Postgame Quotes: OSU vs. K-State

Doug Meacham, OSU interim head coach…

Opening statement:
"Incredible effort by our football team… I love the attitude, I love the fight that we have under fairly adverse circumstances… Defensively, we held them to ten yards in the first quarter and 287 total… They did a great job and laid it out on the line and I appreciate them and I will always appreciate those guys and this team for the rest of my life… I will always remember this team because I don't know how many teams could go out there and lace 'em up like our guys do… Defense played good enough to win, offense played good enough to win and we had an opportunity at the end to bash this out and that was it."

… on safety Parker Robertson:
"What a guy, right? He'll be the CEO of something one day… This guy is a walk-on from Texas, what a baller… When he hits you, he knocks you back… Has great instincts for the ball, had the interception today and he's such a great kid, you're not going to find a better kid than that… It's fun to watch a great kid like that have success that did it the hard way."

… on former OSU receiver Justin Blackmon:
"I didn't coach him directly, but the guy won two Biletnikoff awards, which I believe has only been done one other time… What a fierce competitor… When things didn't look good, Brandon Weeden would just throw it up to him and he'd make it happen… I'd say in my career, best receiver I've ever been around on a team that I coached on."

… on the team's response to injured teammates:
"I don't think our guys flinched, I think they felt bad for a fallen comrade, but they were focused… As soon as they took them away, they just kept balling."

Clint Bowen, OSU defensive coordinator…

… on the defense's performance today:
"Our kids have had to battle through a lot, and this has not been an easy situation for them, so all of the credit goes to them. It's been a process of five or six weeks of working on a lot of things, from how we understand the game of football, to how we carry ourselves, to how we interact with each other as teammates, to how we tackle and cover. There's been a whole process involved and we have a group of kids who have continued to fight and battle. I think they're starting to see themselves improve, which always gets guys going because they want to be as good as they can be. They go out there and give us their best, so we have a lot of kids who are starting to buy into the positions they're playing, what we're asking them to do and how they do it. Today was the first day that I've been a part of the defense where I felt like we actually tackled people. If I didn't accomplish anything else in my time in this role, I can't stand to be apart of a soft group that doesn't tackle. Tackling shows how tough you are and how much you want it, and I felt like today was the first day we had our knees over our toes, we drove through some contact and actually put people to the ground instead of holding on and getting drug across the field. The biggest thing about that is how the fundamental development has been really awesome by our players."

… on Parker Robertson:
"Parker does everything that you ask him to do. That first play, I'm not sure if he got credited with the sack, but that's an angle play. We beat him up in practice, and he worked on it. Then, Parker goes out there in the game and he's the one who runs straight-line angle to the quarterback's face, beats the tight end, and makes the play. That's Parker Robertson. If he has something that he needs to improve, he improves it. He's a conscious defender, he's a coachable kid, and he takes great pride in doing things right. When he made that play that way, I was thinking that's what makes that kid special. He fixed the problem, did it exactly right in the game and he got rewarded. That break he made on the interception was a nice break. He's everything, as a coach, that you want to be a part of."

… on players buying in:
"This has not been a situation that Doug or I stepped into and said alright, we're just going to get through the season. I can't sleep at night if we operate that way, and I told our players that. We're going to have a standard, and you're either going to meet the standard or you're not going to play. I'm happy that our kids are doing that, because this hasn't been easy. It's not been one of those things where the kids just get to ride through it, I'm not going to be a part of that. The guys who are stuck with us right now are the ones who figured out how to show up, get their job done and get things done right."

Chris Klieman, KSU head coach…

Opening statement:
"Hard-fought game, hard-fought win; didn't play very well offensively throughout the day. [I] give Oklahoma State credit – they stuck with the defense that they'd been playing maybe 30 percent of the time. They've been a 70 percent four-down team and a 30 percent three-down team, and they stuck with the three-down. It gave us some fits, I thought. We didn't play very well at all on offense, but we found a way. I told the guys in the locker room, 'Guys, I've been [at Boone Pickens Stadium] in 2019, 2021, and 2023 and lost games here.' This is a hard place to play, so we're going to enjoy this win. I'm not apologizing for winning in Stillwater, because it's hard to win here. On the flip side, that was a dominant defensive performance. The biggest reason it was dominant is that we gave up some plays – we didn't play great between the 20 [yard line] and about the plus-30 [yard line] – we got to that high red zone and then low red zone, and our guys showed up. Our guys made play after play after play. Strip sacks by Ryan [Davis] and Cody [Stufflebean], trick play interception by [Daniel Cobbs], get a hand on another play that we pick off with Zashon [Rich]. We needed every one of those plays and we found a way to get a win. The last drive or the second to last drive, we went for it twice on fourth down; a field goal in my mind was not going to do it. We were not going to try to win that game 10-6, we needed to get up 14-6 and make [Oklahoma State] score, because I thought that they were going to have a hard time getting into the endzone. I knew that they could kick field goals, I thought they'd have hard time getting into the endzone on us."

… on what Oklahoma State did well:
"Beating us off the football, probably. It was a poor game up front. We'll go back and look at the film, and I know they did some stunts and stuff, so let's give those guys some credit. They blitzed their linebackers an awful lot, but we got beat at the line of scrimmage, bottom line."

… On Kansas State's lack of focus:
"I worried about it, for sure. We talked about it; we hammered about it. You get up at six in the morning, and we told them on Monday, 'We're getting up at six in the morning, guys, and we're going to have pregame and we're going to have a walkthrough and we're getting on a bus for an hour and 15 minutes and then we're going to go out and get active warmup.' There are no excuses. They knew what the routine was, and I was disappointed because I didn't think that we played to our capabilities on offense.

… on the Kansas State defense's key to success:
"I just think that we didn't panic. We didn't play great defensively – [Oklahoma State] had some good plays, the running backs did some good things, the wideouts did – but we gave up a 12-yard gain, we gave up a 15-yard gain, and nobody would panic. We'd get settled back in, and I really feel like our guys felt like 'If we make these guys drive it 80 yards in 10 plays, they'll make a mistake,' and they did. So, I think the best thing is that nobody panicked."

Parker Robertson, OSU senior safety…

… On the defense's overall performance:
"We went out there and fought with everything we had. Just going out there in my second-to-last game at Boone Pickens (Stadium), we're going to give it everything we've got. We had Aden Kelly speak to us before the game, another senior, and he just got us fired up today, saying, 'This is all we have. We only got three games left, us seniors, so everybody come together and play,' and I feel like that's what we did as a defense."

… On having an extra week to prepare for the Wildcats:
"It was definitely helpful having that bye week. We had two weeks to prepare for them, so we had a good scheme going into it. Just having those reps over and over at practice. Went out there, running exactly what we practiced. Everyone was in the right gaps, the right fits, and playing fast and not thinking I gotta do this, I gotta do this. Everyone was just playing a lot faster today."

… On his dominant play:
"It means a lot. I don't have many of these left, so just coming into it, just giving everything that I have for the team and giving the best I can. Giving all-out effort, and the plays just happened to fall in my lap, and I just got to make them."

… On the adversity this team has overcome:
"It's just something you gotta dig down deep for. A lot of people would be like, 'We've only won one game, we're losing, our coach got fired and everything.' It just goes back to the love of the game. How much do you love football? Not many people get to come out here and play Division I college football. We have the chance, so why not go out and give it everything we have?"

Terrill Davis, OSU senior wide receiver…

… On losing a close game:
"It's tough not being able to come through for the defense. I feel like the defense played really well today."

… On the fight this OSU team continues to show:
"Everybody who's here wants to be here. We just love football, we're not going to lay down for anybody. We're going to go out there and fight. We all want to make plays and I feel like we have a lot of fight in us."

… On Doug Meacham's leadership:
"He's been a great (leader), stepping in and taking care of us. He's a great spokesperson; he gives us encouragement — of course, with how everything is going it's easy to be down, but he lifts us up every day. We appreciate him."

Sitiveni Havili Kaufusi, OSU senior defensive tackle…

… on the team's performance:
"We played for each other the whole game — I think that was a difference between this game and the games in the past... When Malik (Charles) went down (with injury), that kind of lit a fire in me. I was like, 'My brother went down so I have to give it my all.' We tried to win this game for him."

… On his personal takeaways from this season :
"I wish I came here earlier; I just love the culture that (Mike) Gundy set here with Coach (Rob) Glass and all the OSU football alumni coaches. You can feel that sense of pride from Meacham and the whole entire staff — I wish I had that throughout college, and I wish I came here earlier."

On what has kept the team bought in during a difficult season:
"It's definitely the culture; culture is such a big thing in football — when you have everyone buy in, even if we're losing. I love that everyone is still bought in and wanting to play for each other."

Joe Jackson, KSU sophomore running back…

… on grinding out a win on a day where the offense struggled:
"Like Coach says, you never apologize for a win. So with that being said, we just have to stay together and fight together to the end,"

… on the team's mood:
"We are going to celebrate the win right now. We'll fix it tomorrow. We'll look at it tomorrow but right now, we're going to celebrate this one."

… K-State's slow start:
"We had to all wake up. I feel like we were out there sleepwalking. To be out there, just to be out there. Wasn't taking care of our small details so that's what it was. Just staying on top of our small details and kind of get rolling."

Zashon Rich, KSU sophomore corner...

… on the defense's performance:
"I just feel like we came out there with some intensity, took away their O-line. Big credit to them."

… on winning ugly:
"I mean, it's big for us. We came out there, we show that we could be in a dog fight like that."

Avery Johnson, KSU junior quarterback…

… on the offense's day:
"I wasn't finishing throws. Receivers, we didn't do a good job finishing catches like we have in the past. So thought we were shooting ourselves in the foot a lot today."

… winning without their "A" game:
"I mean, at the end of the day, that's what we play sports for -- for us to win. But definitely not satisfied with that. Today was one of my worst games I think I played in my college career, and I got to figure out what I can do better, because if I play like that in Utah, we won't have the same outcome."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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