Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. Tulsa Postgame Quotes
September 18, 2010 | Cowboy Football
Sept. 18, 2010
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Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy
Opening Statement
“Obviously, it was a good night for us. We were pleased with the way our team played and responded to playing poorly last week. We still have to improve on special teams in our return game and we obviously haven't worked out all the kinks in kickoff coverage. We were able to move the ball effectively and we had the chance to play a lot of young players, which is good. Just about every freshman that we have got to play - everybody in the program that does a great job of helping our football team get better each day. A lot of those guys are walk-ons and big favorites of our coaching staff. The kids that donate their time to make our team better got to play a full quarter tonight, so I was really, really happy about that. Getting them a chance to get out and let their moms and dads see them play, that's a big thrill for our coaching staff. We're looking forward to an open week. We'll practice three or four days this week and get ready for conference play. As we talk about each week, the opponents will get better as we go, so we'll have a great challenge on our hands in a couple weeks.”
On the OSU offense
“Obviously, they played very well. I thought Brandon (Weeden) played well and I thought we caught the ball well. I don't know if we had any drops tonight. We were able to run the ball somewhat. Tulsa's choice was to not let us run and drop both safeties down and play with a single safety, so it forced us into more of a pass situation than we had been accustomed to early in the year. I thought the offensive staff made a nice adjustment and Brandon handled things very well.”
On the open week
“Open dates always come at a good time. It's good for the players to catch their breath. It's good for the coaches to catch their breath and to go home and spend some time with their families. It is an opportunity for us to get out on the road in recruiting and see some young players and get out there and find guys that can come in here and beat some of the guys out that are on our team.”
On the school record offensive performance
“For me to say anything other than we were hitting on all cylinders wouldn't really be fair. I don't want to take anything away from Tulsa. We just had a good night and had a good plan and things worked. It seemed like we were in third and long and we'd convert. Brandon moved around a couple times on third and long and dumped it to Kendall (Hunter) and he would make a play. Then we threw the ball down the field. Sometimes you have games like that when things really work.”
On Justin Blackmon
“Justin has continued to get better. The reason for that is he practices very well. He practices hard and he accepts coaching. He listens. He studies tape and the game is important to him. As long as he continues to do that then he will improve. He's got good body control and he's got good hands and he's somewhat deceiving speed wise, in my opinion, because of the way he strides. He has bought in, in the last three or four months, more so than he did as a freshman; but obviously as a freshman it's a tough pull. He's been very good for us and if he continues to do this he'll make a lot of plays.”
Dana Holgorsen, Offensive Coordinator
On the offense so far
"It didn't look bad the first game, other that the fact that we three-and-outed a lot. The second game was obviously about penalties and turnovers. Tonight, we for the most part executed pretty good. We turned it over late, but didn't have many penalties."
On improving from the last game
"I thought we got better on the things we focused on which were the penalties and turnovers."
On the different receivers playing
"Going into it, we knew that Tulsa was explosive on offense and we knew they had the ability to score a bunch of points so we knew it was going to be a challenge. We wanted to get more guys involved. We have to get (Hubert) Anyiam in there a little bit, we got the ball to Tracy and Randle a little bit too."
Bill Young, Defensive Coordinator
On getting younger players experience
"We got a lot of young guys some experience again tonight. It helps with taking some reps off of our ones and twos which keep injuries down."
On the secondary
"I think they played very well. They have worked extremely hard. We have worked hard on taking away vertical routes."
On the good defensive start
"We wanted to be fast starters. We knew that they were top five in total offense coming into the game and once a team like that catches fire it is hard to put it out. That was really a critical thing going into the game that we started strong."
Brandon Weeden, Quarterback
On the bye week
"It is perfect timing. We have played three games and this gives us a chance to get some of our guys' legs back and get everybody fresh. I think we are heading in the right direction."
On improving as an offense
"We need to just watch tape. We had some success tonight, but we made mistakes. We need to just learn from those and take coaching and keep plugging away."
Orie Lemon, Linebacker
On how the quick offense affects the defense
"That pumps the defense up to not let them score. We don't worry about being tired or anything, so we just go out there and do our best to not let them score."
On the interceptions
"That is what we emphasize the most during the week is to get interceptions. Our guys were just in the right place at the right time and our guys caught the ball and ran it back for a bunch of yards."
Markelle Martin, Safety
On improving from last week
"We stopped a lot of screen plays and made some great open tackles. We also didn't let as many deep balls affect us so we did a great job."
On the Tulsa offense
"We kind of expected them to throw the ball more. They found someone to run it and I guess they decided to just keep running it. But yeah we thought they would throw the ball more."
On improving as a defense
"We are still just working and trying to become one of those elite teams."
Tulsa Head Coach Todd Graham
Opening Statement
"I'd like to congratulate Coach Gundy and his team. They did a tremendous job tonight. We were outmatched. Not much you can say except they were pretty spectacular. We played about as poorly as we could possibly play. We have to give them a lot of credit. They did a great job in the receiving corps. The quarterback was basically unstoppable. We tried just about every coverage there was and got ran by. We were right there, but their guys were going up and making plays. We knew we had to be aggressive to be able to put guys in the box to stop the running back, to control that somewhat, but the big plays were the difference. Turning the ball over kind of snowballed on us; we got behind quick. You got to give them a lot of credit. They whipped our tails and dominated the football game. I was proud of our guys on how they responded. They never quit; never gave up. I was very pleased with how they responded in the second half and the fight that was in them. Things like that happen. You don't ever want to experience that, and that's what I told them, 'You're true character is exposed. You showed good character.' We just got to work hard and get better as a football team. We played about s bad as we could play, and I think a lot of that you have to give credit to their players. Their quarterback was phenomenal tonight. Their receiving corps, Blackmon was unstoppable. We tried every way we could to stop him and he was unstoppable, so you got to give them a lot of credit. I thought their defense did a great job keeping us off balance. We had some yards, but they were able to keep us out of the end zone, especially early I thought the key going into the game was going to be the end of the first quarter for it to be close and to be in the football game. They did a great job once they got us down to push it up there and get the game out of hand. Give them a lot of credit. They're a really good football team."
On game planning to stop Kendall Hunter
"I felt like that's what we had to do. Our defensive staff felt that way. I think what happened early, we started off, we get out there, we have a couple errors in the run game. They threw the swing pattern; stuff that we've worked on. They didn't do anything we didn't work on. They moved the ball down there and our guys held them to a field goal and held them again to a field goal. They saw that we were putting extra guys down. It's a numbers thing. You end up with a one-on-one and then you pick how you're going to play that. Are you going to press them up? Are you going to play off? We tried press, we tried off, we tried double, we tried cover two. We tried all kinds of coverages, but when they put three backs in the backfield with Kendall back there, it's a little difficult for you. They had a very good plan. The guy that I was most concerned with was Blackmon, and he showed me that he is the real deal, no doubt about that. He is a very good receiver."
On what it takes to rebound after a big loss
"We work years preparing for a football season. What you do is you go to the next week. Our kids have great character. We played about as bad as we can play, but I think we played a really good offensive football team. The match ups were tough for us tonight. Our guys will bounce back and go to work."
On missed tackles
"In the run game, they were doing a great job of blocking on the perimeter. I thought our guys were getting after it and throwing their bodies in there, stuff like that. We missed a lot of tackles no question about it. I'll have to back to the film to see about that. The thing that stuck out to me was giving up the vertical shot; that was the story of the game. That's the bottom line. Defensively that's what happened to us. Offensively, it was just turnovers. The ball bounces off our guy down there on the fade route; I thought that was critical."
Tulsa Players
Defensive Back Marco Nelson
On how Tulsa was unable to stop OSU after they started scoring in the first half
"They were just hitting our soft spots, running good routes and we were blowing our coverages, being undisciplined, that is about it."
On his 81-yard interception return
"I was just reading the quarterback's eyes and made a good break on it. Luckily enough, I was in the right spot at the right time and had some teammates out blocking for me all the way down there."
On what the coaches said after the game
"They just told us to keep our heads up and they were a good team and now we need to look past that and work hard this coming week."
On if youth in the secondary was a problem
"I guess you could say we have a young defense and changing people over from offense to defense is always a struggle too."
On if he's ever been on the opposite side of a blowout before like tonight
"Not since middle school, because my high school team was a powerhouse, but we have to make sure at Tulsa that doesn't happen again."
On what it feels like to look up at the scoreboard and be down 30 right off the bat
"It's a learning experience definitely and everyone has to learn it."
Quarterback G.J. Kinne
On OSU's big plays
"There were a lot of plays I wish we could have back, but we just have to go back now and watch film and execute better next week."
His thoughts on the game
"Earlier we were trying to scratch back and didn't execute quite like we wanted to. We have to regroup and put on a better show next Saturday."
Linebacker Curnelius Arnick
On what the problems were with the defense
"We just had mistakes everywhere, we just have to get back to practice this week, get better and get ready for Central Arkansas."
On what specific things need to improve before the next game
"Running and pass coverage, just about everything, we need to try to get better with everything this week."
