Tulsa Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe Press Conference Quotes
9/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 7, 2005
Tulsa, Oklahoma -
Tulsa Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe Press Conference Quotes:
Opening Statement:
"Well, we've had some time to digest what happened on Thursday night. It was kind of a different week in terms of our normal preparations. Obviously, we're disappointed with the fact that we lost a football game. I feel like we did some good things at various points in the game, but we just made far too many mistakes against a good football team to win the game. Again, I think there are some encouraging signs in terms of the way some guys stepped up and played. There's a lot of room for improvement. We've diagnosed the things we need to improve upon and now we need to get out there and do it."
"In terms of our quarterback situation, Paul Smith is our starting quarterback and will remain our starting quarterback. I think David Johnson did an excellent job in his role as our backup quarterback and he did exactly what we asked him to do. He was well prepared. Like I said Thursday night after the game, Charlie Stubbs, our offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, did an excellent job in having David ready to play, and David prepared himself well. He knew that he was one play away from being a starter. We talk about that all the time and say it kind of tongue-in-cheek, but we knew that situation could occur, just like it can at any position, and when it does you have to have somebody to step up and jump into their role and play the way they're capable of playing. David did some good things in the game. A couple of throws here and there I think he'd like to try over, but you don't get do-overs in a game. I'm as pleased going into this season coming out of Thursday's game with the depth that we have at the quarterback position. I wish we had the depth in terms of two quality players at all positions on our team, offensively, defensively and on special teams. I'm not a prophet or anything like that, but I knew we had two good quarterbacks going into the game and I think now everybody realizes that."
Do you catch OU at a good time or a bad time?
"There's never a good time to catch Oklahoma. They're a very good football team, there's no doubt about it. I thought they played very good football the other day. It is interesting, and you guys have heard me say it before, there are five or six plays in a game that determine the outcome. I think that was the situation the other night in our game. We turned the ball over a couple of times when we had some drives going and we gave up two long runs, but outside of that we limited their rushing game to a little over three yards a carry, which I thought was a pretty good effort. I watched every snap of that game on Saturday morning. I customized my day for that, I got up early in the morning, told my wife I had to get ready, shower, and sit on the couch with a clicker in my hand and watch this game. And the first play of the game, I'm sitting there watching, I see the motion adjustment and the free safety sit down and I say, "It's a touchdown." People talk about Chuck (Long) and the play-calling, that's the best play call I've seen all season long. I watched a lot of football games on Saturday; it was a great play call. They shoved Peterson up in the line of scrimmage, the quarterback drops back and they've got him wide smokin' open. They run the Dino route with the Z outside after motioning outside of X, it's a great concept and a great play, but they just missed it. What's the score if they convert? 7-0, first play of the game and momentum is completely changed the complexion of the game. TCU never had to play from behind in that game, now all of a sudden if OU connected on that pass and it's 7-0, all of a sudden that safety is now a little apprehensive about sticking his nose up there, Peterson might run for 250 yards, you never know. But again, one play, two plays, three plays, four plays, they're driving down again and Paul Thompson fumbles the ball going into score. Who knows, they score there again its 14 points. They get a turnover at the end of the first half. They march it down there and get a 50-yard field goal, and in 3 plays that could have been 17 points. So again, the total complexion of the game could have changed on the first play of the game. It could have changed if Paul hadn't fumbled going into the end zone. It could have changed if they hit that field goal. There were lots of little plays in that game that determined the outcome. I thought OU played hard, I watched every snap at my house, and I watched the tape 4 or 5 times on Monday and I thought they played good football and they played hard. They just didn't make some plays in some critical situations in the football game that would have turned the tide. The same thing with Auburn and Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech did a good job, minimized turnovers, and took care of the football. What did Auburn do? Turned it over, and they lose. Again, that's one of those things that happens in your first game of the year in a lot of situations. If you don't get off to a good start, if you give a team a little momentum or let them hang in there, you've got some challenges. We didn't put Minnesota under the gun; we didn't ever challenge them and make them think, "Uh oh, here we go." There were points in time in that game where I thought we could have done that. Again, it's interesting as you look back at our game -- we hold them on 4th and 1 at the end of the first half. We come out and we score a touchdown instead of missing a field goal on the first drive of the second half. It's 17-10 instead of being 24-3. So it's a little bit different complexion in terms of, not only the score differential, which fans and media look at, but the complexion of the game, in terms of how coaches and players look at it."
How would you access the way OU used two quarterbacks during the game?
"We anticipated that going into the season. We knew that they would play two quarterbacks, it was pretty apparent that they'd do that. We listened to all the media reports, and seeing how they used the quarterbacks in their scrimmages and spring game. So, it didn't surprise me they that played two quarterbacks in the game."
Talk about your depth at running back:
"I said in here a week ago and said I was really pleased with the depth we had coming out of our fall training camp in our running back position. I think everything that happened Thursday night validated that. Again, I think Tarion (Adams) had an excellent game. He did some good things. I thought Uril ran the ball hard in between the tackles and did some good things, particularly when they pinned us down on the one-yard line on the one occasion with the 55-yard punt. We were able to bang it out of there, get a couple of first downs and re-change the field position. I thought Cauvey Jackson did some good things. He caught the ball out of the backfield, did a couple of nice things with the ball in his hands on a couple of occasions. Again, I think coming out of that game, it did nothing but validate the thoughts I had coming out of fall training camp that we have excellent depth in the running back position and we're going to need that to be a successful team."
What surprised you about your team in the first game?
"I was a little surprised that we turned the ball over as much as we did. I thought we had done a better job of taking care of the football in scrimmages, so that was disappointing and surprising at the same time. We knew going into the football game that there were a couple of things that would have to happen for us to be successful -- we were going to have to minimize turnovers, and minimize the impact that Maroney would have on the game. We didn't do as good of a job as I would have liked to seen us do in both of those areas. Obviously, we gave up two long runs and we turned the football over. Again, if you were to take those six plays out of the game including the four turnovers and two long runs by Maroney, maybe the game would have turned out differently. But again, those are things we need to correct. They occur, and we diagnose what we need to improve upon and now we've got to go do it."
Did you learn anything new about OU offense by watching the TCU game?
"No, not really. They're talented and I knew that going into the TCU game. They're a very talented offense. They have probably the best tailback in the country. They've got some talented wide receivers, Travis is really playing good football right now and is dangerous in their return game, and Rankins can do some things also. They've got a talented football team, there's no doubt about it. Again, you just take two or three of those plays and skew them the other way and who knows what happens in that game. It's not just those plays themselves, but it's the momentum and the crowd. TCU did a good job of minimizing the errors in that game. TCU made some errors in that game, Ty drops the snap, they go down and score a field goal, then come out and score at the start of the first half. That's 10 points right there and maybe the momentum of the game is a little different. Again, I think they've got a talented football team, they're very well-coached from a schematic standpoint, and they have numbers. Like I said, the first play of the game, as soon as I saw it on television, as soon as I saw the guy motioning across and I saw the free safety step up, I said "Look out boys, the Sooner Schooner is about to roll."
Talk about the challenge of stopping Adrian Peterson:
"I don't know if you can stop Adrian Peterson, you can just try to minimize the impact he has on the game. He is a tremendous athlete, he runs the ball really well between the tackles, he's got the speed to get outside and you know they are going to throw the ball to him. They are trying to continue to evolve and put the ball in his hands because he is such a threat. He is hard to tackle, being big and strong. He reminds me a lot of Eric Dickerson. He is a very impressive football player that can handle himself very well in front of the media. I have a lot of respect for him as a football player and as a man."
How did TCU limit Adrian Peterson?
"They didn't let him get started by crowding the line of scrimmage and forcing him to run laterally instead of downhill. They did a good job of outnumbering him as a team. It is a challenge to stop Adrian Peterson, in fact TCU did not stop him, they only minimized his impact in the game."
