Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State Postgame Quotes Vs. Baylor - October 2, 2021
October 02, 2021 | Cowboy Football
OKLAHOMA STATE QUOTES
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Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy
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Opening Statement:
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"We got away with another one. We were minus three in turnovers and it's extremely difficult to win a game when you're minus two. To be minus three in the turnovers and to still win is pretty fortunate. We rushed the ball well, but we still didn't get to four yards a carry. We did lose a few with the victory formations at the end of the game, but we have to get to four yards per carry for us to continue having success rushing the ball. (Trestan Ebner) is a really good returner; we all know that. He's dynamic, so we challenged our group to fix last week's mistake giving up the return and I thought we were fantastic in kick coverage and punt coverage, which was a big part of the game for us. Obviously, the defense is playing well. I don't want to jinx them, but they keep playing good. I hope they will continue on like that and I think the challenge for them will be greater every week. Texas seems to be moving the ball and putting up points, so that will be a good challenge for them on the road. Overall, we need a break. We have been at it for eight weeks and guys are tired, beat up and sore. It's good to be 5-0. I'm proud of the guys and the way they competed. We'll just keep moving forward."
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On rushing the ball 55 times:
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 "I think we might have gotten concerned with (Spencer Sanders) over firing some throws. We didn't plan on rushing 55 times if that's what you're asking. I think sometimes when you're calling plays you see some things that scare you and then you're in the game and the defense is playing good, so let's just make them win the game and not lose it. I've been in that position as a play caller."
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On possibly kicking a field goal on fourth down at the end of the game:
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"It crossed my mind to kick a field goal, but you can still give yourself a chance to lose by kicking a field goal. I'd rather take a shot on getting one yard, even though we struggled in short yardage. They have (Siaki Ika) in there who is a big man and hard to deal with. Worst case scenario you don't get it and they tie you with a field goal. If they score a touchdown, you're in the same situation you were if you kicked the field goal. They would've had to go 99 yards and had no timeouts. Sure, you think about it, but then you look at the other side of it and you don't feel like it's worth it because I didn't want to lose by one point."
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On the play of the defense:
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"They had their backs against the wall again. That has happened several times this year. We talk a lot about their discipline and toughness, but also their attitude and focus and body language. We have a lot of super seniors out there and are getting great leadership from Tyler Lacy and Devin Harper, among others. I'm naming guys that are giving us leadership and there's like eight of them on the field at once, and that's why they're playing good."
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Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn
Opening Statement:
"Number five, that was good. It was the first time in a while that we lined up with the same eleven guys, so that was a good thing going into the game. It was unfortunate we missed a couple opportunities early. I thought our defense played outstanding, and we found a way to go out there and win. That's what we've done now for a long time, and we knocked off two top-25 teams back-to-back, both undefeated. So, life is good."
On not having to only outscore teams because of the defense:
 "It's fantastic. But at the same time, we want to try and get a larger margin of victory. But, whether it's 24-14 or 44-34, it's the same thing. So, for us, tonight, to have to go out there and not rely on it so much. We haven't been able to the past few weeks. The last two weeks, here, we have. We've seen some guys make some plays, we feel better about where we're heading, and the direction of what we're doing. I think we'll continue to get better as time goes on."
On Rashod Owens' Progression:
 "Rashod's a fantastic kid, very smart. He's been an inside receiver for us. I don't know if you noticed, but he played outside receiver. He was actually playing the 'Z' when we went into the Boise game with the injuries we had. So, he's an inside receiver that was obviously thrusted into a position that he wasn't really used to or comfortable with. He played the 'Z' position, made some nice catches in that game against Boise State, some critical catches on third down. With Tay (Martin) and (Jaden) Bray coming back, we pushed him over to 'X' so now he's played every single position. And he's shown up. He's a guy that makes the catch when the play is thrown to him. He plays hard, he blocks well, so he's put himself in a position to play."
Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles
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Opening Statement:
 "I thought our game plan was good. Their quarterback ran around and made some plays. I felt like he was difficult to play with. He started to take some deep shots on us, which we responded to, but we want to do better in that area. Short yard plays, I blame myself there on not putting the guys in the best position on that play. Kind of a cheap one that I'm sure will keep me up. But we just have some great leadership, we have guys flying around. The one play that really exemplifies the thing we're doing here is Evers making that play on the running back on fourth down."
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On his plans for the bye week:
 "Just to get healthy. We have a lot of guys that played hard. It's a physical game. Our guys play physical and run and chase the ball. We need to get healed up and get Tyren (Irby) back and Brock (Martin) back. Hats off to Collin Oliver in his first start as a freshman. I thought he did great. Ben Kopenski. Anyone who is a fan of Oklahoma State should love Ben. But he had to cover his back on a wheel route on the sideline, which I had my heart in my mouth for that one. They tried to isolate him, and he did a hell of a job. But, to get healthy, we got a lot of momentum so just to try and enjoy this time, make corrections and get better."
On getting two three and outs in the fourth:
 "Early down stops, just to get them off track. At that point, we're a little concerned with them taking a deep shot, so we have to spread our defense a little bit. Really it comes down to winning the individual battles and match ups and stopping them. We had to make some aggressive calls, too. That's important that when we get into a tight situation, we trust our guys and make some aggressive calls."Â
Oklahoma State receiver Rashod Owens
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On his first touchdown catch:
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"It was very exciting, you know. First touchdown as a Cowboy, you know. I'm glad to help us put a point on the board, but it all starts off with our O-line. We can't do anything without them, they held up time for our quarterback to make a pass like that. Then Spencer (Sanders) gave me trust, had trust in me and made a play."
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On Spencer Sanders' play:
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"I think he played pretty good. I mean, you know, we all, we ain't going to put mistakes on him. I mean, it's a whole offensive team, you know, it's all of us, in one. I mean, he played pretty good in my opinion. I'm pretty sure our offense could say the same. He played balls to the wall every play so I thought he did pretty good."
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On having Tay Martin as a teammate:
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"It's helpful a lot because, you know, he's a veteran guy. He's a senior, he knows it all. He knows what the system will be like. He knows what the games will feel like because he's been here for a minute. But, you know, he stays positive with us. He communicates with us; he tells us what we could work on. He helps us with a lot of things but having him as a teammate is really a blessing."
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Oklahoma State receiver Tay Martin
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On Rashod Owens development:
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"He's looking good out there so I'm proud of him. He's been making some great plays and we feed off each other. I make sure he knows that if he catches a ball, I'm coming right back and catching one after him, so we just try to feed off each other. Stay in each other's ear. Like in a game actually just tell him, 'let's keep working hard on a little task.' So yeah, we feed off each other so I'm proud of him. I'm looking forward to more Rashod catches and some touchdowns."
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On the pressures of filling James Washington and Tylan Wallace's shoes:
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"Pressures, no, no. No offense but I live under pressure. I've been waiting for this my whole life and I just continue to try to work hard and just take advantage of the moments I get. So, I'm a vet. I've been playing college ball for a while so it's kind of like I'm at practice, you know, just going out there. Practice is the hard part so when the game time comes, it gets easier so I'm kind of used to it. Maybe a little pressure but not as much as everybody thinks, for sure."
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On Importance of Jaylen Warren:
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"It honestly has been amazing. I love having him, you know, running the ball, making them think it's run so we can pass the ball. We feed off each other so I like the fact that he is able to get five yards, seven yards, just having a dynamic guy, a dynamic running back like that, it just allows you to just pick them apart in the passing aspect of it. So, I'm just grateful to have that kind of running back."
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Oklahoma State linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez
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Thoughts on the defense:
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"We gave up a couple big plays, but other than that after those big plays we didn't give them anything. We just kept executing and kept fighting."
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On the key to holding Baylor after turnovers:
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"Good play calling by coach Knowles. Lots of film study goes into the plays, so that's why we get off the field real quick and fly around as a defense. We took it upon us to hold them and get the offense the ball back."
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On Brendon Evers' pass break up:
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"It was awesome, man. I told him in the locker room 'that's the Bixby pride I know,' and he just started laughing. Evers is a hustler and the whole defensive line was hustling their butts off tonight, so congrats to them."
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 Oklahoma State cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse
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On changing the narrative of defense at Oklahoma State:
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"We take a lot of pride in that. Coach Knowles tells us that we should all the time because that's our job and no one else is going to do it besides us. We take a lot of pride in it."
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On being challenged every week:
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"We play in the Big 12, so every week is a challenge. We play great offenses that are some of the best in the country and they have great receivers. It's expected to a challenge no matter who we play, so I look forward to it."
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 BAYLOR QUOTES
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Baylor head coach Dave Aranda
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Opening Statement:
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"I'm proud of the team and the effort that we made. In the second half, I thought there was an opportunity to point fingers or maybe have flashbacks to the year previous. I think there was times in that first half, you couldn't catch that feeling, and I never saw that. I'm proud of how connected the team is and I'm proud of the fight and the collective fight that we came back."
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On attempting fourth down conversion in the fourth quarter:
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"If you look at the analytics, I think it gave us the go-ahead. Just the opportunity to take advantage of the momentum, we thought we were in a good rhythm throwing the ball and in a good rhythm protecting. It's one of those things to where if we want to be aggressive and we want to be that team, then it's hard to stop. Fourth downs are great when they work but when they don't, it always gives you second thoughts. But I think it's important to be aggressive"
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On starting quarterback Gerry Bohanon:
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"I thought he competed. I thought there was times where it was difficult to hear, and I think there was times where we were changing up our signals because we don't want anyone to get them. So, there were things going on outside of the thing he was in and I thought he handled that pretty good. I thought defensively when we needed stops, he was in the huddle, motivating guys. I love Gerry man; I think he gave everything he had and it's a big growing moment for him."
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Baylor running back Abram Smith
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On second half offensive adjustments:
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"I don't think it was any big adjustments other than our energy, we knew we weren't playing like we were supposed to so when we got to halftime, we kind of just came together as a team actually and just tried to fire each other up, rally behind one another."
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On the 55-yard touchdown run:
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"Big hole, Dillon Doyle right there. So, I knew as soon as he ran through the hole, he could've scored if he had the ball, so I saw that there was nothing but daylight in front of me."
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On the momentum shift:
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"You could see it on the sideline. Especially when I come off the field, everybody's fired up. The momentum, I felt like it kind of changed right there. Fired a lot of guys up on defense, showed that we were gonna hold our own on that side of the ball just as much as they hold their own."
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On not capitalizing on defense:
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"It's very frustrating, you know. As good as an offense as we can be, it's very frustrating that we just can't put it together sometimes. But you live, you learn. It's a lot of things we can go and fix."
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Baylor Linebacker Dillon Doyle
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On second-half rally:
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"I think there was a lot of strong leadership and a lot of current leaders going in and pulled everybody up. Saying our first half play wasn't acceptable, came out really slow, I think you saw a little bit of a push from us early in the second half. We're happy with that, certainly not the finish we wanted."
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On the missed opportunities:
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"I mean sure anytime the team doesn't succeed it's frustrating, but we have a lot of stuff to clean up defensively. It's not an offense or a defense thing, it's a team thing. So, Baylor lost this game today."
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On his interception:
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"I took my drop. Ball was tipped up. I think there was some good coverage on the other half, got lucky. Right place, right time."
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On playing in Boone Pickens:
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"We try not to let the outside effect the inside very much. We came in here and we have the same goals as any other game. We have the seven commandments, and we try and follow those. And we didn't follow those today. I don't think it was necessarily the atmosphere. I mean there were a couple of false start penalties, but I think that probably comes with any away game."
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On Jaylen Warren:
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"I was impressed with him. We knew what he was coming into the game. He's a one cut guy, he gets up field fast. If you're displaced, he'll punish you for it. We just didn't do enough things today to be successful and we talk about the run fits and having a guy in every gap, we didn't do that every time."
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Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy
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Opening Statement:
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"We got away with another one. We were minus three in turnovers and it's extremely difficult to win a game when you're minus two. To be minus three in the turnovers and to still win is pretty fortunate. We rushed the ball well, but we still didn't get to four yards a carry. We did lose a few with the victory formations at the end of the game, but we have to get to four yards per carry for us to continue having success rushing the ball. (Trestan Ebner) is a really good returner; we all know that. He's dynamic, so we challenged our group to fix last week's mistake giving up the return and I thought we were fantastic in kick coverage and punt coverage, which was a big part of the game for us. Obviously, the defense is playing well. I don't want to jinx them, but they keep playing good. I hope they will continue on like that and I think the challenge for them will be greater every week. Texas seems to be moving the ball and putting up points, so that will be a good challenge for them on the road. Overall, we need a break. We have been at it for eight weeks and guys are tired, beat up and sore. It's good to be 5-0. I'm proud of the guys and the way they competed. We'll just keep moving forward."
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On rushing the ball 55 times:
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 "I think we might have gotten concerned with (Spencer Sanders) over firing some throws. We didn't plan on rushing 55 times if that's what you're asking. I think sometimes when you're calling plays you see some things that scare you and then you're in the game and the defense is playing good, so let's just make them win the game and not lose it. I've been in that position as a play caller."
Â
On possibly kicking a field goal on fourth down at the end of the game:
Â
"It crossed my mind to kick a field goal, but you can still give yourself a chance to lose by kicking a field goal. I'd rather take a shot on getting one yard, even though we struggled in short yardage. They have (Siaki Ika) in there who is a big man and hard to deal with. Worst case scenario you don't get it and they tie you with a field goal. If they score a touchdown, you're in the same situation you were if you kicked the field goal. They would've had to go 99 yards and had no timeouts. Sure, you think about it, but then you look at the other side of it and you don't feel like it's worth it because I didn't want to lose by one point."
Â
On the play of the defense:
Â
"They had their backs against the wall again. That has happened several times this year. We talk a lot about their discipline and toughness, but also their attitude and focus and body language. We have a lot of super seniors out there and are getting great leadership from Tyler Lacy and Devin Harper, among others. I'm naming guys that are giving us leadership and there's like eight of them on the field at once, and that's why they're playing good."
Â
Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn
Opening Statement:
"Number five, that was good. It was the first time in a while that we lined up with the same eleven guys, so that was a good thing going into the game. It was unfortunate we missed a couple opportunities early. I thought our defense played outstanding, and we found a way to go out there and win. That's what we've done now for a long time, and we knocked off two top-25 teams back-to-back, both undefeated. So, life is good."
On not having to only outscore teams because of the defense:
 "It's fantastic. But at the same time, we want to try and get a larger margin of victory. But, whether it's 24-14 or 44-34, it's the same thing. So, for us, tonight, to have to go out there and not rely on it so much. We haven't been able to the past few weeks. The last two weeks, here, we have. We've seen some guys make some plays, we feel better about where we're heading, and the direction of what we're doing. I think we'll continue to get better as time goes on."
On Rashod Owens' Progression:
 "Rashod's a fantastic kid, very smart. He's been an inside receiver for us. I don't know if you noticed, but he played outside receiver. He was actually playing the 'Z' when we went into the Boise game with the injuries we had. So, he's an inside receiver that was obviously thrusted into a position that he wasn't really used to or comfortable with. He played the 'Z' position, made some nice catches in that game against Boise State, some critical catches on third down. With Tay (Martin) and (Jaden) Bray coming back, we pushed him over to 'X' so now he's played every single position. And he's shown up. He's a guy that makes the catch when the play is thrown to him. He plays hard, he blocks well, so he's put himself in a position to play."
Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles
Â
Opening Statement:
 "I thought our game plan was good. Their quarterback ran around and made some plays. I felt like he was difficult to play with. He started to take some deep shots on us, which we responded to, but we want to do better in that area. Short yard plays, I blame myself there on not putting the guys in the best position on that play. Kind of a cheap one that I'm sure will keep me up. But we just have some great leadership, we have guys flying around. The one play that really exemplifies the thing we're doing here is Evers making that play on the running back on fourth down."
Â
On his plans for the bye week:
 "Just to get healthy. We have a lot of guys that played hard. It's a physical game. Our guys play physical and run and chase the ball. We need to get healed up and get Tyren (Irby) back and Brock (Martin) back. Hats off to Collin Oliver in his first start as a freshman. I thought he did great. Ben Kopenski. Anyone who is a fan of Oklahoma State should love Ben. But he had to cover his back on a wheel route on the sideline, which I had my heart in my mouth for that one. They tried to isolate him, and he did a hell of a job. But, to get healthy, we got a lot of momentum so just to try and enjoy this time, make corrections and get better."
On getting two three and outs in the fourth:
 "Early down stops, just to get them off track. At that point, we're a little concerned with them taking a deep shot, so we have to spread our defense a little bit. Really it comes down to winning the individual battles and match ups and stopping them. We had to make some aggressive calls, too. That's important that when we get into a tight situation, we trust our guys and make some aggressive calls."Â
Oklahoma State receiver Rashod Owens
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On his first touchdown catch:
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"It was very exciting, you know. First touchdown as a Cowboy, you know. I'm glad to help us put a point on the board, but it all starts off with our O-line. We can't do anything without them, they held up time for our quarterback to make a pass like that. Then Spencer (Sanders) gave me trust, had trust in me and made a play."
Â
On Spencer Sanders' play:
Â
"I think he played pretty good. I mean, you know, we all, we ain't going to put mistakes on him. I mean, it's a whole offensive team, you know, it's all of us, in one. I mean, he played pretty good in my opinion. I'm pretty sure our offense could say the same. He played balls to the wall every play so I thought he did pretty good."
Â
On having Tay Martin as a teammate:
Â
"It's helpful a lot because, you know, he's a veteran guy. He's a senior, he knows it all. He knows what the system will be like. He knows what the games will feel like because he's been here for a minute. But, you know, he stays positive with us. He communicates with us; he tells us what we could work on. He helps us with a lot of things but having him as a teammate is really a blessing."
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Oklahoma State receiver Tay Martin
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On Rashod Owens development:
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"He's looking good out there so I'm proud of him. He's been making some great plays and we feed off each other. I make sure he knows that if he catches a ball, I'm coming right back and catching one after him, so we just try to feed off each other. Stay in each other's ear. Like in a game actually just tell him, 'let's keep working hard on a little task.' So yeah, we feed off each other so I'm proud of him. I'm looking forward to more Rashod catches and some touchdowns."
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On the pressures of filling James Washington and Tylan Wallace's shoes:
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"Pressures, no, no. No offense but I live under pressure. I've been waiting for this my whole life and I just continue to try to work hard and just take advantage of the moments I get. So, I'm a vet. I've been playing college ball for a while so it's kind of like I'm at practice, you know, just going out there. Practice is the hard part so when the game time comes, it gets easier so I'm kind of used to it. Maybe a little pressure but not as much as everybody thinks, for sure."
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On Importance of Jaylen Warren:
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"It honestly has been amazing. I love having him, you know, running the ball, making them think it's run so we can pass the ball. We feed off each other so I like the fact that he is able to get five yards, seven yards, just having a dynamic guy, a dynamic running back like that, it just allows you to just pick them apart in the passing aspect of it. So, I'm just grateful to have that kind of running back."
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Oklahoma State linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez
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Thoughts on the defense:
Â
"We gave up a couple big plays, but other than that after those big plays we didn't give them anything. We just kept executing and kept fighting."
Â
On the key to holding Baylor after turnovers:
Â
"Good play calling by coach Knowles. Lots of film study goes into the plays, so that's why we get off the field real quick and fly around as a defense. We took it upon us to hold them and get the offense the ball back."
Â
On Brendon Evers' pass break up:
Â
"It was awesome, man. I told him in the locker room 'that's the Bixby pride I know,' and he just started laughing. Evers is a hustler and the whole defensive line was hustling their butts off tonight, so congrats to them."
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 Oklahoma State cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse
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On changing the narrative of defense at Oklahoma State:
Â
"We take a lot of pride in that. Coach Knowles tells us that we should all the time because that's our job and no one else is going to do it besides us. We take a lot of pride in it."
Â
On being challenged every week:
Â
"We play in the Big 12, so every week is a challenge. We play great offenses that are some of the best in the country and they have great receivers. It's expected to a challenge no matter who we play, so I look forward to it."
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 BAYLOR QUOTES
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Baylor head coach Dave Aranda
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Opening Statement:
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"I'm proud of the team and the effort that we made. In the second half, I thought there was an opportunity to point fingers or maybe have flashbacks to the year previous. I think there was times in that first half, you couldn't catch that feeling, and I never saw that. I'm proud of how connected the team is and I'm proud of the fight and the collective fight that we came back."
Â
On attempting fourth down conversion in the fourth quarter:
Â
"If you look at the analytics, I think it gave us the go-ahead. Just the opportunity to take advantage of the momentum, we thought we were in a good rhythm throwing the ball and in a good rhythm protecting. It's one of those things to where if we want to be aggressive and we want to be that team, then it's hard to stop. Fourth downs are great when they work but when they don't, it always gives you second thoughts. But I think it's important to be aggressive"
Â
On starting quarterback Gerry Bohanon:
Â
"I thought he competed. I thought there was times where it was difficult to hear, and I think there was times where we were changing up our signals because we don't want anyone to get them. So, there were things going on outside of the thing he was in and I thought he handled that pretty good. I thought defensively when we needed stops, he was in the huddle, motivating guys. I love Gerry man; I think he gave everything he had and it's a big growing moment for him."
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Baylor running back Abram Smith
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On second half offensive adjustments:
Â
"I don't think it was any big adjustments other than our energy, we knew we weren't playing like we were supposed to so when we got to halftime, we kind of just came together as a team actually and just tried to fire each other up, rally behind one another."
Â
On the 55-yard touchdown run:
Â
"Big hole, Dillon Doyle right there. So, I knew as soon as he ran through the hole, he could've scored if he had the ball, so I saw that there was nothing but daylight in front of me."
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On the momentum shift:
Â
"You could see it on the sideline. Especially when I come off the field, everybody's fired up. The momentum, I felt like it kind of changed right there. Fired a lot of guys up on defense, showed that we were gonna hold our own on that side of the ball just as much as they hold their own."
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On not capitalizing on defense:
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"It's very frustrating, you know. As good as an offense as we can be, it's very frustrating that we just can't put it together sometimes. But you live, you learn. It's a lot of things we can go and fix."
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Baylor Linebacker Dillon Doyle
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On second-half rally:
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"I think there was a lot of strong leadership and a lot of current leaders going in and pulled everybody up. Saying our first half play wasn't acceptable, came out really slow, I think you saw a little bit of a push from us early in the second half. We're happy with that, certainly not the finish we wanted."
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On the missed opportunities:
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"I mean sure anytime the team doesn't succeed it's frustrating, but we have a lot of stuff to clean up defensively. It's not an offense or a defense thing, it's a team thing. So, Baylor lost this game today."
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On his interception:
Â
"I took my drop. Ball was tipped up. I think there was some good coverage on the other half, got lucky. Right place, right time."
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On playing in Boone Pickens:
Â
"We try not to let the outside effect the inside very much. We came in here and we have the same goals as any other game. We have the seven commandments, and we try and follow those. And we didn't follow those today. I don't think it was necessarily the atmosphere. I mean there were a couple of false start penalties, but I think that probably comes with any away game."
Â
On Jaylen Warren:
Â
"I was impressed with him. We knew what he was coming into the game. He's a one cut guy, he gets up field fast. If you're displaced, he'll punish you for it. We just didn't do enough things today to be successful and we talk about the run fits and having a guy in every gap, we didn't do that every time."
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