Oklahoma State vs. Central Arkansas Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Mike Gundy

Opening statement
"That was a good win for our team. I was glad that we were able to get that one under our belt. I thought that they had a good game plan. I think they also took some chances, like going for it on a couple of fourth downs and the two-point conversion. With our team, the thing that I wasn't pleased with was having too many penalties. We have to eliminate penalties. They were in a defense that was focused on stopping the run. In the end, we threw the ball down the field with the style of defense we were seeing. I saw that we averaged almost five yards per rush, which is good. We threw for a lot of yards, obviously. We still missed about six passes that would have kept us on the chains early. We also had a couple of big plays called back with penalties. We need to be more effective in first-down passing situations when we have guys open. We've got to hit those throws. I thought the defense was excellent and continued to make plays. We tackled better in this game, which was an improvement in that area. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and we've got to minimize some of those mistakes. I wasn't happy with our two blocked PATs. Without watching the tape, I'd guess we had low kicks on both of those. We have to do a much better job of converting PATs. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, but we're certainly looking forward to our next game. I'm glad we got this win."

On Mason Rudolph's performance
"He was good. He could've been much better. I thought he missed, like, five throws that he normally hits. He did come back and give us some good deep throws, though. He's still young. He's playing in fourth or fifth game, so he's still going to make mistakes. He still needs to be better, but he did hit some deep throws. He missed at least four throws in the first half on first down. We would have been in second and three instead of second and ten. They were forcing the pass. They had everybody down in the box. That was the game plan, I'm guessing. When that happens, you have to throw the ball. It's difficult to run the ball with those types of looks."

On the overall effort of the OSU defense
"I thought they were really good. They were especially good earlier in the game when we weren't converting offensively. They continued to make plays, and they're improving. We had some offsides penalties, but overall, I thought they were really good. One instance, on third and long, we got caught in coverage and hooked a guy's face mask. I wasn't particularly happy about that. Overall, I thought the plan was good, the players tackled better and the execution was good."

On Chris Carson's ability in space
"After these first two games, I'm encouraged by what he can do when he gets out in space. What you're saying is right, though. He's not getting out there enough. We have to improve. We have to become better run blockers. As I'd said earlier, they had everybody down in the box, and I'm guessing that their plan was to not let us run. I agree with you. Once he's gotten outside, he's been aggressive and he's made some plays running the ball."

On if he plans on making changes to improve run blocking
"Not really. They were running their linebackers straight through the gaps. What that means, is we went to a misdirection passing game and threw the ball down the field. We have to improve. I'm not pleased with the way we're blocking right now. We need to improve in the running game, and we need to become better run blockers."

Offensive Coordinator Mike Yurcich

On Mason Rudolph's performance
"There were a couple of inaccurate passes that I'm sure Mason (Rudolph) wants back. Those are plays that he usually makes. Those are routine to him. It's hard to evaluate and give you guys, immediately after a game, a thorough evaluation of the quarterback. He knows that. We'll take a look at the film tomorrow and go from there."

On the offense's performance tonight
"First downs were good. I think we had 25 first downs, so we're moving the ball. Obviously we had the interception there. A turnover is always big. We've got to get the ball in the end zone. Thirty-two points isn't representative of how we move the football. It's about turnovers, it's about points and it's about winning the game. We played well enough to win the game obviously, but we have to score points and get in the end zone."

On the team's run blocking
"It's concerning and we have to do a better job of coming off of the football and making sure that we're reading the right things, making sure we're making the right adjustments on the calls that need to go in and making sure we give our guys a chance. That's everything. It's not just one person. There's a lot of things that fall into that and I think when we look at the film tomorrow we'll learn a little bit more about ourselves from a run game standpoint.

Defensive Coordinator Glenn Spencer

On his thoughts about the defense's performance
"I was just looking at the stat sheet here and we were better on third down, we tackled better. Not pleased that we can't get a turnover. I think this week I'm just going to not talk about it and try that route. They played well."

On his thoughts about the defensive line
"We'll look at the film. Whenever you stop somebody in the run game, it's the whole front seven, so I hate when people try to single out guys or a position group. Good run defense is the front seven working together. A guy might make a tackle, but it's because another guy forced it back inside or another guy spilled it. It's unbelievable cause it's the world we live in. I don't like to say that these guys did better than these guys. We held them under 100 yards rushing, so that's an awesome day."

On the final defensive stats
"I look for some things, and I haven't seen the drive sheet so I'm going to look at that. How many possessions they had and some things like that. To see 2-of-15 on third (down), we're pretty high there. I think they slowed it down a little bit. They slowed it down a little bit from last week. They slowed down their tempo, so I was expecting more plays than that, but our offense held the ball better too so we controlled the clock a little bit better too."

Quarterback Mason Rudolph

On the team's play
"I thought we did well. We had some hiccups in the first half and kind of stalled out some drives, but we were able to bring it back together. The defense played great and got a lot of stops for us to put us in good positions."

On the second half adjustments
"It felt like we were more urgent. We felt like we had to start quicker because we didn't start quick in the first half. We have to get that figured out."

On his connection with David Glidden
"Glidden's a consistent playmaker. He's always there, he always makes great plays in space, but I have to give all of the credit to the offensive line. They gave me a lot of time and protection to be able to make those throws to him."

On his career day
"It was good to be able to distribute the ball to a bunch of freaks out there. There are a bunch of guys that make plays for us and it was just a great team win."

Receiver David Glidden

On the team's play
"We started out slow, but we got the ball rolling and we got the W. Coach Gundy said that we're 2-0 and there are a lot of teams that aren't like that, they don't have that benefit of going into that next game undefeated. There are a lot of improvements to make, but we'll move on and get things corrected."

On Mason Rudolph
"I think he played well. There were some times when he had to make some tough throws with guys in his face and he stood in there and delivered the ball. That's tough to do as a quarterback. Coach Gundy says it all the time that the quarterback has to be the toughest guy on the field and I have to give Mason a lot of credit. He always stays composed and I've said that a lot about him and every game he proves me right and it's impressive."

On his career day
"It was just play calling. Things just happened to work out right for us. The coaches had a great game plan, I had a couple of shots and Mason just threw the ball on the money and the offensive line was giving him enough time, so everything just worked out."

Linebacker Ryan Simmons

On the win
"It's always good to have a win. Coming back home, being in front of our crowd, seeing 'The Walk' and everything, I'm just glad we came out with a win."

On his play
"I felt I played OK. I need to tighten things up a little, but I'm glad we came out with a win. It's a much better feeling than if we would have lost. I'm glad we got the ball rolling early and I hope we keep it up."

On the defense's play
"This is our job. We have to constantly keep them from scoring. We have to give our offense good field position and we've been doing that very well lately. We definitely take pride in what we do and it's showing in our games so far."

Fullback Jeremy Seaton

On his play
"A lot of guys were making plays and fortunately David Glidden, Brandon Sheperd, James Washington and all those other guys out there today gave me a chance to make a couple of plays behind the scenes."

On the offense's performance
"We came out a little slow and sluggish - it wasn't as fast as we usually want it. It seemed like we kept hurting ourselves because we had way too many penalties, but overall we had a lot of good plays we just have to cut down on the penalties."

Safety Jordan Sterns

On the defense
"I thought we played a whole lot better as a unit. We were flying around and getting three-and-outs and just making plays."

On the young guys
"I'm really impressed with Kenneth Edinson-McGruder, Dylan Harding, but really all of the guys have stepped up and made plays. They don't start so it's really easy for them to get distracted, but they're always focused and worried about what's going on."

On the team moving forward
"We're 2-0, so we have chance next week to make that 3-0 and stay unbeaten. We have to keep improving and getting better every week and I think we played better this week than we did last week, so next week we have to keep it up. We can't be satisfied and I think that the sky is the limit."

Central Arkansas Head Coach Steve Campbell

On his takeaways from the game
"Defensively, I thought we did a good job in the red zone. We forced them to kick field goals and blocked two extra points. Defensively, we were able to get off the field quite a bit."

On Central Arkansas' defense
"We had some tackles for losses. I liked the way our defense flew around. Oklahoma State hit us on some big plays."

On playing at Boone Pickens Stadium
"We we're worried about crowd noise, penalties and things of that nature. We had a few, but we cut our penalties in a third from last week and we didn't have any turnovers. I was proud of the guys."

On offensive adjustments made at halftime
"We were able to get a little bit of a rhythm going. The drive that we scored on, we converted a fourth down and a couple things and they hit a big play. There was another drive where we got clicking a little bit."

On the Oklahoma State defense
"They're a good defense. We tip our hats off to them. We knew that they were a good football team and that we were going to have to play a really good ballgame. I thought the guys played hard, but just didn't make enough plays."

On improving from week-to-week
"I think we improved on a lot from last week, on the road, in an environment not anything like this, to competing and being close somewhere in the third quarter. I think if we could've made one or two more plays somewhere there in the third quarter, that we could've tied things up and put a little more pressure on the Cowboys."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Chris Carson

David Glidden

Dylan Harding

Mason Rudolph

Jeremy Seaton

Brandon Sheperd

Ryan Simmons

Jordan Sterns

James Washington

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