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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 6, 2012Bob StoopsOKLAHOMA – 41 COACH STOOPS: I guess I'll just start by always complimenting Tommy Tuberville and their staff and their team. They have really‑‑ and I'm sure they're disappointed in today‑‑ but through these first four games they've played well, and have done a lot of really good things. I believe they're a really good, and strong football team. Fortunately, we've played really well in a lot of areas, and we got the turnovers, which always is a big factor in these games. So I'm proud of our players for the resolve just to work like they have the last couple weeks to come back and play a good football team on the road and play like they did. So hopefully we can keep building on it. I'm not surprised that we played well because our players have had a great attitude and how they're working. So, hopefully again, we can keep building on this. It's just one game. Unlike a lot of people, we've only played four. So we still have a long road to travel and a lot to improve on. But we're excited to be going down next week to Dallas to play Texas like we always are. Q. Could you talk about the play of Landry Jones and a lot of great plays today? COACH STOOPS: Again, I'm not surprised by it. Landry is an excellent quarterback, and I thought we just overall had a good rhythm, and receivers didn't make a great job coming open, catching the ball. I thought early in particularly in the first half and early third quarter, we ran the football that set up some play‑action passes for them, and the line protected him. That's another factor. He slipped out of some things too, that really helped, which some people questioned two weeks ago if that was a hindrance, and he obviously through the year is going to help him. Q. You had a couple of weeks for fans to criticize you, Josh Heupel, your quarterback, just staying together and coming through and making this performance and showing your guys? COACH STOOPS: In today's world, they're up‑and‑down. We don't bother with that. They can say do what they want. That's what fans do. That's fine. We don't much care about that. In the end we care about what we're doing, how are we getting better. Stick with each other, recognize what elements we can control and change, and that's what we do. That's not unlike in today's world. That's everywhere. So we'll just keep doing what we, do trying to get better in how we work and how we go to meetings. Our guys have had a great attitude, and I keep saying that. They worked hard, and they played hard two weeks ago. Just because you play hard, but you make a few mistakes, you're going to lose. You know, you look at today's game. We had the big turnovers, and it made a huge difference in the game. Q. Just to follow up on Josh Heupel and the game plan he put together today, and Landry Jones? COACH STOOPS: Listen, I don't know why that would be questioned. Josh does a great job, as does the rest of our offensive staff, and Landry's a great quarterback. He's going to go down as one of the greatest we've had here at OU, and that says a lot. Q. What about your defense? You gave up 150 yards in the first quarter, and really dialed it in. It seemed like after that it really bothered Doege the rest of the day. COACH STOOPS: Obviously we did. I thought they did a great job. I thought the secondary covered it really, really well. I thought the guys up front did a great job defending the run. It's always overlooked with these teams. They came in averaging 150 or so yards a game, and I don't know, did they get 89? I guess, 89 yards. That's a big deal. It sets up more third and longs. Then we were able to get pressure with mixing up our blitzes and so‑‑ then we got the big turnovers. So that all came together. Q. Could you talk about you got the ball to Trey Millard and Damien Williams, not just handing the ball, but different ways. Kind of seemed like it kept them off balance. COACH STOOPS: Well, we want those guys to have their catches and their carries, and time with the football. Fortunately in today's game, with some of the drives we've got going, you get more opportunities to spread the ball around and you get it to people. Q. Despite‑‑ I trust what you say about everybody stayed together. But after a game like this, it's got to lift everybody's confidence going forward after the disappointing game at Kansas State, a performance like this has to restore some of the lost confidence. COACH STOOPS: For you out there, yeah. For us, we recognize that we played a good Kansas State football team, and we did a lot of really good things in the game. It all goes out the window when you drop the ball on the 1‑yard line going in to score, and when you give up scores and so we know we can hold on to the ball. That's not going to happen every week. So we're confident that we could do the thing that's we've been doing. We also are recognizing this early in the season, around the country, there are a lot of people that have played different schedules and played tougher people early or not, and that makes a difference. But no one really looks at it. Q. What about Landry's confidence? COACH STOOPS: I don't believe that it had to be. He showed tonight that I don't know that it was. In the end he was really sharp went through his reach, threw the ball great. That guy's played a lot of great football. He should have a lot of confidence. Q. Can you talk about some of the things you've done defensively? You played new personnel and different alignments today? COACH STOOPS: Yeah, it needed to be because they play so many four wides. They're different than two weeks ago. So you have to adjust your personnel groupings. You adjust your blitzes. You adjust everything that you did and you do, and it worked out well. I thought we matched up well, and our coverage people who were lined up covering people. Frank had a heck of a game. Julian Wilson played a ton. He did well. So all of those guys came in and did a nice job. Again, the guys up front I thought got excellent pressure overall. Q. You talk about your guys up front. You guys shuffled a lot of personnel in and out. Can you talk about that part? Something you're not getting the pressure, but against a team like this, you get fresh guys in there and it gives you a better chance? COACH STOOPS: Yeah, and to be quite honest, our first two games, we didn't want to show our blitzes. Kansas State isn't a team that it benefits you much. So, again, we've only played three games coming into this week, so we haven't had a chance to show a lot of what we want to do. So those guys are all capable up there. When you start bringing other personnel and other people blitzing with them, it turns them free to give them more opportunities to get to the quarterback. Q. If you guys have remained confident through the ups and downs, does it help having a performance like this going into such an emotional game rivalry against Texas? COACH STOOPS: Any time you go on the road like this, it's always helpful, to a degree. But to sit here thinking we can't come in here and win, that's the outside. That isn't people who are doing it every day who really understand what they're doing. Q. You didn't always get to Doege with your blitz, but it looked like you were always effective with it. Even when you didn't get to him, your coverage was really solid. Can you talk about how good the blitz was today against Tech? COACH STOOPS: Well, it made a difference.  It made them uncomfortable. It made him move his feet. Even when he escaped it a few times, it's hard to throw the football. Had he some inaccurate throws when we did pressure him. So, you know, again, I'm sure it was effective overall. Then what happens when you don't blitz and you fall out and play good coverage. It still makes them squeeze the ball a little more. They're wondering is it coming or not? Then they're just not quite as sure of themselves. Q. I was wondering if you could talk about Colvin's night tonight? The interception. He was defending on the one that Javon Harris picked off? COACH STOOPS: He had the tip. He was the cause of the interception because he broke the ball up. He has the interception off the blitz. Aaron's a special player. He's one of the best corners that I've coached. And I believe in the long run from now through whenever he leaves he's going to show that. He's a real player. Q. Could you talk about how Landry stepped up and performed tonight and elaborate on that a little bit? COACH STOOPS: Again? Did you just come in? Again, the guy was great. I don't know what else to say. But I thought he played the game in an excellent way. Tempo, getting the calls, making sure the linemen had all the calls up there. Just looking at that whole operation. I don't believe we had a procedure or a false start or, if we did, we didn't have but maybe one. That's a lot. He handled it great, just the whole operation. Then he threw the ball great, and he played a great game. Q. How about crispness in general? Everything, tackling, coverage, special teams, field kicking, receiving? COACH STOOPS: I actually thought in the first half we didn't tackle as well as we were capable of, and we did in the second.  It's something we talked about in the first half or at halftime, I thought we gave them a couple of plays to the running backs where we missed. We weren't quite as close in coverage as we should have been, and we missed a few tackles. The rest of the game maybe to the average person watching it, it did look good, and it was. In the second half, I thought we were really good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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