OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OKLAHOMA QUOTES HEAD COACH BOB STOOPS OKLAHOMA 24, OHIO STATE 45 SEPT. 17, 2016

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OKLAHOMA QUOTES • HEAD COACH BOB STOOPS OKLAHOMA 24, OHIO STATE 45 • SEPT. 17, 2016 Opening Statement: “My compliments to Coach Meye...
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OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OKLAHOMA QUOTES • HEAD COACH BOB STOOPS OKLAHOMA 24, OHIO STATE 45 • SEPT. 17, 2016 Opening Statement: “My compliments to Coach Meyer, Ohio State, their football team, coaches. An outstanding team that really beat the heck out of us here tonight. Our football team—I take responsibility—was not near good enough in a big game. Sorry to disappoint the fans. I wouldn’t ever say better effort, that’s not the case. We just need to play better in a lot of areas, and that’s what I take responsibility for. I felt we got really beat in all phases of the game. Turnovers, a big issue tonight. We had three interceptions. We can’t convert a fourth down in any situation. Defensively, we can’t defend even in zone coverage when we’re looking at a deep pass right to us, can’t make the play on the ball. Again, that’s my fault, and us as coaches. All of us together weren’t near good enough, and we’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to have any chance to win the Big 12. We’ll keep a positive attitude. We’ll keep working to improve and do our best to have a better showing when we get back on the field here in a couple weeks.” On junior quarterback Baker Mayfield’s performance: “Obviously, it wasn’t near good enough. He had his moments, he had some nice plays, but overall, the three interceptions and a few of the third and fourth downs that we might have had a chance at something, we didn’t execute very well there either, and those are like turnovers. Not near good enough.” On the OU defense’s ability to force turnovers: “If you can cover somebody, go up with the football and make a play, you have a chance to get an interception. They just haven’t been able to produce.” On injuries: “We’re pretty beat up. We have a lot of guys that have some injuries to look at. The only one I know for sure is Cody Ford has a broken, I believe it’s fibia.” On if the team is not as good as he thought they would be: “I think in some ways, yes. Oddly enough, I still feel we’ve got the ability to play better than we have.” On the impact of lost leadership from last season: “It’s fair to say the leadership isn’t close to what it was a year ago, and that’s on me. I’m in front of the program. I’ve got to do a better job, and I’ve got to do a better job developing players to do that.” On how lack of leadership looks on the field: “It looks like what you saw tonight. Just for the record, it isn’t

on our leadership. It’s because of me. I haven’t done a good enough job coaching, period. Leadership is, to me, it shows up on the field because of what you’ve done all week, all month, all summer, and in the attitude in the locker room, all of that, together. I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying it’s not what it was a year ago. Hopefully, we can improve on it.” On Joe Mixon’s performance: “Joe had a great kickoff return and seemed to have a lot of other nice plays. I thought he and Samaje [Perine] overall ran the football well… I thought that part—what they did—was really pretty good.” On sophomore kicker/punter Austin Siebert’s missed field goal on the opening drive: “There wasn’t a problem with the kick. He just didn’t hit it well. There wasn’t a problem with the operation. That was my first question, and there wasn’t. He just hit a bad ball, which leads to that he hit a horrible punt, and then the next drive or two, we had a 50-yard field goal, and I went for it on fourth down because I didn’t feel he was in any kind of confidence or shape to go for it, and then we don’t convert. Everything just kind of snowballs together… Some of it gets to our just basic execution. I feel there are opportunities there that we can do it, but we just have to do a better job getting it done.” On the defense not being able to build momentum: “Yeah, but we weren’t scoring the points, and we threw a pick-six. So you go in at halftime, they gave up a touchdown, missed a field goal. You have some yards, but what does it do? You have to play together, so I don’t look at it that way. I look at it as a team. Each side failed each other. That can’t happen. Everyone looks at yards: ‘Oh, that’s great.’ No, it isn’t when you throw a pick-six and miss a field goal. That doesn’t work. All of it isn’t what it needs to be.” On what they can accomplish during the bye week: “Hopefully a lot. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’ve got to get some guys healthy and go back to work and keep a positive attitude if that’s possible. I believe it is, at least in our building. I believe that’ll happen. We’ll work to make improvement, give ourselves a chance for the next Big 12 game. Big 12 is now just starting.”

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OKLAHOMA QUOTES • COORDINATORS OKLAHOMA 24, OHIO STATE 45 • SEPT. 17, 2016 OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR LINCOLN RILEY

going to get the amount of touches they should get.”

On junior quarterback Baker Mayfield’s performance: “He was kind of like as a whole offensively. He did a lot of really good things and made a few uncharacteristic mistakes. We kind of got ourselves down there late in the second half and we had to try to make things happen if we wanted any realistic chance of having a chance of winning it. Kind of like us as a whole though, he’s doing so many good things and he’s really close on things he’s not. There’s a couple of decisions throughout the game where he’s got to do better. He can play better and he needs to be coached better to.”

On how close the offense was all night: “We’re not far off at all. That’s the frustrating thing standing here. Nobody is satisfied with that. That doesn’t get you the results you want against great competition. It’s such a fine line. It’s hard to do, but the flip side of it for us, and our guys don’t realize it, but we don’t finish enough plays. This game, statistically was an even game, a part from us on fourth down, us on turnovers and us in the red zone. We took that one sack and missed the short field goal and had the chance to get some momentum going.”

On how the OU receivers handled Ohio State’s cornerbacks: “We did at times. A.D. [Miller] got loose a few times there and did some good things for us. We thought Dede [Westbrook] might have a chance to get loose more than he did. [Ohio State] has depth. We had a couple things dialed up at the wrong times, which is my responsibility. They were good at corner. We knew with them coming in that they were good across the board and they proved that. They were good. When we played well, which we had some stretches where we did some things better than we’ve done all year and some big improvements. But when we didn’t play well, when we were a little bit off, they made us pay. There’s two sides of it: it shows you’re capable, but it also shows that we’ve got to get a lot better. We’re not far off, but we’ve got to take those steps and get over the humps, especially when you’re playing a team that is that talented.” On Joe Mixon tonight: “We always try to get it to him. We had a couple things in the throw game for him that we thought were close. We had a pretty good one early that he dropped that had a chance to be a pretty big play. We had a couple things dialed up for him, but either didn’t get it to him or whatever they case may be. With that many possessions and that many plays, I want Samaje [Perine] to touch the ball, I want Joe [Mixon] to touch the ball, I want Dede [Westbrook] to touch it more, I want Mark [Andrews] to touch it more. When we’re playing like that, it’s not our best. Joe, along with the other guys, aren’t

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE STOOPS

On trying a couple combinations in the corner spot: “Trying to find a consistent playmaker out there has been somewhat problematic here during the first three games. We just got off to a bad start. We have to keep trying to solve that problem. I wish we could just roll up and play covertwo but that’s not the world we live in when you play these quarterbacks that stress you all over the field. The normal person is not going to understand what happens during the course of a game but the last play, the one that really stung, was with six seconds left. Those are tough plays and we’re trying the best they can and we just have to keep working at it. But, the run game, to me, was more problematic than any of that. Our inability to stop the run leads to…they got us out of a lot of our stuff and made it a physical game and we didn’t react well to it.” On not being able to stop the run: “It’s hard because you’re limited in so many things you can do with the way they line up. That being said, I don’t think we tackled well enough. I thought they made us stagnant. They got us out of our off-fronts because that’s what people are doing now. We have to keep finding some solutions and our inability consistently stopped the run and it made it difficult.” On too many missed tackles: “We have to regroup and I think for us, they made Will Johnson play like an outside linebacker and that’s something we have to work on – getting more physical at that position. We didn’t play that way a year ago and people are making him become an outside linebacker and that’s what you do when they play nickel. We have to keep building trust in our younger players who just aren’t ready yet. We have to see what systematically gives us the best chance to stop people when the game is played like that.” On the crowd’s impact on the game: “I thought all throughout the first half I thought our offense was moving the ball and I thought we hurt ourselves on a lot of drives and trying to finish drives, and scoring points. When we made it 28-17 I thought it was gong to tighten up and get some stops and then I don’t know what happened. But I think

that one really hurt our momentum and we tried to reestablish late in the second quarter, scoring there with 4-5 minutes to go but then we gave them another one and that hurt.” On playing really good teams in the beginning of the year: “Good teams are good teams. It’s been a pretty stern test. Two excellent quarterbacks. Two excellent offensive staffs who really know how to move the football. We just have to find ways to counter it and be more creative on defense. But they are both very well-coached teams.” On what to accomplish on in off-week: “Well, getting healthy would be a good start. And we need to look at what we are trying to do in getting our best 11 players on the field. I think that would be the best place to start.”

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OKLAHOMA QUOTES • PLAYERS

OKLAHOMA 24, OHIO STATE 45 • SEPT. 17, 2016 SENIOR LINEBACKER JORDAN EVANS On the 1-2 start to the season: “Definitely isn’t what we expected, to be 1-2 through the first three games. We have to keep our head forward.”

REDSHIRT JUNIOR QUARTERBACK BAKER MAYFIELD

On the loss: “I mean any game that you play at home and you actually get everything kicked, you know it just sucks. We had a great crowd and I’m proud of the support they brought out. It’s just the fact On where the team can go from here: that we didn’t play very well. Personally, I haven’t played well “Just make sure everyone stays together. No pointing fingers, this season. I felt that game goes to show that I haven’t been no turning our backs on each other. Get this out of our head and the player that I was. I have been trying to work on it and have just go into the bye week and concentrate on getting better.” been trying to get better and better but it just goes to show that in big games like that I haven’t played well. I let this team down. On the disappointment of a loss of this caliber: Coach Stoops can beat around the bush but I let this team “It was very disappointing. Any loss is disappointing. Especially down with my performance. I need to lead better, I have to keep to a good team like them, it just wasn’t fun.” people positive and I have to take responsibility for that loss. It’s all on me at this point. We haven’t played a Big 12 game yet On stopping the run: and I’m going to work harder than anyone in this program. I’m “I don’t think we were uncomfortable stopping the run. It’s just going to work harder than anyone Coach Stoops has ever seen. about not making plays and executing. When any team motions, We’re going to win a Big 12 title and that’s just my mindset. it makes it difficult but I think at the end of the day it was about We got our asses kicked. They came in and they played well. us executing the calls we were given and playing mentally They had a great game plan and JT Barrett played well. They sound.” capitalized on my mistakes and our turnovers. They played better than us.” On the toughness of playing many third-and-shorts: “It’s very tough with a great team like Ohio State. They have On moving the ball but seeing no results: great players and great skill positions with guys that can get “It’s very frustrating. The fact that we have three to four drives those two or few yards. When you get yourself in predicaments in the red zone and the first one we missed a field goal. We in third-and-short it makes it hard for yourself to get off the could’ve capitalized on the drive and finish out the right way field.” and that just goes to show that we need to get better in the red zone. Last year we were very successful in the red zone with On making sure the team sticks together: scoring and finishing grabs but we didn’t do that today.” “Making sure we are staying positive. We can’t come in on Monday with our head down. Even off the field, make sure we On his reaction to Coach Stoops’ message: stay as a unit and stick close. Come in next week with a positive “I know that I am going to have to work harder. I’m going to attitude and work hard.” bounce back and watch the film and put it behind me. But I know right now that I need to play better. Flat out, plain and On what kind of team this is: simple. That is just how it’s going to be.” “We have a very dedicated team. Guys that aren’t quitters and not just going to give up. We represent a lot of teams before us On if his expectations were too high: and we represent OU and our coaches. We don’t ever want to “Absolutely not. I always hold myself to a high standard and fold like that and everyone is going to come back Monday and high expectations and that is how it should be. It’s just the fact have this loss behind them.” that I haven’t met them. I’m going to continue and try to push for that and just like I said start from square one. We’re going to have to find our identity as a team. We’re not in a good position – 1-2, that’s not how it should be around here at Oklahoma but we will find our identity and fight back.”

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL JUNIOR RUNNING BACK SAMAJE PERINE On Coach Stoops’ postgame message in the locker room: “Just don’t quit. You know we’ve been in that situation before. He wanted us to go out in the second half to just see what we had and continue to play hard. We just didn’t make enough plays.” On what we can expect for the rest of this season: “I feel like with this group, we really know how to come together during hard times. Everyone on the team did that last year and we ended up winning the Big 12. I wouldn’t expect anything less from this group. We have a couple of different guys, but for the majority our core leaders are still there and we need to pull the team together. Also, we need to quit listening to the outside world and keep everything internal. We will just do what we do best, and that’s fight through adversity.” On the leadership that will unite the team after this loss: “Myself to an extent, Baker Mayfield, Ahmad Thomas, Jordan Evans and Joe Mixon. There are leaders all over this team, we just have to step up because we’re not used to being those vocal leaders like Strike and Tapp [Eric Striker and Charles Tapper]. We just have to do our part and make sure we are vocal enough so the team doesn’t just swindle away. We will take the responsibility to do what we need to do to get the team back up and be ready for TCU.” On understanding the expectations going into this season: “I don’t know. I do know that we need to just go out there and play fast, physical, and smart. We do that to start the game but we just need to finish.” On what will happen after the first drive: “We just have to be consistent. It always seems like we are just one play away. That’s the story of our lives this year so we just need to work. We have to take these next few weeks to make some major jumps and I feel like we will do that with Coach Riley. He’s a real player’s coach so he has an idea of what we’re missing and will take the blame, but it’s on us. When it comes down to it we are the ones out there playing. We just have to do our part, and I’m sure the coaches will do their part and we will come back stronger.”

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OHIO STATE QUOTES • HEAD COACH URBAN MEYER OKLAHOMA 24, OHIO STATE 45 • SEPT. 17, 2016 Opening statement: “This is probably one of the top five hardest places to play. They’re a very talented team. From the opening kickoff, our guys swung as hard as we could. I made a comment earlier about how I almost took a deep breath when I watched our guys get on the buses and on the plane thinking, ‘my gosh, this is a young team.’ For a lot of them, this was their first real experience, and I’m very proud of them.” On Senior CB Gareon Conley’s injury: “From my understanding, he’s going to be fine. It was just precautionary and it was just a stinger, so he should be fine.” On the second half performance from specifically the younger guys: “I can’t wait to see the tape. But as coaches, you sit there and think about the kickoff return (Joe Mixon’s 97-yard TD return) and some of the timeout calls and see some of the things that show your youth.” On Noah Brown’s catch over Michiah Quick and his overall play: “I haven’t seen it yet. From what I heard, it’s one of the great catches. He’s a grinder. We love grinders and guys who work so hard. He was a starting receiver for us before he got hurt last season and to see him have success – that’s a good thing.” On if it was a coming out party for Freshman RB Mike Weber Jr.: “I thought he played great and was very stout. He ran the ball really well against a defense that is committed to stopping the run.” On Curtis Samuel and Mike Weber Jr.’s one-two punch: “Curtis Samuel was a guy who waited his turn – he’s a talented guy. I think that a ‘one-two punch’ is a great way to identify those two.”

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL OHIO STATE QUOTES • PLAYERS OKLAHOMA 59, ULM 17 • SEPT. 10, 2016 SOPHOMORE WIDE RECEIVER NOAH BROWN On his behind-the-back catch: “I did see it when I caught it. When I had it behind his back, I was just thinking I needed to hold on and try to get to the ground and try to make this play.” “Anytime J.T. [Barret] puts the ball in the air, he’s putting trust in me and I try to come down with the ball for him. I have my quarterback’s back and it feels good to make that play.” On what he was thinking while making the catch: “Come down with the ball. You can catch that ball.” On his returning to the field after breaking his leg: “It was definitely tough to go down so close to the first game. My teammates really had my back, supported me and helped me get back to where I left… I feel like I owed it to them to come out here and play well when I was called.” On when he’s called J.T. Barret’s “go-to”: “I think he has a lot of go-to guys. We’re real deep as a team. We’ve got a lot of players who can be very good on any given day.” On why he’s a threat in the red zone: “I think I have a bigger frame and I’m able to box out a little bit and go up and get the ball. I feel like in the red zone, I was able to be there.” On what this win means to Ohio State: “We know what we’re capable of…we’re 3-0 with a chance to go 4-0. Keep it grooving. We’re happy with what we did.”

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