Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. Iowa State Postgame Quotes
October 04, 2014 | Cowboy Football
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OSU Head Coach Mike Gundy
Opening statement
“I'm glad that one is over. We played very average in a lot of areas. Offensively, not very good. Not running the ball as effectively as we need to. The defense held on for a while, but gave up a couple of big plays. That allowed [Iowa State] to stay in the game. The good news is our coverage units on the punt and kick were good, and our return units on kick return and punt return were good. We've really stressed that over the last 10 days. It really benefitted us and probably helped us win this football game. We have to get a lot better. There's not any reason for us to cancel practice. I was happy the team rallied there at the end and played hard, made a few plays and found a way to win the football game. We certainly have a long ways to go and a lot of work ahead of us. We had a lot of young players that stepped and played for us today. We had some guys that couldn't suit up and play for us so we had a number of guys playing for the first time a significant amount of snaps. I thought they competed and played really well. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We'll come back tomorrow night and get ready for the next game.”
On the team being able to recover from a tough first quarter
“We were bad. Offensively, we were bad for the first half. Defensively, we would make some plays and then we would give up some plays. It's a roller coaster. When you have that many inexperienced players on the field, they play like this. We have to do a better job of coaching them and putting them in the position to eliminate some of that and have a better chance for success. It's not any one particular player. I think we had three procedure penalties and we've played I don't know who many games in a loud stadium and no procedure penalties. We had two receivers jump offsides. We had a few linemen jump. We lined up illegally on a punt formation. That's just being undisciplined and that falls on me. We'll get that corrected this week. We'll get lined up properly and play better. We just didn't play very well. You get out there—and this no excuse—it's 11 a.m. and the stadium is half full, the sun is kind of on you. It's just a lot of things that worked against us. We need to be more mature than that even though we're young. Our guys have to get their motor going and they have to play fast and compete. If we're going to make a run through this league then we really have to play better and eliminate some of the roller coaster that we are facing at this time.”
On the kick coverage
“I took over kick coverage and punt coverage this week, but I'm going to give it up tomorrow. We challenged those guys. We're all using youth as an excuse. At this point, it has to be over with because it doesn't matter anymore. They did a good job. They're starting to understand a little more the coverage and squeezing gaps, getting a feel for the return, locating the ball, not running past the ball, work sideways and rally as a group. They're getting a little bit better. The big play there was when the ball hit the ground, and [Elliot Jeffcoat] was in position because he was playing with a lot of speed. He loves to play the game.”
On Michael Wilson's performance
“I thought he played OK. I know he got undercut on a pass-rush twice so that was something I wasn't fired up about, and it put Daxx in a vulnerable position. He's another young guy and he's never played before. He's kind of been thrown into the fire, and he's going to have to figure it out really fast if Crabtree is going to be out for a while. He better learn to play because next week we still have a game at 3 p.m.”
Defensive Coordinator Glenn Spencer
On his initial takeaways from the game
"I really haven't had time to look at it. We talked about third-down conversions. They were at 50 percent because they ran a bunch of third-and-shorts. That goes back to what I said about first-and-10 being the most important down. They fell forward on a couple of tackles and had third-and-two on a lot of them. It's tough to get your third-down percentage at 65 percent like we want, so we probably aren't as good on first-and-ten as we've been in the past. They controlled the ball, and they were trying to run and shorten the game. Our snaps were great. Our ones were definitely in the high 50's or low 60's, so that helped us out. That's because they slowed it down, and our offense had a couple of nice drives too. We responded great after sudden changes. The field position was really bad a lot during the first half, and then the boys came up big. I was proud of them for that. That really kept it close and bought time until our offense started moving it and scoring. We had one drive that I was really disappointed in, and we'll look at the tape on that. Besides that, it was a tremendous effort."
On how the younger players performed in the secondary today
"Ashton (Lampkin) was out and Larry (Stephens) was out. It was good. We did some things, schematically, to try and help them out a little bit. That might have been another reason that we gave up some run yardage that I didn't like. Schematically, when you try to help out and take something, you give up something else. That's no excuse. We still had the scheme to stop them. That's unbelievable experience. You can't get that in practice. Ramon (Richards) was out there the whole game. You get to correct mistakes off of a win, which is tremendous. I loved their effort. The passion they're playing with is tremendous. They see a sudden change or bad field position and their attitude is 'Let's just go out and do our job.'"
Offensive Coordinator Mike Yurcich
On if he expected Iowa State to disguise their defenses
"You always have to expect disguises, and that's something they did a very good job of today. It's something that we had prepared for, but they did an excellent job of disguising their cover one or cover two man, or dropping a safety late in the box. All of those looks, you try to simulate in practice. Practice is one thing and a game is another. We need to read and react a lot better on the run than we did today."
On Daxx Garman's two interceptions today
"On the first one the route was off, and on the second one it was man coverage. The ball was thrown on time. You've got to give the defense some credit on that. They did a good job and we can doo a better job running the route. It's a team game, and as long as he's going through the right reads and throwing the ball on time, you can't be too critical of the quarterback."
On picking things up in the second half
"It think we just relaxed and played in our comfort zone. I think our guys di a good job of handling that adversity. It's never easy when you have no rhythm and you've made a couple of mistakes to ride out the storm. Staying confident and getting yourself back in a rhythm is a good quality to have. We haven't reached our peak, that's for sure. Not even close. There's a lot of room for us to improve, but it was very encouraging at the same time."
Wide Receiver David Glidden
On the overall team effort today
"It was a great team win. The coaches had a good gameplan going in, we watched a lot of film and we found a lot of areas that we felt like we could capitalize on. We made a couple of mistakes, but the guys did a great job of going out there and fighting.”
On the momentum shift before the half
"There's always going to be times when things like that happen. The other team has to come out and make plays, too. They have adjustments they have to make and they've got a gameplan they have to execute, so we did a great job on our part. We had to make a couple of adjustments, and we eventually things going."
On Daxx Garman settling down after throwing two early interceptions
"Daxx is a gunslinger, so that's going to happen sometimes. The kid can throw the ball, but their defense was making plays. They watch film, too, so picks are just a part of the game. Daxx was calm about it, and we all knew he would go back out there and keep letting it fly. He's real confident in himself, and he's confident in all of us, which is a great thing to know. It doesn't matter how many picks he throws, he's going to keep letting it fly."
Cornerback Kevin Peterson
On slowing down Iowa State's offense
"We had a good gameplan going in. Coach Spencer and Coach Malone knew what we needed to do to slow them down, so that's what we did. Our guys came to play. Our D-line was pushing their line the whole game, our linebackers played great and our secondary played great, even though we had some injured guys. We had some guys who needed to step up today, and they really held their own."
On limiting Sam Richardson's dual-threat ability
"The gameplan was simple; slow him down. He's their leading rusher, so we knew he could make a lot of plays on his feet and extend the ball down the field with the option game. We really didn't get a whole lot of that, but we knew we had to contain him, and that's what we did."
On the contributions from the special teams unit today
"Any time special teams can make a play, it helps the offense, the defense and the rest of the team as well. The coaches really try and preach that the offense, defense and special teams are all a huge part of the game, and they really stepped up. It especially helped give us momentum going into the second half."
Offensive Lineman Michael Wilson
On having to step in for Zachary Crabtree
"It was good. Iowa State did a good job, and their ends were pushing hard. I had a tough time at first, and I really had to be patient and wait to get settled. My nerves were real high, but as soon as I calmed down a bit, I started to do better."
On meshing with the rest of the O-line
"We did a great job. In the first half, we started off slow. We were messing up and missing a bunch of blocks, but we just kind of came together, had our halftime meetings and fixed some things up."
On taking the lead before the half
"It was awesome. It was a huge momentum swing, and we really needed to get that score in. We came together, and we got the job done."
Safety Tre Flowers
On gaining experience in a Big 12 setting
"All week at practice, we talked about everyone focusing on their keys and using the experience they had to work together as a unit. We came out and we did that, and it felt good to get some time in with the starting unit."
On the team making adjustments after a slow first half
"The kickoff recovery was a game-changer. Honestly, I didn't even see what happened. I just saw the guys running, and then I saw us with the ball. [Elliott Jeffcoat] really repped it out there with the whole team."
On the team's mentality heading into its first Big 12 road game:
"Do your part, just like you do every week. It's just another game. We just have to focus on it and read our keys."
Wide Receiver Jhajuan Seales
On his contributions on the receiving end
"It's great when the receivers are clicking during practice and then we get into that same type of flow during the game. It really just kind of felt like practice out there, and we were all clicking with the quarterback."
On picking up the offensive pace after coming out to a slow start
"We started off slow, and our tempo was way down. We didn't score in the first quarter like we usually do, so we had to get our tempo going. We also had some excitement from the special teams that really helped us out, and the defense kept their end up, so we had to keep it going."
On preparing for the team's upcoming two game roadtrip
"We just have to keep going hard at practice and work on the mental mistakes that we had today. We have to keep the tempo up, too, because our defense did real well today. We have to match them and everything they've got."
Safety Elliott Jeffcoat
On his momentum-shifting fumble recovery before the half
"It was a great moment. We were really struggling for momentum at that time, and it was my first chance to really make something happen. I knew it would help out the offense and the defense, so it was kind of like a two-for-one. I was just doing it for my team, making a play and doing my role. Things happen when you hustle hard, and you've got to give it your all until the end of the play."
ISU Head Coach Paul Rhoads
On the OSU running game
"Oklahoma State has effectively run the ball against us in the past and they did a year ago, embarrassingly."
On Quaterback Sam Richardson
"He was under a lot of duress and he had receivers covered, so he didn't get an opportunity to throw balls on time."
On what Tyreek Hill's kick return did to ISU energy level
"It zapped us even more and I think the ensuing drive and touchdown did a lot to bring us back, we faced adversity and responded to it today."
On Oklahoma State
"They got on a roll offensively and had success and got it to a point where it was going to be hard to get a comeback to overtake it."
On the Oklahoma State defensive front
"They run very well up front, Oklahoma State does."
