OSU vs. Texas Tech Postgame Quotes

Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy
Opening statement
"All right, so we couldn't get off the field on third down again. I knew it wasn't good, they were 14-22, but so many opportunities on third down we couldn't get off the field. We weren't very good on third down at 2-9. We did out rush them yards per carry, which is good, five yards a rush, which is what we're looking for. We did not have a good day on special teams. We had a lot of critical errors on special teams. I'm aware of the two bad snaps, which the timing of that wasn't good, but the one that cost us the touchdown, obviously, is not good. But the point being is, throughout the game, we've got to be able to get off the field on third down. But, I was pleased with the way we rushed the ball. I was pleased with the way the young quarterback played. We had a tough day on special teams. That what I told the team was, is that they practiced well enough for two weeks, and they played well enough to win the game. They just had critical errors, which is very uncommon for us here at Oklahoma State, we had critical errors three or four that really cost us the game. So, when you look at it, it gets right down to it, the third downs, and we had three or four critical errors. Couple of special teams, couple of snaps we didn't get lined up correct on the long run on fourth down, critical error. The guys played well enough to win, we just couldn't get off the field on third down, had some critical errors."

On if he thinks Maealiuaki Smith should have been named the starter sooner based on his success tonight
"Well, he's only been practicing with us for a month and so there could be questions about that, but he started the year on the fourth team. Whether we know, if you could or not, you'll never know. That's something that just is not going to ever come through just based on the way it is. You're not going to take a true freshman and start giving him reps with the ones or twos when he walks right in from high school. Without watching the video, I thought he competed and sat in the pocket, if the pocket started to collapse, he stayed in, made throws downfield and he missed some throws. We saw that, right? We had it three or four times. We had guys that were running pretty open and he missed the throws. But overall, I thought his poise was really good, and I thought he ran the ball effectively."

On if this is what he envisioned the offense looking like at the beginning of the year
"We had a fear of a quarterback to keep the ball and move around a little bit, so you're going to get defenses to play you a little bit different defense as well. And I would say, what you're saying is pretty accurate. We hit some throws down the field. I don't know last game or the game before, we didn't hit any, we didn't get any big plays, but we got some big plays today. Got some big runs. We had some big throws. We had several. We had five or six catches for over 18 yards, probably. That's what this offense has always thrived on for forever."

On if Texas Tech's pass first game plan affected the defensive game plan
"It shouldn't really have affected it much. We actually got pressure on the quarterback with a four-man rush, and then we had pressures called that were effective for us. I'm trying to go through it in my mind without watching the tape. It really shouldn't have affected us much. They got us on a couple of play actions and we got them on a couple of play actions. If you get off the field on third downs, then they're not going to have 92 plays. They're going to have about 78 plays and you'll see a different game."

On the team's third down struggles
"There's time we can't get pressure. There's times that they hit throws. I would just be careful to really answer that until I look at the video. But most of the time that we have these conversations after games. We're talking about 10 or 11 third downs in the game, not 22. That's too many."

On the crowd
"The crowd was awesome. The walk was awesome. The walk was the most supportive that it's been. It's as good as it's ever been. People were coming out, wanted to high five and touch, and that walk was awesome with the crowd, then everybody was loud and orange power was going during a couple of timeouts, from what I could hear they did a great job."

On his future
"There ain't no way that the old lady is letting me retire. I have as much energy now as I did when I took this job, and most of you guys think I'm crazy, which I am. When I get up in the morning about 5:30 I start thinking about football. And, even though we're in a really tough situation here that we haven't been in 18 years, I'm excited to come to work tomorrow and try to find a way to be Colorado. I just like that stuff, the outside noise, which I don't know about because I don't read social media, doesn't bother me. I am concerned for our team because they're 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 year olds who live on social media. And I worry about them, but we've tried to educate them, and I don't pay attention to any of that. I'm the same person now as I was in August."

Kendall Daniels
On the defensive struggles today
"Just couldn't figure out how to get off the field on third downs and then third downs turning into fourth downs, and we couldn't figure out how to get off on fourth down. So, we had to figure out a way to get off on third downs and stop being so hard on ourselves and making them long drives."

On why the defense struggles on later downs
"It's just getting lined up and making the play. It's always something different on third down. Sometimes the ball doesn't roll your way on third down, and sometimes you just got to get off and somebody got to make a play. Because offenses have everybody to block everybody. So, you have to find a way to make a play and get off the field."

On if he was surprised at how much Texas Tech threw the ball
" I played against them two years ago, and they're an air-raid team, and, that's what they do. And they have a good running back in (Taj) Brooks. So, with that combination, we had to come in with our heads on. So, we just needed to get off the field."

Rashod Owens
On quarterback Maealiuaki Smith's performance
"He's going to be a competitor. Every day he came in, he watched film, he studied, we helped him and he made smart decisions. If he made a mistake, he'll ask to reload, or we'll reload the play for him and correct it. He's definitely come in with a lot more enthusiasm, I will say, a lot more with more enthusiasm, young guy. So, it's exciting to see."

On his performance tonight
"Just a blessing, as many opportunities that were handed to me you've got to take. So, just a blessing that I was able to complete like that and give him his touchdown."

Xavier Ross
On what OSU means to him
"I love OSU. I'm a Cowboy. I wouldn't go anywhere else, it didn't ever cross my mind. I'm a Cowboy it just sucks that that's how we got to go out. Because we're winners. It sucks that that's not what our record displays. The guys, we come to work every day with our heads up and we dedicate our lives to this game. So, I can go to war with dudes like that that's gonna give in and give everything they got. So, we can continue next week going against Colorado."

On the fan support during a disappointing season
"That's our brand. Fans gonna show up no matter what. It really sucks for them, because they support us. We know y'all supporters and we know y'all want to win because that's what Oklahoma State is. We're winners and that's the standard. So, it sucks, but you know the fans, they showed up and gave us a great senior day."

On getting to lead the younger players on the team
"We've got a lot of young dudes. Oklahoma State's going to be in good hands. We got a lot of young dudes that can play some ball, they are young, they are fresh, they are hungry still and they just waiting on the opportunity. Next year, you're gonna see a lot of new faces. But them dudes can play some ball too. So, they got the athletic part down. It's really just like, the mental focus that I'm trying to instill in them because it's a long season, there's going to be a lot of ups and downs, but just making sure that they just stay low, that's the biggest thing to do."

De'Zhaun Stribling
On his legacy and the legacy of Rashod Owens and Brennan Presley
"I just really want people to see us three as a great receiving corps that was here, not even just individually, that doesn't really affect me a lot. As a group and as a corps, I want to be remembered with them and what we did together and how good everything was."

On Maealiuaki Smith's touchdown pass to him
"I think it was great, not even just the throw but the whole process of it all. How he stayed composed, went through all his reads and then checked on the backside, that was great from him. Even on his touchdown run, just having the guts to run it and not be scared of getting hit, that was just great."

Ollie Gordon II
On the team's performance today
"Tonight, I feel like our team showed a different kind of fight that we haven't really shown lately. I feel like with these two weeks of practice we had, we all came together. Smitty (Maealiuaki Smith) stepped up, he played like he had been here for years. He had a great game, I feel like he wasn't nervous at all, and he just went out there and hooped, and we all stepped up to the plate with him. People don't normally go for having a freshman quarterback out there, but I feel like he put on for a freshman for sure."

On his potential last game in Boone Pickens Stadium
"It's kind of weird, but it might not be. I haven't even made that decision yet, the only reason why I walked tonight is because I'm a senior and I graduate next month. After the season, I'm going to talk with my family and my coaches and see what I should do."

On what the program has meant to him
"This program means a lot to me, just from the coaches, with Coach Gundy taking me in and treating me like his own son, he never treated us different than he did with Gunnar or his other boy, Gage. It's just the coaching staff, especially Coach Wozniak. He took me under his wing early and that's my dog, I feel like it'll be weird without him. I love Coach Wozniak and he treated me like I'm his son, and I just love him."

On his pass to Rashod Owens that he completed
"I had to get out of there, you saw the guy chasing me. I couldn't take a sack because I saw Rashod coming across the field, so I got out of there and put some air under it. Nobody was around him, so I could do that. I feel like I could've gave him a better ball for him to go and score, but when you have great players on the team, he can make acrobatic catches. I wasn't surprised he caught it."

Texas Tech Head Coach Joey McGuire
On the season as a whole
"Proud of our guys. Looking back on this year, there are going to be some things that we missed out on, but there are also going to be things that we are doing to push the program ahead. One of them is that this is our first winning record on the road since I got to Texas Tech. I'm really proud of our guys for doing that."

On seeing Smith at quarterback for Oklahoma State
"He played against TCU and I thought he did a really good job, so we had watched him on film. I thought he did a great job at burying the ball on his RPOs because some of our linebackers on those plays were really up to the line to try and stop the run and he did a really good job. He really didn't turn the ball over until the end. They have a good quarterback right there."

On the weapons that Oklahoma State has
"The Doak Walker Award winner from last year (Ollie Gordon II) went for 159 yards. He's going to play in the NFL. He's going to get drafted. (Brennan) Presley ended up having 10 catches and we held him to 55 yards, but he still had 10 catches. That guy is the all-time leading receiver at Oklahoma State, in their history, so they have guys."

On the experience that Oklahoma State holds
"The biggest thing is they're old. Coming into the season I read that they possibly had the oldest team in college football, so that means they've had a lot of guys play a lot of games in this stadium. So we expected for them to fight their tails off."

On the Big 12 and the championship race
"It's crazy. I think there's so many great things that can happen this year, but that's something that we have to take to the offseason and make sure we don't miss those opportunities. If you go back, that one-point loss against TCU puts is in the three-loss category of the Big 12. It's funny whenever stuff like this happens because every week the Big 12 puts out a graphic of teams still in contention and there was like nine this week and I bet there will be about nine next week. In this conference, anybody can beat anybody."

Jacob Rodriguez
Opening Statement
"Turnovers are huge and percentages to win the game, especially in a close game like that at the end. That's huge to swing the momentum and put some points up on the board for us."

On facing Smith and not Bowman
"They play similar but, he's a true freshman, he came in, and he did a really good job. We didn't really have a lot of answers. We ended up figuring it out. But we have got to work on it. Can't have them put up 48 points, so we got to work on that, but we put stress on effort to the ball. I think a lot of the stuff he did was really good, but I think could have been prevented with more effort to the ball."

Behron Morton
On all the points and scored
"There were a lot of explosives tonight, which is always fun. I thought we did a good job on offense of doing the little things right, not trying to do too much. I'm very pleased with the way we played, I think we still left a lot out there. S0 there's still a lot of lot to correct."

On rallying after his turnover
"After the interception I threw, I told the guys, we're not losing this game. We just rallied back, and from then on, we're going to put drives together. Whether it's a three-play drive or 13 play drive. So, I'm really pleased, making the first down on third down, the little stuff like that that matters. I thought we did a good job with that."

Tahj Brooks
On his end of half touchdown
"It was definitely a turning point, especially because that was the beginning of the beginning of the middle eight. We got to want to score a touchdown and keep them on their toes."

On the offense being hot
"Behron would tell us that we have to score every drive, and that's something we did this game. We are trying to help our defense out, because they've been busting their tails and helping us out for this whole season, and we want to repay them. Especially when the game got tight and close, we were like, we got to go score. So, our mentality was just scoring every drive."

Players Mentioned

Ollie Gordon II

Rashod Owens

Brennan Presley

Xavier Ross

Maealiuaki Smith

De’Zhaun Stribling

Oklahoma State University Athletics