pass "That long play was on third and long and instead of coming back and throwing the ball down field, we fumbled the ball. So your mind set has to be totally different from that. The score at that time was 17-7 and we were early in the third quarter. They made a big play and we can't do anything about it but come back and make a big play of your own to get back into the ball game. Don't turn the ball over consecutive back to back opportunities."
On what he thinks is keeping his team from making a big play "I wish I could tell you. I think we have guys that are trying. I have always thought that one or two guys have to step up and make a good decision and make a play. When you turn the ball over those types of things add up. You don't want to be the type of team that looks to make mistakes, you look to make a play."
On what he does to help out his players Ôpsyche' "Psychology is my minor. To a degree you have to address those things aggressively and positively. You hope the players not only see for themselves how there is a difference in the first half and the second half. There is a difference when you make a field goal and when you miss a field goal. There is when you intercept the ball and have it on the five yard line but is called back because of a flag. You have to play above those types of things because that has happened the last two weeks and it will happen the rest of the season, you just have to play above it."
On what has gone wrong in the kicking game "The only thing we saw on tape was that we really slowed it down. When our snapper snaps the ball and our holder gets it, only then does our kicker get in motion to kick the ball. That really messes up the operation time and makes him rush the kick. We have to go back and look what he was doing right when he was making them, we may have him propose to his girlfriend again. Seth is a good kicker.
On preparing for the new quarterback at Missouri "You have to prepare for the fact that he is a pretty good athlete. I don't know much about him and I don't know how well he throws. You have to prepare for power football and how much they do with him, I don't know. "
On the thought of the Missouri game being a season changer "I don't know about that. I want to win a game and if we win it then maybe so."
On Missouri's progress so far this season "They are making progress, Michigan State only threw ten passes, they went into the game thinking we are going to run down their throats and knock Missouri off the ball. They barely won the game with that kind of philosophy. It is like night and day of their improvements from the Clemson game to the Nebraska game."
On the status of Tony Lindsay "Right now he has a sore shoulder and as of this morning he has not gone to the doctor yet. I will know more by the end of the day."
OSU Players
Elbert Craig
On bouncing back after last week's loss "You have to take what you did well and move on. You can't dwell on the past. We had some good points, and we have to look at those areas where we made mistakes and learn from them. It's always a learning game, and we have to learn from it and move on."
On making an interception and having it called back "You can't look at it like that. When I made the interception, I didn't see a flag. When I ran down the field, I didn't see a flag. Then I turned around and saw the referees running over there and I was hurt. We had to bounce back from that. We stopped them and they only got a field goal out of it, so it worked."
On having fun on the interception return "It brought back memories of my high school days when I was a receiver and I got to touch the ball a lot. It was fun having my teammates running down the field blocking with me. I loved that."
On the team's morale "This is pretty much a veteran team. We have a lot of seniors, and they won't let us come in with our head down. The morale of this team should be pretty high. We lost to Texas, but the score doesn't really tell how the game went. In the first half, we went out there and played well. The score was 10-7, I believe. We missed two field goals. We were killing ourselves. Texas didn't really do anything to kill us, we were hurting ourselves. In the second half, the mistakes that we were making caught up with us. They executed and took advantage of our mistakes."
On Texas' 96-yard touchdown pass play "First of all, we were in a zone. Number four (Roy Williams) ran straight on us, like a streak. We aren't supposed to let anyone get behind us in a zone. He got behind us, and you saw what happened when he caught the ball. You can't let anyone get behind you in a zone, and we let him get behind us. That's where we messed up. After that happens, you can't dwell on it. You have to move on to the next play."
On the turning point in the game "It wasn't that play. We were still in the game after that, it was just 17-7. They came out and scored after that, and that really hurt us. Things started to change from that point."
On the Missouri game "This is a big game for us. I'm looking at it as the biggest game of the season right now. We have to win this game. There's no doubt in my mind that we're going to win this game. This is a must-win game for us."
On watching the Missouri-Nebraska game "I watched a little of it on Saturday, but we haven't looked at it as a team. We meet today at 1:30, so we'll get to see what the game was like."
On Missouri "Missouri looked pretty good out there. You can't take anything away from them, but we're going to have to take it to them on Saturday."
Josh Lind
On making offensive mistakes this far into the season "We're not that far into the season. We've played four games and we just started conference play. It's tough not winning games. We played two highly ranked teams. There's plenty of time left in the season. We're going to correct our errors that we made in the game and come back and play the Mizzou team."
On OSU's hand off problems "It doesn't surprise me. Lots of things happen in ball games. Even great teams make mistakes. I guess we just made a few more than most. It's always small things. Like Coach Simmons says, it's the small things that make this team not play to the potential that we know how to play. If, and I know we will, correct those small things, we will be a lot better."
On OSU's red zone play "Last week we started working more on the red zone. I don't really know what that red zone thing is about. Maybe we're putting our socks on wrong. I don't know what it is about the red zone that gets this offense right now. I wish I knew, because I'd like to correct it."
On Missouri being a must-win game "Missouri is definitely a must-win. We're 2-2 and we can go 9-2 from here on out. That's high hopes, but I hope that everyone on this team has high hopes for that. But we're not going to get started unless we beat this Missouri team. It is a need to win, but we're not looking at this game like we are going to lose. You don't go into any game thinking that you're going to lose. Who would want to do that? I wouldn't want anyone on my team that thinks that we are going to lose a game."
On still being in the game after the 96 yard touchdown pass play "I've kind of put that game in the past in the back of my mind. Things like that will happen. It hurts, but you have to go back in there and fight. It's a war. It's a battle. The game is never over until the whistle blows in the fourth quarter. I've seen teams come back from a 30 point deficit in the fourth quarter alone. This team needs to realize that they need to battle more."
