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AT&T COTTON BOWL CLASSIC: ARKANSAS v KANSAS STATEJanuary 6, 2012Jake BequetteBobby PetrinoTyler WilsonARLINGTON, TEXAS Arkansas – 29 THE MODERATOR: Coach, make an opening comment. COACH PETRINO: I'm very proud of our football team. It was a hard‑fought contest. Kansas State did a great job. They're a good football team. They played tough on defense. I think the difference in the game was how well we played on defense and the field position we were able to give our offense. We didn't take advantage of it all the time, but it certainly was a big part of the game. I'm proud of our seniors. Group of young men that have really set the standards for how we're going to work and operate here at the University of Arkansas. A great job by them the entire week. I was really impressed with our team on the way we handled the bowl. Guys were aware they needed to be on time. They worked hard in the classroom. We practiced with probably the best attitude that I've seen a team have at a bowl game. So it was a great win for us. I'm just proud of all of our coaches and our players. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Talk about Joe's punt return and how big a play that was. By now you're just getting used to him doing stuff like that. COACH PETRINO: It was another one of those where you just go, Wow! It was a great punt. He hit the ball really hard. You could see when he made the catch he had in mind what he was going to do. We got some good blocks. I thought our guys did a nice job on blocks. Joe showed great acceleration, made another spectacular play for us. TYLER WILSON: You know, offensively at that point I think it was two possessions where we hadn't got much going. Joe really sparked us. He's a great player. He's made plays like that all year long and really sparked us offensively. I think the next possession we were able to come out and execute and put some points on the board after that. JAKE BEQUETTE: I think Coach Caldwell, our special teams coordinator said it best, anytime Joe touches the ball something great can happen. He's made so many electrifying plays for us this year, tonight was no different. Just a true game‑changer. Q. I think Coach Haynes was up in the booth for this game. Talk about how things were with him calling plays. COACH PETRINO: We had a good plan. Coach Haynes and our defensive staff did a really nice job on the plan. Our players came out and executed it well. I thought we played very, very fast. Our defensive front controlled the line of scrimmage, both when they ran the ball, I think we held them to 87 yards rushing, which was a spectacular job by our defense, we pressured the quarterback, hit him, caused fumbles. I think that's the key. Anytime we made 'em throw the ball, our defensive front teed off and had, what, six sacks. JAKE BEQUETTE: Yeah, I mean, we came into this game with kind of a chip on our shoulder. Coach Haynes did an excellent job preparing us. We knew on first and second down if we could stop the run, get them in third‑and‑long, we'd have a great chance to tee off on the quarterback. We stayed patient, played in our gaps, didn't bounce around too much. When we had the opportunity to get off, really make things happen in the passing game, we did that. Q. Coach, being up 10‑0, you didn't have any first downs, coming back after that, settling in offensively. COACH PETRINO: That's why it's a team game. It's a team game. Our defense gave us three points right off the bat. Special teams scored seven. I thought offensively we kept our poise well. I think our coaches did a nice job of just keep playing, keep working. We did a really nice job on the sideline of making sure Tyler understood what they were doing, where our completions were going to come from. Then we ran the ball better in the second half. Q. Coach, just talk about what the win does for your program in terms of where you're going, what you're building. You talked about the importance of this game this week. Now that you've won the game, what does it mean? COACH PETRINO: Like I said earlier, it's a two‑phase game. Number one, send our seniors out with a win. A group of young men that have really done a great job for this program. We really wanted to get them 11 wins, make sure that everybody remembered this football team. And number two, it's a start of next season. You know, that's how we approach bowl games. It's an end of one season and a start of next season. Certainly everyone understands what our goals are. This helps us get started for next year. So I thought it was a great game for us. Q. Coach, I was curious if you and Tyler could talk about the legacy that your three senior wide receivers leave this program with. COACH PETRINO: They're a good group. They've really done an excellent job for us. I remember when they came in as freshmen, we threw them right into the fire. They had to play right away. They had no choice. They're all talented. Not as big and as fast as they are right now, but they did a nice job. There was a few times through that season where they weren't sure if they broke the huddle and went to the right or broke the huddle and went to the left. This year I thought they provided us more leadership than any other time. Their competitive spirit, the way they handled themselves on the sideline, the way they handled the locker room when we were here against Texas A&M. You know, you really can't say enough about all three of them. TYLER WILSON: I can remember, you know, at the end of all of our high school careers, we're all really from Arkansas. I remember being at Channel 7, the Landers Award Show, all of us sitting there together. A picture was shown to me the other day. Obviously we've been through four years of it.  Those are all great guys and they're all tremendous players. I'm going to miss seeing them around. I'm going to have each and every one of them on speed dial where I can give them a call and make sure we keep in contact and keep that relationship around 'cause it's been a fun ride with them. Q. Jake, if you could summarize your career in Arkansas. In a few sentences, how would you summarize it? JAKE BEQUETTE: It's been an incredible journey, that's for sure. It hasn't been easy. I think any one of my teammates and seniors would say that. Especially those first couple seasons, it was really a learning experience for all of us. But then now it's really paid off the last two years. To get this program consistently in the top 10, in BCS bowl games, great bowl games like the Cotton Bowl, hopefully in the top five in the country with 11 wins, it means so much to me personally, and to this group of seniors. It's just been such a fun ride. Q. Coach, would you go through what you think your ends, Jake and Tank, brought maybe the last time you were in this building, how they played tonight? COACH PETRINO: That's right, they weren't with us then, were they? The first thing I thought they did a nice job of was understanding they were going to play a huge role in stopping the run. Jake loves to run the passer, and so does Tenarius. This game was about we need to stop this run, stop this quarterback. We tightened them up. Did a great job on the tackles, did a great job of keeping our linebackers free. They really understood the situations of the game. Once it became third down, they widened out and teed off, made huge plays for us. The turnover early and the sacks. They're both very, very good football players. Q. Can you address Coach Petrino, what he's brought to the program, what it's meant to you guys. TYLER WILSON: I think first off it's been a work ethic. We've adopted the term 'grind' well. I think it really exemplifies what we do on a day‑to‑day basis. In order to be successful you have to work hard and you have to attack it each and every day. I think that's what he's brought to the table as well as the ability to be an expert at what you do. We pride ourselves as players and as a coaching staff as having our players prepared and mentally prepared, you know, better than our opponent. I think he's definitely done that as a head coach. That's why we've been so successful. JAKE BEQUETTE: Adding onto what Tyler said, we pride ourselves as being a very tough group, a group that's dedicated to preparing. I think we're as well‑prepared as any team we face every week. Just the two cornerstones of our program are dedication and discipline. Every one of our players, every one of the guys in that locker room have those two words hammered into their heads. We don't just say it, we live it. Q. Coach, Jerry Franklin got eight tackles tonight, which makes him second all time in history. Speak about what his career has been like. COACH PETRINO: We need to petition to see if we can get him one more. It's funny, because our first year here, we had all these true freshman playing for us, I thought of Jake and Jerry as our vets. Probably halfway through the year when I probably realized, hey, these guys are just redshirt freshmen, they haven't played at all. They've done an unbelievable job for us. Jerry, I don't know if he's missed a game, played almost every single play of every game. He's so smart. He knows football. He knows what we want to do. He understands what offenses are doing. Then, you know, he's very, very talented. He's big and physical, has had a tremendous career here. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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