BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: BAYLOR VS OKLAHOMA STATE

December 4, 2021

Josh Sills

AT&T Stadium

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Postgame Press Conference

Baylor 21, Oklahoma State 16

Q. You guys struggled offensively early in the game, but then to have that drive at the end, can you talk about turning it around and how close you felt like Dezmon got there at the goal line?

JOSH SILLS: Yeah. You know, give credit to Baylor. They played really well up front, linebackers, secondary, all around. It's pretty disheartening. For us as a standpoint, you know, that last drive every time we get on the field, we expect to score points, so, we kind of expected to move the ball. We just came up a couple of inches short.

Kind of tough sledding for us today, but I'm beyond proud of the way our guys fought. Offense, defense, special teams. That's everybody. They fought until the very last second, very last play, and I just couldn't be more proud of those guys.

Q. Josh, a game of emotion, obviously, right? You go through this every week of the season, win or lose, and it's euphoria to just despair. The feeling after a result like this, what was the flash in your mind when you realized it was going to be a few inches short?

JOSH SILLS: I don't really know other than just heart break. I hurt for the guys around me. You know, they put in the work every day, every month. That's all the way back from offseason, fall camp, spring ball up until now. I just hurt for those guys. It sucks. It hurts. We'll learn from it. We'll get in and watch the film, and we still have a lot to play for. I'm sure we're going to get a good bowl game. We've just got to bounce back and go win that game.

Q. Josh, could you describe what Baylor was doing well up front, particularly in the Red Zone to give you guys trouble up there?

JOSH SILLS: They had the big guy in the middle. Obviously, he caused some disruption all day today. Number 2, you know, he is a game changer, made a ton of plays. He is fast. He is physical. Number 8, he comes screaming off the edge, made a bunch of plays. Did some slanting and did some twisting. Just stuff like that and just kind of confused us a little bit today, but, you know, like I said, I'm beyond proud of the way our guys fought and played all the way to the end.

Q. You guys had trouble running the ball most of the day. Spencer had a rough start. Played a lot better later. What did you see out of Spencer's play today?

JOSH SILLS: I'm proud of him. I'm sure there's going to be multiple people out there that bad-mouth him, but you'll never hear that from any of us, any coaches, or anything like that. Spencer is our guy, and I've got his back. Partially some of that falls on the O-line's fault. We got to pass block better. We got to hold up. We got to protect.

Spencer played outstanding. He made a lot of plays. You know, just a few plays here and there just didn't go our way. The ball didn't bounce our way or that kind of thing, but I'm beyond proud of him. He is a great kid. He has a great head on his shoulders. He is going to do a lot of great things for this program.

Q. Can you tell me what it was like out there on the field as you guys are turning the tide there in the second half and this stadium is packed with orange and people are going crazy, did you have a moment when you thought, this thing is going to break our way, we're going to figure out how to do this? What was that like just being in that moment?

JOSH SILLS: It was huge. Honestly, it felt like a home game for us. There were so many fans. Everywhere you looked, it was orange. Whether it was our sideline, Baylor's sideline, you could really tell when we kind of started to take a little bit of momentum there and the place just erupted, and I guess those are the moments that you'll never forget. Standing on the field, the place goes nuts, and you can't hear the person next to you making a call or talking to you or you have to yell at the top of your lungs to hear what Coach Dickey says and you kind of have to look at him and say, I didn't hear you, Coach. You have to kind of read his lips.

Yeah, that was huge for us. I know we all greatly appreciate everyone coming out today. Just disappointed it didn't go our way.

Thank you.