Postgame Quotes vs. Baylor

Nov. 12, 2011

Recap | Final Stats | Notes |

Baylor 31, Kansas 30 (OT)

November 12, 2011

Postgame Quotes

Kansas head coach Turner Gill

On how the locker room feels after losing in overtime:
“It hurts. Our coaches did a great job with game planning against Baylor. Our players for the most part executed the game plan like we wanted in order to give us a chance to be successful, but we just came up a little bit short. It is tough and it’s hard on us.”

On two dropped passes and a possible missed pass interference call on third downs:
“There are probably always three or four plays each game. There are other plays besides those few plays that we should have made earlier in the game. Then we may not have been in that situation. That’s just the way it goes. You have to find ways to execute your plays and overcome. That’s part of football. You have to keep playing and execute. I feel very good about my guys fighting. They came into this ball game and did a great job of executing our game plan for the most part. They continue to compete and continue to believe in what we’re doing. We just have to get a few things corrected.”

On his decision to go for two in overtime:
“I felt the momentum. We hit (the touchdown) real quickly and I just thought it would be the time to go for it. I just had an instinct at that particular time to go for it.”

On the two-point conversion attempt:
“We had a pass play called where there are two or three receivers on one side and the outside receivers running what we call five-yard in route. The inside receiver, which was Tim Biere, runs a corner route and that’s who we decided to run the ball to. If they gave us a certain look, we would have checked for another play, but we thought they had a certain defense they were in. They ended up playing a zone coverage and we thought they were going to play man. The guy that was a corner who fell off on the outside receiver was the guy who made the play. Those things happen and they made the play to win the game.”

Junior quarterback Jordan Webb

On forcing fumble in second quarter after interception:
“We were trying to get the ball to D.J. (Beshears) on a deep route and they covered that up, and then they covered Tim (Biere) up. I rolled it out a little bit, Tim turned it up the field, wide open, and as soon as I threw it, I got my hand hit. I got up and saw their guy returning it. Instincts just take over and you try to hit him out of bounds to save a touchdown. Fortunately, (Jeremiah) Hatch had a really heads-up play and recovered it in the end zone.”

On Jeremiah Hatch recovering ball in end zone:
“Hatch is a pretty athletic dude. He’s got great hand-eye coordination. He’s the type of guy you want to go out there and play horse with, and he might embarrass you. It definitely didn’t surprise me, but just for him to be in position for that, is a big deal.”

On two-point conversion in overtime:
“I just had to give Tim a chance. The defenders made a great play, and Tim went at it with all he had, trying to get it, but they were all over it. We gave it a shot, and you can’t fault us for that. We were going for the win. I wouldn’t have done it any other way, and I don’t think anybody else would have.”

On touchdown pass to Tim Biere in overtime:
“It was just a little read on the linebacker. He kind of came inside enough where I could fit it in to Tim and he made it happen from there.”

Senior center Jeremiah Hatch

On recovering fumble in second quarter:
“I was just trying to run down the field to make a tackle, and all of a sudden, the ball just lands in my hands. No way I thought I would ever catch a ball like that. It just landed in my hands.”

On the decision to go for two in overtime:
“Anytime your coach puts the game in the players’ hands, you have to love it. The offense was rolling. It’s either do or die. That’s all.”

On tough loss:
“Like I’ve said all year, this team has been taking blows through the whole season. Anytime you take blows like that, there has to be something good that comes out of it. As long as we stay focused and come to practice tomorrow ready to go, something good is going to happen.”

On head coach Turner Gill being more animated this game:
“Especially when we went for the two-point conversion, he showed us he’s behind us throughout these blows. He still had faith in us, and once you see a coach like that – riled up and everything – you get excited. His energy affected us.”

Senior tackle Jeff Spikes

On Coach Gill:
“Coach Gill is very consistent, and he’s a great coach. He coaches that you have to come out and work everyday regardless of the situation, regardless of what happens. You have to keep your head up, and he’s going to coach emotionally because he was an athlete. He’s a coach now, but he was an athlete. He knows what it felt like to lose, knows what it felt like to win. All he could say was ‘it hurts. You have to accept that it hurts, but you have to come back and work. Our job is not done. We will not lie down and give up or quit. We won’t, regardless of losses, regardless of the record. We are going to come back everyday.’ That’s all you can ask for in a man. That’s all you can ask for in a human being. Despite things going down on the football field or in life, you have to come back the next day, and you can’t give up. He’s teaching us that right now, and unfortunately we’re learning that lesson through football and wins and losses.”

On losing large lead:
“You have to give credit to them. They’re the No. 2 offense in the country. I wouldn’t say that it was expected or it was not expected at all. I can’t say either one, and I won’t say either one. The game is the game. We try to focus on each play for what it is. We have to make sure this play is the most important play. When things happen, you do look like ‘did that really happen?’ but you have to move onto the next play and not worry about that last play. It was kind of surreal, but at the same time, you have to take it one play at a time.”

On two-point conversion call in overtime:
“Just like I said (Coach Gill) wants us to come out and keep working everyday. I support and I appreciate him calling that two-point conversion because we could have easily came out and kicked an extra point. To me, that showed that we are not punks. We are not going to sit down and let anyone run over us. You’re going to have to work. You’re going to have to beat me, despite what the score says. The fact that we went for that two-point conversion, I commend him and I appreciate that he gave us the opportunity to come out and take that victory. Even though we came up on the losing end, I appreciate it and I support it and I’m glad he did it. It shows to everybody that we aren’t going to just come out and kick an extra point. We’re not going to come out and keep the game close. That’s not what we do. We’re going to try to come out and play as hard as we can every single play. I support it and I’m glad he did it.”

Kansas senior linebacker Steven Johnson

On how he felt walking off of the field following the game:
“It was another loss and it hurts. We had that game won, but I was taking it all in walking off of that field for the last time. Kansas is a great place that gave me an opportunity to continue to play football. I was a little up and a little down at the same time. It hurts that we lost, because we had that game won.”

On what he was thinking as Kansas went for two in overtime:
“I was just holding my breath and praying that the offense had come up with a play to score. We’re winners and you make those decisions. We’ll learn from it and get better. That’s just how it happened.”

On how hard it was holding Baylor to just three points through the third quarter before giving up 21 points in the fourth quarter:
“It is a little hard. There were certain times when I wasn’t on the field or times that I wished that I could have been on the field to stop certain situations, but I wasn’t. As a defense we played hard. It was just a couple of plays that got away from us. That just comes down to executing when times get tight.”

On the mood in the locker room following the game:
“Nobody said a word after the game. Usually you can hear a few whispers in there, but it was completely silent. It was even hard for (Kansas head) Coach Gill to talk to us after the game.”

Kansas junior safety Bradley McDougald

On Kansas going for two in overtime:
“I kneeled down and locked arms with a couple of other defensive guys and we just put the faith in the offense. At that point that’s all we could really do. (Kansas quarterback Jordan) Webb made a great throw, but give Baylor credit; they made a great play defensively and got out of here with a win.”

On if he would say the game became a tale of two halves:
“I wouldn’t say it was the tale of two halves, because going into the third quarter we were still up and they hadn’t scored a touchdown yet. Give credit to them for sticking with it and continuing to make plays. There were a couple of things the defense could have done differently and the same thing goes for the offense. We just have to stick together and keep playing.”

On the facemask called against Kansas as time expired in the first half:
“It was one of those things you have to go back and replay. From my angle it looked like he didn’t have his facemask, but I am not going to question the referee. This is his profession and this is what he does. We have to live with it. Coaches do a great job of stating that we shouldn’t even give the referees a chance to make a facemask call. It was a small thing that ended up biting us in the end.”

Baylor head coach Art Briles

On Baylor coming back from a 24-3 deficit in the fourth quarter:
“First of all, Kansas did a tremendous job. They came out with a lot of effort, attitude and belief. We saw it last week against Iowa State. They played extremely hard. It was their lowest point total since 2007 defensively (against a Big 12 opponent). They had a good plan. They did a good job. The thing about it is our guys just never stop believing. The whole time, even when we were down 24-3, it was never a situation where we were saying it was over. We never felt like it was over. We felt like if we could make a play and get a little momentum, we could turn it. Fortunately, that’s what happened. We made some plays, the defense got a stop or two, and we were able to drive the field a couple of times.”

On Robert Griffin III’s 49-yard touchdown run to bring Baylor within 14 points:
“It was huge. We could not make a mistake in the second half. When you’re down that much, when you turn it over or you don’t get a set of downs and score some points, then the next thing you know, you’re down 21 instead of 14, which is what happened to us. We had to have plays there toward the end on both sides of the ball, and we made them. To me, that’s just character and belief.”

On Baylor becoming bowl eligible for the second-straight year:
“It’s unbelievable. It’s huge. We want to do well enough that people will quit talking about, ‘When’s the last time Baylor went back-to-back bowl seasons?’ We want them saying, ‘Baylor’s going again this year. This will be the fourth in a row.’ We have a long way to go, but today we took a big step toward getting there.”

On the frustration of seeing the offense struggle in the first half:
“It felt we couldn’t get in sync. Nothing was going right, and that’s what makes this so much better. We never quit believing. As long as you believe and have hope, you have a chance for something good to happen, and it did today.”

On if he was nervous when Kansas went for two points to win the game in overtime:
“No, actually I just took the headphones off and handed them to Brett. (The outcome of the play) is either good or bad. All the talk and planning is over with. Fortunately we made the play. Joe (Williams) is a heady ball player, good when the ball’s in the air. It didn’t surprise me (that Kansas went for two) because of the situation that they’re in right now. They’re fighting hard to get a Big 12 win, and they felt like we had a little momentum. That’s a good way to squelch it. ‘Let’s do it, get it over with and get the win.’ That’s what they are thinking, so it didn’t surprise me a bit.”

Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III

On the comeback:
“We only had the ball for about five minutes in the first half; it just wasn’t going our way. But our guys kept faith and I told them not to deviate from the game plan. And you saw in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter, our sideline was amped up even back when it was 24-10. Everybody believed and we went out and did it.”

On his touchdown run:
“I think we got a lot of momentum from that and I don’t get too many long runs anymore because teams are paying attention to me. But whenever I can do something to spark the team it’s great.”

On the momentum shift in the fourth quarter:
“We just got going, we got our mojo and we got our rhythm. And before the fourth quarter we really couldn’t establish that because we didn’t have the ball. We knew we weren’t going to get many opportunities, because of how well Kansas runs the ball, but after we scored that first touchdown, we felt if we keep it up we can get back in this game.”

Baylor inside receiver Tevin Reese

On the offensive frustrations in the first half:
“It was very frustrating with my fumble and the other interceptions, but we went in at half time and said that the second half will be different and we will be able to do what we didn’t do in the first half.”

On the rushing touchdown by Griffin:
“It was a huge momentum shift and our defense fed off of that and we fed off of the defense.”

Baylor linebacker Elliot Coffey

On the Baylor defense in the fourth quarter:
“We had to come up with some stops, our offense scored and it was up to us to give the ball back to Griffin and our offense so they could put points on the board.”

On his interception with 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter:
“That was just me having to do my job. The ball popped in the air and I was in the vicinity so I had to catch it.”