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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 14, 2019

Philip Montgomery

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Oklahoma State - 40, Tulsa - 21

PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I was proud of our football team. I think we have a really good football team. We've got to quit shooting ourselves in the foot. We had way too many penalties. We gave up some explosive plays today that we haven't been giving up. To me, those were probably the two main things in the game that kind of -- without going back and look at it, the things that stood out to me.

We had big plays negated by penalties. Get some momentum going and shoot ourselves in the foot again with some penalty. So we've got to eliminate those things. I thought our guys played extremely hard. I thought we captured momentum there in the first half and did a good job of establishing those things and just didn't really come out and get anything established in the second half the way we needed to.

Hats off to Coach Gundy and Oklahoma State. They've got a really talented football team. But very proud of our team and what they can do. I think that this team's got a chance to do some things this year. We've got to stay healthy, and we've got to quit shooting ourselves in the foot, and we've got to be a little bit more disciplined in some areas.

With that, I'll take questions.

Q. Talk about, when you got down, a lot of people could -- I'm sure in the stands is, well, look OSU is going to have their way. Talk a little bit about how -- what a great resolve you had and the team came back and took the halftime lead. That was pretty incredible after that start.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Well, I think. -- you know, obviously, we didn't get started the way we wanted to. They opened up with a big play, a couple of big plays in there. I was very proud of our football team. I think we stayed locked in, continued to keep grinding. We stayed together. I think this team is a bunch of guys that are relentless about finding and fighting until we find a way to win. I'm very proud of that part of it.

I thought we really did some good things there, kind of in that latter part of the first quarter, and then the second quarter I thought things kind of took fire. We played the way I wanted us to play -- good tempo on both sides, good recognition, hit some throws. I thought some guys really stepped up and made some plays and really kind of -- I thought our conditioning there in the latter part of the second half was a big factor. I thought our tempo was really good right through there. We had a good balance of what we wanted to do, and guys just kept continuing to compete and make plays.

Q. The penalties, I know that was an issue last week too. Is some of that just experience, youth?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Some of it is experience. Some of it is -- I've got to be real careful, but I've just got to look at the film and see it all. There's some things that, obviously, we've got to go back and correct. Some of that is some youth. We've just got to be a little bit more disciplined in some areas.

But as long as we're playing hard, we just can't have those come in at negative times, and today they really came in at negative times, put us behind the chains in some areas and negated some really big plays that happened.

I bet we lost 150 or more yards off of penalties, not just -- I think, obviously, we had 156 yards of penalties, but in addition to that, there was probably three or four big pass plays in there that happened that got negated because of that. So we'll go back and look at the tape and see what it is.

Q. How frustrating is that, though?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Extremely.

Q. In a close game --
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Especially in the first half, there was probably at least three, maybe four of those that happened in the second half where, I thought, very similar to the first half, that play probably was fixing to spark, and some good things were about to happen. When you're battling like that, one of those big plays like that can really light it on fire. It happened in the first half. We throw the touchdown, and then things started really clicking. We got a lot of momentum at that point.

I think these plays probably could have led to that. Sure would have liked to have seen it.

Q. On your defense, we've talked about it before, they're resilient and tough minded, it seems, but to give up two touchdowns in the first four minutes and then only two more the rest of the way against a team with explosive play makers like that, what did it take for the defense to dial in and figure some things out?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: I think they just needed to take a deep breath, relax, and get back to playing football the way we know how to play it. Those guys -- the big run early, I think we're just flying a little bit too fast, and we kind of overran it. He hit a cut back in there, and we just kind of over pursued it, probably a little too hyped there.

The second one, honestly, I don't even remember at this point. And then I thought our defense kind of settled down and started playing the way I know they can play. You know, the big play they had in the second half on the throw, we're in decent position right there. It's just a good play by him, and those things sometimes happen.

But I was proud of our defense and their effort. That's an explosive offense that's put up a ton of points the first two weeks, and I thought our guys did a really nice job of battling all the way through.

Q. And then on your offense, shut out in the second half, what was that -- you touched on some of it. Generally --
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Honestly, I think a lot of that went back to us shooting ourselves in the foot with the penalty part of it. We had some drives in there or started some drives, and then as we're clicking down the field, all of a sudden, something puts us behind the chains. This is not a team you want to get behind the chains against.

One of the things that we did a good job of in the first half, especially kind of mid first quarter and then on through, was we did some nice job staying ahead of the chains, and we can stay a lot more balanced and do what we want to do in those situations. We were fighting chains and fighting penalties the rest of the second half. When you do that, it's going to be hard to maintain that type of momentum.

Q. Philip, you were the more energetic team coming off the field at the half. Give me a sense of the mood in the locker room and what kind of optimism there was at that point.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Yeah, our guys were in the right frame of mind. We had all the momentum at that point. Obviously, you've got to go back in, make some adjustments, but also you've got to come back out and re-establish momentum. I thought we had some opportunities to do that and just didn't take advantage of them, or we hurt ourself with a penalty.

So all that momentum is great, and the locker room was great. Those guys are locked in and focused. Yet you got to come back out in the second half. We've been talking about this since January about finishing, and you got to come back out, re-establish it, and go back to work.

Q. Did Zach take a hit to the head? What happened there?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: He took a good hit right in the back, but he could have came back in the game. I just didn't do it.

Q. Is this a game where -- obviously, I know losses are never fun, but is this a game that, moving forward, you can take positives from and know that you've done good things that will translate well into conference?
PHILIP MONTGOMERY: Just like I said in the opening statement, I think we've got a dang good football team. I really do. I think we're young, but we're starting to really come together. I think we're seeing flashes of things coming together. Now we've got to put -- I thought last week we put a full 60 minutes together. This week we put 30 minutes together, especially against that level of competition. You're going to have to play 60 minutes. And we just didn't come back out and re-establish it in the second half.

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