UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 14, 2024

Dayne Hodge

Press Conference

Oklahoma State 45, Tulsa 10

MODERATOR: All right, guys. Questions for Dayne Hodge.

Q. Generally, what was the plan going in against their offense and what were you trying to do? Y'all did a nice job stopping Ollie Gordon which was kind of something that was talked about earlier in the week. Had some trouble in the back end. What was the strategy and how to play out during the game?

DAYNE HODGE: It was first to stop the run, again, kind of like you said, I think we did that pretty well. To kind of key on number 80 in the pass game. They go to him a lot in a lot of different ways, and, again, I thought we kind of did that well. And there was just try to stay over top and neutralize Bowman. He's an older guy, veteran guy, so he's seen a lot of different looks, seen a lot of different things, you know, and, again, besides a few big plays, which is always a collective effort, it's always, you know, may seem like it's one guy or two guys, but it's even on the field. I thought our defense didn't play too bad.

Q. What can you take from this and build on for the next couple of weeks when you go on the road?

DAYNE HODGE: Just capitalizing on opportunities ahead, focusing on ways to get better, staying positive, and, yeah, knowing we still got a lot of games ahead of us. We're confident we have a good team in that locker room. We really are. And, again, it's just attacking the film. Attacking the weight room, attacking practice and just getting better individually.

Q. What was the mood after the game on the sidelines kind of late in the game? What was the mood like and --

DAYNE HODGE: Yeah, we're all pretty bummed out. We realize they're a good team, but we also have confidence that we're a good team as well. But whenever you go out there and get beat by I don't know how many points it was, 30, 35 points, you know, it's always a little kind of -- I don't know. You just you don't feel the best, for sure, but, again, we're optimistic. We're going to stay positive and we're going to attack what the opportunity is coming forward.

Q. Not comparing games, but thinking back to last year, you go to Washington and the score was a little lop-sided there, too. Do you remember how quickly you wiped that one and moved on to the next game? Is it similar in this way, you can just wash it really quick and move onto Louisiana Tech? Like, how do you balance that?

DAYNE HODGE: Yeah, we'll watch the film tomorrow. Again, you got to correct the mistakes that we made today, so it'll be a learning/teaching day tomorrow based off this film and it's Louisiana Tech prep starting Monday, so, again, we got to focus on ahead, but realize that we got to correct the mistakes in order to be the team that we want to be going forward.

Q. How much of the big plays in the passing game was more their guys just getting open and making plays compared to maybe (inaudible) on the back end? Is there a balance there?

DAYNE HODGE: And, again, I need to go back and really watch the film to recognize it, but I think sometimes it's a little more self-inflicted, just kind of being on the same page on the back-end, getting the call, getting your feet set up, you know, realizing your keys, but, yeah, I need to go back and watch the film, but, yeah, it's always a collective effort. It's always on the majority.

MODERATOR: Anything else, guys? Okay. Thank you.