Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State Postgame Quotes Vs. Kansas State - September 25, 2021
September 25, 2021 | Cowboy Football
OKLAHOMA STATE QUOTES
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy
Opening Statement:
"I told the team I was proud of the way they continue to play together as a unit. This team plays together more than any team I can remember since I've been the head coach. Tonight, offensively, we played much better, and the first half looked like what we have been the last 15 years. Defense played well. They gave up a couple big plays but rallied and held them to field goals."
On Spencer Sanders:
"I think he was more consistent tonight. He missed a couple throws, which is alright, because he's going to miss some. He missed Blaine Green running down the middle of the field who was going to score a touchdown, which probably would've ended the game right there. It would put them in an all-pass mode, which is not really where they want to be. I just thought he was consistent. He competes like always. He played hard and made good decisions."
On Tay Martin being back from injury:
"He's a threat. You guys have watched us the past two weeks - we've had young players out there. When the other team knows you have young players out there, they're going to challenge you and say go make a play. Not that they're not talented, but they aren't callused. They haven't been beat up, haven't been hit or played in front of crowds. They're not ready for that. Tay Martin is ready for that. He has played a lot of football, so he becomes a threat out there. Most of the time they had two people out there around him, which allows us to run the football more."
On the improvement of the offensive scheme:
"It's better. I'm never going to talk about who we don't have in a game because it is what it is, everybody knows who we have and don't have. It's extremely difficult to scheme offensively when you have youth and limited weapons at certain spots. It's just difficult and you get where your hands are tied. They have done a great job of getting to where we are now, where our heads are back above water. I told the coaches tonight they had really good plans and I tell them sometimes their plans sucked. I tell them the truth and sometimes I make mistakes and tell myself the same thing. Our plans were really good. The offense plan was really good. The defensive plan was good, and the special team plan was good."
Oklahoma State's Jim Knowles
 On the defense's performance against Kansas State:
"We didn't give up the explosive plays. We've been good on defense against these guys for three years. I think our guys are confident playing them. It's a running attack. Option looks. You've got to keep your eyes in the right place. We've got to be able to stop (Number) 22, which we did outside from the fluke play. We teach our linebackers to be aggressive in man coverage and he went down to cut, and we had it in, and they made a play. I can't say enough about our leadership. I thought we covered extremely well. I thought our matchups on the outside were great and early on in the game they started taking some shots at us and we were all over it. We had multiple people there. That just gives the defense confidence. So, it was just all around a strong performance and I'm really proud of our leadership and the guys just keep on going and going no matter the circumstance, we just keep playing. And play for each other. It's just a really good feeling to be around these guys right now."
On the state of the defense:
"I just feel confident in our guys and I feel confident in our leadership that we're getting. And the ability to make plays in crucial, crucial situations. I'm able to call things and predict exactly how our players are going to respond. That's a really good feeling. They're going to make adjustments to motion and shifts, and they're just going to be in the right place at the right time. I told them that, too. They've earned a lot and with that comes increased expectations. That's what we live for. We want everyone to expect us to play well and we want to expect each other to play well. You always feel like you're in the game, even early on when you take a couple shots."Â Â
On Colin Oliver's arrival in the spring and increased role:
"We love that. We love CO. He plays like a veteran. He's just a headsy player. You can throw a lot at him. He's really hard on himself. If he makes a mistake, he wants to get it right. And you're right. Think about all those reps he got in the Spring, coming in early like that. That just multiplies for him as he becomes a starter. I'm confident in him."
On what his defense did well against Kansas State's run game:
"We bottled up (Number) 22. He's difficult to bring down. We were able to crowd the line of scrimmage more because we were playing really well on our corners and in our coverage. We were really able to lock them down and that just allowed us to crowd the line of scrimmage. (Number) 15 went out for a little bit, I think he was banged up, so that took away a lot of the quarterback run game. So that made them one dimensional."
Oklahoma State's Kasey Dunn
On his initial reaction and mindset against Kansas State:
"The first thing that I thought, looking over the stat sheet, and it felt like it in the box, is that we had a bunch of penalties. And constantly felt ourselves behind the sticks. It's hard to call a game like that when it's long yardage like that. They're very, very good. We talked about it all week long. K-state is very good in those long yardage situations at creating turnovers and we didn't want to do that. Especially the way our defense is playing. So, if we just held onto the football, which we did, then we'd give ourselves a chance to win the football game. That was the outcome."
On the offensive performance against Kansas State:
"The first half was Cowboy football. That's what we wanted to do. We definitely want to do more of it. We want to tie that into the second half somewhere along the way. [I've] got to talk to our guys about just controlling things in the second half with penalties. Again, that was issue, probably, in the back half."Â
On getting healthier:
"We threw the ball pretty well in the first game of the year. [We] moved it around. When we had receivers out there, we kind of went back to handing that thing off a little bit with some of the injuries that we sustained. But today, getting kind of the pieces back in place was really nice to have. And I think you're going to see us really move forward with that. Really, again, I think the thing in the second half with us, we've just got to get control of it and go back to it again. It's just handling the penalties. When you have that and you get behind the sticks, you force your quarterback into situations you don't want to. It's hard to turn around and hand the ball off on second down and 22 and expect to get 20 yards out of it. It's kind of a weird kind of situation that you're in calling. But I thought our kids handled it well and, like I said, we took care of the football in the second half. And again, our defense is playing well, so we have that luxury."
Oklahoma State's Malcolm Rodriguez
On his fumble recovery touchdown:
"We've got a lot of guys flying to the ball and Devin flew in there and I just ended up on top of it. So, guys are just flying around and making plays. Just like the old days in high school. It feels good to be back in the endzone."
On the defense's success against the run:
"Just good play calling by Coach Knowles. We executed it really well. We tried to get (Number) 22 stopped and I feel like we did a good job."
On freshman Collin Oliver:
"He had a heck of a Spring and Fall. So, it's just one of those things, when it's your time to come up, you've just got to step up. He's a playmaker and he makes plays out there. You see that all the time at practice, so it's not new."
Oklahoma State's Spencer Sanders
On the offensive performance:
"It felt good. We have a lot of young guys out there, so executing is great. I put the ball where they were at and they were catching it and we're doing what we do. I'm happy we won and I'm happy we're playing this well. I'm just excited to see how much more we can progress."
On Rashod Owens:
"Rashod has progressed a lot. From last week's one catch to this week having probably three of the biggest catches of the game. One was third down, one was second and thirty that he came down with and he came down with the hitch at the end of the game that sealed the game. I'm excited for him and it was great to see him out there. He's getting better each week."
On the mood of the offense in the first half:
"It was fun and exciting. I was excited to get back on the field and was ready to go. We were moving the ball and we knew we were going to do it. We had so much confidence tonight and as long as we can keep it up, we will feel great."
Oklahoma State's Tay Martin
On being back on the field:
"I know we work hard, day in and day out at practice so just being out there trying to win a game with them was the best part honestly, just playing with my brothers."
On the key to first half success:
"Like you said, balance. We played as a team. We were running the ball with Jaylen (Warren), throwing the ball to Rashod (Owens), come back with me, BP (Presley) had a couple catches, so everybody was just doing their job and we were feeding off of each other, so it made it a lot easier to make plays out there."
On finally having enough pieces on the field:
"It felt great. It felt like we were supposed to be doing that all year, so just to finally come out there swinging and playing fast, it felt great, it felt like Cowboy football. I know last year we came out strong most of the time so just having that taste back in your mouth was great and I'm excited for our next game for sure."
On how much Rashod Owens has progressed:
"A lot, honestly. Especially today. I watched him running routes out there and he looked good so I'm excited for his future and I'm going to help him as much as I could, by example, so I'm excited for him."
Oklahoma State's Kolby Harvell-Peel
On anything standing out on the stat sheet:
"We were 2-for-12 on third down. We were really good on third down last year and it made us a really good defense and so far, this year, we've been good again. Yeah 2-12. You win a lot of games if you force a team to third down and then play well like that."
On being 4-0 and starting to hit full stride:
"It feels great, to you know, feel like we haven't played our best ball in the early year but to still be 4-0. You know, to go out there and see the offense play well today, as a teammate you're just excited for those guys. You saw BP (Presley) caught a touchdown today, Tay (Martin) is back, Spencer (Sanders) got to throw the ball quite a bit today so, to see those guys do that and you know, the team is finally clicking, I'm super excited for them. And obviously winning games is exciting."
On playing together as a team:
"So far it's just been a lot of fun. Yeah, special teams, I think they got an emphasis on trying to put older guys on special teams. Still, I saw Tay in the fourth quarter running down and covering punts so special teams is playing really well. I know we gave up a big one today, you know, you don't want to do that but still. Like I said, I think we're a close-knit group. A lot of the guys that are playing, have been here for quite a while with each other so it's a lot of fun."
KANSAS STATE QUOTES
Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman
 Opening Statement:
"Credit to Oklahoma State, they beat us today. We didn't play our best game today and they beat us at the line of scrimmage, and we fought in the second half and did some better things on defense to slow them down, but we couldn't penetrate them and get enough things going offensively."
On starting quarterback Will Howard:
"Yeah, he got hurt in the first half. He couldn't go anymore in the first half, but they did some things to work on him and he tried to go in the second half, but he just couldn't. When we lost Will, it really kind of took some of the play calling that (Offensive Coordinator Courtney Messingham) was wanting to do away because that's Will's forte and not so much Jaren (Lewis)."
On the Kansas State defense in the first half:
"We didn't tackle, and we didn't get off blocks. Credit the running back (Jaylen Warren), he's a good player, there's no question about that. We were just a step slow. We couldn't get our footing; we couldn't slow the game down enough and we just couldn't get a stop. It was frustrating because then you see what we did after halftime. We played pretty well in the second half. They got a few plays on us but they're going to, that's a good football team. But really, really frustrating how we played in the first half."
Kansas State's Deuce Vaughn
On team low rushing numbers:
"That all goes back to execution. There was nothing that they were doing that was really all us, but we all had the same plays and they just executed better than we did."
On the touchdown reception:
"It got tipped but, I was still able to keep my eye on the ball, and there was a lot of open space. Then Landry Weber had a fantastic block down field to spring it."
On the Oklahoma State fumble recovery touchdown and whether it hindered the team's outlook of the game:
"No. I wouldn't say so. We knew we had to bounce back. We were going to get the ball right back because it was a touchdown and I don't feel like it knocked us on our butts or anything like that."
On how different the offense is with each of the quarterbacks:
"Not a bunch at all. They are both two really capable quarterbacks and we are going to run the same plays with both of them in there."
Kansas State's Jaren Lewis
On Oklahoma State secondary:
"I thought they played pretty good. They didn't really do anything too special, but they are just strong and physical players and you got to get by them."
On offensive frustration:
"I don't think there was much frustration. I thought we were pretty level-headed throughout the second, but I thought personally I left some plays out on the field. We were just playing our butts off, and the defense played an amazing second half. We just got to capitalize when that occurs."
On the interception:
"I just broke the pocket and contain. I looked inside and looked outside real quick. I was trying to throw it at his feet, but he made a good play, stepped in front of the guy, and intercepted it. I give props to him but also, it was a bad decision on my part."
On the lack of a running game:
"Once I put the ball in players hands and make better passes that opens the run game. I feel like I take partial responsibility on that piece. I thought that if I made more passes and completions that would open up the run game more. We would have been ahead of the sticks instead of behind the sticks. I take most of the responsibility on that part."
On playing on the road for the first time:
"It was amazing. This is an amazing atmosphere. I'm just super grateful to be playing. I thought Oklahoma State played a really good game on defense. Overall, I thought that experience was really cool, and I look forward to that in the future."Â
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Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy
Opening Statement:
"I told the team I was proud of the way they continue to play together as a unit. This team plays together more than any team I can remember since I've been the head coach. Tonight, offensively, we played much better, and the first half looked like what we have been the last 15 years. Defense played well. They gave up a couple big plays but rallied and held them to field goals."
On Spencer Sanders:
"I think he was more consistent tonight. He missed a couple throws, which is alright, because he's going to miss some. He missed Blaine Green running down the middle of the field who was going to score a touchdown, which probably would've ended the game right there. It would put them in an all-pass mode, which is not really where they want to be. I just thought he was consistent. He competes like always. He played hard and made good decisions."
On Tay Martin being back from injury:
"He's a threat. You guys have watched us the past two weeks - we've had young players out there. When the other team knows you have young players out there, they're going to challenge you and say go make a play. Not that they're not talented, but they aren't callused. They haven't been beat up, haven't been hit or played in front of crowds. They're not ready for that. Tay Martin is ready for that. He has played a lot of football, so he becomes a threat out there. Most of the time they had two people out there around him, which allows us to run the football more."
On the improvement of the offensive scheme:
"It's better. I'm never going to talk about who we don't have in a game because it is what it is, everybody knows who we have and don't have. It's extremely difficult to scheme offensively when you have youth and limited weapons at certain spots. It's just difficult and you get where your hands are tied. They have done a great job of getting to where we are now, where our heads are back above water. I told the coaches tonight they had really good plans and I tell them sometimes their plans sucked. I tell them the truth and sometimes I make mistakes and tell myself the same thing. Our plans were really good. The offense plan was really good. The defensive plan was good, and the special team plan was good."
Oklahoma State's Jim Knowles
 On the defense's performance against Kansas State:
"We didn't give up the explosive plays. We've been good on defense against these guys for three years. I think our guys are confident playing them. It's a running attack. Option looks. You've got to keep your eyes in the right place. We've got to be able to stop (Number) 22, which we did outside from the fluke play. We teach our linebackers to be aggressive in man coverage and he went down to cut, and we had it in, and they made a play. I can't say enough about our leadership. I thought we covered extremely well. I thought our matchups on the outside were great and early on in the game they started taking some shots at us and we were all over it. We had multiple people there. That just gives the defense confidence. So, it was just all around a strong performance and I'm really proud of our leadership and the guys just keep on going and going no matter the circumstance, we just keep playing. And play for each other. It's just a really good feeling to be around these guys right now."
On the state of the defense:
"I just feel confident in our guys and I feel confident in our leadership that we're getting. And the ability to make plays in crucial, crucial situations. I'm able to call things and predict exactly how our players are going to respond. That's a really good feeling. They're going to make adjustments to motion and shifts, and they're just going to be in the right place at the right time. I told them that, too. They've earned a lot and with that comes increased expectations. That's what we live for. We want everyone to expect us to play well and we want to expect each other to play well. You always feel like you're in the game, even early on when you take a couple shots."Â Â
On Colin Oliver's arrival in the spring and increased role:
"We love that. We love CO. He plays like a veteran. He's just a headsy player. You can throw a lot at him. He's really hard on himself. If he makes a mistake, he wants to get it right. And you're right. Think about all those reps he got in the Spring, coming in early like that. That just multiplies for him as he becomes a starter. I'm confident in him."
On what his defense did well against Kansas State's run game:
"We bottled up (Number) 22. He's difficult to bring down. We were able to crowd the line of scrimmage more because we were playing really well on our corners and in our coverage. We were really able to lock them down and that just allowed us to crowd the line of scrimmage. (Number) 15 went out for a little bit, I think he was banged up, so that took away a lot of the quarterback run game. So that made them one dimensional."
Oklahoma State's Kasey Dunn
On his initial reaction and mindset against Kansas State:
"The first thing that I thought, looking over the stat sheet, and it felt like it in the box, is that we had a bunch of penalties. And constantly felt ourselves behind the sticks. It's hard to call a game like that when it's long yardage like that. They're very, very good. We talked about it all week long. K-state is very good in those long yardage situations at creating turnovers and we didn't want to do that. Especially the way our defense is playing. So, if we just held onto the football, which we did, then we'd give ourselves a chance to win the football game. That was the outcome."
On the offensive performance against Kansas State:
"The first half was Cowboy football. That's what we wanted to do. We definitely want to do more of it. We want to tie that into the second half somewhere along the way. [I've] got to talk to our guys about just controlling things in the second half with penalties. Again, that was issue, probably, in the back half."Â
On getting healthier:
"We threw the ball pretty well in the first game of the year. [We] moved it around. When we had receivers out there, we kind of went back to handing that thing off a little bit with some of the injuries that we sustained. But today, getting kind of the pieces back in place was really nice to have. And I think you're going to see us really move forward with that. Really, again, I think the thing in the second half with us, we've just got to get control of it and go back to it again. It's just handling the penalties. When you have that and you get behind the sticks, you force your quarterback into situations you don't want to. It's hard to turn around and hand the ball off on second down and 22 and expect to get 20 yards out of it. It's kind of a weird kind of situation that you're in calling. But I thought our kids handled it well and, like I said, we took care of the football in the second half. And again, our defense is playing well, so we have that luxury."
Oklahoma State's Malcolm Rodriguez
On his fumble recovery touchdown:
"We've got a lot of guys flying to the ball and Devin flew in there and I just ended up on top of it. So, guys are just flying around and making plays. Just like the old days in high school. It feels good to be back in the endzone."
On the defense's success against the run:
"Just good play calling by Coach Knowles. We executed it really well. We tried to get (Number) 22 stopped and I feel like we did a good job."
On freshman Collin Oliver:
"He had a heck of a Spring and Fall. So, it's just one of those things, when it's your time to come up, you've just got to step up. He's a playmaker and he makes plays out there. You see that all the time at practice, so it's not new."
Oklahoma State's Spencer Sanders
On the offensive performance:
"It felt good. We have a lot of young guys out there, so executing is great. I put the ball where they were at and they were catching it and we're doing what we do. I'm happy we won and I'm happy we're playing this well. I'm just excited to see how much more we can progress."
On Rashod Owens:
"Rashod has progressed a lot. From last week's one catch to this week having probably three of the biggest catches of the game. One was third down, one was second and thirty that he came down with and he came down with the hitch at the end of the game that sealed the game. I'm excited for him and it was great to see him out there. He's getting better each week."
On the mood of the offense in the first half:
"It was fun and exciting. I was excited to get back on the field and was ready to go. We were moving the ball and we knew we were going to do it. We had so much confidence tonight and as long as we can keep it up, we will feel great."
Oklahoma State's Tay Martin
On being back on the field:
"I know we work hard, day in and day out at practice so just being out there trying to win a game with them was the best part honestly, just playing with my brothers."
On the key to first half success:
"Like you said, balance. We played as a team. We were running the ball with Jaylen (Warren), throwing the ball to Rashod (Owens), come back with me, BP (Presley) had a couple catches, so everybody was just doing their job and we were feeding off of each other, so it made it a lot easier to make plays out there."
On finally having enough pieces on the field:
"It felt great. It felt like we were supposed to be doing that all year, so just to finally come out there swinging and playing fast, it felt great, it felt like Cowboy football. I know last year we came out strong most of the time so just having that taste back in your mouth was great and I'm excited for our next game for sure."
On how much Rashod Owens has progressed:
"A lot, honestly. Especially today. I watched him running routes out there and he looked good so I'm excited for his future and I'm going to help him as much as I could, by example, so I'm excited for him."
Oklahoma State's Kolby Harvell-Peel
On anything standing out on the stat sheet:
"We were 2-for-12 on third down. We were really good on third down last year and it made us a really good defense and so far, this year, we've been good again. Yeah 2-12. You win a lot of games if you force a team to third down and then play well like that."
On being 4-0 and starting to hit full stride:
"It feels great, to you know, feel like we haven't played our best ball in the early year but to still be 4-0. You know, to go out there and see the offense play well today, as a teammate you're just excited for those guys. You saw BP (Presley) caught a touchdown today, Tay (Martin) is back, Spencer (Sanders) got to throw the ball quite a bit today so, to see those guys do that and you know, the team is finally clicking, I'm super excited for them. And obviously winning games is exciting."
On playing together as a team:
"So far it's just been a lot of fun. Yeah, special teams, I think they got an emphasis on trying to put older guys on special teams. Still, I saw Tay in the fourth quarter running down and covering punts so special teams is playing really well. I know we gave up a big one today, you know, you don't want to do that but still. Like I said, I think we're a close-knit group. A lot of the guys that are playing, have been here for quite a while with each other so it's a lot of fun."
KANSAS STATE QUOTES
Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman
 Opening Statement:
"Credit to Oklahoma State, they beat us today. We didn't play our best game today and they beat us at the line of scrimmage, and we fought in the second half and did some better things on defense to slow them down, but we couldn't penetrate them and get enough things going offensively."
On starting quarterback Will Howard:
"Yeah, he got hurt in the first half. He couldn't go anymore in the first half, but they did some things to work on him and he tried to go in the second half, but he just couldn't. When we lost Will, it really kind of took some of the play calling that (Offensive Coordinator Courtney Messingham) was wanting to do away because that's Will's forte and not so much Jaren (Lewis)."
On the Kansas State defense in the first half:
"We didn't tackle, and we didn't get off blocks. Credit the running back (Jaylen Warren), he's a good player, there's no question about that. We were just a step slow. We couldn't get our footing; we couldn't slow the game down enough and we just couldn't get a stop. It was frustrating because then you see what we did after halftime. We played pretty well in the second half. They got a few plays on us but they're going to, that's a good football team. But really, really frustrating how we played in the first half."
Kansas State's Deuce Vaughn
On team low rushing numbers:
"That all goes back to execution. There was nothing that they were doing that was really all us, but we all had the same plays and they just executed better than we did."
On the touchdown reception:
"It got tipped but, I was still able to keep my eye on the ball, and there was a lot of open space. Then Landry Weber had a fantastic block down field to spring it."
On the Oklahoma State fumble recovery touchdown and whether it hindered the team's outlook of the game:
"No. I wouldn't say so. We knew we had to bounce back. We were going to get the ball right back because it was a touchdown and I don't feel like it knocked us on our butts or anything like that."
On how different the offense is with each of the quarterbacks:
"Not a bunch at all. They are both two really capable quarterbacks and we are going to run the same plays with both of them in there."
Kansas State's Jaren Lewis
On Oklahoma State secondary:
"I thought they played pretty good. They didn't really do anything too special, but they are just strong and physical players and you got to get by them."
On offensive frustration:
"I don't think there was much frustration. I thought we were pretty level-headed throughout the second, but I thought personally I left some plays out on the field. We were just playing our butts off, and the defense played an amazing second half. We just got to capitalize when that occurs."
On the interception:
"I just broke the pocket and contain. I looked inside and looked outside real quick. I was trying to throw it at his feet, but he made a good play, stepped in front of the guy, and intercepted it. I give props to him but also, it was a bad decision on my part."
On the lack of a running game:
"Once I put the ball in players hands and make better passes that opens the run game. I feel like I take partial responsibility on that piece. I thought that if I made more passes and completions that would open up the run game more. We would have been ahead of the sticks instead of behind the sticks. I take most of the responsibility on that part."
On playing on the road for the first time:
"It was amazing. This is an amazing atmosphere. I'm just super grateful to be playing. I thought Oklahoma State played a really good game on defense. Overall, I thought that experience was really cool, and I look forward to that in the future."Â
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Players Mentioned
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