Oklahoma State Postgame Quotes Vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff

Oklahoma State Quotes

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy

Opening Statement:
"Our guys did a good job of taking care of business. We talked about this last Saturday, that we understand on paper that we have a better team, but we need to prepare, practice, respect our opponent, and go out and play. I told the team after the game, just right now in the locker room, that I was proud of them for doing that and staying focused. They focused all week, they practiced well, started fast, and played well. It was a good opportunity to get a lot of young people in the game, get them some experience, and get them some reps. They practice too so it's good to get them out there and get a little time. Obviously, it was a good night for us. We've got a pretty heavy week in our open week; we'll practice quite a bit. Then we'll give them two or three days off and we'll come back and get ready for conference play with Baylor."

On how the reserves played:
"I thought they did well. Sometimes I'm listening to something else, and I don't hear the calls as much. We were able to play a lot of them on special teams and I thought they played really well. They have to get out there, they have to get lined up, and get over being on the field, the nervousness and let them get hit. I thought they played pretty well."

On special teams:
"Coach (Jason) Mcendoo did a nice jump on punt block, had a good plan, and it worked well for us. I think someone said it's the first time we've had two special teams' touchdowns in one game. I like our special teams, Iike the bodies, I like the guys that are on there, their willingness to compete on special teams has been really good so far."

On Trace Ford:
"I think he blocked and returned the punt block, which is pretty rare. He practiced well this week. When we put that punt block in, he went full speed, practiced full speed, took it seriously and worked for it."

On how Gunnar Gundy played:
"I'm still dad! Obviously, I watch them all and he played well. I thought that he handled the system, he converted some third downs, he ran the ball effectively. I think there were a couple times where they disguised a roll coverage and instead of forcing the ball, he took off which is normal when you're young and early in your career. I'm pleased with the way he played. I wish we could've got (Garret) Rangel a couple more series to give him a chance to get out there and do some things. We needed him to play to find out where we are with him. Hopefully as we move forward, we'll be fortunate enough to get Rangel some time. I thought he did a good job in handling it without watching the tape."

Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn

Opening statement:
"I feel good, you know, with the ones. It was a pretty good performance. We went a full half and things were pretty clean. Then we got into the second half, and kind of stalled a little bit, so we have to go back and address that. We need to run the ball better in the second half. That's two games now. The Central Michigan game was kind of the same way, so I wasn't really thrilled with how we played and performed in the second half. Couple guys made some plays, it was great to see (Cale) Cabbiness make a play and Talyn Shettron got on the board. Ollie (Gordon) had the big run and things like that. For the most part, it wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be in the second half."

On how he feels three games into the season:
"Spencer's rolling, Coach alluded to that. He's playing good football. The guys that are up there in the 'ones' category, Braden Johnson, Brennan Presley, JP (Richardson), those guys are playing their butts off. The tailbacks are playing well. I know we didn't run the ball well today, not as well as we wanted to. But, Dom (Richardson) is playing good football, so, I'm not worried about him. And I think we're doing a good job with the offensive line. Heading into this one, with Baylor in two weeks and preparing for those guys, I think we're in great shape."

On Braden Johnson:
"We would talk, and he was excited about to get back and get going again. He's finally out there, he's getting his opportunity to play, and he's making a difference for us. He's one of our difference-makers. It's exciting to see him out there get these opportunities and making the most of them."

Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason

On tonight's game:
"Tonight, I thought it was true complimentary football. Offense, defense, special teams, everybody chimed in. Everybody did their job. We wanted to make it a clean game so that we can go out and see who we are. Get an opportunity to see where we need to go. I think we did that tonight. I think when we get a chance to do is to evaluate tomorrow."

On improvements in communication:
"I just thought guys talking down the distance and understanding situations. Playing top down. All that's about communication. Doesn't happen by accident. One thing about this game is that it's so situational. You talk about back-up, you talk about third down, you talk about everything we see in between the red zone. I even saw our young guys tonight because we were stressing so much communication. I saw those young guys down there. I saw hands up and a lot of intentional communication. If they understand what it is, all we gotta do is major in the minors. Those minors are communication, and they mean a lot. It's the difference between winning and losing."

Oklahoma State receiver Braydon Johnson

On returning to the field this season:
"I kind of envisioned that every day when I woke up. I said that in the front of my mind, I just had to keep working so I could get back to these moments. And we're here, so, we gotta keep putting the work in."

On returning to the field this season (continued):
"I can't even explain how much more I enjoy it. Just because you never really know until something you lose, how much you actually enjoyed it. How much you took advantage of it. Like I said, I'm just blessed to be able to come out and have another day."

Oklahoma State defensive end Trace Ford

On scoring a touchdown:
"I'm just happy to score. I mean, I never had that opportunity. I never blocked a punt, so, I mean it was pretty cool to have that 'first' on the football field."

On preparing for Baylor:
"I think it's real good timing to prepare for Baylor, who's a good team. We definitely need this extra week just to lock in, get better, stay humble and continue grinding. I think it's a good thing."

Oklahoma State defensive end Ben Kopenski

On what getting a sack does for his confidence:
"It definitely gives me confidence because it's hard, it's a different speed from practice to the game. To go out there and get a sack, it was awesome. It's all the guys behind me really — people covering, other guys opening up gaps for me, so it definitely gives me confidence."

On managing his excitement when he gets lots of playing time:
"It does. Sometimes I get out there and I get super nervous because I think that I have to go do something extraordinary but all I've got to do is do my job. So, I think when I first when out there in the second quarter, I was definitely nervous, things were going faster and what not, but as soon as I got comfortable in the third quarter, I felt a lot better."

Oklahoma State cornerback Korie Black

On young guys getting to get in the game:
"This is really important, just for them to get that experience. Not everybody is going to get it, so these games are good for the young guys to get experience. So, I think it's going to be good."

On having a good group of young corners:
"Everybody, the whole room is really going to be good, even the young guys because we all have this thing of just working, making sure that we go to practice and stuff. So, you know, just working hard and focusing on everything so that, say one of us does go down and they have to come in, it's not going to be a difference."

Oklahoma State receiver Cale Cabbiness

On the feeling of his first touchdown catch vs. his catch at Boise St. last season:
"It's awesome. You always dream about scoring a touchdown in collegiate football. It's a good feeling to finally put that away. I don't know, I would say they're pretty equal. They're both pretty good moments. I'm just glad we got the win and I'm just moving on to the next week."

On what he saw on the play where he scored his first touchdown:
"Running the route, I knew there was a good chance. The safety and the corner both were dropping pretty deep, so when I caught it, I knew there was a good chance for some RAC. And then I was fortunate to make a couple people miss and get into the end zone. I mean Gunnar put a good ball on me and it was all-around good execution on the play."

Oklahoma State quarterback Gunnar Gundy

On completing his first career pass:
"It was fun being out there. I enjoyed it. It's been a long time coming. 2019, I think, was the last time I actually threw a pass in a game, so it's been a long time. So, I enjoyed it."

On how beneficial getting so many snaps is:
"Very, very, very. Because experience is everything, I think. You can practice and stuff for a long time, but actually being in the game, calling the plays and operating the offense, there's no substitute for that."

On if Spencer Sanders had advice for him before he took the field:
"He did. He said to just calm down and stuff, breathe and just do you basically. He's been extremely on my side supporting me and I give a lot of thanks to him for that because he's helped me along. I want to be where he is one day and he's really taken me in, so I appreciate him for that."

Arkansas-Pine Bluff Quotes

Arkansas-Pine Bluff head coach Doc Gamble

On Oklahoma State's defense:
"I thought we did more damage to ourselves than what they did. I thought man-to-man we were alright for a while, but you can't start out by shooting yourself in the foot. They bottled us up; I thought we had a good plan, but our focus wasn't so much with their defensive guys, but their offense and how explosive their offense is. We tried to slow the game down a little bit to limit their possessions offensively. I think outside of moving the chains and staying in front of the chains, I think we did okay with that, but they had some big plays."

On OSU's special teams' touchdowns:
"They gave us a dose of our own medicine; those are the things we do. We've got to shore those things up. We're usually the superior special teams than all our opponents, but they gave us a dose of our own medicine today. We'll look at it and we're going to learn from it."

On speed of the game and environment:
"The environment wasn't the problem, and the speed of the game wasn't the problem, they were the better team. They were the No. 8 team in the country, and they looked like the No. 8 team in the country. I don't think our guys were overwhelmed by it; it's just they executed better than we did."

Arkansas Pine Bluff quarterback Skyler Perry

On what it was like going against Oklahoma State's defense:
"They're the No. 8 team in the country, and they called our number. We went out and competed to the best of our ability, we're going to go back, watch the film and clean it up."

On what they can do to improve:
"We just have to go back, watch the film and make corrections. Making sure that everything coach wants us to do, we do flawlessly. We need to hone in on our mistakes and make sure we aren't killing ourselves."

On what they can take away from Oklahoma State's offense:
"Just how fluent they are, they connect and they're not self-inflicting themselves. They were executing, they didn't let the game get to them, things like that that we can do ourselves, too."

On positives they can take away from the game:
"We felt like we can play, most definitely. We don't come out there ever and second-guess that, we played the No. 8 team in the country, we had some sparks we just didn't execute them. We're going to go back, watch some film and get it corrected going into SWAC play. We need to get the guys uplifted before going into conference play."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Korie Black

Cale Cabbiness

Trace Ford

Gunnar Gundy

Braydon Johnson

Ben Kopenski

Brennan Presley

Spencer Sanders

Talyn Shettron

Related Videos