Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State-Louisiana Post-Game Quotes - Sept. 3, 2011
September 03, 2011 | Cowboy Football
Sept. 3, 2011
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Oklahoma State-Louisiana Post-Game Quotes - Sept. 3, 2011
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy
Opening statement
"First, I would like to thank all of the Oklahoma State fans for the fifth-largest crowd in school history. I thought that was pretty awesome. And at The Walk today. I don't know how they count how many people are at The Walk, but I don't remember ever seeing that many people at The Walk. Two guys I played football with were back in town for the Hall of Honor ceremony, and it just blew them away. It was really a good job by the fans to support the players, and I really appreciate that.
"It was a good game for us. I thought the defense played really well. I thought we were good on special teams after we settled in there. Our coverage unit got better. We made a couple mistakes early and then corrected them. I thought Quinn (Sharp) did a nice job. We had a couple personal fouls that ran up our penalty yard total, but I thought overall the game was played very clean. The guys that we needed to make plays for us did make plays for us. I thought it was good that we were able to play a number of first-year guys and some down-the-line guys who do a great job for our program. It was good that everybody got to play.
"There are just a couple things we need to clean up. I thought (Brandon) Weeden pressed a couple times. I mentioned to him that he doesn't have to make every single play. The second interception he threw for a touchdown he was just pressing and he doesn't have to do that. But he'll figure that out. He's treading in new water coming in as a guy who is highly regarded and has had so much press coverage over the last nine months."
On Quinn Sharp
"He's worked extremely hard, and he's kicked the ball well. He's probably one of the best kickoff guys in the country. He's a very valuable part of the football team."
On Tracy Moore
"Tracy (Moore) made a lot of plays early in the game when they were rolling over the top on (Justin) Blackmon and taking him away. That leaves you somewhat vulnerable in the middle of the field, and Tracy was not only in the right place but made some nice catches. Tracy, Hubert (Anyiam), Isaiah (Anderson) and Charlie Moore have worked very hard in practice. It never fails, guys who make plays in practice will make plays in the game. They have been performing in practice at a much higher level and because of that they were able to step up and make plays in the game."
Oklahoma State Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken
On the stretch during the second quarter with 21-straight points
"I don't know if I can remember all of it, but Brandon (Weeden) made a couple of really nice throws and it just seemed like he had a nice flow going. It's just kind of the way it is; offense is rhythm. If you feel like everything you call, you dial up, and then in the third quarter it feels like everything you call is not working. All these assistants have 15 or 18 different calls, and it felt like that was me in the old days on the headset dialing up those plays. We had a good first half. Normally, you're not going to all of a sudden have magic. We had a chance in the third quarter to do some nice things. The two disappointing things were the third quarter and the turnovers."
On what he changed in the offense
"I think to the eye, there's not many changed things, but there were a number of concepts we changed and number of things Brandon's got input on that we changed. We've obviously changed the way we signal, to a certain extent, the way we communicate and the way we go about things. There were a number of things the players have confidence in, and we're going to continue to do what we feel gives us the best chance to move the ball, whether that's from the pass or moving forward. There's a number of things they did in the past that I think would be silly to change. We can build on that."
Oklahoma State Defensive Coordinator Bill Young
On the short week to prepare for Arizona
"It's going to be a huge game for us because we had a good score in the bowl game, but it really wasn't indicative of how the game was. There was a couple of interceptions that turned it and big plays on offense and so forth that sometimes you don't get those, so we have to be ready to play."
On Daytawion Lowe
"I think he played really well. I had my eye on him. He made some big plays and had some big hits."
On practice on Sunday
"We'll treat it like a regular Tuesday practice. We'll shorten it down a little because we played tonight. Then, we'll come back and get a good couple days of practice."
Oklahoma State Quarterback Brandon Weeden
On Tracy Moore
"Tracy played well. He's one of those big body guys who can go over the middle and get it. That one he caught at the half-yard line, that was a big time play because it set up the Mike Harrison touchdown. He played well. He blocked well, he had a couple big time blocks on the perimeter."
On his chemistry with Moore
"I feel good with him. (Josh) Cooper only had one catch tonight. If I would've played longer, Hubert (Anyiam) would have had more catches, just by what they were doing. I'm pretty blessed. Tracy is stepping up and taking on that role. He's competitive; he wants the ball. When he does the right thing, good things happen."
Oklahoma State Wide Receiver Tracy Moore
On the turnovers:
"A lot of it was just first-game stuff. We have a lot of wrinkles to iron out and everything. Coming off of two-a-days, two-a-days were long and hard, and everybody was just excited to get to play someone other than ourselves, so we're just out there trying to have fun right now."
On what he does now after his best game at OSU:
"I'm going to keep moving and hopefully have more best career games."
Louisiana head coach Mark Hudspeth
On his team's toughness:
"If there's one thing I know we improved upon from last year it's that we're a tough football team, and we'll play four quarters. I think that was evident tonight. In the second half, I think they outscored us three points in the second half. The beat us by three or by four if it was a one-half game. We're a tough team mentally, a lot more than we were last year, so I think we're on the right page."
On the offense stalling in the first half:
"We've got to do a better job of putting together some drives. Our defense was on the field for like 56 plays in the first half alone. That was the exact opposite of what we really hoped. We wanted to really put some drives together. The mistakes we made in the first half, you look at them: a drop ball here, the interception really sort of set us back. We came out, popped a couple big runs early, and then when we threw the interception, we lost the field position battle. Then for the next quarter and a half, we're backed up the rest of the time, so we were battling that. We were playing a lot of freshmen on both sides of the ball, but we identified some playmakers, I know that."
On sticking with Blaine Gautier to give him confidence:
"Yeah, we needed to. He showed that he's got some dynamic running ability and he made some nice throws, but he also missed a couple easy screens and throws he has to be automatic on. I thought he did some good things."
On what he learned about his team:
"Whenever it's your first game with your new team, you don't know what to expect, especially when you're going to play the No. 7 team in the nation with two Heisman Trophy candidates. To see them come out and battle and never give in, we've got a resilient group that I think is mentally tough and I also think they're well conditioned. Our guys played the whole game, and (OSU) is subbing. We had no cramps, and I even thought (OSU) looked tired at times and we didn't. I thought we were in great physical condition."
Louisiana quarterback Blaine Gautier
On the game
"We just kind of started a little slow, but we picked it up throughout the whole game. We never gave up. We gave so much effort in this game. I'm proud of my team. I told them all this is one game. We're gonna be so much better. We played the number 9 team in their home stadium. Great things to come."
On expectations from here on out
"We go out and win every game. That's how we feel. We feel that we still have a long journey. We have a lot of games left. But we can definitely go out and just compete on every level. We're gonna have some good practices this week and just continue to go out and get better."
Louisiana cornerback Jemarlou Moten
On the defense
"We had to make big plays. We count on our offense a lot. But the defense came in strong. We just made some mistakes here and there. We've got to tackle better.
"We feel like we're the best secondary in college football."
On the defensive freshmen's performances
"All we talk about is: Greatness, greatness. Play hard, play hard. The freshmen came in, played hard. My first D1 football game. Everybody just ran around. We didn't stop at all. We played four quarters. Four strong quarters."
