FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: OKLAHOMA v FLORIDA STATE

January 3, 2001

Bob Stoops

COACH STOOPS: First, I want to compliment and say our hat is off to Florida State for a well-fought game, a very good football team that, you know, always plays well, been in a lot of big games. They certainly played well tonight. But very proud of our players' performance and the way they prepared for this game. There was -- you know, the entire week they prepared in a way to win. There was never a day where we were just happy to be here. We wanted to win this football game, and we fully expected to. There was no hoping about it. We expected to win this game, and all year we've played that way. We've prepared for it, and our players just executed a great game plan. Our hat is off to our coaches, defensive staff, my brother and Brent Venables, their coordinating the defense, just an incredible job and Shipp and Jack Wright, what an incredible performance. And offensively, we moved the ball, moved the clock, got us field position, and just, you know, did what we needed to do to win. And we had some dropped balls. Heck, we dropped four interceptions that hit us square on the hands. But overall, the players, just really proud of their effort, the way they played and prepared for the game and the toughness that they have shown all year, probably the most difficult road to get here of anybody, and to come into this game and to handle it like they did and to play the way they did was fun to watch and fun to be a part of. I can't say that it surprises any of us. But I think now it is easy to say that Oklahoma is officially back.

TORRANCE MARSHALL: I played pretty good as an individual, but I look at it if we played well as a team; it was a great team effort. We had 11 hands on the ball all night, and that's what we came into the game ready to do. I'm just glad that the guys on both sides of the ball just stayed focussed and played hard for four quarters.

TORRANCE MARSHALL: Like I said, I don't think I contained it by myself. There was ten other guys out there playing. Our defensive backs played a great game. Coaching staff put together a great game plan, and like I said, I'm just really happy that the team played -- we played as a team today throughout four quarters and I'm just happy that we did that.

COACH STOOPS: Yeah, I figured it would be that way. I figured the defenses would be a big factor in this game, and we figured we would play pretty well, and I'm sure they did. They have got an excellent defense as well and it worked out that way so that didn't surprise me a whole lot. Just to watch our players run to the ball, tackle the way they played, our young secondary and backers, the way they covered close on people was really impressive to watch.

COACH STOOPS: We do that all the time. We move our safeties back and forth. Not just in this game; we did that all year. We jockey back and forth, change our coverages, try not to let the quarterbacks know ahead of time what we are going to be in. And it was just fun to watch our players close on the ball and watch our players run.

COACH STOOPS: Oh, I don't know. You would have to ask them. They are a good football team. I'm sure they have seen good defenses all year, but our guys, again, just executed an excellent plan, and just closed on the ball so well. We had our hands on so many balls, and, you know, so many dropped interceptions that we really broke the ball and made some big plays on the ball that way.

COACH STOOPS: It is special. You know, people don't want to count back so many years, wanting to say we have not been here. Well, each year is a different year. If you want to count back one year, if you want to count back 20, 30 whatever. We have a tremendous tradition in the Orange Bowl or playing well in an Orange Bowl. Through the years Oklahoma has traditionally done that, and our players have realized that and knew that is what is expected of them. And now they had a chance to go out and build on that history and great tradition and they did that tonight, and gave a great university with already a great tradition of six national championships, gave them a seventh. It is special to be back that way.

COACH STOOPS: No, I don't believe it is fair to say. I thought Josh had an excellent game and led us to victory. He came into this year with one goal and one goal only: Not to win the Heisman Trophy, but to win the National Championship; and he walks away with that, and I think that is extremely special. You know, we've never been about one guy. We've been about a team all year and you saw an excellent team effort. You watch our special teams today, our returns and our cover teams, the way we covered on our punts and kickoffs and set up field position. So it is a total team effort, and that's what Josh is about.

COACH STOOPS: Sure. We've established a toughness. We've established discipline in a way that we work and a confidence level that we play at. What no one -- what everyone probably now, you know, they realize, too, is how young a team we are. We've got 23 freshman and sophomores in the two-deep and that's not usually written about a National Championship team. Our secondary -- just across the board, we've got a lot of young players still coming up, guys that are red-shirted are going to continue to win. The program is stable, it's strong. It's just going to continuing to that way with what we've got started here in a short period of time.

TORRANCE MARSHALL: I don't know if he was confused. I just believe that we played great defense today. I don't know if he was used to seeing a defense like we have. It might have confused him, but I can't really say.

COACH STOOPS: We didn't play one defense that we haven't played all year so we just mixed them up, changed them at times, kept mixing up our coverages, and then closed on the ball.

COACH STOOPS: I'd like to think so. You watch the great game Nebraska played, you watch what Kansas State did to Tennessee. I wanted to talk about Florida State's speed or game all week or all month; we're pretty fast, too. You look at us making one-on-one tackles on the open field and making people miss us and run. Like I said all week, we are not slow. Sure, it makes a statement, I would think, about our conference a little bit.

COACH STOOPS: No. Coach Fry has been a great leader and mentor to a lot of people and an excellent head coach for a lot of years. I'm fortunate to have had time under Coach Fry a good number of years as a player and a coach. So no, I'm sure we've all learned a great deal from him, there's no question.

TORRANCE MARSHALL: It feels good to be back home playing in front of a lot of people that have not seen me play in a while. I'm just glad we were fortunate enough to win. As far as the Hurricanes, I don't have nothing to say, I'll just let the hat and the rings speak for itself. That's about it.

COACH STOOPS: No, there's too many. That entire game will stand out to me more than anything. Watching our defense play, I'll watch that tape a few times. Being a long-time defensive coach, to watch what our assistant coaches and players did tonight is extremely special. And besides that, our offensive line really played a great game. We were able to run and protect the quarterback all night and not many people thought our line could hold up like that, and they played a great game.

COACH STOOPS: I said that all week, I think the biggest reason was people were used to seeing Florida State here and not us, and that has nothing to do with who is going to play or really studying how a team has played all year. You look at what we've done through the season, and now people say, "Well, now when you look back and look at the teams they had to play and play again in the Championship Game and they are the only undefeated team in the country." It makes sense. Did they play the schedule that we did? I don't believe so. So if you look at it in sheer facts and numbers, it should not have been that way. But, if you want to go with just the fact that they have been here a few times, which doesn't matter -- we've been here if you want to count back more years, we've been here a lot, too. So for whatever reasons, it never bothered us. We never made an issue of it.

COACH STOOPS: Torrance, and we've got some key guys that are seniors. But you're right, there are not a great number of them, and that's good. And our young guys coming up are strong and understand what we are doing now. These guys these seniors have built the foundation of how we work, the toughness we prepare through the year with, not just in the football season the way we work in the off-season to get prepared for tonight. And that was a big deal in the locker room before the game. Our players have said that; we've trained to finish, through games and the season, and today was time to finish and our guys were excited do that because they have earned it.

COACH STOOPS: I think what has really been fun to watch and gratifying to watch Torrance is the way he has developed, coming here without a great background, coming from a junior college and was pieced together at certain times through his playing career and had some time off. Once he got into a structured environment with us and learning our system, the more and more comfortable he became with everything, the more aggressive and stronger he played. You see that -- we saw that change and develop really, from week to week and really clicked for him this year from the beginning, and he just went out and played at a consistent high level. It is fun to see a guy play like that has so much ability like Torrance, and he put that together mentally to make him such a great player.