Oklahoma State University Athletics
Gundy, Cowboys Preview Alamo Bowl
December 17, 2010 | Cowboy Football
Dec. 17, 2010
STILLWATER, Okla. – Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy and members of the team visited with the media Friday at Boone Pickens Stadium. The highlights:
Mike Gundy, Head Coach
Opening Statement:
“I don't really have an opening statement. Not much has changed since the last time we met about bowl preparation. I don't have any information to give you on the coordinator situation. Anything from this point back would be pure speculation and I wouldn't want to guide you in the wrong direction. I'll answer any questions you guys have from the bowl game standpoint. Justin Blackmon should be back out there running around today. Brandon Weeden is practicing and Nick Martinez is practicing. We expect him to get his cast cut off in the next week. From an injury standpoint, we're a healthy football team. We'll have bowl preparation and practice today, tomorrow and Sunday. Then we'll let the players go home for a few days and they'll meet us in San Antonio on the 23rd. Then we'll practice like a normal week routine with the addition of one day.”
On Arizona:
“I think they do a good job of putting pressure on the quarterback. As I mentioned earlier, they're very similar with Coach Stoops being tied in with them, they do a lot of the same schemes on defense. The quarterback is a very good player and the receiver and two running backs make some plays. They played very well the first two or three months of the season and didn't play as well as they wanted to in the last month.”
On retaining the coaching staff through the bowl game:
“This is a very difficult time of the year because we're in the middle of bowl game preparation, recruiting is going full speed and in our profession, guys move around a lot. When that happens, you try to be as prepared as possible to take care of the players. My concern right now is our football team and their opportunity to win 11 games. That's my first concern. My second concern is recruiting and my third concern is coaches, in that order. Because players come first and they can be affected by coaching changes. But we do our best to not allow it to affect them. We want them to finish the season in the right way. You do your best you can to make it all work and keep it running. It changes very fast.”
On West Virginia's hiring of OSU offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen:
“I'm very happy for Coach Holgorsen and his opportunity to be a head football coach. When you get the chance to be a coach at this level, you have to take that opportunity if that's something you desire to do. There are not a lot of them out there. I'm very happy for him and what he was able to get in that transition. I have not had enough communication with anybody from West Virginia to talk about it.
“I do want to say there is no animosity from me toward West Virginia. There certainly is not for Dana Holgorsen. I'm very excited for him. Any coach who is on our staff who gets an opportunity to be a head coach, more power to them. That's a goal they try to achieve and I'm happy for them.”
Bill Young, Defensive Coordinator
On comparing Arizona's offense to offenses in the Big 12:
"I think it's very similar to Oklahoma. I think the plays they run, the formations they run, maybe not quite as much up-tempo as Oklahoma, but they do the up-tempo."
On Arizona's strengths:
"I think it's been everything. They throw the ball quite a bit and get the ball downfield. They've got some great speed at the wide receiver position. They've got a couple running backs that will make you miss. They're a big physical offensive line, so there's a lot of things about them that concern you."
On the bowl experience:
"It's a reward and I think Coach Gundy is doing a tremendous job of making it a reward. Sometimes it can be a punishment where you go out there and you practice every day and you're out there four hours and it just wears them out. We're not doing that. We're approaching it the other way. We're working as hard as we feel we need to, which is extremely hard, don't get me wrong, but at the same time, we're spacing it out over days. We're trying not to practice more than two or three days in a row and cut back practice a little bit. Also, it's been great for our younger players because it's allowed us to spend more time with them and work on fundamentals and coaching them up."
Brandon Weeden, Quarterback
On playing in the Alamo Bowl:
"No one has ever had an opportunity to win 11 around here. If we win 11, it would be very special to this squad. So we have to take care of that."
On getting better as a quarterback:
"I think there are guys that are in the NFL that are still working on things to this day. Whether it's reads, footwork, techniques for throwing, you will always have things to work on. I think there are things that I want to work on, refine, and keep getting better at, so it is a process. Being a quarterback is like being a pitcher, there is always something to work on and get better at."
On OSU's breakout year:
"I think before the year started, we knew we had a chance to be special. We knew we had guys that could make some plays, but to be at this magnitude, maybe not. But we knew we had a chance to be here. We fulfilled our expectation, but we also exceeded it as well."
Kendall Hunter, Running Back
On how excited he is for his final game:
"I'm pretty excited to just go out there and have fun with my senior class and enjoy it."
On Arizona's defense:
"Their defense is pretty good. They're very active and have a lot of speed."
On what it will take to win this year's bowl game after losing the last two:
"Just us continuing doing what we're doing, focusing on us and just go out there and have fun."
Dan Bailey, Kicker
On playing Arizona in the Alamo Bowl:
"We feel good about the opportunity to go to San Antonio and play in the Alamo Bowl. There has been a lot of talk about how Arizona ended their season not the way they wanted to, but I think that will just give them more fire. I think we just need to stay focused and I think that it will be a fun game."
On winning the Lou Groza Award:
"It is an honor. There have been so many good kickers that go through football and don't get a chance to win an award. It was fun to go down there and spend time with some great athletes and just have fun with it."
Orie Lemon, Linebacker
On if he's surprised at how far the football program has come since he's been here:
"Yes, but when I got here, we all had a mindset of, 'We're going to do whatever it takes to win.' We just got under the coaches' wings. They knew what to do. We just came ready to work and prepare and to do whatever it took."
On if he's happy with the season he had after missing last season to injury:
"Yes, but two losses. I'm not happy with two losses. I always want to win, but we've got a group of guys that were ready to work and whatever it took. We all stayed together as a whole group and got it done."
On Arizona's offense:
"They're great, they do a lot. They have a nice quarterback, nice running back, nice receiver that they can throw it to, so they have a lot of targets. We've just got to stay fundamentally sound , play our assignments and get the job done."
Markelle Martin, Safety
On which quarterback the Cowboys have faced who compares to Nick Foles:
"I would say Jerrod Johnson from Texas A&M because he's such a pocket passer. He's not looking to scramble, he's looking to get the ball down the field, so in my opinion, that's the only guy."
On why he thinks Arizona struggled the last month of the year:
"That's just a tough conference over there, so I would go with that. It's just some bad luck.They've run the ball well, they've thrown the ball well. Their opponents have used different schemes, have schemed up against them, so I feel like that's a little more to the reason why they've been down."
On looking forward to going to San Antonio:
"We're looking forward to it a lot. We want to go down there and just have fun and continue to practice and be around each other."
Jonathan Rush, Offensive Lineman
On playing in the Alamo Bowl:
"I am excited. We get a chance to win 11 games. It is back home in Texas so that is always a plus. I am just excited to play in another game."
On preparing for the bowl game:
"A lot of it is just tuning up our fundamentals. In bowl practices a lot of times you get to get some of the young guys in. We are just fine-tuning our offense."
On playing against Arizona and Mike Stoops:
"We have already seen it, not saying that they will play the same way as OU, but it is always good to have seen and played against a defense that is similar."
Brodrick Brown, Cornerback
On seeing OU play in the Big 12 Championship game:
"It took me about a week. Seeing them playing in the Big 12 game was really tough to watch. That was the spot that we were hoping to be in and we had a shot to be there. Things didn't fall into place for us, so it was pretty tough to see them playing there."
On his now-famous play against OU:
"I heard from a lot of people from everywhere. The reaction that I got from a lot of people was that it was one of the best college football plays they had ever seen. They say things like 'man, can you say ESPYs?' I really don't think like that, but for some reason they think I have a good shot of being nominated for Play of the Year."
Shane Jarka, Defensive Tackle
On playing in the Alamo Bowl:
"It is just important to be with each other, and have a good experience. We want to go get a win."
On Arizona:
"They are a good team. We have been watching a lot of film on them. They have an explosive offense, they compare to us. They have a great quarterback, great receivers, and good running backs. They are overall a great team and we are going to have to prepare and come out 100 percent ready to play."
On Dana Holgorsen getting the job at West Virginia:
"I'm proud of him. That is a great opportunity and I wish him the best. He is still going to be here through the bowl game. I just wish him the best and I hope he has a great time there."
