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AT&T COTTON BOWL CLASSIC: ARKANSAS v KANSAS STATEJanuary 6, 2012Collin KleinBill SnyderARLINGTON, TEXAS Arkansas – 29 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Bill Snyder and Collin Klein. Coach, would you like to make an opening comment. COACH SNYDER: Obviously congratulations to Arkansas. A whale of a football team. Extremely well‑coached. The youngsters played hard. We got off to an awfully bad start and really couldn't overcome the damage that we did, and most of it was pretty obvious. To the Cotton Bowl and AT&T, it really was a special production. I think they've been fantastic. They've tried diligently to assist all of our travel party, our players, all of the members of our travel party, and treated us extremely well. Greatly appreciative of that. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Bill, can you talk on the club's anxiousness early and poise early in the ballgame, how it affected especially the first half. COACH SNYDER: Well, offensively in a segment of the kicking game didn't really perform well. And those things happen. We had four dropped balls, we had two turnovers, we had four penalties all in the first half. Dramatically hurt us. We just weren't ready to play. That's my responsibility, to have our guys ready to play. On that side of the ball, we weren't. I think we did a great job defensively. With four or five minutes to go in the half, Arkansas had 40‑some‑odd yards, so I was awfully proud of the way our defense played. They were ready to play. Offensively we just weren't. I just didn't have 'em ready. Q. Coach, what did you think of Joe Adams' punt return? How did that impact the game? COACH SNYDER: Well, it obviously made a major difference in it. How did I like it? I didn't like it a bit. But, you know, we knew he's a talented player. We knew that he could make you miss him. We knew that we had to contain the football. Probably Collin as a quarterback got tired of me talking about being able to contain Joe Adams and not let him bounce the ball outside. Sure enough he bounced it outside, which just tells you saying things, asking certain things to happen doesn't make it happen. You have to practice it that way, do it that way, be cognizant of what you're trying to do. We just weren't. But he's a very, very talented player. That's not the first time he's done that. He's a very exceptional player. Q. Coach Snyder, this team is full of fight. That was evident on some blocks and returns. Can you talk about how the play epitomized the season for us. COACH SNYDER: I think I'm accurate in saying that is the fifth kick that Ralph has blocked this year. He takes an immense amount of proud in being able to do that. I'm proud of his effort. Certainly the rest of our defense responded well. But I think our defense played, like I said, in the first half extremely well. That was just a part of it. I think it had a little bit of an emotional boost for our football team. Then coming back and getting the turnover that we did, offensively, Collin throwing the touchdown pass, really set the stage for us to have an opportunity to come back, and we did. But then, you know, we kind of lost it after that. Q. Bill, you mentioned not having this team ready to play offensively. How much harder is that in an atmosphere like this? COACH SNYDER: It's being able to control that. I really did a poor job of being able to control the environment, that which we could control, and to be able to just do some things ‑ I won't elaborate on it ‑ but do some things that would have assisted our players. Q. Collin, will you talk about setting the record for rushing touchdowns in this game. COLLIN KLEIN: Well, honestly I haven't really even thought about it. It's overshadowed by our ability as a group, we came up short tonight. Again, my heart just goes out to our seniors. We weren't able to send them out the right way. Again, I just want to thank God, my Lord and savior Jesus Christ for teaching and growing me through this season, the good lessons and the bad. This is one of those hard ones. Again, I'm just so grateful and blessed to be a part of this family. Very blessed. Q. Collin, can you talk about what the offense was struggling with as far as Arkansas's defense, what things they were doing that made it tough for you tonight? COLLIN KLEIN: Again, they're a very good football team across the board. We didn't do the things, as coach said earlier. I'll stick up for him a little bit. We had our chances and weren't able to, you know, finish the job and execute on the field. Again, we just came up short and didn't get it done as a unit. Q. Collin, what was it about today that made it a little more difficult to do the things you did so well during the regular season offensively? COLLIN KLEIN: I think going back and seeing the film will kind of point out exactly, you know, what transpired there. Again, the blame falls on all of our shoulders. It wasn't one player here. It was collectively we just couldn't put it together. Again, that's on all of us. I don't know if it was one thing. I think it was a combination of multiple things at different times. Q. For the defensive players, how tough is it when you get yourself in a hole like that to be able to continue pushing forward? It seemed like you got in a little bit of a lull early but continued to play with good heart. ARTHUR BROWN: Well, like you said, you know, it's tough. The outcome of the game was tougher, didn't turn out favorable for us as a team. But, you know, just to mention, you know, us being a team, us guys being together, being here for one another, playing for one another, that helps us to thrive and really endure, you know, those moments. You know, us as a defensive unit, we was confident knowing what the offense is capable of doing. You know, we just tried to go out there and play for one another. Q. Coach, Arkansas was playing with a new defensive coordinator tonight. Did you notice anything different they did under him tonight? COACH SNYDER: I think they just played well. In all honesty, no. Both teams, Ohio State and Arkansas are very similar in the things that they did. You know, again, like Collin said, we have to look at the videotape. But there wasn't anything, I don't think, that we didn't anticipate that we would have. Maybe at different times, as far as the down and distance, field position situations were concerned. But as far as schemes were concerned, they were visibly the same. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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