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COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL AT THE CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: CLEMSON VS OKLAHOMADecember 31, 2015Bob StoopsTy DarlingtonEric StrikerMiami Gardens, Florida Clemson - 37, Oklahoma - 17. BOB STOOPS: Start off by compliments and congratulations to Clemson, Coach Swinney, his staff, team, they really are an excellent football team. They played an excellent football game today and show why they're undefeated and the No. 1 team in the country. You just have to give it to them. Us, you know, we go in at half 17-16, we feel like we still haven't played as well as maybe we're capable of, but then in the second half a lot of the same things keep happening, defensively missed tackles, but give them credit, making us miss them. So you've got to compliment their players. The penalties were really poor in that area, as well. You know, Deshaun Watson was excellent, and offensively way too inconsistent, not able to run the ball consistently enough was a major factor. I said coming into the game whoever could run the football the most effectively would -- in my mind would have the best opportunity to win, and they were able to do that, and we weren't. You know, and that's the bottom line. And then we have some turnovers that go with it, so all of it together combined, we were outplayed badly in the second half, and that's where it is. Q. Could you tell in the second quarter, Clemson seemed to get a lot of momentum, especially offensively second quarter. Could you tell some things going on in the second quarter that was going to give you trouble in the second half? BOB STOOPS: Well, I just felt we weren't tackling very well, and that was the biggest factor. And then some of the quarterback run play that hurt us, we were out of position and felt like we cleaned that up at halftime, but then Gallman hurts us in the second half with missed tackles, or again, him making us miss him and creating some big plays. So anyway, we knew it was going to be challenging even before the second quarter. We knew it was going to be a long day, and we'd have to defend the run better than we did. Q. You did a great job of closing out the first half with some big plays, but did you feel like when you went into the locker room, just curious that maybe you left some points out on the field that you should have had? BOB STOOPS: Well, for sure. Three, when we have the unsportsmanlike conduct that ruins the drive and forces us to punt. We're going to have the ball with the wind with an easy field goal, and now we have to punt the ball. We talked a lot about it, too, going into the game, that we had to play smart and we didn't. Penalties hurt us all over the field. I can't even think -- I haven't seen the sheet how many, way too many and a lot of them critical ones. Q. Clemson is obviously an extremely physical team. You guys lost four players today to various injuries, a couple of them were contact, hard-hitting injuries. Were they maybe more physical than guys were ready for, or do you think that physicality impacted that part of the game? BOB STOOPS: Well, I think like Baker making the tackle and knocking himself out I wouldn't say had anything to do with what they were doing. That had something to do with the interception he threw. Joe was going to make a block. So I wouldn't say anything about injuries. I would say their ability to run the football and our inability to run the football, that they were -- they played in a more physical way than we did. That to me is -- outside of the injuries, I don't think they have anything to do with it. Q. Eric and Ty, I'm curious, I saw you guys walk off the field and salute the OU fans and talk to them as they were cheering in the corner. What has it meant to have the kind of fan base that follows you and loves you to matter what? TY DARLINGTON: Well, for me, I've talked about it a bunch, but it's a dream come true. Wanted my whole life to come play here, and it was everything I dreamed of. I mean, to obviously walk off the field for the last time in this uniform, in this manner, really hurts a lot. I'm so appreciative to Sooner Nation, the fan base, for making my experience possible, you know, and supporting us all the way down here in Miami. We didn't come out and from the start I felt like we didn't play well, and we had a great week of prep. We came out with lots of energy. We didn't execute well, and I'm disappointed that we let our fans down in that way because we know how many people it really meant something to, beyond just us. ERIC STRIKER: It's been a great run, and it's been a great four years, learned a lot as a leader, as a young man, and walking off that field, you get a little emotional because you can never come back to it. So you try to soak it in a little bit, see your family and the fans still here waving you on, just to salute. But it's been a wonderful time. We've got to move on now to our next life. But I appreciate the fans and my family and everybody who came out. It's been a -- I think about all the times that we had. It's really been good. I'm sitting here very humbled, and it sucks to walk out like that, but it's been a good run. Q. Eric, could you comment on just the difficulty dealing with Watson and then you add Gallman to the mix? In the third quarter it looked like they came out determined to run the football. ERIC STRIKER: Yeah, we knew as a defense we needed to get that -- coming out we knew we needed to get a stop, and the missed tackles -- we were in position a lot of times, at least on the running game with the running backs, to be in a position to make the play, just didn't tackle well. I think that hurt us the most. You know, and this point, this championship drive, talent doesn't win the game, it's the will. People with the biggest will are going to win the game, and they seemed to just have that edge and that will about them in the second half, and we didn't. Got to give hats off to them. They're a great team, a very competitive team, and Watson and Gallman are great players, and they showed that in the second half. Q. Ty, the defensive line really got after the offensive line tonight. How do you keep those guys motivated throughout the game? TY DARLINGTON: We've got to keep playing, you know. We did some really good things early, and I didn't feel like anything that they were doing was like they were overwhelming us. They did some different things, and I don't really -- you give them all the credit in the world because they absolutely shut our run game down. They did a lot of things. But I felt a lot of it was more a result than us not executing properly than anything they were doing particularly special. We didn't execute the way that we needed to, and that's what it came down to. I didn't feel like they just like pushed us around. I mean, the numbers say themselves. We didn't run the ball. We didn't run the ball, they did run the ball, so that's the fact of the matter. But I think that it was more -- I think it was because we didn't execute well, and tonight they were the better team than us tonight. Q. Eric, how difficult was it getting a handle on their running game when you have to account for that quarterback? Do you think that that's what contributed to opening things up for Gallman in the second half? ERIC STRIKER: No, I wouldn't say that. I think everybody got their job to do on the field, and whether that's a -- you had the running back or the quarterback -- it's just simple that we just didn't tackle. Like I said, guys were in a position to make the play. That was difficult. That's what hurt the most is being in position and just not finishing the play. You know, it's kind of -- that's what hurt the most. We were there. We just didn't make the plays we needed to. BOB STOOPS: And that's where I want to compliment Gallman, as well. There were plenty of times where we had two guys coming off the edge right at him, and one of the two of them makes you miss him and gets eight yards and you were right there to make a tackle. You've got to compliment a guy that can make him miss you that much. Q. So many great things happened for your team this season, so many big moments, and it ends so close to where you've been trying so long to get back to, the National Championship. How do you balance that or how can you maybe summarize that, what a great season it was and what a bitter pill this is? BOB STOOPS: You just said it. I mean, you can't take away the Big 12 Championship and the fact that these group of seniors have led us back to one game from being in the National Championship. That part is there and doesn't go away. We weren't good enough to finish it, and that's the bottom line. But we've still got a young team, and we'll be encouraged about the strides that we've taken and how close we are, and we've got to keep improving to get it done. Q. On Baker's night, obviously when Samaje gets hurt, Joe gets hurt, the run game is a struggle and that obviously helps him so much, but it just seemed that he struggled and we have really seen him struggle much this year. What did you see in him tonight? Was it Clemson? Do you give the credit to them in a regard? BOB STOOPS: Sure. It starts with Clemson, yeah. I mean, they're an excellent defense, and got excellent skill players. Brent does an excellent job with them in scheming. So sure, you've got to compliment them giving him struggles at times, pressure from the D-line, or at times we got guys covered and he's got to scramble around, try and wait for something to come open, and then I think as much as anything, just the inconsistency being able to run the football puts him in a hole. Then it makes it more challenging when you don't have that part of the game that's threatening. Q. We heard reports of some altercation yesterday. Can you tell us what happened yesterday between the two teams? And also how it affected the play today, a couple of unsportsmanlike penalties, especially one that really hurt you? BOB STOOPS: I wasn't there. What I understand is that we were both exiting in the same tunnel and boarding our bus from the luncheon, and then for whatever reason, I'm not blaming them or our guys, I don't know, but in the end you've got 40 guys getting ready to play the next day that have been -- that are all jacked up and can't wait to play, and they get stuck in a little tunnel right together, it's not a good chemistry. But it was all words, and from what I understand nobody struck anybody. You know, in these games it can get chippy, but again, I'm disappointed in our overall discipline and the penalties that we had. Q. After you guys went down by 13, I think you threw maybe seven or eight straight times. Was that due to Samaje's ankle injury? Was that because of that or you just felt like the pass was where you needed to do? BOB STOOPS: Well, I think -- I'm not going to question Coach Riley just because when you look at what he's done, I'm sure through the year, he's done that before where he's thrown it three straight times or five straight times, and it's been incredibly successful for us. He obviously felt that's what needed -- he felt that something was there, and that's what he needed to do. Having a bunch of running backs hurt and being inconsistent for quite a while running the ball doesn't give you a ton of confidence to keep running it, either. So I'm not going to question his play calling. Q. One of the big plays in the first half was their fake punt. You come up with a good defensive stand, then they convert that. Your thoughts on that play? BOB STOOPS: Yeah, again, it gets back to their ability to execute, and we didn't. As these guys will tell you, we go over all kind of fake punts about every week. They executed it. We had one of our backers zoned out to three of the guys and one of our backers didn't zone out to three and stayed with his guy. So we were late getting to the guy down the boundary. Again, our lack of execution, and they executed it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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