TCU vs. Oklahoma Postgame Quotes
10/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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TCU head coach Gary Patterson
Opening Statement:
"Well, I knew it was going to be struggle for us with them having two weeks off. They caught us on a couple of big plays early. We had to change up some coverages and we finally got a chance to slow them down a little bit. That's a good football team. Like I told my team after, you shouldn't get overly excited. You have Baylor next week. Now we get done, go eat a little dinner and let's get started with Baylor. You may say it's coach speak but I promise you that's what'll happen. Maybe you guys didn't expect it, but these kids did. I told them in pregame to not look at the scoreboard and play every minute. That's how you beat really good football teams; you play every minute. Each team got breaks, but you have to find a way to win. You still have a long way to go. We're 4-0, 1-0 in the conference. We'll get ready for Baylor, then we'll get ready for Oklahoma State and then we'll get ready for Texas Tech. Right now, we're going to get ready for Baylor. They get the same speech."
On Sterling Shepard and Oklahoma's play:
"Well, first off they changed things around. He's a good player. It's a usual Bob Stoops team. They come right at you. Basically, we ran things in the second half that we didn't work on all week. We had to roll some three-deep blitzes, you name it, we tried it. We blitzed from every angle we could trying to contain them. They hit us on an out and up first play. We watched the Tulsa game and I told them in the first 20 plays they're going to take 10 shots. So, they're going to go for home runs and try to knock us out of this ball game and they came close to doing that. Our kids rallied, made it a dogfight and we found a way to win in the end. We were trying to give it away. If you had told me in the last four minutes that we would've fumbled it twice after we got the ball back and we still won, that just doesn't happen. Finally a little bit of luck on our side. But they're a very good football team."
On how the early lead helped win the game:
"That allowed us to handle it. Every time it got tied, as far as I'm concerned the game was 0-0 and that's what I told them. Don't even look up there [at the scoreboard]. You just have to keep playing and go make plays. That's how you beat good football teams. You have to keep driving. That's what we tried to do."
On his team:
"With our group last year, they fought and came back. You don't lose to five teams by less than 11 points total without fighting back. This group here learned how to fight back. We just didn't have quite enough fire power last year. You have a big play for a touchdown and then we tried to give it back with a blocked PAT for goodness sakes. That was a big deal. They had to use their timeouts early and that was a big point in the ball game. We had to keep mixing up coverages and doing some stuff. You have to have a little luck with all of it. I have a lot of praise for Bob Stoops, my hats off to them. They've won the last two, but we finally got one. It's been since 2005 but I'll take it where I can get it."
On the fan support:
"I was really excited about the student section and the fans. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. It gave us energy and it was unbelievable today. If we keep doing that, we'll win more football games here at Amon G. Carter Stadium. They were fired up about it."
TCU linebacker Paul Dawson
On the game-winning interception return for a touchdown
"The quarterback had been throwing slants and balls on a rope the whole game. As soon as he looked to my side I just felt it coming. I stepped out, caught the ball and sprinted. It was supposed to be a blitz."
On the impact of the game
"It's a blessing. This is going to put us on the map. You want to beat the best of the best. The opportunity was here, and we shocked the world. Our team is full of playmakers."
On the team's win and how they can prepare for Baylor on Saturday
"This is for sure a statement. It has to be a repeat [preparation method]."
On how the win compares to the rest of the nation
"I guess this is the upset week. I felt like we were going to win regardless. Our game plan was awesome. We are good enough to win the Big 12."
TCU defensive tackle Chucky Hunter
On the atmosphere of the game
"It was a great turnout. I just want to thank all the fans staying in the game. We really appreciate it.
TCU safety Chris Hackett
On being able to finish games this year:
"This year, our team is more focused as a whole. Not just defense and not just offense, but as a whole. This defense is great, we have a great coach in Gary Patterson, and the whole coaching staff. They prepared us well for this game and we just tried to come out and play our best game"
On Dawson and his interception:
"Dawson is a great player. He's an athlete. I don't even call him a linebacker; he's a hybrid. I know Trevor Knight didn't see him when he made that catch, so I think it surprised everybody."
TCU receiver Kolby Listenbee
On the atmosphere:
"It was crazy. All the stands were more packed than I've ever seen them before. All the fans that came out gave us a lot of energy. It kept us pumped up the whole game."
On matching last year's win total with this win:
"Last year, we didn't go to a bowl game, and this year we came back hungry. I relate this to Missouri last season. After falling off the season before, they came back strong the next year. If we go out there and stay focused, stay hungry, and stay humble, then we can go out there and have a really good season, a BCS-type season."
On this win showing that TCU can win the Big 12:
"[This win] opened people's eyes. People were not really respecting us. They look at us like a Mountain West team still, so it's showing people that TCU is here. We will go out there and keep on being physical."
TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin
On the win:
"It was a fantastic win for the University. Not just our football team, but the whole school was behind us. I want to give a big shout-out to our fans for staying the whole game and making our home field advantage something important."
On the impact of the 14-0 lead in the first quarter:
"We had to start off quick because you can't play around when you're playing schools like this. We put the 14 points up and should have kept the pressure on them. The penalties shot us in the foot, and those are things that are correctable that we can get corrected during the week."
On his confidence now compared with the past two seasons:
"It's off the charts right now. Especially after this game and even going into this game, we knew we could win. Nobody mattered except the 53 guys in the locker room that believed, and we went out there and we proved to the world that we can do it."
OU head coach Bob Stoops
Opening statement:
"I have no qualms about how our team played, we came in here ready to play. Our guys had a great two weeks of work. We knew it was going to be a big challenge. The bottom line is they made plays and we didn't. They outpreformed us in different areas. We had our opportunities and chances late in the second half and we couldn't take advantage of it. I give TCU credit. We made too many mistakes.They just beat us."
On turnovers and play calling:
"There is no magical play calling. The bottom line is its execution, and they preformed better than we did."
On Trevone Boykin:
"Boykin scrambled around to make a play even when we had the right pressure on him, he made the plays. He made quite a few of those in the first half in a similar way and not as many in the second half."
On playoffs and the rest of the season:
"I know for sure that if you keep losing you're not going to have much chance of anything. We take it week to week. We came in here knowing that we had to play our best to win this game. Period. We weren't looking at the end of the season. To play, you don't look at the end of the season. All we care about is next week. Period."
On OU's performance:
"I like our team. I don't back down from that even after today. They have a great attitude. They have great team chemistry. We've got to keep getting better."
