FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: OKLAHOMA v FLORIDA STATE

January 1, 2001

Bubba Burcham

Seth Littrell

Chuck Long

Mark Mangino

Frank Romero

Trent Smith

CHUCK LONG: Great to be here in South Florida. I for one can say that we've enjoyed our stay here. And our guys have really done a good job in keeping their focus during the week. Our quarterbacks and Josh Heupel have done a great job this week in preparation for the game. And we're excited. We're excited to go into this ballgame on Wednesday night, and I know that the team is, as well. You get to the point where Coach Mangino will probably allude to, this but you probably get to the point where you have enough practices and you're ready to go, and we feel that we're at that point at this time. So, it is exciting and we're glad to be here. And again it has been a tremendous trip.

COACH MANGINO: I want to just say that our players have enjoyed the hospitality here in south Florida. Everything has been great. The Bowl people have done a tremendous job of making our stay very comfortable here and very enjoyable. We've had a good week of workouts here. You know, our practice has been pretty sharp. I've been with some Bowl teams that the kids get a little tired of practicing against each other, and that's understandable, but our practices have been pretty sharp. Our kids have been very focused, and, you know, I think it is a situation now where I think they are ready to play the game. They are a little bit just tired of going out to the practice field and doing the same repetitions over and over. I think that they are ready to play.

TRENT SMITH: As part of the team, we have all enjoyed going out here in Miami. Having a lot of fun down here, getting ready to play. We're going to be pretty -- offensively, be prepared to play. We get to go against some pretty good defensive players every day in practice ourselves; so we're going to be ready to play.

SETH LITTRELL: Again, I'd like to say we have had a great time here in Miami. I think it has been a great place to come up and definitely play. I think the guys around us on the whole team I could probably speak for; we've been very focused during practice. I think our coaches did a great job of letting us go out and have some free time to go out and do the things we wanted to do around Miami and see what Miami is all about. But I think when it all came down to it in meetings and practice, I think our team has been very focused on the task at hand. We have prepared very hard. Our coaching staff has done a great job of getting game plans. So I think we are all going to be pretty ready, and it is going to be an exciting game, and we're all excited to go play it.

FRANK ROMERO: Echo what everybody else has been saying. A great time down here in Miami. But at the same time, under the circumstances, I think the whole team has done a very good job of staying focused while we're down here. It is just a great opportunity for us. Another game to show what we can do on the field. So it is just going to be exciting come the 3rd.

BUBBA BURCHAM: This has been a great opportunity. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance. And the team, we're just working to be prepared for the game so we don't squander any opportunity here in Florida, and just do the best we can.

FRANK ROMERO: Of course, I think our pass protection is going to be vital in order us to have success as an offense. As far as my individual match-up, I think I'm going to have to be fundamentally sound to have success, and it's just another great opportunity for me during this game.

TRENT SMITH: I definitely feel it is an advantage. This will be our second Championship Game in a row this season. We have not had an extraordinary amount of time off. We have been practicing and watching film. I feel pretty good about our preparation for this game. There's not many looks that we've seen throughout the season or from Florida State in the film that we're not going to be ready for. Unless they change the total defense, I don't think we're going to have any major confusion up there.

FRANK ROMERO: I think considering we did play the Big 12 Championship game, of course, we needed a couple weeks off to get our mind off football for a little bit, but I think the timing just worked out perfect. And now we're down here, going into a game week situation and we're back in the groove of things, and now we're just excited to play again. It's been a while.

TRENT SMITH: I mean, we're not the team here that has to tell everybody why we deserve to be in this game. We're the team that's undefeated. We have proven ourselves week-in and week-out. We have not lost a game. Florida State, they have played some good teams, as well. You know, we had a little tougher road to fight up through the season. But we got the job done and we're here. It's a great opportunity for all of us.

SETH LITTRELL: I think just going out and being loose, more than anything. I think -- it's not just the awe of things. I don't think anybody is in real awe. We're going to be a real surprise. It's very new to us. We have not been to a National Championship game. It's a big place. But I think everybody has handled it real well. I think the videocameras and stuff like that, that's -- just going out and being with your buddies, hanging loose and being relaxed joking around having a good time when you have that time. But I think, like I said earlier, we've been around a lot of reporters and cameras lately. So, I mean, I don't think anything is going to surprise. I think we have handled it well all year. So I think we'll continue handling it well, and I think that we have been.

COACH MANGINO: Yeah, I feel really good about our preparation for this game. I think that we have some very good practices. You know, took a couple days' rest to get the fun of Miami out of our players' system when we first arrived here. But the last three or four day, the practices have been very crisp. Execution has been very good. I'm very confident in our players and our plan for this game.

COACH LONG: He has a certain routine that he goes through two days before the game, and he wanted to -- we talked it over with him, and he wanted to stick to that routine. And you get to the point where you're 12-0, you don't want to upset the apple cart. So he's in his routine right now, and he wants to stay in that routine; so we obliged him.

COACH MANGINO: That's a personal thing that Josh likes to do, the way he prepares himself. Some of it requires film study. He does a great deal of that. He just has a series of things that he likes to do about 48 hours or two days prior to the game, which if we were playing on Saturday, would start Thursday, and would carry it all the way up to game time. And some of those things that he does are just personal habits of his that, you know, they really don't have any bearing on, you know, how he'll perform or anything like that. Just things that he likes to do and the way that he likes to prepare. So that's his personal business.

COACH LONG: Very similar. In fact, brought back a lot of memories this year. He handled it very, very well throughout. Some of those things that we touched on early in the summer, but only briefly. You know, his whole focus with Josh has been with the him and for the team. I've never -- there's a lot of quarterbacks that have egos, but he's the type of player and quarterback that does not have an ego and everything is about the team first. He's been that way all throughout the year, and it was my job as his coach to keep him on an even keel emotionally, not get caught up in all of the emotions of a season. Just keep him on an even keel, because it not only helps himself, but his teammates around him, and he's done a great job of that. It's been very remarkable, and it's mirrored our team, but to go from an early non-favorites, which he was not even in the pool of Heisman candidates, to become No. 2 in one year, it's truly remarkable. It's kind of like our team this year going from preseason No. 20 to No. 1. They just sort of mirrored each other throughout the year. But to finish No. 2, it was a great feat by him this year, and again, it's a testament of our team and what we've done this year. But he kept it in check all year long, and couldn't have been more proud of that. And as a result, we're undefeated and looking forward to our football game.

COACH LONG: Well, I don't believe he'll get caught up in a personal battle with Chris Weinke. That's just not his style. His style, again, is for his teammates and the team first. And he'll do whatever it takes to win, and that includes running the football. If he has to run the football to get a key first down, which he's done late in the year, he'll do that. It's not all about stats with him and trying to outperform the other quarterback. That's just not him. I think during that Heisman Trophy race, he had a steady heartbeat all the way through, except for probably about one hour of it, which is the hour of the announcement. I know that heart was pumping pretty good before that. But ever since then, ever since he's come home from New York, he's been the same old Josh Heupel he was all year long.

COACH LONG: He looks sharp. He looks sharp. He's throwing the ball pretty well. The last couple of days he's been winging it pretty good. Putting the ball right where we want it. Getting the reads. Getting the ball where it needs to be. He looks really sharp. He's ready to go.

COACH MANGINO: As you know, coaches get calls every day from people that have a sleeper or have somebody that just needs a chance. You know you try to follow up on as many of those as you can, but it's impossible to do it. His counselor at Dade, who is a friend of my father's back in my hometown in Pennsylvania, he called me. He's a counselor there and he says, "I've got a guy that's a great player enrolled here. He just needs a second chance. I remember him playing in high school, he can do this and do that." I said, "Well, yeah, thanks for calling and I appreciate operate it." Hung up the phone. About a month ago, calls up, says, "I think this kid is going to work his A.A. degree. He is working hard. Are you interested?" I said, "Yeah, I am, but I need more than your word. I need something to evaluate." So we called Kemper Military School, and got some tape from them. And then I think we got tape from a recruiting service from when he was playing high school ball down here and we looked at it and -- he looked pretty good to me. So I brought it over to the defensive coaches and I said, "What do you think of this guy?" And they said, "He can play." So I gave them the background story. So we talked about it and said if he finished his A.A. degree, then we would offer him a scholarship. And that's pretty much the story.

COACH MANGINO: It's so exciting to see a guy that's had a tough life. You know, he struggled for a long time. He's reluctant to talk about his past. I think he was down on his luck, and, you know, maybe for a period of time just roaming around aimlessly. He just decided he wanted to play college football and enrolled in Dade, and just by happenstance met a guy that cares about kids and took a liking to him and got him in the right courses and gave him pep talks all the time and encouraged him and told him that there's a future for him. And it's exciting. Those are success stories in college football that need to be told. And we're pretty happy for him. We're really excited for him. We think the future is bright for him, as well.

COACH MANGINO: You know, Coach Stoops has taken a little about the people that he has worked for and played for. I see some Hayden Fry in him. I see some Bill Snyder in him, and I see a lot of Steve Spurrier in him. Although, I've only met Coach Spurrier only once. I don't know him very well. But his management style is: "Listen, I've hired to you do a job. I'm not going to tell you how to do it. You do it, you do it the best of your ability, and, you know, you get the results that we need." He is not a micromanager. He is a big family man. His family is extremely important to him, and he knows that our families are important to us, and I -- I really get a chance to spend a lot of time with my family; that I really appreciate. As far as Coach Stoops' management style, I'll put it in a nutshell for you: He has a positive outlook on life. He's the ultimate positive thinker. He just -- he never has a bad day. Sometimes I'm envious of him. He never has a bad day. And Chuck will tell that you there are days when things just are not going right and we're a little bit ticked off and he's back there clapping his hands, "Okay, boys at least we'll get a chance to get up tomorrow and try it again." That's just the way he is. It rubs off on everybody. It rubs off on the coaches. It rubs off on the players. It's his personality. It's his outlook on life that has taken this program in two years to the opportunity to play for a National Championship again.

COACH LONG: I agree with everything he said. He has always been very positive, even when he was a player at the University of Iowa. I happened to be his teammate at that time. He was a great leader then. Here is a junior captain. He was a captain twice at Iowa and led our team to a Rose Bowl his junior year, and he's one of the smallest guys on the team. But he spoke from the heart. And it -- he was very big because of that. But a great leader then. We knew -- heck, we knew 15, 16, 17 years ago that he was going to be a great head football coach some day. It was just a matter of time. He climbed the right ladder. He got with the right people. He has taken a lot from the three coaches that Mark has mentioned in Hayden and Bill and Steve Spurrier. But he is starting to stand alone now. He is starting to stand alone. And he'll be one of those guys that everybody patterns after him before long.

COACH MANGINO: I'll touch on it real brief and then I'll pass it to Chuck. You know, most of the wide receivers we have are guys that came here doing other things: Defensive back, running back. One of the things that we try to do a really good job of when we arrived here was evaluating personnel. We spent a lot of time in the winter through spring ball talking about personnel, on both sides of the ball every day. And it just seemed to be that certain guys just fit in certain places. Steve Spurrier, Junior has done a tremendous job of developing that group. He is an excellent teacher. He is a great fundamental coach, and he has a great relationship with them, and Steve deserves a great amount of credit for the development of those kids. They are great kids. They are great athletes. They are great kids to be around. It is a fun bunch of kids.

COACH LONG: They, as a group, have been great to be around. As Mark mentioned, Steve has done a great job with them. We also have an offense that spreads the ball around. So they see that they can get their hands on the football a number of times during the course of a season, not just one guy -- we don't just feature just one receiver or even two. We'll have upwards of 14 different players catching the football in a game. I think we have over seven right now with over 20 catches or some crazy stat like that. So receivers coming into the program or receivers in the program see, "Oh, I'm going to get my hands on the ball quite a bit." It is an exciting offense for them, and because of that, they are a little bit more chipper during practice.

COACH MANGINO: They have no weaknesses. They have 11 fine players. They have athleticism, speed, quickness. They are smart. They are well coached. It is a good defensive unit. I think one of the keys for us is we have to be able to not let their defensive linemen disrupt your game. They have done that against a lot of people. Their defensive ends are going to create a lot of havoc for them people. In order for us to be successful, we cannot allow them to do that. When they are able to get to the quarterback with four guys and they shut down your run game, they can make it a long day for you. But I'm confident about our players and I feel good about our match-ups with them up front. They have a talented secondary. The Cody kid is a phenomenal player. So I see no weaknesses at any point on any place in their defense at all.

COACH LONG: Well, I echo that. They do have a -- they do have a fine defense, as good a defense as we've seen on tape this year, and we've seen a lot of tape of opponents we have not played this year. So they are very good, well coached. You know, Coach Andrews has been there for a long time. They basically started that program from scratch, I don't, back in the late 70s or mid-70s. They started from scratch. They built it up to a point where they expect to win, and, you know, our hat is off to them. We're trying to strive as a program to get to that point where we expect to win each and every year, each and every game, and they have been there and done that already. And they are well coached and we have a big challenge ahead.

COACH MANGINO: I don't see a problem there at all. Our players are confident. The reasons why -- there are many ones. One of the reasons why we are in the position we are today, 12-0, is our kids are very confident players. We've had some other people attempt to intimidate us and pregame hype and we were told a couple -- there was a team on our schedule that circled our game a year and a half to play in their house and everybody told us we could not win that game. But our players were confident. They believed in themselves. Our players will not be intimidated. We know that it boils down to 11 against 11 on the field executing against offense and defense. That's what the game is really about. All of those other things are really not important.

COACH MANGINO: I'll be quite honest with you, I've been so preoccupied by watching their defense in our preparation that normally when I do watch the other team's offense, it is usually maybe the day before a game. I'm trying to relax and look how the other offensive coordinators approach different defenses. I like to that. It's something that helps me relax and take my mind off of that team's defensive unit. So I'll probably -- tomorrow a little bit, get a chance to do that. But what I've seen on TV the last few years and everything, he's a very capable coach. He's a very bright guy, and his teams are -- his offenses are always well prepared and they will be well prepared on Wednesday. There's no doubt.

COACH MANGINO: Well, for us, we have to be able to run the ball effectively, especially at crucial times. It is no secret that our run game complements our pass game here. We have never made that a secret. But we knew that over the winter that if we ever wanted to have an opportunities to compete for championships and play at the highest level, we were going to have to develop a run game that could be effective and help us pick up first downs, take pressure off the pass game, help us with clock management towards the end of games, and it has been effective most of the time. Hopefully, we'll be able to establish a run game against them. I feel like we'll be able to do that to some degree.

COACH MANGINO: Certainly, our kids have always found a way to win. They have been confident in the fourth quarter of every game that we've played in. We didn't always execute perfectly in the fourth quarter, but we've always found a way to get it done. And that kind of sums up our ballclub a little bit: Our kids find a way to get it done. You know, I can't tell you that, you know, the longer the game goes and it is a close game that it gives us an edge. I won't say that. But I'm pretty confident in our kids that, you know, if it is down there in the fourth quarter, we've got a chance. Our kids will have a chance.

COACH LONG: It has been a great year as far as, you know, being on this staff. Obviously, it was tough leaving because of my affiliation and Iowa and my history there, but I also realize sometimes you have to move out in this profession to grow. And I had a great opportunity with Coach Stoops. You know, he invited me on his staff and I wanted to work for him. Again, I knew him from the playing days. I knew what his make-up was all about and how positive and confident he has always been. So, it was a great chance to work for him. Also, to work with this staff; I heard great things about the chemistry of this staff. My goal is to strengthen the staff this year. Also, because of the offense. The offense is a great offense. One of the best in the country -- the best I've been in. It is the best offense I've been in, and I've been in quite a few. I've been in everywhere from the power I to the run-and-shoot. So this is a great offensive system and had an opportunity to coach in the system. You know, I think those three things, first and foremost, were the big reasons. And I also, you know -- Mark alluded to Bob being a family man. That's very important to me, as well. My wife and I have five children, and it's tough being a coach's wife in this profession. So I wanted to -- I knew Bob was all about family and made a lot of time for family. He's a great example. You're going to have to work all hours of the night to get it done and he's not that way. So there's a lot of things that went into the combination of that, and I also had a chance to coordinate the passing game, as well. So it was a big step for me and it has allowed me to grow in this profession.

COACH MANGINO: There's no doubt when we sat down with him and talked to him about it last season, he was reluctant. He was reluctant to it, because the year before, he had been playing object on defense. They had a pretty good defensive unit, and he started and played a significant amount of time. We just came in with a little different defensive philosophy, and our coaching staff knew that Frank was a talented guy, a tough guy, a smart kid. So we needed to find a place for him. When Coach Stoops brought him in and talked to him, he said, "Do you think this is what's best for the team?" And Coach Stoops said, "Yes, I do." He said, "I'll do it." But it was very hard for him. He was very reluctant for a while and we had to push him through the drills. And then as the season progressed last year, he just kind of got a feeling for it. When we got into spring ball last year, he started to really feel confident about it. And he has really developed into a fine player for us. He is athletic. He is strong. He's tough. He's smart. All of those things really make him a special player. So it wasn't easy at first. We had to counsel him for a while, but now he's really comfortable and he thinks that he can compete, you know, with anybody. So it worked out pretty well for the team and for frank.

COACH MANGINO: I'll let Chuck answer that. Go ahead, Chuck.

COACH LONG: No. 1 is intelligence with the game of football. I've never quite been around a guy -- he has a better work ethic than most of your professional quarterbacks at this point. He has great work ethic. He's a great student of the game. I know you hear that term quite often, but he's been a student of the game ever since he was five years old with his father. He's just an intelligent quarterback. There's a lot of quarterback with more physical talent than he does, but what sets him apart is his intelligence, by far, and his accuracy. Those are the things that are most important at that position. Everybody gets enamored with the big arm and a guy that can move around and do all of these things, but eventually in crunch time, it is going to come down to intelligence, how smart the quarterback is with the football and his accuracy, and that's what he brings to the table.

COACH LONG: I think he'll have a very nice, long career at the professional level. I think the NFL is in dire need of some quarterbacks, especially with expansion going on in the NFL. The more they expand -- there's three more jobs per team. I know personally through NFL scouts that they are looking for quarterbacks all the time. It has become a serious need at that level. I believe that he will have a nice, long career. He's the type of young man that the professional scout may not like all of his physical tools. It will be the coach, the assistant coach. It will be the coordinator or the head coach that steps in on draft day and says, "I've spent some time with this young man and we have to draft Josh Heupel." Guys like Shanahan, Holmgren, guys like that. They are going to step in and say, "We're going to get Josh Heupel." That's who is going to step in on draft day.