UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 16, 2023

Kevin Wilson

Press Conference

Oklahoma 66, Tulsa 17

KEVIN WILSON: Again, played a really good team. They played very, very well. Cannot have the turnovers we had. A week ago we didn't make plays; this week a bunch of turnovers. Two weeks in a row not getting stops.

Playing is a good skill; the guys battled hard.

Moving forward, we really felt the next couple weeks will be big. Thought that before the season. Knew we were playing two tremendous teams. But we're not trying to build a program. We're also trying to make sure that -- you just had K-Ray in here, our seniors, those guys are going out in a positive note.

Big week as we move forward. Tough challenge today, and Oklahoma has got a rock solid team, playing well, and got after us pretty good today.

Q. What were the conversations about starting quarterback, and how close are both Cardell and Braxton to being fully healthy?

KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, Cardell has practiced a lot. We kind of felt Roman played pretty well last week coming in and thought that Cardell actually -- we were planning on playing both of them. Unfortunately we made the change after Roman had a couple interceptions early. We were planning on -- we thought we needed both of them today.

Kind of felt Cardell would do better maybe being the second guy in, just kind of getting a feel, which he came in and played a really solid second quarter, ignited us, gave us some juice, made some plays.

Really good drive the first of the third quarter -- after that first drive of the third quarter they just teed off up front and controlled the line of scrimmage and pushed the pocket, and we threw some balls off our back foot, and we ended up with five picks.

We've got to do a better job of planning and helping, and we've tried that.

My concern is we've tried so hard with the teams we've played the last two weeks to get the ball moving. I trust on the way we have gotten better because ultimately we need to play well as we get into some games down the stretch within our conference, so it'll be interesting to see as you look back four weeks from now, six weeks from now, eight weeks from now, how good were these two weeks as we're trying to do the best we could to give our guys a chance but did we also make the consistent improvement you want to make.

Told our guys after the game, like with the two quarterback situation, we had Braylon dress today, did a little bit more. He's still not 100 percent where he really can push off and full go run yet.

So it'll be interesting as he goes through this week, and it's a short week, so it's going to be tough these next two weeks not trying to force his deal. He's practiced some but moderate. It's been very -- drills that are maybe noncompetitive.

Cardell practiced all week, and the thumb got stronger. He just bruised it. Roman had a solid, decent week.

As it went today with their pressure, we needed Cardell's feet. He helped us in the second quarter. I just thought when we throw all those picks in the third quarter, let's just take the air out of the ball and let's just run the football. We can't beat anybody with five picks. We've just got to coach better, call better plays, and hopefully play better for those guys down the stretch.

Q. You mentioned the second quarter twice. That spark that he provided, felt like he brought a lot of energy to the offense. Is that something in a game like today you take off and you kind of, okay, there's something we can build off?

KEVIN WILSON: Yeah, I mean, he's done that in practice settings, like we said before when we played the first game. He's had some good sessions. He's still young. At the game he was frustrated we took him out. I go, hey, man, we've had a bunch of picks. I'm just telling you, it's not cosmetic. Why didn't I go first? You played well against a great team; at the same time we had a lot of mistakes so we didn't play that well. We made some plays, but we had some errors, and as a quarterback, the first thing the quarterback can't do is get you beat.

We've got to learn and grow from that with both him and Roman and Braylon and the whole crowd.

Q. Talk a little bit about resilience. You get down 28-0 but Cardell comes in, you played a pretty good second quarter. At 28-0 it's looking like it could go really bad but then you get back in the game. Talk about the resilience of coming back and playing a good quarter and getting back in the game.

KEVIN WILSON: And I think the guys have shown that from the first game the way we started on the road last week, so I appreciate that.

I think we are establishing in our mindset and our culture, just play the next play. Don't ride the waves, the ups and downs. We do, again, have to tackle better. We need stops.

We've got to find -- we did make a few bigger plays today than we did last week. We've got to find a way to minimize turnover because we're not going to win a game on the negative side turnover, so we've got to make significant changes -- not changes, corrections with that.

But it was positive. I thought after the pick, I think DJ Jones had a pick, and I don't know if we could have scored, but I got conservative on the 3rd down call and ran it. We missed a block and then we punted. They went down and got 3. If we could have got that thing to 35-17, come out, you got a 1st and goal, maybe it's 35-24. I don't know if we got enough lead in the pencil to get over the hump, but you're kind of fighting with a team that's playing pretty well and playing good.

A lot of work needed. A lot of improvement needed. But there is some fight and grit with these guys. Like I say, I appreciated them afterwards. I told them again afterwards, when we got here, we didn't try to make a lot of changes as far as running people out. They stayed here, we've worked together. Right now it needs to be our best couple weeks working together as we get into conference play.

Q. Just talking about defensively, what was the toughest thing about trying to stop OU today?

KEVIN WILSON: I mean, similar. Their speed on the perimeter. Quarterback is pretty good. We're not setting the edge on the perimeter game, giving up too many easy post shots, easy pass plays.

If you're pressuring them one-on-one, can you cover them. If you're pressuring them, can you get there? When you just sit back, they still have enough good enough athletes that they're passing on their terms. So they're a really good offense, veteran crowd, good skill. Brent has got them playing so much better. They've got work to do, I'm sure. Can't say a lot of things -- there are, but that's looking like the football team you expect them to have year after year.

Q. At the end of the game I saw a number of OU people giving you hugs, whatnot. When you were standing there at the end by yourself listening to the school song, what was going through your mind?

KEVIN WILSON: I don't know all the words to the school song yet, so that's what I was thinking. I took my hat off to make sure.

I mean, before the game you don't really want to talk to those guys because you're trying to compete, and then at the same time there's a lot of guys, former players that are in a support role down there, full-time coaching, and a lot of those guys played for me, and I'm sitting here because of the way those guys played. So there's a lot of gratitude, appreciation, respect.

Had a chance to see some of the administrators that I've got a lot of respect for and a lot of respect for Brent and the team.

At the same time, everybody made a big deal about that. To me it was about our team. I want our guys to fight.

I thought we had a good week of practice. Didn't handle early with a couple turnovers. Didn't get settled down. Gave ourselves a chance, was fighting, and like I say, after the first drive of the third quarter, they basically just bowed up and finished the game like a really good team, and we've got a lot of work to do there.

Q. What were some of the main things you focused on from the Washington game to this one, and do you think those improvements came to fruition this game?

KEVIN WILSON: You know, again, we talk about getting stops and we still didn't. Playing a real good opponent. We talked about trying to make some plays in the offense, in the pass game, which we did, and we had some better plays. But the turnovers haunted us.

We always talk about taking care of the football, and we're doing a horrible job of that.

If the kick -- I don't know. We're minimizing sometimes some things -- those are two good teams, and we've just got a lot of work to do. And again, appreciate the kids are working, but as you hit a little bit of adversity, right now is -- when we got here, we tried to convince our guys to stay together, and right now as you have adversity, we need to stay together and put together our best week and travel on the road.

It's always hard to win a game. It's hard to win a game on the road. It's hard to win a game when you're traveling, and we need to put everything we can to go get this next win moving forward.

Q. Talk about the environment. It was a packed house. Tailgating was full. When you think of fan engagement, how you want fans to be involved in the program, what do you think today will do for that?

KEVIN WILSON: Well, again, to me they'll keep coming. I know there was a lot of crimson in the crowd today because of OU, their fans, and I appreciate that and respect that. I've seen that crowd here before because I played here a couple times when I was at OU, so I've seen that.

At the same time, I think for our school, I know our school is trying to brand itself as we grow and enhance enrollment, as we're trying to grow and enhance our athletic program. So it was a good showcase day. We had a bunch of recruits here today.

To me, this is a beautiful city. It's a great school. It's a great atmosphere. You want this atmosphere more, but they're going to come when we play well. Today a lot of people came because it is a chance -- you're playing the in-state rival. It's a beautiful day, beautiful weather, but as we move forward, playing this week, playing next week on a Thursday night, coming back on another Thursday night, if we want those crowds to be good in November, we need to play winning football.

At the same time, this is -- I can't remember who I was talking to after the game, but one of the coaches just was talking about pulling up, how excited he thought the tailgating was. This is a great place for tailgating. This place is awesome.

It is a great atmosphere, but ultimately the atmosphere is best when your team is playing well, and we've got to build our program and keep playing well to have the energy and juice that our school I think wants, that our program needs, and that our city needs.

I think collectively we're all working together to build that.