Postgame Quotes vs TCU

Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy

Opening Statement
"I was proud of our guys. I told them afterwards that it's just fun for me to be along for the ride and be the coach and watch these guys practice during the week. Their focus, their discipline, their toughness, their willingness to exert themselves during the week and just play hard. They have a smile on their faces, they compete, they like each other. It's a lot of fun for us as a coaching staff. We were good in all three phases tonight. I don't really need to get into statistics or all that… I was just proud of our guys. We were able to get a number of young players in the game, and they performed well. We had a couple of mistakes… but for the most part, those guys that played in the game in the end have had as many reps as the ones have had dating back to last year so that's why they could go out and play well and stop them and go downfield and score. I'm proud of those guys and proud of everyone in the organization. It was a good night for us."

On why the running game was so successful
"We just blocked – we were physical. (Josh Sills) wasn't in there, (Tyrese Williams) had to come in and play and we think he played great. Danny (Godlevske) got banged up, and he had to go out and (Joe Michalski) had to come in for him. They were just physical up front blocking. And I think our running backs ran hard – they were physical and they dropped their pads and ran hard."

On Jaylen Warren and if he was inspired by Barry Sanders
"Jaylen likes to play and loves to compete. Coach (John Wozniak) took them over to the (Barry Sanders') reception last night and let them spend some time with them. Barry told me today that he enjoyed that part of it as he always does. It's pretty cool. This day was for the greatest college running back ever – I don't think that's even up for debate. We probably rushed for over 300 yards so that was cool."

On the defense
"The defense got hit for a few plays in the first quarter, but they bucked up a little bit when they got inside the 40 (yard line) and held them to a field goal. They played fantastic. They gave up 10 points, but the (first and second teamers) gave up three."

On the running backs
"(Warren) got his breath knocked out a little bit so we put (Dominic Richardson) and (Dezmon Jackson) in there. (Jackson) looked good – he's been healthy now for two weeks and practiced hard and ran well tonight. And (Richardson) runs hard – if you get in front of him, you're gonna get punished. He runs hard, and he takes pride in it. And then (Jaden Nixon) comes in and shows why we recruited him. I'm very encouraged by those guys."

On the play of Spencer Sanders
"He made good decisions and as best I remember most of his throws were pretty accurate. I didn't hear anybody on the headsets concerned with his reads so obviously he must have played pretty well. Sometimes the other team gets a chance to call good plays and make good plays too so everything is not going to work so at the position he's playing, second-and-10 is a lot better than trying to force something and give the other team an advantage. He was good at that tonight."

TCU Coach Jerry Kill

Opening Statement:
"Mike (Gundy) and Oklahoma State's got a really great football team, I think that's very evident… They've got all the formulas to go a long, long way and they out-physicaled and out played us, out coached us. There's not a whole lot to say when you get beat like that and I've been in the business a long time."

On Oklahoma State:
"That's the most complete team we've faced this season, without a doubt. No disrespect to Baylor or anybody else we've played, OU and so forth, but nobody that physical. That comes with when you run the ball like that, you become a physical football team on both sides."

On Staying Consistent and Engaged:
"I think a lot of that is we've been through a lot this whole year, we're doing everything we can to hold them in and it's hard as an interim coach to do that… They busted their butt for us a week ago and they tried the best they could tonight, but we got beat by a better, more physical football team. Like I said, the best team we've played so far."

Oklahoma State Defensive Coordinator Jim Knowles

Opening Statement
"We gave up a few more big plays, explosive plays than we would like. They presented a lot of different formations early on. They did a good job of mixing it up so it took us a second to catch our breath. We have a lot of great veterans and we can adjust. We go in at halftime and make adjustments and we started off the second half with two TFL's so that kind of set the tone."

On young players' performances
"It's good to see some young guys play again so we can evaluate them. Their responsibility to the team is to get better. All around I'm just really pleased how things have just come together and stayed that way. We have to continue to get better. One of our winning edges is getting better. I say 'get better' and they say 'every day.' It's just a continuing process and attitude."

On red zone defense
"I think it's the fact that they can respond to my calls so quickly. Every game you go into it with a game plan but the other team has a game plan so they're going to really start out with some things you maybe haven't seen before. There is no lag time with our guys. If I make a different call, they can adjust to what they're doing and they respond."

Oklahoma State Offensive Coordinator Kasey Dunn

Opening statement
"Our guys were fired up and excited to play in front of Barry Sanders. We talked about that and the blackout and Barry being in town and obviously honoring him with the statue out front. We just didn't want to disappoint, and the guys played really, really hard."

On facing successful opponents
"It's been good, it's been a blessing, it makes everybody refocus, reenergize and understand just how hard it is to get a W. So, this week with TCU, they've had their ups and downs but they got a huge win last week against Baylor and looked really, really good. It made everybody focus. The same thing happened with West Virginia last week."

On the run game
"I think we can go downhill and run the football whenever we want to essentially and be able to rotate guys through. Being fresh. So obviously Jaylen is a great running back and he's our guy but if he has to come out for a series or two or play or whatever we just put the next guy in and it the next guy up. Dezmon has been through a bunch of battles and Dominic has been through a bunch of battles and those guys have all collected 100-yard games."

On getting younger players into the game
"When the younger guys came in and like Coach Gundy was talking about we're practicing our twos and threes a lot so when they get in they can function. And they did a nice job of trying to close the game."

Oklahoma State Quarterback Spencer Sanders

On the running game:
"I think they played great. The offensive line blocked well. We've got a couple guys that are replacing some other guys that are hurt right now, but the offensive line just really dominated up front today, and that really helped our backs. And, our backs made a couple guys miss and made some wonderful plays."

On the offense's improvement:
"I feel like we just keep getting better every week. The offensive line is blocking their tail off like I said, and they handled the line of scrimmage today... Obviously, the running backs ran well. The receivers caught the ball today. We just executed."

On his personal progression:
"Whatever the coaches teach me, I just listen to them. I just stay within their rules and I know they're not going to teach me wrong. Coach Rattay has done nothing but do me right. So, I'm just going to keep believing in him and keep rocking."

Oklahoma State Wide Receiver Brennan Presley

On the atmosphere tonight
"It was super fun, I mean, to get away from the normal orange and see it blacked out and the energy, and Barry Sanders night, the way the offense did in the first half, you know, coming out, going to make mistakes and stuff like that but we came out, you know, put our heads down, and just pounded the ground. We had a good week of practice so it's like, that's the thing we came out and talk about just coming out and starting fast, and not only starting fast, but finishing fast so it was just so fun out there tonight, just like, it's always fun when you play at BPS."

On teammate Blaine Green's touchdown
"I was not surprised when he scored. When we called the play, I kind of knew and had a feeling that he might score but I was not surprised at all because he does that every single day at practice so, I wasn't surprised I was just happy for him.

On Blaine Green's ceiling
"His ceiling can be as big as he wants it to be. I mean, he's very smart, he has the skillset to play at the wing position and to go out of the slot, and also to play out wide so you can really put him everywhere, he's a smart guy, he does everything right so it's not hard for coaches to call plays like that especially when you've got a guy like him.

On having fun with his teammates
"We have so much fun. You can have fun on Saturdays but I mean, we enjoy being around each other in general so if we're not practicing or something like that, then we're eating together, hanging out together. I went to go eat with Kolby Peel, Tanner McCallister, C.J Tate, Jason Taylor, and Jarrick Bernard on Thursday at Texas Roadhouse so that's a group of DB's and I'm a receiver, and you'd probably think we would never hang out, but it's like the camaraderie on the team so when we're out there it's not just like hey, you made a play, it's like, I'm happy for my guys who are out there."

Oklahoma State Linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez

On moving into the top five on OSU's all-time tackle list
"It's an awesome feeling, man. You see guys before me, just being up there with them and kind of "regulating stuff." That's what we call ourselves. The Regulators. So, I don't know. It's kind of hard to explain. I'm not big on taking credit for that. I just go out there and play every game."

On regrouping after TCU hit a couple of big plays early
" [Coach] Knowles does a good job of changing it up. He'll make a couple of mistakes, but those are on us. Actually, they're on him (laughs). But, no, like I said we're having fun. We're going to throw punches, so we knew they were going to try and take their shots. And so, we just had to keep fighting and it ended up being good."

On the success of the run game
"We all had good gameplans all around, so just to see that gameplan executed for the offense and special teams, it's always good to see that. And so, it makes everyone else play at a higher standard. It was awesome to see."

Devin Harper
On how much fun the team is having right now
"Yeah, it's a lot of energy out there from different people. I mean, we've got everybody energized to go practice and work hard. We can't complain and everybody enjoys it. It just makes it easy for everybody."

On how the team stays focused throughout the season
"We just take it game by game and focus on the main thing. And if we focus on the main things, we'll accomplish what we want. And, like [Coach] Knowles says all the time, 'We only give them what they get. And we don't give them nothing more, and they won't get nothing."

On winning on Barry Sanders night
"It's a special thing. You plan stuff like that on days you're going to win, and we went out there and executed what we're supposed to do and we came out victorious."

TCU Defensive End Dylan Horton

On OSU's run game:
"I feel like they ran the ball very well, they ran the ball hard. As the defense, I feel like we need to tackle legs. That's something we need to emphasize but they did a very good job running the ball."

On playing at Amon G. Carter Stadium vs. Boone Pickens Stadium:
"The energy of the crowd definitely affects the game sometimes. In this case, we needed to bring our own energy, and we brought our own, but it wasn't enough to complete the game."

TCU RB Emari DeMercado

On why the offense struggled:
"I think really, as far as us, we just didn't execute. We had a few big plays that could have happened, one got called back, we dropped another one. It's just those things, it's hard to pick up momentum because we really needed those plays, they would've helped a lot. Just execution, really."

On where the OSU defense ranks against defenses he's played:
"They were pretty solid, they're definitely sound on defense. As far as defense tendencies, showing blitzes, they were really good at disguising stuff. They're a pretty good defense, but I feel like we could've still made plays, it's just on our part we could've executed better."

On if his performance today will give him confidence going forward:
"Definitely. As far as the whole offense, we got to execute better, got to keep the run game going, get the pass game going and be the offense that we know we can be."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Blaine Green

Devin Harper

Dezmon Jackson

Joe Michalski

Jaden Nixon

Brennan Presley

Dominic Richardson

Malcolm Rodriguez

Spencer Sanders

Josh Sills

Jaylen Warren

Tyrese Williams

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