BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: OKLAHOMA VS IOWA STATE

December 19, 2020

Alex Grinch

Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma - 27, Iowa State - 21

Q. What was your message to your guys, as the offense was having a little trouble, you guys were on the field a lot. Were they getting tired and what were you saying to them?

ALEX GRINCH: Well, a number of different things. One of the things is, I mentioned to them a couple times was, we got to be excited to go take the field again. Winter workouts are coming. We're going to snap our fingers and it's going to be winter workouts. And we sure wish we could have pads on and play in Cowboy Stadium for the Big 12 Championship.

And so every time we take that field, every opportunity we do, that we had there in the second half to finish off the season, have a respect for that and have an excitement level attached to it.

Also talked to the guys -- and so much of this stuff is pre-loaded -- is don't be fans. We got our own jerseys on. And so not get lost in the, allow yourself to get lost in the ebbs and flow of the game, but think about focusing on your task, because your task is coming.

And ultimately, have an understanding that no matter what happens, we're going to have to make plays to win the football game, and so in any event, amongst other things, but certainly that is some of it.

Q. Lincoln just got a question about the All-Big 12 team and he, frankly, he said, yeah, it motivated us. We were pissed, he said. Zero guys on the first-team defense. Tell us about that and how you guys took motivation from that for this game.

ALEX GRINCH: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is, and obviously, you love your guys and every coach is that way, but you just want guys to reap the benefits of quality performance because you know they're going to get critiqued for negative performances, and rightfully so. We're in a results business. It's the same thing from a coaching standpoint. So when guys produce at a certain level, and maybe they're the conference leader in sacks, for instance, you know, the conference leader in rushing was a first-team all guy.

So it's, you know, this isn't just we love our guys so much or we think because we're Oklahoma we should have a bunch of guys on the first-team defense, but, and I don't know how we'll end up, but one of the better defenses in the Conference, one of the better defenses in the country, and we don't have any of the better players in our own Conference. So you bet you're, yeah, we used it. We used it, and rightfully so. Rightfully so.

So in any event, and then that's no disrespect to anybody else, but it certainly, in some cases, we felt like guys earned it.

Q. You guys averaged 11 turnovers -- or not averaged. You guys had 11 turnovers in the last five games, getting to your two turnovers per game average, but kind of tongue-in-cheek here, but takeaways equal victory? You've been preaching it for two years now and it seemed to really down this stretch worked out for you.

ALEX GRINCH: Right and only because they do. And I didn't invent it and sometimes if you say things enough it turns into something that's cute or that turns into something that kind of, to your point, is just kind of this clutter or noise, especially when you're not doing it. Right? I mean, and we talked about it before, you kind of feel like a con man a little bit when that's the case.

But no, they do and it's something that we talked about. We have a takeaway board and, well, right now because of distancing in our weight room, which is kind of our defensive meeting room for the time being, but it was very, very blunt to the guys is that that board doesn't change after this weekend, okay? Don't expect to call yourself Big 12 Champions.

And then it's similar to the offense. Well, we're not going to score any touchdowns. We're going to do some good things, but we're not going to score any points. Well, you would never think in a million years you'd have an opportunity to win the game. Well, it's the same thing on our side. Coach, there's got to be another way. There's not. Listen to me now. There's not. We have, we have proven that on our side before and obviously it's across college football and NFL football.

So no, just thrilled that, that that message is hitting home and guys are reaping the benefits of it.

Q. You guys winning to the level you do, it becomes maybe a the natural thing for those who follow the program to take success for granted. Not to use the word spoiled, but you know what I mean.

ALEX GRINCH: Sure.

Q. Given everything that your kids have been through this year and even today in this game, do you stop and say, Make sure you don't take this one for granted because of what's going on, what's gone on here?

ALEX GRINCH: Right. And I think it's a great point and I think about of all the years in athletics, this was the greatest, the COVID and the quarantine and really from March on, and we had this conversation with our players and that it's one of the greatest equalizers that you'll ever have in sports because everything at that moment is equal.

No one can work out, from, in terms of the team. No one can have spring football. No one can have -- and so really what it amounted to was each individual guy, were they going to bet on themselves? And were they going to go get a workout in every single day and do it the right way, at the standard, and as you mentioned, at a very, very high standard being that you're a football player at Oklahoma. And you say, well, they had nothing else to do. It's easy for them to get a workout, but it's just as easy for them not to do it.

So there was a large stretch of time over this calendar year that will never happen again, I pray, that these college football players, again, had to bet on themselves. And we put it very bluntly to them is, if you don't bet on yourselves, don't come back to campus and think we're going to bet on you as we go into this thing.

So I think with that, I just give these guys a lot of credit. Talked to them last night just about how proud we are of them. We constantly remind them about that text message during spring break saying that you cannot return to campus, and at that moment everything was in kind of the unknown and so much has happened over the course of this year. Some guys in quarantine for 28 days, this and that.

And so, no, it's just, guys battled to the end and like I said, you want them to reap the benefits and they certainly did.

Q. Tre Brown, once again, comes up with a big play in this game. I know you haven't been here for all of them. But what is it about Tre that allows him to make those big plays and take advantage when he has the chance to late in these games do that?

ALEX GRINCH: Sure. And I don't know there's a specific quality in that way, but certainly, the one thing that you always come back to is, if one team knows they have to make a play to win the game and the other team says, Well hopefully they just don't make it. As opposed to, someone on that field, on either side, regardless of the scoreboard whether you're winning or on the other end of it, has to make a play to ultimately win a football game, I think that just speaks to it.

Someone's going to have to -- and you watch the same thing I did -- I was probably a little bit more emotional about it than maybe you were -- but someone was going to have to make a play to win that game. When all was said and done, somebody was going to be on the right side of it and so someone was going to be on the wrong side of it.

And so in any event, defensively, obviously critical and to see Tre [Brown] do that as a senior, obviously thrilled for him and thrilled for us.

Q. And then specifically could you just talk about that interception, the play that he made there?

ALEX GRINCH: Yeah, just at that tail end you're sitting there -- and obviously a couple penalties on the drive, specifically the 15-yard penalty -- and all of a sudden you got clock is one thing to bear in mind, obviously field is the other one, and you have to weigh, from an aggressiveness standpoint -- the last thing you want to do is allow these guys to bleed you all the way down the field. You want to put your guys in the best situation possible so they can make a play. If you get too passive with calls and some of those things -- so you got to weigh that.

So just, on that particular one, brought a little bit of pressure, still had the opportunity to spy the quarterback, and then the guys up front created it in so many ways. To flesh him out of the pocket, which he is as good as anybody, just a real knack -- Purdy that is -- to find the escape lanes and find guys down field. And so probably made him, obviously, throw it before he wanted to and in a way that he wouldn't want to otherwise. And when that -- that ball was in the air for an awfully long time and so it was really good that, obviously, one of us came down with it.

Q. Along with Tre Brown, you came in here and inherited Tre Norwood as well, two young guys that had a lot of snaps. As your defense has built to being able to put up this performance, how satisfying is it that those two guys really have stepped up here down the stretch and kind of been the big playmakers of your defense -- just the rebuild and building this all back up -- to have those two guys kind of be the core of it?

ALEX GRINCH: Well, no, I think it's huge and I think -- obviously if you want to play defense at a high level you have to have production at every level of your defense. You may lean on a certain position group -- this year for us certainly our front from a production standpoint has played at a pretty high level -- but that doesn't give your linebackers a free pass not to have their level of production. And then likewise on the back end.

So probably the biggest thing, my biggest disappointment was yards after catch today, I thought that was something that we made an emphasis on and so that was a frustration. But, no, to see guys at that level make some plays -- two years ago, you talk about 129 -- and we talked about it a lot -- 129 out of 129 in terms of pass defense. To see those guys make some plays and have an impact in a positive way is obviously really good.

Q. You played probably 26, 27 guys in the game. You were on the field it seemed like the whole second half. How much did that help you when you had to take the field again, with 3:12 to go in the game, to send the defense out there to win the game?

ALEX GRINCH: Yeah, that's really interesting and I wouldn't have known that number, but I probably could have gotten close to that number in terms of the guys that have played. That has been something that really, going back to the first time against Iowa State, coming off of that game we said that we need to throw numbers at our defense in terms of playing more guys.

So that's something we have done, we have continued to do over the course of the year. I like to think that that certainly had an impact at the end. I think about the last drive, the last couple drives against Texas, the fatigue and that was -- so in those moments -- and I, like I said, someone's got to make a play and so if you don't have a pass rush, it ain't going to be real good. And same thing on the back end, if guys are exhausted, because a lot of times those plays are extended in those situations because the quarterback's not just going to throw it out of bounds and say, next play, the clock's ticking.

So, no, I think it speaks to -- and I'm just so proud of all those guys that, regardless of starting roles or anything along those lines, just a lot of guys had an impact. And that's when it's most fun and that locker room, there's not 11 guys celebrating, so that's, that's pretty cool.

Q. You guys last year had to make a stop in the game against Baylor. This year you guys were set up against again to make a stop or had to make a stop. At what point during your time as becoming the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma to now did you start to see the growth and the confidence to where the guys on the defensive side of the ball, I guess, had the confidence to go out there and make those type of plays, because previously there was times where those type of plays weren't being made.

ALEX GRINCH: Sure. I mean, I think it's tough. I think -- certainly, I go back to the Big 12 game last year, you kind of felt like in that moment -- there was some injuries, obviously Baylor quarterback-wise, I mean, and we were playing at a high level and kind of let them back in the game. And that particular one maybe, maybe didn't speak enough to maybe progress. The fact that we couldn't finish the fourth quarter in the necessary way, but obviously made some plays in overtime, which you don't apologize for it, so you get a chance to call yourself a champion.

But, no, I think it's just, it's progressive over time. I mean obviously people don't see it, but you see it over the course of a game week or in this case fall camp, because we didn't have spring football, but you just see an expectation, as much as anything. You see it on the sideline, between series maybe a little bit more. And like we always talk about, I mean, you're one game away from not doing those things and it's very, very difficult, when emotions run high, to maintain focus along the way.

But I think, again, to circle a particular game, I think obviously just after getting the Texas win and this year I just reminded the guys that -- and I think we talked about it on these calls -- is not -- playing pretty good football, just not getting the outcomes we want because we won't finish.

And so guys really taking an ownership role and saying that it's not okay to not be a four-quarter football team and specifically a four-quarter defense. And somewhere as the year went on I think expectations have gone up and I think it continued to. Did we play our best game tonight? I don't know that we did, but we made the necessary plays which is exciting.

Q. I wonder, as high powered as Oklahoma's offenses are and have been, do your players talk about being the equivalent of that on the defensive side; and a follow-up, on your personal All-Big 12 team, how many Sooner defensive players would be on that?

ALEX GRINCH: Oh, I'll answer that one. 11. No. I'm joking.

Q. I thought you might say that.

ALEX GRINCH: And again, I mean, I would highlight Isaiah Thomas. I mean, you can't convince me that he's undeserving of being first-team all-conference. Go lead the league in passing and you wouldn't, and you're telling me you wouldn't be first-team all-conference? Leading the league in receiving?

So, no, by no means do I suggest that this is some conspiracy or anything along those lines, so.

But, no, and no I think part of it is -- one of the things that we have had to do, it's team football, it's playing complementary football, but understanding defensively you have to have some level of being an independent contractor. You have to. If you get caught up in the ebbs and flows of a football game, including not just when you're on the field, but also when you're off or to somehow suggest that if the scoreboard reads 17-7 that your performance is less important or it's the role of the offense to make up for the deficiencies that you have as a defense. Again, that's irresponsible.

So that's been, as much as anything, are guys having an understanding that, as an individual, you chew on film, we talked about this several times, they don't time stamp the score when you miss a tackle. That's you. There's no excuse for it. The same thing, they don't put the score next to or the time left in the fourth quarter so somehow it doesn't matter anymore.

So I just think that as much as anything guys having a real appreciation and ownership in their own performance and believe me, we cheer like all get out for the offense and we're they're number one fans, but we have to make sure that doesn't affect our performance. So that's a battle for everybody, but specifically when you're talking about elite football, as you mentioned, on the offensive side of the ball.