Mike Gundy, Players Meet With Media Monday

"In the second half, I believe that we gave up 10 points. We played better in the second half. We didn’t really slow them down a lot, we forced a turnover but we made the plays in the end when we had to."

“It was a really nice play by Brandon Pettigrew at the end of the game. The one thing that I have said about Brandon in the last couple years here is that he likes to play football and he is very competitive. Guys that enjoy playing the game and play for the right reasons because they like to compete, good things happen to them and that’s why he was able to make that play at the end of the game.”

“I’ve been encouraged by our running backs. It’s nice to have Dantrell Savage back. It was a nice mix up for Kendall Hunter. Obviously, Zac Robinson played pretty well and ran the ball effectively. We were able to move the ball and score some points.”

“We have to get better in special teams. Our return game isn’t what we would like it to be, so we have a lot of work.”

“As far as Sam Houston State, everybody’s aware of their offensive performance. Bomar is playing very well. I think they are 468 yards a game or something like that. He is running the ball effectively and he is throwing the ball well. They are doing a lot of things on offense that give people some problems. We will have our hands full in slowing them down. We will have to have a good game plan and have a great week of practice to play effectively on Saturday night.”

Gundy regarding the OSU offensive line:
“I thought they really did a nice job. It is difficult to play center for the first time. Lewis moved in and did a nice job with the snaps and handling the offense and making the calls and everything that the centers do for pretty much everybody in the country. Steve Denning did a nice job. He finished out at 85 percent and anything over 75 percent is pretty good for an offensive lineman. They were effective. They run-blocked well and they put us in position for our running backs to make plays. Dantrell and Kendall did a nice job of making some people miss, but for the most part we had a hat on a hat”

Gundy regarding the offense as a whole:
“We are getting there but we are not where we were last year. Dez is about 30-35 percent effective on what he is supposed to do. The one thing that Dez does is when the ball comes to him, he catches it and that is pretty important. But he has got a long ways to go and Dez needs to learn to play harder like those other guys do. Bowman, Broadway, Seth, and Devereaux...those guys are really effective when the ball is not in their hands. Dez has not learned how to play when the ball is not in his hands. That is just because he is a freshman and he needs to get in better condition and learn to play harder. He is getting there, but we are not as far along offensively as we were last year.”

Regarding if he is surprised about the reaction stemming from his post-game comments to the media following OSU’s win over Texas Tech:
“Am I surprised? I was just shooting from the hip. I probably should have had a better-prepared speech. My English would have been better, like I was educated and had a college degree. I said ‘aint’, my wife said. The only thing I said is that I should have written it out because there were other things that I wanted to say that I didn’t get out because I forgot.”

Regarding what was behind his post-game comments to the media:
“It just happened because of my feelings for the team and the players and I just felt like it was the right thing and I was the guy that had to say something about it. I certainly didn’t do it to receive recognition. I certainly don’t want it to take away from this upcoming game like it unfortunately took away from the last game for the team.”

Regarding if he thinks college athletes should be criticized:
“I’m not so sure that what I meant was they shouldn’t be criticized. What I was referring to was that players at this level are still amateur athletes and we encourage them to try to do the right thing both on and off the field and if they’re doing the best they can to play on Saturdays and they come up a little short, then as a coach, we should support them for the effort and what they put into the game. Now, if they go a different direction, then we need to handle that accordingly. That’s how we handle it here, I can’t speak for everybody else in the country. There will be times -- it comes with the territory – that there are players who get criticized for their play because this is a high-profile sport. There’s a lot of coverage, a lot of media and people love college football in this state. I don’t have to agree with all that and neither does anybody else.”

“The only thing that matters to me is what I thought was right. Whatever I thought was right was what I said, and other than that, I just have to let it go. I don’t say things for people to disagree or agree with me. I say them if I think they’re right and a lot of times I may say some things that I shouldn’t say. I’ve been a candidate to do that before.”

Quarterback Zac Robinson
Robinson regarding OSU’s win over Texas Tech:
“We played a whole lot better. After the Troy loss we were pretty down but we got out there in practice and forgot about it right away. Against Texas Tech, we came out and played with a lot of enthusiasm in front of our home crowd.”

Robinson regarding his frame of mind against Tech compared to Troy:
“I felt quite a bit more comfortable (against Tech.) Against Troy, I felt all right, but it was moving a little too fast for me. Saturday, I felt good with the game plan and we had a good week of practice. So I guess the game slowed down a little bit for me.”

Robinson regarding the offensive line:
“I thought they played great. Coach Wickline does such a great job of rotating those guys in. Lewis played great and Steve Denning did a good job of filling in. I’m not sure I really got hit in the pocket. The only time I got hit is when I took off and ran. They definitely took a lot of pressure off me and made me feel that much more comfortable knowing that I would have time to look for guys to be open.”

Robinson regarding Coach Gundy’s comments to the media after the game:
“All I know is that we have a coach that supports us in everything we do and is going to stick up for us. That’s how I feel. We haven’t really been talking about it with the team because we haven’t been to practice yet, but I think when you see a coach that has that much fight for his players it’s a good thing.”

Defensive End Nathan Peterson
Peterson regarding Coach Gundy’s postgame comments to the media:
“I support Coach Gundy 100 percent and I agree with what he was making a point of. Bobby first of all is not only my teammate, he’s my friend. I know him as a person so it’s easy for me to not pay attention to any of that and he’s not going to let this get him down.”

Peterson regarding OSU’s win over Texas Tech:
“The good thing is this game is behind us. 700 yards or whatever, I don’t care, we won. It’s a win for us, we’re 1-0 in Big 12 play and that’s the most important thing.”

Peterson regarding the play of OSU’s defensive tackles:
“I think they’re getting better each week. You saw Maurice Cummings have a great game. Quencey Patrick is a redshirt freshman and he was making plays and this is his second or third game to play, each week it seems amazing how much better he’s getting. Each week their confidence is growing and I know the rest of us have full confidence in those guys.”

Peterson regarding OSU’s defensive effort in the second half:
“We just came in with our coaches and they made some adjustments for us and that was a huge part of it, but another big part of it was mentally we just calmed down and we just relaxed and focused on what we had to do.”

Peterson regarding the impact of limiting Texas Tech to 10 second-half points:
“I think it is (a confidence boost). I think our goal from here would be to start sooner. Obviously it took us too long to start playing good defense and that’s something we need to focus on is being self-starters, starting from the first quarter and playing good defense throughout the game.”

Peterson regarding facing former Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar this week:
“We’ve seen him play for the last few years so we know what he’s capable of. Playing quarterback is such a crucial part of the offense that he has the capabilities of taking control of the game for his team, so it’s going to be important for us to control him.” - Oklahoma State University