TULSA POSTGAME QUOTES VS. OKLAHOMA
9/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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TULSA HEAD COACH Bill Blankenship
Opening statement
Bill Blankenship: You have to give credit where credit is due. Those guys in white are an awfully good football team. Very well coached, very machinelike in the way they approached it. What we had hoped to do we didn't do very well. You have to start the game with execution, and we didn't very well. Certainly they took advantage of those mistakes, which good football teams do. We just have to put our hand to the plow and go back to work, and try to win September.
Q. What do you hope you guys take away from this and learn?
Bill Blankenship: Well, I think we played better in the second half after things were decided, but what we talked about is that probably for our offense will be the best look that we're going to get other than practice. We need to go quit looking at the scoreboard and just try to compete. We've got to build on the positives and we've got to identify the mistakes and correct them. If that's personnel issues or something else, we've got to be willing to make those calls.
Q. What made Sterling Shepard so hard to contain?
Bill Blankenship: I think you're going to see all year that he's tough. They do a good job on the other side away from Sterling, and it forces you to have to do some things they're very good schematically. I mean, they'll play you where you've either got a one on one with Sterling and then you empty out the box and do some things and then you've got the running game. If you're going to stop the running game then you've got to play a lot more one on one with him. The fact they're very balanced in what they can do makes him an especially tough match up.
Q. What can you tell us about DeMarco?
Bill Blankenship: Had an apparent concussion early in the game.
Q. After he went out, I'm guessing it wasn't the start you guys wanted, but what
Bill Blankenship: It caused us to have to move our corner, move Will Barrow to safety. Then we had plan B in the works, and then we got some other things messed up in terms of personnel issues and we had to shuffle some guys around. It really is football, it's just what we had to do. I hate it for Demarco because I think he was really ready to have the kind of game that I thought he could have, and it didn't start well for him.
Q. I know the entire game is obviously a disappointment, but could you boil it down to a couple things that maybe disappointed you the most about today?
Bill Blankenship: Oh, I think just the first quarter. I mean, really just the poor start. We gave up that long run to start the game, then they tempoed us, which we practiced. We know they're going to tempo us, but they executed very well, get a guy running free. So we get that very early, and then offensively we have trouble moving it on the first one or at least without penalty on the first drive. So I mean, those are the things you cannot have that kind of start. In the first quarter on offense, we missed a few signals with our receivers, we had some communication issues, and those are things that, again, you just can't overcome that. That's what we had hoped to eliminate.
Q. You mentioned some of the big plays they had in the running game. Seems this year and even going back to last week you had problems not just giving up a 10 or 12 yard run up the middle, but is it a linebacker issue?
Bill Blankenship: We'll look at the film. I think when that happens there's probably several issues. I couldn't tell you I do believe that Oklahoma is very good schematically. I think they had us pegged pretty well. The first play, the speed sweep, was just not containing. I mean, we've got to set the edge as an outside linebacker or corner, and once they circled the defense, then you're in trouble on that. But they had some other opportunities that they hit up the middle, basically trap blocked, did some blocking with their lead back that was a little different than the way we were fitting it, and got some guys open.
Just again, good job by them schematically.
Q. How is Derek Patterson?
Bill Blankenship: Derek had an apparent concussion. I haven't received the reports, but he was taken out of the game, as well.
Q. What about Tavarreon Dickerson's status.
Bill Blankenship: Tavarreon played well early. He had an issue that kept him out of the game in the second half.
Q. I know Blake Bell played against you guys last year at quarterback, but what did you think of Trevor tonight and what problems he presents?
Bill Blankenship: Well, Trevor runs the ball. That's the thing, their option game is a tough match up. Trevor I thought handled himself well, didn't give us very many opportunities. Gave us maybe one opportunity on a pick that we didn't get, but for the most part it looked like to me, and again, I don't coach him, but it looked like to me he made good decisions.
Q. How long do you look at this film after a game like this?
Bill Blankenship: Yeah, great question. The reality is you'd like to say, hey, let's go put that away and move on, but we can't. We've really got to improve. If we don't improve from game two to game three we've got to find those corrections, we have to make those changes that we have to make. There may be some personnel things that we have to look at. You never know when you go into this, but the whole idea is I'm sure we will spend as a coaching staff tonight I'm sure since we played so early, but we'll get with our players tomorrow, we'll put it to bed, so to speak. We're going to make corrections, sit in there for the meeting, and when that's done we've got to turn full attention to FAU.
Q. How did Derrick Luetjen play today?
Bill Blankenship: Well, I saw him with a big sack. That was good. I have a hard time being able to look at those guys and tell you how they played individually, but I really liked the leadership that Derrick brings to our defense. He's been playing very strong inside. Looked like to me he showed up a few times.
Q. OU obviously has hopes of being in the Final Four this year. Where do you see them now compared to early last season when you played them?
Bill Blankenship: I told Coach Stoops before the game, I think this is a more athletic team. I think they're deeper. I think even with their places like running back and receiver, some areas the guys haven't played as long experience wise, I think this is a very deep team. I think they're athletic enough to make a serious run.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE BACK Will Barrow
What do you take from this game?
"We have to go back to film to actually see what went wrong. Watch the film to see the missed calls, the missed communication, the missed tackles and to see where we fit in our gaps. We just take that, watch film and move forward to the next game. We can't dwell on this game."
What was it like when DeMarco went out with the injury and you had to move to safety?
"It wasn't a big transition. Like you said, I played it last year, so it's still kind of comfortable for me. We always say the next guy up, so I moved to safety and a young guys comes in at corner. That's what we have to do."
Is Sterling Shepard one of the best receivers you've played against?
"I believe so. Sterling is very fast, very athletic. As a DB, we're always taught to high-point the ball, and today he pretty much high-pointed more than us, and of course, he made some very good plays. Overall, Sterling is a very good athlete and probably the best receiver I've seen."
When OU scored quickly, what was that like? Was that deflating and how we're able to move on past that?
Of course we got down a little bit. We tried to recuperate, tried to re-group, saying keep our heads up. That's what we had to do because there was a lot of ballgame left, and that's what we tried to do. But, OU came out on top. They ended up playing strong and finishing strong."
Against today, they broke another long run, why do you think they bust these runs on you guys?
It's miscommunication or not in the correct gaps and that goes back to staying focused and being disciplined. We've tried to make plays that really aren't there for us, so we tend to over-run or not even get there at certain times. OU's O-line does a good job of staying on their blocks and the running backs do a good job of finding the holes, and once they find the holes they take advantage of it. Kudos to them."
Is that something you can improve on?
"Most definitely. We have to go back to the film, look at the call and then find out where things went wrong and find the correct gap. That goes for the back end as well. The front seven have to do there job but it's also our job to be touchdown savers."
SOPHOMORE RECEIVER Keevan Lucas
What do you take from this game?
"We just have to start faster. Not taking anything away from OU. They're a good defensive team. Their DBs are good. Their defensive front is really good. The biggest thing we have to take from this is to start fast and finishing drives. We don't finish drives very well right now, so we have to get back to the playbook, and see what works and the missed opportunities we had."
How quickly do you put this game to bed, or do you let it bother you for a little bit?
"It's already out the door. We can't dwell on it. The better team won today, so now it's time to move on to FAU. We'll come back and watch the film tomorrow. After we watch film tomorrow and get the missed assignments fixed, then it's on to next week. It's over with and we can't take it back, so it's time to move on."
Did anything surprise you, or did they play as you expected and did they just outplay you guys?
"They came ready to play. We expected them to be big and expected them to be fast. For the most part the better team won. No credit taken away from them. We have to start faster like I said earlier, and maybe next time."
OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH BOB STOOPS
Thoughts on the game
"I'm really pleased with the overall play of our team. I really believe Tulsa is getting ready for a really good year. These guys do a great job over here, coach Blankenship, his whole staff. I thought [Dane Evans] is a good player. He's really going to make a difference for them this year. I'm really pleased with the overall play of our team. The way we played, other than the last minute of the first half where we had a few penalties, we played really smart. We took care of the football, we didn't have many foolish penalties. We ran and threw the ball well. I thought the offensive line really blocked well. I thought our runinng backs really played well and made some big plays. Defensively I am really pleased. The first half couldn't have gone much better. Other than the one drive to start the second half, we made some adjustments to what they were doing and played a little better. We got pressure on the quarterback and forced turnovers. Special teams were solid again."
On Sterling's performance
"Sterling is a really special player. He has a chance to have a really big year. He had opportunities for a couple other big plays. Trevor [Knight] is getting better at making those plays. We just have to keep getting on the same page with some of those plays. Sterling can run it, he can get behind you, he can return it. He's really special."
On getting big leads early and staying focused the rest of the game
"Yeah. I thought some of the backups today played better than they did a week ago and hopefully they learned from their time on the field.
"We've excuted well, run and pass. It is good when you come out right from the start and play that way."
On Trevor Knight's performance
"Overall, I thought he was excellent. He played really well."
On the benefit of using three running backs
"We're going to always have fresh strong guys. You're going to have a better chance to pop a [big] run and they're going to run stronger the fresher they are."
OKLAHOMA QUARTERBACK TREVOR KNIGHT
On his game
"I think it was good. Once again we started off fast and that was big for us. Early on we missed a couple of shots down the field that we need to connect on. But as the game went on I ended up hitting a few to Sterling down the sidelines."
On looking for Sterling Shepard throughout the game
"It's all matchups. Sterling does a good job of being explosive out on the edge and beating coverage. I was just trying to put it up there for him. There were a couple of drops and a couple of missed balls deep. We just need to get on the same page, and I think we did in the second half, and that was good to see.
On looking forward to playing Tennessee
"Tennesse has been playing great. They played great week one. To get a big home game like that it's going to be cool for us. These first two games have been good to get our feet wet. I think we've played pretty well, but we've also left a lot on the field. We know we're not going to be able to do that this week against Tennessee. So it's going to be nice to get out there and put one together for four quarters."
On his touchdown run
"The play opened up for me. I had to side step the safety, but for the most part the o-line did a great job and I took what they gave me."
On getting multiple receivers involved
"The guys just find a way to get open, and making plays too, that's what it's all about. I'm not going to hit every single shot, but they're going to make some plays for me. It's that chemistry that we need to continue to develop going into next week."
On the O-line
"They did a great job distorting the line of scrimmage. We had one sack and that was my fault, I held onto the ball a little too long. But they did a great job all day of really protecting well."
