Oklahoma State University Athletics
Media Luncheon Quotes
October 10, 2005 | Cowboy Football
Media Luncheon
Monday, October 10, 2005
Mike Gundy Quotes
On the tough loss
“We are obviously back at it after a tough loss to Missouri. I was proud of the way our team came back and competed. After watching the game on tape, it made me feel good as a coach to watch our offense, which had struggled somewhat in the early part of the season, get behind by multiple scores then fight to come back and put themselves in position to win the game. It meant a lot to us as a staff and was a tribute to the players.”
On playing Texas A&M
“We are excited about going down there and playing. The coaching staff will have a real challenge on their hands with dealing with a team that has a lot of ability and has made a lot of big plays on offense.”
On Texas A&M's defense
“I know their front four is big and they run well. I know they have a lot of speed in the secondary. They free up their linebackers a lot to make plays. “
On Al Peña
“I felt good about what Al (Peña) did. Al came in and did a nice job. Obviously, on the last play of the game I would have liked for him to put a little more on it and throw it out of bounds. I thought we were in a decent situation to go score. I thought our offensive line was in good shape. I thought they were somewhat fatigued up front, but that is water under the bridge now. I thought Al did a good job for just being thrown into the fire. Al is a heady player who comes from somewhat of a sophisticated system. They put a lot on him when he was in high school. He understands structure. He understands blitzes. He understands coverage and it has paid off for him.”
On Texas A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal
“Reggie is a good player. He is a very dangerous player. When you play a guy who throws the deep ball as accurately as he does and can take off and run the ball for 15 or 20 yards at anytime, he is a dangerous player. He is a good football player.”
D'Juan Woods, junior wide receiver
On the offense
“We have the capability to put a lot of points on the board if we stick to our gameplan and don't make mistakes.”
On Texas A&M
“It's going to be a tough game. That's about it. It's going to be a tough game.”
On the possibility of Al Peña playing QB at TAMU
“We have tremendous confidence in Al (Peña). This is a guy that's proven himself in practice. He throws us the ball every day, just like Bobby (Reid). When it comes to Al, our confidence doesn't drop at all because we have a guy that's capable of getting the job done as well.”
Charlie Johnson, senior offensive lineman
On the positives from the Missouri game
“We were able to come back after being down 31-9. That is a place in the game where we could have laid down and given up. Another positive is seeing the young guys make some plays.”
On playing at Texas A&M
“It's a crazy atmosphere. There are 80-85,000 people, and it doesn't seem like they ever sit down. They have choreographed yells and cheers. It's really loud.”
On how big a victory would be
“It would definitely be big for us. It would get us our first win in the Big 12, and it would also be big because we would be on the road at a a very hostile environment. For us to get a win would give us a lot of confidence.”
Nathan Peterson, defensive lineman
On stopping the A&M offense
“We're all going to have to step up, and as long as we all step up and play assignment football, then we should be successful.”
On what he knows about the atmosphere
“I haven't had a chance to play in a game that big, and this is one of the two games I've been looking forward to playing in for the past year —playing at Texas A&M and OU.”
On Aggie QB Reggie McNeal
“(Missouri QB) Brad Smith gave us a good view of what we'll be facing this week. Both like to run out of the shotgun and both are very tough quarterbacks. The only difference between the two is that Reggie is faster. He's real explosive and he's got a cannon for an arm. Definitely, the name of the game this week is focus on Reggie McNeal, and that's what we're going to have to do.”
