Oklahoma State University Athletics
Highlights From Monday's Football Media Luncheon
October 15, 2007 | Cowboy Football
Mike Gundy Quotes
“Same as always, we're back at it. It was a good win for us a couple of days ago, everybody is aware of that. It's a very good football team we're playing (this week), a very mature football team in certain areas and they play extremely hard. It will be a challenge for us in all three phases, but I'm sure our players are looking forward to it, I know the coaching staff is. It's just nice to get back to work and get ready for the next game.”
On Kansas State's speed:
“They're a very fast football team. They've done a nice job acquiring some junior college players, in my opinion, that have upgraded their team speed. Coach (Bill) Snyder did a nice job of that in the past and it looks like coach (Ron) Prince continued to do that. They're a fast football team and they have good schemes and they get to the football and then offensively they have guys that can make you miss in space.”
On offensive line play against Nebraska:
“Those guys played average, our backs made some really good plays. I'm not talking about effort, I'm just talking about fundamentals and good base and blocking techniques and just things that we look for as a staff to continue to improve where we need to be as the season goes on.”
On Kansas State's special teams play:
“It's a big week (for special teams). They made an impact this year, but especially at Texas. When you watch that game, that (special teams play) turned the tide. The momentum that they were able to create on special teams and then it filtered over into their defensive play and the game just continued on from that point in their favor. It's (all) because those guys made really nice plays on special teams.”
On Kansas State's ability to put pressure on the quarterback:
“They've had success on defense. They're a 3-4 defense and these edge guys do a good job of getting to the quarterback. One thing on their defense is they have seven seniors and three juniors and one sophomore. They're a very experienced defense, so there's a lot of maturity and there's guys out there that are older that are experienced and they play like that.”
On the success of the running game despite an average performance by the offensive line:
“Our backs are pretty good players and when they get a chance in space, we've been fortunate that they've made guys miss and been able to get yards. What we're looking for is we want hats on hats and we want guys in position blocked the way we want them most of the time. We rushed for 300 yards, but the blocking didn't equal the rushing yards.”
“(Andrew) Lewis is still making some adjustments at his position as a young guy, but he's playing hard. We're getting great effort from everybody up front, we just need to continue to improve and block better. So as we progress through the season, the backs when they do make plays it's a special situation, not where they have to make them all the time.”
On downfield blocking by receivers:
“We're getting very good blocking downfield. Bowman has continued to be a great team player and block very successfully downfield. Damien Davis had two key blocks (against Nebraska) the hurry play that we ran down the sideline Damien had a huge block right at the point of attack. The receivers are turning the 10-to-12 yard plays into 40-yarders.”
On the play of Dantrell Savage:
“He's doing a nice job of competing and making people miss in space and then he's getting north and south, where he's getting all of his yards. He's close to getting healthy, but I don't think he is (completely healthy).”
Defensive End Rod Johnson
On Kansas State:
“They have a great quarterback, they have good wide receivers, a good running back, and they have a good defense, so all around they are a good team. We've got to come into that game with our minds set and ready to play some football.”
On Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman:
“He's mobile, that's one thing. You've got to stop him from running. He can throw the ball great and he is a great leader for that team. He's a big guy. It's kind of intimidating to walk up and see a 6'7” quarterback. He is intimidating just by size.”
“We've got to go in there and do what we have done all year and just stay composed. We've got to go out and do our job and not worry about too much else.”
“After that win at Nebraska, we can take that momentum into K-State and hopefully get another win.”
On the OSU defense:
“Since I have played on this defense, this is the most confident we have been in our ability and in each other, just looking to the guy to the left or the right of you and knowing that they are going to get their job done. The defense has come together.”
Defensive Lineman Derek Burton
On Kansas State:
“Kansas State is our biggest goal right now. They are definitely big and fast and their quarterback is pretty good sized.”
On OSU's win at Nebraska:
“It showed us that if we play together and play like we can, we can do that every game. Go out there and compete and win.”
On Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman:
“He is a really big guy. We haven't watched much film on him this year, but I played him a little bit last year and he is a big guy. He has an arm on him too.”
Fullback Zach Carter
On OSU's recent success:
“All we do is give credit to coach Mike Gundy and Larry Fedora for calling the right plays. We are just out there performing and doing what they taught us to do.”
On Kansas State's ability to pressure opposing quarterbacks:
“We are pretty good at the blitz pickup, the whole running back core, I mean. We work on it everyday. I think we will do pretty well against the blitz.”
On last week's win over Nebraska:
“It's a big confidence builder and it's going to help us out here in the last part of this schedule in the Big 12.”
On Dantrell Savage:
“I think whenever Dantrell is in the game it's always an uplifting factor. When he does get hit, the defender goes down, but he is always the first one up, and we like to see that as it just tells us that he is not hurt and he is up and ready to go. He is one of our big time leaders.”
Offensive Lineman Brady Bond
On Kansas State:
“They are a really good team. They went into Texas and beat Texas, so that is quite an achievement for them. We are going to start preparing and putting the game plan together.”
On last year's game at Kansas State:
“You always have motivation. We look back at that and we were up by 10 with two minutes to go and we let them come back and they ended up beating us there in Manhattan. We are going to keep that in the back of our minds and not let them do that this year.”
On consistency:
“I think we have been pretty consistent this year. Unfortunately, we gave that one away at Texas A&M. We get better every week, that's the key thing. You know you want to win every week and with the way the Big 12 South is right now, there is no reason to not want to be motivated to get better and try to win every game we can.”
