Postgame Quotes
10/15/2022 8:03:00 PM | Football
TCU head coach Sonny Dykes:
On the game:
"Great win for our program. Really proud of our players. It was a heck of a win. We made every mistake we possibly could have in the first half and they just kept hanging in there, battling. I really thought we had a great mentality at halftime. We didn't really get a sense of anybody panicking, we just came out in the second half defensively and played lights out. We got the stops we had to defensively. We couldn't get it down to under a two-score game for a while and the defense really took over. I thought those guys played exceptional down the stretch. Max Duggan continues to play as good of football as any quarterback I've ever been around. He does everything he can to help your football team win. He got hit a bunch, he's a tough guy and I'm so proud of him. Just a fun win, I'm happy for our student body and our fans. I'm mostly happy for our players. They did a great job of rolling their sleeves up and going to work in the second half, figuring out a way to win the game.
On OSU keeping the offense off the field
"I thought they had a good plan coming in. They really got us off balanced early in the game. I thought their offense got our defense out of sorts. They ran a couple of trick plays and caught us off guard a little bit, but once we settled in, we played great defense. It was 14-nothing right out of the shoot. I thought we played exceptional defense against a great Oklahoma State offense. Spencer Sanders is a hell of a quarterback, and we were going to have to get some stops to have a chance to get back in the game and that's why they were so big.
On Quentin Johnson
"He and Max really believe in each other and trust each other. They are always on the same page, and I think that's the biggest thing. We call plays sometimes with the intent of the ball to go somewhere else and Max finds a way to get the ball to Quentin. He trusts Quentin. He does such a great job attacking, I think people probably overlook that aspect of his game, how good he is after the catch."
On the fumbled punt:
"The thing is we really played about as bad as we could in the first half, and it was still a two score game. We though we made a lot of mistakes. Davis dropped a punt and I've never seen him do that, even in practice. It was a left-footed punter and we tried to simulate it this week on the jugs machine, but it really wasn't the same. To get a stop after that was huge, because it could have gotten out of control at that point. Oklahoma State had the momentum and we had to get two or three stops defensively to get a chance to win and I thought that was critical. We were out of sorts, and I thought we had to keep it as close as we could."
On the touchdown at the red of regulation:
"It's something we run quite a bit in the redzone on the goal line. At that point in the game, you want to put the ball into people's hands that you trust. Kendre and Max were going to be the guys down the stretch that were going to win it for us. Let me say this, I thought our offensive line played about as good as I've seen an offensive line play in a ling time. I thought we ran the ball well today. Kendre was 112 yards, net 104 and they were tough yards. I thought the guys blocked well and played very physical. We thought at the end of regulation, do we want to go for two? We felt like as long as the game got extended that was good for us. As long as it continued, we thought that was good for us."
On Max Duggan:
"He's kind of symbolic to this football team. We are a team of overachievers in some ways. We won some big games and those guys have played really hard. These guys love each other and don't want to let each other down. It makes everyone around him better. It makes the scout team guys better; it makes the guys in the weight room want to work harder. It raises the level of commitment and care when you really are invested in people the way these guys are in each other."
On the deficit:
"I thought for the first time this season we played a little tight tonight. I thought we were in the first half against Colorado and tonight. Maybe they picked that up from me, I tried not to give them any kind of reason to take this any differently. I think we played like we weren't trying to make any mistakes rather than playing free and I think that's what makes these guys good. We want them to play free and we want them to try to play fast and not think too much. We've got good team speed and we want to play to our strengths rather than over analyze too much."
On being unbeaten:
It means we have a bunch of good players. The guys are doing what we ask them to do and they're talented guys. We talked about this way of climbing up the latter. As you have success, more is expected of you, and you have to be able to carry that load. Once we decided to relax and play, I thought we played well."
TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnston
On what's the biggest change from a year ago:
"Getting to know my teammates more. The bond between everybody has been stronger than last year. If you take care of everyone off the field, everything on the field will take care of itself."
On what has helped having confidence as an offense:
"We have to be disciplined. When you get down two scores, you panic, ballgame is over from there. The mistakes snowball from there. We've learned from past years, not to let that discourage us and keep putting one front in front of the other and keep going."
On what he was thinking when the game was won:
"It was exciting to play a big team and undefeated just like us. We wanted to go in there and show what we have. My feeling from that was just 'we did it.' But we had to cap it off with defense and then it was a good play from Kendre (Miller)."
TCU running back Kendre Miller
On the final touchdown and what was going on in his head at the time:
"To finish. Max was a yard short in the end and when they called me into the play I knew I had to finish."
On going into the second half:
"Coming into halftime it was hard because we were down. But I felt the energy from the team going out and I knew we had it in us."
On the energy of this year versus last year:
"It's a big difference. Even the second half energy is a big difference. Coming in from half time, we usually get really comfortable. This year I feel like we throughout every game we go out and know we have to dominate.
On the difference in offensive mentality this year:
"I feel like we've always had playmakers. Coach (Garrett) Riley does a great job as offensive coordinator and has a great staff that he brought in. It's like the pieces of the puzzle coming together."
"I think we're pretty special this year, we were ranked pretty much last. Seeing all that we did over the summer and spring I knew we were going to be special."
On the impact on players of breaking the student attendance record:
"The student section was over 6,000, an absolutely crazy number. I just want to thank them all for coming out. When we got the interception everyone started roaring. Everyone stayed and believed in us. I think they were a big part of our victory today."
TCU quarterback Max Duggan
On the significance of the win:
"That's the reason why you stay here that's the reason why the guys want to be at TCU. That's why they want to be in Fort Worth. That's why you want to play in this program, play in front of these fans. I mean that's what college football is all about and that was a special one."
On the offensive mindset going into the fourth quarter:
"I think just don't try to get it all back in one play, just keep doing the next play, staying calm and staying confident in what we're doing. Just continuing to do your job, not trying to do something extra, trying to get it back in one play. I think you saw, that's what Coach Dykes tells us all the time, just keep doing your job. Do your job and don't try to make it back in one play. Don't try to do anything extra, and you saw us continue to fight back, guys make plays, crowd gets involved it helps us a lot and we were able to pull it back in overtime and get a win."
On Oklahoma State's slow substitutions:
"That's what they were going in with and eventually I think I started chirping at them enough. Coach Dykes started chirping at them enough where the refs were eventually going to be like okay. They're doing this on purpose. They're taking their time. They're walking in. I understand that when we sub they get a shot, but you can't do what they were doing so."
On Quentin Johnston:
"Like I say all the time, he makes my job easy. I just have to do whatever I can to get him the ball and he does the rest. I mean you throw him a 5-yard slant route, 5-yard hitch route he can take it 50, makes one guy miss and he's off. Dude is a special player, a special kid. He's a good kid. He's got the right mindset, and you know he's gonna be successful."
On the team's mental growth:
"I think it shows the culture of this team, the mindset we have, never doubting ourselves, never panicking, always staying, always believing in each other, believing in our coaches. You saw that tonight. We could have given up. We could have said alright game's over. They're up there. They're starting to pull away. Our guys kept on fighting and kept on making plays, but we know it wasn't pretty, but we found a way. That's all that matters right now, trying to find a way to win."
On the winning feeling after everything he's been through at TCU:
"Yeah, that's the reason I came to TCU, that's the reason why I didn't leave, I love this place I love the school, I love the city. I love this program, and to be involved like that with a big win like that, get the fans in there, coaches are happy, players are happy. It's a one-of-a-kind feeling."
On who gets credit for a majority of the team returning this year:
"I think it's everybody. Everybody puts in the work. Everybody has that great mindset and it's just all of the work we did starting in January, with guys buying into the process, buying into what we're doing here, never flinching, I think there's a lot of credit to everyone in this program, a lot of people that probably don't get the spotlight, that don't get named, but there's a lot of people behind the scenes that deserve a lot of credit and a lot of support."
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy
Overall thoughts on the game:
"We became a little bit one dimensional. I really think that is what the difference was. Really, the biggest difference in my opinion is their ability to rush the ball. They averaged a little over 5.0 yards per carry and we were only at 3.6 or so. It was two good teams out there playing today. In the fourth quarter, I thought that they did a better job scheme-wise in coaching than we did. They made some plays at the end to get them over the hump."
On TCU's scheme:
"They made a few more plays calls than we did. We couldn't get adjusted in the running game and they did. We did bust a coverage late in the game. Overall, defensively, we played pretty good. Offense kept putting them back out there in the third and fourth quarter. Offensively, we didn't rush the ball as effectively as we needed to."
On what he said to the team after the game.
"I just told them the truth. The difference was they rushed the ball effectively and we didn't. Their coaches made some good calls late in the game and they made some plays late in the game. I told them all week we were playing a good team. They were going to make good plays and we were going to make good plays. They made their plays at the end. This league, I don't know if anyone has a guaranteed win at all. It's going to be week-to-week and preparation. I asked them to make sure that when we come to work tomorrow they are in a good frame of mind. I understand they are frustrated. That's good."
On the passing game:
"Again, we didn't rush the ball well. When you are averaging 3.5 per snap running the ball, the other team might start to think you are one dimensional and they can play different."
On TCU's run game and Quentin Johnston:
"Scheme-wise, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I think one of the major issues is trying to protect against No. 1 (Quentin Johnston) so when you are trying to protect against him, it's hard to play the run a lot. He draws a lot of attention. I thought we did a good job defensively. He made some plays. We lost him there at the end of the game. We dropped coverage on him. They have a good offense. They are going to score some points. No. 1 is a factor in trying to stop the run."
Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Derek Mason
On the defense:
"They made a couple of plays that I think created some momentum and we missed opportunities to get on the field that came back to bite our butts."
"For our guys, I love our defense and our team, they're just resilient. They know how to play. They know what they have to do."
"We wanted to keep the big ball off us, in terms of the explosive pass. You don't want to bleed in both areas. For us, our game plan was to rally. Make sure we could fit the run and rally to the run. At times we did and at times we didn't and what we wanted to didn't work. Really, we wanted to keep the big ball off of us and for the most part I think we did that, we just didn't do enough."
"We saw some guys in and out in the second half and the reality is, you're trying to make sure you get the vibe of some consistency with the group that is out there."
On what TCU did well:
"I thought their second efforts were good. I thought we had moments at time, in our grasp, and just didn't finish. I thought they did a good job, especially later in the ball game, getting on the other side and breaking some of those tackles, which they weren't doing earlier in the game."
"I need to give credit to TCU. They're a good football team and they won the game tonight. What we have to do is go back, look at it, and fix it, because we're going to see it again in the next ball game"
On TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnston's touchdown in overtime:
"On that particular play, they called an RPO slant, probably expecting cover-2, they got single safety zone and it wound up being a clear window for the quarterback to throw the football. It was a missed opportunity for us."
Oklahoma State defensive end Tyler Lacy
On what made TCU's offense so effective:
"They just got underneath our pads and drove us back. We just have to get back to the game plan, focus, break it down and see where we can improve."
On if he ever felt like the game was going to get away:
"No, I didn't feel like it was going to get away from us. The defense was holding us all game and we let a few plays go. They (TCU) came back and they didn't quit."
On how hard it is to lose a big lead:
"It makes it hard walking away from a game like that. You know in your head that you had it. You had full control of the game. Right at the last second it got taken away from us."
On containing TCU quarterback Max Duggan:
"I felt good about how we played against him. We were watching film and saw how he has explosive runs. He has runs that go 80 yards down the field. He didn't do that against us today so I felt like we controlled him well."
Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders
On what TCU did defensively in the second half:
"They dropped eight sometimes and sometimes they played man. They made plays and made a little bit more than we did. They have a good defensive line and they made some plays. I have to come out and play better next week."
On how he played:
"If anyone wants to point fingers, you can point it at me. I'll take it. It ain't going to bother me. It all boils down to I have to play better. So, it's on me. I'll take it. We'll get it right. We're good."
On how not practicing most of the week affected things:
"It didn't. It's just football. I just have to come out and play better."
Players Mentioned
TCU Football | Sonny Dykes and Players Post-game Press Conference (Baylor)
Saturday, October 18
Behind the Mic: TCU vs. Baylor
Saturday, October 18
TCU Football | Sonny Dykes and Players Weekly Press Conference (vs. Baylor)
Tuesday, October 14
TCU Football | Sonny Dykes and Players Weekly Press Conference (vs. Baylor)
Tuesday, October 14
