Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State vs. TCU Postgame Quotes
October 27, 2012 | Cowboy Football
Oct. 27, 2012
Recap |
Final Stats |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 
Oklahoma State vs. TCU
Oct. 27, 2012 · Stillwater, Okla.
Postgame Quotes
OSU Head Coach Mike Gundy
On Wes Lunt
“He got better as it went on. I think his confidence is good. He's very level headed. He's a very cerebral young man, and I don't think he doubted himself. I just think it's human nature and he had to grow into it. He got hit a few times and realized it was going to be OK.”
On the touchdown on fourth and goal
“In most cases with our offense and where we are at right now, you almost have to kick the field goal, but I got tired of kicking field goals. We're not very good at third and short, and we're not very good at fourth and short. We have to be better on the goal line or even up on the field. We've discussed it. We do have some limitations at certain positions, but we have to find a way to convert. In order to beat teams as we progress through this stretch, we have to be better in that situation. We have not been. They wanted to go for it. I've been talked into it before and it not work, but I got talked into it again by the players. Jeremy (Smith) got downhill, and it was kind of a turning point. We needed to start to take control in those types of situations.”
On the fumble created by Nigel Nicholas
“We should have had the ball on the 50. We got on the field and got a flag. That was a good call on their part. The one part of that play that we need to be better at was when everyone was standing around watching the ball. We have to pick the ball up anytime the ball is live like that because the only thing they can do is blow it dead. That was a big play. I thought our defensive line got pressure on the quarterback a number of times, and it made a big difference in some of the throws that he made.”
On the defense
“We're healthy now. We got some guys back. We were beat up early in the season a little bit. We had key spots. It helps when we have 27 back in certain situations. He's long in range. He can run, and he's got a body where he can play a third down run play and also help us in the passing game. That may sound odd to you, but he's disruptive and distracting down the field throwing the ball for a quarterback because he moves fast. It helped get him back. I think our pass rush is getting better. Calvin Barnett has only played seven games at this level. There's a big adjustment from his level to this level. James Castleman is starting to grow up. They're giving us some inside push. We defended the deep ball much better in this game like we had in the two games before this. Early in the season, we were poor on the deep ball. You tie all that together and it makes for a better defensive performance. I thought that our guys did a good job of covering down the short throws on third and four to six.”
On the offense
“It never changes for our offense. The defense, at some times, can dictate whether it's a run or pass. We did a good job, for the most part, in the middle side of whether to hand the ball off or to throw it. He's really good mentally in this game. We had 73 plays, and I can only remember a couple of times where he wasn't correct mentally. When our quarterback makes good decisions, we have the chance to run the ball effectively. I did feel like our offensive line was physical enough for us to win this game. They were good last week, and I thought they were good in this game of being physical run blockers.”
On why they didn't try to convert on fourth downs in the red zone
“I felt good about our defense, but I wasn't wanting to kick field goals. It's just too far to (run) it for us with where we are at on offense. The hesitation on the plays is because I want to go for it, but it's just not smart with where we are. It is what it is. We have a freshman quarterback, and we pulling the pieces together on offense to be more effective, and it doesn't play to our strength, right now.”
Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken
On falling down 14-0 early and coming back
"I think that's a credit to our players. It helps being at home because you've got the crowd there. The reality is that the things that happened early were self-inflicted. The whole idea is to play good football, limit penalties and turnovers, and do the right things, so when you do that you give yourself a chance. There are some other things that go into that, but that's what we did. We just settled in and our defense played great."
On the amount of field goals
"The reality is that Daniel Koenig didn't practice all week and played, we just got Jeremy Smith back from his ankle, Wes Lunt had only practiced one week and played, Josh Stewart hurt his hand in the game. We're going to scratch and claw as best as we can as a team to get wins, and that's what I'm going to focus on. How well our guys played individually. Is it frustrating to kick field goals? Absolutely. There's no question. But you just have to figure it out."
On Joseph Randle's consistency
"He has definitely been consistent. The running backs are our most experienced group. When they play, you should know what to expect. When you have newcomers, you don't always know how they're going to play because the sample size is too small. With guys like Randle, Smith, and the guys that are playing up front, you should have an idea of what they are going to do."
Defensive Coordinator Bill Young
On TCU QB Trevone Boykin
"Their quarterback is awfully mobile. He's a very good athlete. Both of those guys are. We went in with a plan to try to keep him in the pocket, and I think for the most part we did that. At the same time, they completed some passes and moved the ball, but we didn't panic."
On Nigel Nicholas's fumble recovery
"It was a great play on his part. We had a bunch of guys on the field yelling at him to pick the ball up. We practice every day, if there's any doubt, to go out there and pick the ball up. The official was just standing there waiting for someone to go get it. The offensive guy picked it up and threw it back down. It was a crazy play."
On the improvement of the secondary's performance over the last few weeks
"They're just keeping their eyes where they need to. Coach Jones and Coach Van Malone are doing a heck of a job coaching them up and getting them in the right spot at the right time."
Kicker Quinn Sharp
On having to kick so many field goals
"Obviously, you want the offense to score points and be successful every time. You want them to get in that red zone and be successful, but whenever it's my job to go out there, I'm going to do my best to get points on the board and help those guys out."
On bouncing back from a rough kicking game last week
"I felt like I hit the ball well against Iowa State. I struck it well. It just didn't come off my foot the way that I wanted it to. My steps were just a tad off. But I bounced back this game, and it was very helpful for me."
On making all five of his attempts
"It was nice. I needed that. It was a bounce-back game. We came out a little bit slow at the beginning, and were struggling a little bit on third down, so we needed those points before we went into halftime. It was big to get those points in before half to get some momentum going before we came back out after half."
Linebacker Lyndell Johnson
On the defensive performance
"We had to put in a new game plan. They have a lot of athletic guys that we had to match up with. I think today we did a pretty good job going out there and doing that."
On coming back from injury
"I'm glad to be back. Being on the sideline and watching games, I knew that if I was out there, I wouldn't have let some of those big plays happen. But that's part of the game of football. Injuries come and go, so you've just got to hope and pray that you can get back out there. Now I'm back, and I'm just glad to be out there on the field with my team making plays."
On the offense's slow start
"As a team, when the offense isn't clicking, it's the defense's job to pick them up. That's what we did today. It's a team thing. We just have to go out there and help each other."
Wide Receiver Charlie Moore
On the offense's play
"It progressed throughout the game. At halftime, we met as a unit. The coaches gave us adjustments and a good speech to pump us up. We knew what we had to do. We matured a little bit. We stayed focused, and really came out in the second half and played well."
On Wes Lunt
"I'm sure he was a little nervous early on, or was overthinking stuff, but he played great throughout the game. You wouldn't have thought he missed a game all year."
On his touchdown catch
"It was a route that we had been practicing. It was a slow-go route where you kind of make a move off of the linebacker. It played off perfectly, and was called perfectly and at the right time. The hard part is waiting for that linebacker, and avoiding collision. Once that happens it just opens up, so it was perfect."
Safety Daytawion Lowe
On his interception
"He just hung it up there. I was back there. Our coaches always talk about playing the ball when it's in the air, and I was just playing the ball."
On the defensive performance overall
"It was great. I think we started off slow, kind of like last week. We have to build off of that and come out faster next week. We gave up a touchdown early, and that could have hurt us later, but overall I think we played great."
On recovering from giving up a touchdown early
"We never panicked because we knew what we could do. We just had to refocus ourselves and get ourselves ready to play again."
Running Back Jeremy Smith
On his fourth down touchdown after talking the coaches into going for it
"We hate to come off the field, especially on fourth and short when we think that we can get it. For the coaches to trust us on that feels pretty good, so we had to get the job done."
On the amount of field goals instead of touchdowns
"It started off like that, but we have to stay composed and keep working as a team. That's what we did. We had to keep telling each other to calm down and that everything was going to be alright. We just had to stick to the game plan. We did, and we won."
On Wes Lunt and the offense
"I like Wes. He's a great guy. It's kind of hard to figure out how he's feeling, because he doesn't really show his emotions. Just talking to him, he's a great guys that's always ready to compete, and tonight he did. There were a lot of mistakes from the offense as a whole, but we're going to correct it for next week."
Linebacker Alex Elkins
On the defensive success today
"We just knew that we had to stick together as a band of brothers today. Early in the season we gave up some big plays, and it's not that we had a bad defense, we just didn't have all 11 players hitting on all cylinders. We knew we had to come out here and change that, and everything we've done up to this point is worth it."
On linebacker Lyndell Johnson's return
"It was big. He moves around the field, and he's a playmaker. To have a playmaker on your team just makes you that much better."
On the defensive mentality
"Play for each other and patch the holes. Don't let anything get by. Swarm to the ball."
On Wes Lunt's rusty start
"To be honest, we weren't really worried about it, because we knew our offense would pick it up sooner or later. As long as we went out there and did our job, that's all we could do."
Defensive End Cooper Bassett
On the recent defensive success
"Really, with the exception of that interception return for a touchdown, as a defense we've only given up two touchdowns in two games. I said at the beginning of the season that we were going to have a great defense. It was only a matter of time for guys to get in their grooves. It's nice to see that we're finally gelling together.
On key defensive players
"It's nice to see Calvin Barnett and James Castleman being huge for us. They really do make our defense run. They're the guys in the middle that make sure nothing happens. They plug that stuff up so our speed on the outside, the perimeter and the backside can flourish. To see guys step up, especially those two, is awesome."
On DT Nigel Nicholas's fumble recovery
"We had a zone blitz and I dropped back in the coverage, and I just saw Nigel hit the quarterback and the ball came out. We were down in the west end zone, which is closed in, and I couldn't hear the whistle. So I just assumed, which you should never do as a football player, that it was an incomplete pass, until I saw our coaching staff going wild on the sidelines. It was a great play by Nigel."
Defensive Tackle Nigel Nicholas
On his forced fumble and fumble recovery
"When I actually did knock the ball out of his hands, I didn't see where the ball went. I started celebrating with Calvin Barnett, and I swear I heard Coach Gundy say, 'Pick it up!' I looked down, saw it, and took off running."
On how the defense is improving
"We're just working on it more, and trying to force more turnovers. We're just more focused and we're starting to develop a defensive chemistry. We're just going out there and reading our keys and playing more fundamentals."
Wide Receiver Josh Stewart
On the offensive success despite the shaky start
"Wes is one of those guys that once he clicks, he's good. Wes is going to be good from here on out, and we're excited for him, and what we have ahead of us as an offense."
On Wes Lunt's first start since September
"Coming off an injury is really tough. He did a good job of coming back tough. Wes is always quiet. You can never tell his emotions. Once we got going today, he started smiling, and things started clicking, and once you see him smile you know something is going right."
On finally scoring a touchdown after numerous field goals
"It felt so good to score. After those field goals, we just wanted to get it in there. We got the feel for it, and we're going to keep doing it."
Running Back Joseph Randle
On carrying the ball over 30 times today
"It didn't even seem like [I got 32 carries]. When you're so involved in the game, you just lose yourself, like Eminem. I have some people on my team that love that song, so I just lost myself in the game. If you're worrying about stats during the game, you're doing the wrong thing."
On carrying the ball more due to Wes Lunt's recent injury
"I'm ready for anything. I've been saying that since my freshman year. If they decide to give it to me 32 times, I'm ready."
On Wes Lunt's performance
"He did a great job. The one interception wasn't his fault. He did what he was supposed to."
TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson
General thoughts on the game
"It was obvious in the third quarter and for the second week in a row that when they turned up the gas, we couldn't finish. I have to give Oklahoma State a lot of the credit. They did a great job. We did a good job of holding them early to field goals, but you have to make plays when you get your chances on offense. We didn't do that. We can't turn the ball over."
On the Cowboys' overall performance
"Look at the third downs. They were five of 16 on third downs. You have to go make plays. When people turn up the knob, you have to turn it up with them. We have not done that the past two weeks in the fourth quarter. If you look at when people win or lose, people either make plays or they don't make plays. We have to do a better job. We were two of 14 on third down. Let me tell you right know, we're not going to win very many ball games unless we have big plays. It's simple as that. You have to give Oklahoma State some credit for the job that Bill Young is doing. They didn't allow the big play, they stopped us in the red zones and they hit their field goals."
On the offense's lack of production
"You have to give Oklahoma State some of that credit. We had our chances and we were in the ball game, but we couldn't do much with it in the second half except for that one drive. We missed two field goals while they took care of their opportunities. We only scored one touchdown, and that's not good enough to win in the Big 12."
On Wes Lunt's performance
"We allowed him to have some confidence. You have to give him credit. The guy hasn't played for four or five weeks and the help of [Joseph] Randle and the offensive line really did a nice job. You have to give him credit for what he did and how he did it."
On the atmosphere at Boone Pickens Stadium
"It was a great crowd, and I think it helped us. You've got to love to play in that environment. You've got to love playing at home in front of 60,000 people. Our kids were fired up with that kind of crowd and atmosphere out there. That's what you want. That's why we got in this league."
On how the team can move on toward next week's game
"We're a proud program. We're young, but what our players have to understand is that losing is a disease. You do something about it, or it spreads. I've been doing this a long time. We've got good enough players but we have to grow up and get ready to play. We've got four games left to do that. Next week is West Virginia."
TCU Defensive End Jon Koontz
On losing the momentum after leading 14-0
“We definitely came out on top early but then we took our foot off the throttle. They made plays and we didn't.”
On OSU's fast paced offence
“We are conditioned for that kind of offense; we just were not making the plays we needed to.”
On the OSU offense
“I think their offense as a whole executed well in the second half when they needed to and they wore us down.”
TCU Center James Fry
On what went wrong in the second half
“We just didn't finish. Two weeks in a row for our offense. We have to do better for the remainder of the season. I don't want to admit it, but we quit. Coach Patterson mentioned we quit and it kind of felt like we did. I don't know if we were just shocked that they came back or we just don't know how to dig ourselves out from being in a corner. We just didn't fight back.”
On the offensive performance
“I think we came out fine; it was just the little mistakes. Those little mistakes make all the difference.”
