UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 10, 2022

Grant Saywer

Press Conference

Tulsa 38, Northern Illinois 35

Q. Looks like you're in really good shape at halftime, and then come out and score and get the on-side kick, and then all of a sudden it's a tie game. Talk about what's going through your heads and talk a little bit about what went on?

GRANT SAWYER: We came that second half, and the momentum kind of shifted a little bit. Our focus was we needed to get that momentum back, and we needed to ride with it. Start executing again.

Q. Take us through after the big score you get the lead, less than a minute left, but still have plenty of time to get down the field. What's your mind stet there?

GRANT SAWYER: Offense did a great job. They took it down and scored. We knew this game is not over. There's still a minute left. You never know. We just knew we had to stop them and get the win.

Q. On the field a lot in that third quarter especially for you guys on defense, just how did you guys work through that?

GRANT SAWYER: They got us on a couple of third downs. We just need to focus on stopping the teams on third down and getting off the field and getting the ball in the offense's hands.

Q. How big is it just to get the first one of the year to get rid of the feelings from the last game and get a win and get things rolling?

GRANT SAWYER: It feels good. Get that first one on the board, and now we can start rolling. We know a lot of games come down to the end, and we need to win at the end, and we got this one, and we're going to roll with it.

Q. Was there ever a thought where you were, like, oh, my goodness, we can't let this one get away like the last one, or...

GRANT SAWYER: I never thought that. This team, we're going to fight until the end. We know we're always in it. We can always win this game, and that's what we did tonight.