Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU-West Virginia Post-Game Quotes
November 10, 2012 | Cowboy Football
Nov. 10, 2012
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OSU head coach Mike Gundy
Opening statement
“We had a good game today. I think the biggest area of improvement for us is our coverage. Our guys really stepped up and made some good plays. Quinn (Sharp) punted the ball really well. He was good on his flip kicks into the wind. We changed up our kickoff return. The offset worked out for us. I was extremely disappointed when we got a punt blocked. We knew they were coming, and we busted inside in a protection. Other than that, I thought our special teams was the difference. Their offense made plays and our offense made plays, but special teams gave us the advantage.
“I'm very proud of Clint Chelf. I think he did a great job. He handled himself well. He handled our offense and made plays. He was effective throwing the ball, and he was effective running the ball when we asked him to. Overall, I thought our offensive line was good. There were times that they knew we were running it, and they stuffed us a little bit. For the most part, our guys played pretty good up front. We allowed too many guys to run behind us in the secondary. We gave up some deep throws. They had a chance to hit a few more, and they overthrew them. We have to continue to work to get better at that. We were good in all three phases. That's a good win for us. I'm very proud of our team. We're going to enjoy today and get back to work tomorrow.”
On Justin Gilbert
“I mentioned to the team that it sure looks nice when he breaks through there because when he breaks through, whoever is chasing him is going to have a hard time catching him. He's pretty when he runs through there full speed. I thought the return was executed to perfection. He was patient. He jumped through that hole. We've been waiting for him to get that. We just hadn't had plenty of opportunities.”
On the second half
“We were really slow at the start of the second half. I don't know why. I thought our guys had the energy, and our plan was good. We were really flat to start the game in the second half, but we rallied from that point forward and put a couple of drives together. Jeremy Smith came in and ran the ball effectively. Clint made a couple of nice throws, and Josh Stewart made some nice plays.”
On Josh Stewart
“We wanted to get the ball to him more. He's starting to mature and really develop into a good football player. Josh likes to play the game. Guys that like to play football and are tough, durable and want the ball in crucial situations, have a lot of success.”
On Clint Chelf
“We want to try to get his feet wet and get him going. He has played well. If we would have known what we know now, we probably would have opened up the game a little differently. We wanted to get him comfortable. I'm pleased with the way he handled the offense. We had 66 plays, and I'm going to guess that on 50 of those, he had to decide what to do with the ball. I think he only made a mistake twice. He came out of the game as the guy based on what we had left. He performed well and practiced well. He got a number of reps so we went with him.”
OSU offensive coordinator Todd Monken
On Clint Chelf
“I'm so happy for him. That's why you do it. We're in this game for the guys you coach. That's why we have a job. When guys stay here as long as he has and work as hard as he has, you just hope that it works out for him like it did. I think that our guys played pretty well around him. It's just a tribute to him. It's got nothing to do with me and everything to do with him. I'm just happy that he found a way to win.”
On Josh Stewart
“We're moving him around. We're trying very hard to get him the ball. That's pretty obvious. What we're paid to do is get the ball in the hands of the guy that can make plays for you. He just bounces up off of the turf. I would have thought that he would have broken down by now with as much as we try to utilize him. He's a tough son of a gun. Utilize the guys you have.”
On helping Clint Chelf get comfortable in the offense early on
“We've tried to do that all year just a little bit, just to get in a flow. It's hard to realize that it's okay to punt when you run the style of offense that we do. It's okay. We only turned it over once, but it wasn't (Chelf's) fault. That led to a score. How do we make explosive plays, get in the red zone and not turn it over, those kinds of things. And I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”
OSU defensive coordinator Bill Young
On giving up big third and fourth down plays
“There were some big time plays that we gave up. We need to look at this film tomorrow to see every play that we played. The good things we'll try to do better and the bad things we'll try to do a lot better. We had them at third and 20 and let them convert. They threw a great ball. A little bit of it you have to give to their quarterback. He is something special. At the same time, it doesn't matter who their quarterback is. You've got to do a better job of not letting them complete that pass.”
On the West Virginia offense
“Even though it doesn't look like it by the score, it helped us a little bit playing against our offense every day. It's almost a mirror image of it. That was a big, big thing for us. Their offense creates so much space, and their receivers are coached so well that if you're here, they're there, and if you're there, they're here. You just can't be right. If you can't get an unbelievable pass rush, you'll have some issues.”
On whether there's been an improvement in the defensive play
“I think that there's been a huge improvement in our defense. I think that we're getting better every day. There's no question about it. And we better be getting better because everyone we're playing is getting better. Our schedule gets tougher and tougher. We've got some big games in front of us.”
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West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen
Opening statement
“We can't make very, very, very simple mistakes. We made junior high mistakes. When you make junior high mistakes, you're not going to win very many games.
On what he said to the team after the game
“We went in the locker room, and I told them that we played a good team. We came into the game knowing that it would be tough to stop the number one offense in the nation. They knew they made plenty of mistakes so they took the loss pretty hard. We have to move on to next week and face another tough opponent.”
On his team making unnecessary mistakes throughout the game
“Like I said before, we were making junior high mistakes out there. I don't know what really happened out there with the ball that hit [Andrew] Buie. The punt return was a huge mistake, and that's something that you should learn how to do in junior high. Making mistakes at home in the Big 12 is going to hurt you enough, but making mistakes on the road in the Big 12 is worse. It's tough enough to win Big 12 games at home, so we have to learn to not make mistakes on the road.”
On returning to Stillwater for the first time since accepting the WVU job
“OSU is a team that gives a lot of effort. They go out there each game and play for each other, play for their school and play to win. They didn't make as many mistakes as we did, and they gave a lot of effort. That team has two great running backs who were making some great plays, and Joe Wickline is an outstanding offensive line coach. OSU has some great things going on, and they're a good team.”
On the progression he has seen with Clint Chelf since leaving Oklahoma State
“Clint's a great kid. He's made some strides and gotten a lot better as a quarterback. He came into this game with a lot on his shoulders and made some plays. Once again, it all goes back to OSU giving effort. Clint has come a long way.”
West Virginia defensive coordinator Joe DeForest
On Special Teams
“It's a team game. You have to win all three phases. I think it goes to show just how important all three phases are. We made some stops on defense and then made some mistakes on special teams and then we have to go out and make another stop. It's that simple. There's no magic answer, we just have to go out and continue to perform.
On seeing familiar faces
“No question it was good seeing some of the players and coaches that I've been with. I can say ultimately that it was a game we had to win, and we didn't do it. We needed that win.”
On junior high mistakes
“The base fundamentals of the defense or the offensive special teams is you've got to take over. We made some elementary mistakes out there today which was hard to live with.”
West Virginia offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson
On staying positive
“We just have to stay positive. Right now everyone's down. But the sun will come up tomorrow. It always does. We'll put the game behind us and correct mistakes. Our kids are resilient, probably a lot more resilient than coaches are. It probably takes me a little longer to get over stuff than they do. They'll bounce back and be fine to play next week.”
On paying attention to detail and working hard in practice
“We had a great week in practice. We had a really physical week in practice with really great effort. I was expecting to come out and play hard, which I think we did. We'll watch film and evaluate each position to see what the effort was like. But, we were just off execution and off communication at times. That's frustrating.”
West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith
On the mood of the locker room
“It's a tough loss. We've lost three in a row. We can't find a way to win, we're finding ways to lose. Somehow, someway we have to bounce back. We have three weeks left, and we have to pick ourselves up and get up and get back to work.”
On taking the loss hard
“I take every game hard. I go out and give it my best every single time. I hate to lose. I'm a competitor. Losing one is tough, losing two is tougher but to lose three, something that has never happened to me, is heartbreaking. That's the only way to sum it up. I have to figure out a way to play better. We need to get the offense to score just enough points to win the game.”
On explaining the mistakes
“It's one of those things that just at the right time something bad happens. There's no way to explain it. It's one of those things where you can't put a finger on it. I know everyone wants to win, but it's silly mistakes that are costing us a win every week.”
West Virginia wide receiver Tavon Austin
On the special teams problems
“I had one play when the ball hit me and it bounced away, and I didn't recover. That's my fault, and I take the blame. We had a couple of issues. When they squibbed the ball on the kickoff return, it was hard to recover. I hope we get better in practice and get it done next week.”
On mishandling the kickoff
“I waved it off when I should have just run at it. It looked like it was going out of bounds, but it bounced back my way and it hit me and they had a good play on it.”
On keeping the frustration in the locker room from turning into more mistakes
“We just have to keep trying to push through. Hopefully something happens when everyone comes together as one, and we get a win.”
West Virginia kicker Tyler Bitancurt
On the special teams mistakes
“It's very frustrating. But at the same time it's what we've been working on and what we will continue to work on. It's just a shame that it happens in a game when we make those mistakes because we've been doing well in practice. At the same time we need to make sure we do better mentally.”
On coming out of a funk
“We're in a very tough league right now. No game is going to be easy. We are definitely making mental mistakes, and we've got more talent than it shows. It's not necessarily a funk, its football. We're close to coming back to what we're used to as a Mountaineer football team, but at the same time we're not playing the same teams we're used to.”
West Virginia offensive lineman Jeff Braun
On the leadership of the senior class
“We need to stand up as seniors and come together as a senior class and make sure everyone knows where we want to go with this program and put it in the right direction.”
On executing the leadership
“Coaches have done as much as they can do. Now it falls on our shoulders. We need to go in there and get things done and get things corrected.”
On being held accountable for their play
“Everyone needs to be held accountable for what they're doing on the field. You have to do your job and do it with the best of your ability. You're going to make mistakes and you're going to have bad technique and you're going to have a bad play, but you need to go out there and try to execute to 100 percent of your ability. If that fails then you have to be giving 100 percent effort.”
West Virginia linebacker Isaiah Bruce
On looking forward
“Just have to look forward. You can't do anything about today's game. We just have to get this next one, and look forward to getting to a bowl game.”
On getting the team to play as a team
“I think it's one of the problems. But whatever it is, something has to change. Everybody has to play as a unit, and everyone has to play for each other. It's like we aren't having fun anymore. The way the last couple weeks have gone, it's just not how it used to be and we have to get that back.”
On the defense turning the corner
“From last week to this week it was a step back. We're definitely going to make more strides forward and try and get better to help this team.”
West Virginia wide receiver Stedman Bailey
On his health
“I felt I was about 90 percent. Once I get one of those [cortisone] shots and it kicks in, then I'm locked in and ready to make plays.”
On rotating in so many receivers
“It kind of works out in a good way because sometimes we out together some long drives. Just to make sure we have a fresh pair of legs out there is why we rotate so much.”
On the mood of the locker room.
“Not happy. Too many mistakes, and it cost us today. It makes us frustrated because these are mistakes that we should not be making. We have to live with it for now. Move forward and work on trying to eliminate them, but it's frustrating.”
