Oklahoma State University Athletics
Highlights From Monday's Media Luncheon
September 03, 2007 | Cowboy Football
Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy joined offensive coordinator Larry Fedora, defensive coordinator Tim Beckman and selected Cowboys players Monday at Oklahoma State's weekly media luncheon. Following are some of the highlights of what they had to say.
Head Coach Mike Gundy
General thoughts
“We're back at it, Labor Day for us is a day to work. I brought my sunglasses today so everybody realizes the sun came back up. We had meetings this morning with the players and kind of got back at it. We've finished Georgia and it's on to the next opponent. Looking back at the game I was pretty accurate in my post-game thoughts. They were tougher than we were, which disappointed me as a coach. Defensively in the first half we played pretty average, gave up some big plays and got out of position several times. Offensively we played okay on three drives where we had some rhythm. In the second half defensively we played better, we gave the offense several chances to score but we could never tie it all together to get it within a one-touchdown game to where we could at least put some pressure on their play callers.”
“I though Matt Fodge really punted well in the game. We asked him to do some things that he hadn't done before in his career and he was really effective for us. We gave up the big punt return on special teams, we had three missed tackles and we actually had them pinned pretty deep. Our return game was pretty good, so for the most part our effort as a football team that game was good, we just weren't tough enough. We have to become a much tougher football team and we have to tackle better. We had 22 missed tackles for 165 yards. That has to be cut in half in order for us to get better throughout the season and have a productive year and give ourselves a chance to win some games.”
On Florida Atlantic
“They're playing better football (right now). They've settled in defensively, they're more base. They're still running a pro-style offense, trying to run the football. They have two running backs that did a nice job rushing the football (against Middle Tennessee State) and they have two tight ends that are good receivers, and then they have a dangerous punt returner that is a good player. The important thing for us as a staff is to get our team together, get our attitude cleaned up and smiles on our faces and get ready to go practice tonight and move on. That's the good things about life in college football, you get 12 of them. We just wasted one in a big-time atmosphere, but we've got to get ready for this week.”
On Bobby Reid's performance
“We didn't protect for him. We busted on easy twists and stunts and things that we pick up all the time. You have to evaluate him from a standpoint that he was running for his life a lot. If you really watched it from our standpoint and what we asked him to do and then what we didn't help him do, it wouldn't look as bad as you thought it would have after the game.”
On the team responding after falling behind early in second half
“(I thought they still believed) because of the way the defense played as the third quarter went on when the offense couldn't get anything going. Offensively I didn't see any blank looks in anybody's eyes, because they're so competitive. Brandon Pettigrew had 12 knockdowns, for a tight end that's unbelievable. Bowman played without the ball in his hands tremendous. We had that kind of effort, it just didn't work for us. Every time we tried to get something going offensively and run tempo, we got a blitz off the edge and we bust and then we had a penalty. It was one thing after another, we could never get into a flow.”
On getting over last week's Georgia loss
“You go out and practice and you get better and you go on. You have to let all that go, you just don't have a choice because you've got to get ready for the next one. The team that we're playing next had a difficult season last year, but they're a better team now. They'll come in here fired up and they will think that they can upset us.
Offensive Coordinator Larry Fedora on Bobby Reid
“I thought Bobby was average. I don't think he made any great plays for us, the thing he's got to do a better job of is hurting the defense with his legs when he's got the opportunity. He's going to have to make some opportunities for himself.”
On OSU's offensive struggles at Georgia
“There's no reason to panic. We got out of the game plan and didn't get to do some of the things that we wanted to do. We'll just have to keep working and get back to that.”
“I'm not trying to get back to last year. Last year has nothing to do with this team, so what we've got to do is go back and execute and perform the way that we're capable of performing and then let's just see what happens from there. I'm not worried about their confidence. They know what they did and what they did wrong. They are all very much aware of the way they played and what we could have done to be successful.”
“We didn't play well enough as an offense to be successful, it's as simple as that. Across the board we had three guys that probably played well enough and the other eight didn't do it.”
Defensive Coordinator Tim Beckman on Oklahoma State's missed tackles against Georgia
“The goal we set for ourselves is to be between 80 and 85 percent tackle ratio. We had 22 (on Saturday) and they were blaring ones of course, and you take 161 yards out of their offense and they have 215. We have to swarm to the football and get more people there to make sure there aren't any missed tackles.
On getting over last week's loss
“The players have to learn from what happened and how we can be successful and how it's the first game of the year and we've got to bounce back and play and do what we're supposed to do. We'll use is as a learning experience, it goes down to it's not X's and O's, it's the fundamentals of football and that's tackling, getting off blocks on defense, and we just didn't get that done.”
On Florida Atlantic
“Athletic is what I'd say. You're talking about a team that beat a bowl team (Middle Tennessee State) last week. They're a good team that's got some speed, two pretty good running backs, two good tight ends and a couple of good wide receivers, so they're very skilled and athletic.”
Punter Matt Fodge regarding how to recover from a bad play:
"If I keep thinking about the last play I would go nuts. As a punter, kicker or specialist you have to forget about the last play whether it was really good or really bad and just focus on the next play."
Fodge regarding the team:
"I thought our guys went out there and gave great effort. Sometimes we weren't in the right position. We definitely went out there and played hard and just didn't get the right result. We just have to watch film, fix our mistakes and do better next time."
Linebacker Jeremy Nethon regarding the biggest issue defensively:
"Missed tackles. It's very hard to sit through film and watch the little mistakes that you could have eliminated that could have helped your defense out. It was just little things that added up and just a lot of missed tackles that could have been eliminated."
Nethon regarding playing with emotion and distraction:
"Basically for me, I'm not going to speak for anyone else, I was playing out of control. They're great athletes and you're trying to fly to the ball and sometimes you don't do the technique you're supposed to. Little things like that will change the flow of the game."
Nethon regarding the emotions of the team from this point forward:
"We're a very close knit team we're a good family and we know that we didn't go out there and handle our business but the good thing is we have a game this week. That will allow us to bounce back and get everything where we're supposed to. The good thing about it is we're sticking together, we are a good team and we'll pull back."
Nethon regarding last week's loss to Georgia:
"I hate to lose. They were a good quality team. Just the fact that you lost is a tough feeling. It's not just because it was Georgia, it was the fact that we lost."
Tight End Brandon Pettigrew regarding OSU's blocking at Georgia:
"We struggled here and there, we prepared well for the game but their defense outplayed us. We weren't playing as hard as we should have been."
Pettigrew regarding his thoughts on going to the NFL:
"I'm kind of thinking about it but at the same time I'm trying to focus on this, what I have right now. Focusing on my classes, my grades."
Pettigrew regarding not playing physical enough:
"They played harder than we did. They were more physical. We have to saddle up and get back on it and come out this week and work harder and when Sat comes we have to be the more physical team. It's definitely a correctable mistake. Coach always says nobody else can control your effort. Only you can control your effort."
Center David Washington regarding moving on from last Saturday and focusing on the next game:
“We've been looking forward to it since the last play of the last game. Today we were looking at film and putting our corrections in and we'll go in this week and practice a little harder and give great effort."
Washington regarding his assessment of the offensive line:
"I think we could have done a lot better. As we looked at it there were some mistakes. They were easy mistakes. I know we can do a lot better and we're going back to the basics this week and we're going to get ready for the next game."
Washington regarding keeping his cool after a mistake:
"It's tough but we try to keep our spirit up around the guys. We have a lot of young guys playing so we just want to keep those guys calm and eliminate those mistakes next game."
Washington regarding fellow offensive lineman Andrew Lewis:
"I think he did a great job. I had to start at Montana State and he had to start at Georgia. I think he did a great job."
Washington regarding offense being over-estimated:
"We just didn't have a good game. I think we'll go out and do what we do best this next game and I think we'll be fine."
