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BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: NEBRASKA v OKLAHOMADecember 2, 2006Bill CallahanJay MooreBo RuudZac TaylorKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI COACH CALLAHAN: You gotta give credit to Oklahoma today. They played a heck of a game. We just couldn't answer when we had to answer. They played terrifically throughout the night. We spotted them an early score. And we never did get back from that deficit. You have to credit the Sooners for a fine job. Excellent coaching job. The players outperformed us. They outcoached us. They were just excellent in every capacity. We just didn't have enough. MODERATOR: We'll take questions. We have two microphones. Put your hand up so we can feed this upstairs. We've got a question on the front row, right here in the front. Q. When you guys had them pinned down on their own 1, I think it was Octavia. I'm not sure. Almost had Thompson for a sack. Did you think you had that? COACH CALLAHAN: I thought our defense was playing well in the second half there, third quarter. We let them out of the hole. The third and 10 play, we pretty aggressive in our front coverage and they hit us with a play action pass, something for a boundary, for a huge gain. I think they completed the next three in a row. That took the wind out of our sail right there. We had them backed up, but we just couldn't make a play. Q. Coach, at the end of the first half, you had to feel kind of fortunate to be down only 14-7 with the early mistakes. Did you feel like you had some momentum going into the second half? COACH CALLAHAN: We thought we were close, but we had the short field in the third quarter several times, and their defense was just too stingy. They were a better defense. We just didn't get it done. Q. Can you talk about what Paul Thompson did for them tonight, the way they rolled him out of the pocket. Gave you guys a lot of trouble. COACH CALLAHAN: They did. Their scheme was outstanding. Their receivers were exceptional. The matchups just -- we just didn't match up real well. They just took advantage of everything. They just played better. I have no excuses up here tonight, Shawn. They were the better football team on this date. You've got to give them credit. They deserve it. Q. Bill, you crossed midfield every drive on the second half, don't get any points. COACH CALLAHAN: I just said that. Again, we didn't capitalize on the short field. And I don't know what to tell you. We didn't get it done. We had opportunity to score but you've got to credit Oklahoma's defense. They were stalwarts today in every respect. You've got to give the champions that credit. They played championship defense. We didn't answer when we had to answer and we had to score. We didn't get that done. So you can -- whatever. Q. Bill, you held them to 42 yards rushing. Would you have thought that would have done a better job than it did? COACH CALLAHAN: Our defense played really well. I felt our defense held them to 14 points. You know, I thought it was exceptional on our part. But we just didn't hold up when we had to. And we didn't make the plays we had to. So you have to credit Oklahoma. They made a lot of fine plays. I'm proud of our kids. They have come a long way. They played hard but we just didn't get it done. Q. For Jay or Bo, what effect did -- when Oklahoma got out of the shadow of their end zone there on that 18-yard completion and subsequent 99-yard drive, can you talk about the effect of that? JAY MOORE: You know, I don't know what happened. That was huge. We had them right there. I think that really changed the way the second half went. They made that completion and it really changed that whole momentum that we had going in that second half. BO RUUD: Well, in big games like this you can't -- when you've got a team backed up, it's third and long, you can't afford to give up an easy pass like that. And, you know, that cost us. Q. Bill, did you feel like you could run on them? It seemed like you got away from that, especially in the second quarter. What did you see that you guys threw the ball? COACH CALLAHAN: I'm sure you'll look at that and you'll derive your own opinion. But I really felt coming in we could bounce up, but we didn't. That's the fact. We didn't get it done. We didn't play good enough. We didn't coach good enough. We just didn't get it done. And however you want to -- however you want to dice it or slice it, we didn't get it done. That's my fault. The accountability lies right here, and we just didn't do a good enough job. Q. Jay or Bo, did you feel like this game was -- I mean it kept -- looked like you guys kept getting close to momentum, getting close to it and getting close to it and just kept getting out of the reach of your fingers. Was it that kind of frustration today? JAY MOORE: The way we came off second half was huge. We came out, stuffed them right away, and felt we were right there. Anything offense, get the ball in the short side of the field, anything could happen. We kept battling, battling. I think that one completion, that one series really kept us from getting really grasping that momentum. Q. Coach, what's the biggest thing your team will take out of this championship experience, getting back to a Big 12 title game since 1999? COACH CALLAHAN: I'm proud of the kids the way they competed. They worked extremely hard to get this position. The bottom line is when you're in a championship game you have to get it done. We just didn't get it done. Coaches, players, we didn't get it done. They were the better team today and you've got to credit them in every respect. We have high regard for what they've accomplished. We knew it would be a tough game coming in here. But I think we've squandered too many opportunities on offense, realistically. Our defense played well enough and good enough through the course of the game for us to win and we put them in some bad spots and we just didn't capitalize. Like I said, we just didn't make the plays you've got to make in a championship game. Q. Coach, going back to the situation on the one, from your perspective, did you think you might have had the safety? COACH CALLAHAN: I couldn't tell. I couldn't tell. You know, we've got good officials. We've got the best officials in the Big 12 officiating today. So they were right on. They were right on top of it. Whether we did or not is insignificant. Q. Jay and Bo, can you both comment on how intent you guys were on stopping the run and the job you thought you did in doing that? JAY MOORE: I thought we did an excellent job stopping the run. That was one of our main focuses because of how successful they were on running the ball. I thought we did a great job tonight, really, you know stuffing them up there. BO RUUD: Yeah, I mean, that was our focus all week. And the plays that we worked on to stop, we stopped. And they just -- the problem is, you know, with a team that's going to -- that's shown about 10, 15, 20 passes a game, we knew when they did throw, we had to be ready for it and play it. I feel maybe a couple of those plays, the bomb and that third down, those are the plays you gotta win on, because it's third down, you gotta win. And you can't give up those long throws with a team that runs a lot. Q. Just wanted to see what happened to Brandon Jackson. COACH CALLAHAN: He had a hand injury. They'll x-ray it and see. MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. Further player questions? Q. Zac, what are your feelings walking off the field after that performance? ZAC TAYLOR: Very disappointed. When your defense plays as well as they do, they give you every opportunity to try to make a play, and then personally I threw a couple of interceptions in the red zone, you can't expect to beat Oklahoma if you're going to do that. Very disappointing walking off the field. Q. I was hoping you could talk about that second pick specifically. It looked like touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Right at the last second the guy comes over and makes that pick. ZAC TAYLOR: We thought that play was going to be open and it was. For whatever reason, I just lofted the ball instead of getting it in there. Nate was opened and Reggie just read my eyes and went over there, made a good play. That's one I'd like to have back. We had the opportunity and I just didn't put enough mustard on the ball. Q. Zac, the offense as a whole, what you've done all year, converting on third downs, completing passes, didn't seem like it went that way. Was that because of OU's defense? ZAC TAYLOR: It was tough. We were in a lot of third and 10s. That short play is not (inaudible) right there. They're a good knuckle blitz team. They do a good job disguising it. They do a good job getting pressure and disguising their coverages. You've got to hand it to them. They did a good job. Going into the game, we knew we couldn't put ourselves in that position. But they have a great defense. And they tend to do that to teams. Q. Zac, was the game plan to get the ball in the air as much as you did? I realize a few more as you were trying to come from behind, but was the pass game going to be emphasized tonight? ZAC TAYLOR: I mean, we wanted to be balanced, as we do every game. We probably didn't intend to throw the ball as many times as we did. But they did a great job. They prepared for our run. We still got some runs that worked out for us, but, you know, we just felt we needed to lean towards the pass a little more to give us an advantage. Worked out at times and other times we turned the ball over. Q. Zac, did you feel like you guys were just on the verge of getting something going there all the way through the second and third quarter? ZAC TAYLOR: Our defense went 3 and 0, and we kept getting the ball on the 50-yard line. We just kept getting that feeling we were going to bust a big play, something was going to go our way. But it didn't. We weren't moving the ball, getting into field goal range. It was tough. You feel bad because you watch the defense go out there make play after play after play. Eventually they're going to give something up. Oklahoma is a great team. It's tough offensively when you can't get anything going and can't bail those guys out. We thought we were going to get a big play and it just never happened for us. Q. Zac, on the field after the game, I noticed Stoops came over and spoke to you. What did he say to you? ZAC TAYLOR: You know, just great game, great season. There's a lot of respect between both teams and both coaches. And he is a great guy. Everything I know about him, he's a good guy. He was just kind of a small gesture just to maybe make me feel a little bit better. Q. Zac, were those safeties the best safeties you saw all season? Talk about the trouble you had on those reads. ZAC TAYLOR: They did a great job disguising the coverages. That's probably the thing that gave me the most trouble all night long. They played well and were well prepared. A lot of great safeties in the sleeve. Considering how young those guys are and the plays that they make, you have to see they'll be making a lot of big plays in the future. They're a tough group right there. MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Best of luck. End of FastScripts |
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