Nov. 20, 2010

Recap | Final Stats | Notes |

Postgame Quotes

Oklahoma State 48, Kansas 14

Nov. 20, 2010 – Lawrence, Kan.

Kansas Head Coach Turner Gill

On how the team played in the first half:

“I thought in the first half we played pretty good football. We had several positions make plays and our guys made some plays offensively and defensively and we had several opportunities to do some good things.”

On not being able to capitalize on offense after a defensive stop:

“With a team like Oklahoma State, your offense is going to have to score some touchdowns. We had opportunities to do that in the first half and in the third quarter, but we could never capitalize on it and we couldn’t maintain anything on the drive offensively; and of course that hurts the defense when they are on the field for quite a long time.”

On moving sophomores Kale Pick to wide receiver and Bradley McDougald to safety:

“For the final two ballgames – against Oklahoma State and Missouri – we’re playing more of a tight team and we thought Bradley McDougald would give us a better chance to be successful on the defensive side so we decided to make that switch. We tried it for a couple of days and we weren’t sure we were going to do it for sure until after two days of practices we felt like he did a good job and he would help our team. With Kale Pick, we took him off of the quarterback (position) and let him on to where we were at in this point in time. We told Kale that we were going to have the other two guys as far as Jordan (Webb) and Quinn (Mecham) were really the guys that were going to get the reps. We asked him if he was willing to take another opportunity at another position to get himself on the football field so he considered it for a day or so. Tuesday he let us know and Wednesday we made the transition.”

On if Bradley McDougald will continue on as safety next year:

“We won’t decide that until after the season is over. We’ll stay with him there for the next ballgame and then we will go over the evaluation with all of the personnel as far as offense, defense and special teams after the season. He might be there next year, he may not be, but at this point, he will be there for the next game.”

On the senior class:

“They played with a lot of heart and I’m proud to be their head football coach. I’m glad they have one more game and hopefully we can finish on a great note for those guys. They are good people, good football players and they will be very good in our society for the rest of their lives.”

Senior defensive end Jake Laptad

On the pressure on the quarterback:

“I think our d-backs did a good job of covering the receivers, and we worked on that all week: getting back there as fast as we could.”

On not being able to get sacks with all the pressure:

“When you can get back there and you can get a sack, or you can get pressure just to force him out of his comfort zone is one of the biggest things you have to do with a quarterback like (Brandon) Weedon. He is good with his precision and accuracy, and he did a good job today.”

On Weedon’s second half play:

“I think we came out strong in the third quarter, I think we just fell off after the punt got blocked. We got to keep our energy up on defense.”

On Oklahoma State’s offense:

“Their offense is very good, their offensive line is very good, they did a good job protecting Weedon, and with Kendall Hunter, and [Joseph] Randall at running backs. They did a good job using both of those guys to get as many yards as they could.”

Senior safety Chris Harris

On the momentum swing:

“I think it was that fourth-and-one (from the one-yard line), that fourth-and-one hurt. Then getting that punt blocked they gained a lot of momentum, and everything just started falling their way.”

On third quarter woes:

“Other teams have been coming out with a lot of corrections to what we are doing, and making a lot of good plays. We had a couple stops in the third quarter; we just have to put points on the board, and try to gain some momentum.”

On the tough season:

“It has definitely been one of those types of seasons. It is a learning experience for the young guys, hopefully they learn from this and work real hard in the off-season and come back next year. It is definitely a learning experience, it’s good that they can learn from this and be ready for the future.”

On poor special teams play:

“We definitely pride ourselves in special teams, I wasn’t out there, but I guess we had a couple of miscues on the punt, but we definitely can’t have that on a punt. That is the most important play in all of special teams.”

Junior quarterback Quinn Mecham

On the play in the first quarter:

“We came out fast and played our game plan in the first half, so things were positive in the first half.”

On confidence going into the second half:

“We definitely had some confidence coming in and we came out and just kind of lost focus a bit. Their defense made some adjustments and it just didn’t come out our way.”

On Oklahoma State’s adjustments:

“They changed things up a bit by dropping more guys to cover Daymond, so just hats off to them.”

On Oklahoma State’s defense:

“They’re a good defense and they came out with a good game plan to stop us.”

Kansas sophomore safety Bradley McDougald

On moving from wide receiver to safety:

“Coach Gill just called me in for a little informal meeting. We sat down and talked about the options, and told me it was completely up to me if I wanted to take the chance to play safety for the last two weeks. I knew it was going to be a critical situation. Oklahoma State definitely has a high powered offense, and a lot of things were going to be on my shoulders, but I was fine with it.”

On learning the position:

“We had to go back and talk about some stuff. Being on offense we still work on coverages, we still talk about where the safteys going to be, so I had some tips about that already coming in. Coach (Robert) Wimberly did a great job all week and Coach (Carl) Thorbush did a great job explaining where I needed to be pre-snap.”

On Chris Harris’ influence:

“It was great to have a great senior back there who knew defense very well. Without him I probably would have made more mistakes than I did. He kept me in line, and made sure I knew what I was doing every play, whether it was a blitz, or coverage.”

Kansas freshman quarterback Jordan Webb

On his health:

“I’m 100 percent now. At the beginning of this week, I finally felt back to normal.”

On playing in a game for the first time since Oct. 23:

“It was good. It would have been better if we had been in a different position in the game, but it was good to get back in. It felt good to get some snaps.”

On whether it was frustrating to miss some games:

“Yeah, but that’s just sports. Injuries happen. You have to make the best of your situation and push through it.”

On Kale Pick playing wide receiver:

“He did good. He has a lot of potential. He’s a great athlete and he has some great hands. He’s got a bright future (at receiver). He stayed after practice and ran a few routes the day they asked him (about switching positions). He looked good doing it. I think he’s going to be a great receiver for us.

Kansas sophomore wide receiver Kale Pick

On when he was asked to switch from quarterback to wide receiver:

“It was Monday. Coach Gill talked to me about switching to wide receiver. I was willing. I wasn’t doing much on the field before; I was sitting on the sideline. I’d much rather play than sit on the sideline obviously. I had fun today. I still have a lot of things to work on.”

On how wide receivers’ coach Wyatt helped him during the week:

“It started Tuesday. Coach (Darrell) Wyatt was a big help for me. He taught me all the technique stuff that receivers are used to that I wasn’t used to – at the end of the route I need to break down and working on my stance.”

On if he thought about Kerry Meier’s switch from quarterback:

“It’s nice that it’s been done before. Kerry’s obviously successful at it. He’s playing in the NFL right now.”

Kansas freshman wide receiver Chris Omigie

On catching the first pass of the game:
“I really respected that a lot – the fact that they trusted me to go and make a play our first play of our first drive of the game. They called my number so I just had to do what they wanted me to do and make a play.”

On whether he was nervous in his first career start:

“I think I had more jitters yesterday than today. When the game came around, I went back to the place I always like to be in and just let the game happen.”

On how he would grade his first start:

“If I had to grade myself, I’d give myself a ‘C+’ to a ‘B-‘ for the simple fact that it was my first game. I had a big catch and I had a pass interference, which led to a touchdown. Second half, I don’t know what happened. I just lost my concentration.”

On Kale Pick moving to wide receiver:

“When I saw him line up at wide receiver in practice, it wasn’t a shock because I had a feeling it was going to happen. Quinn (Mecham) has been doing really good and Jordan (Webb) was doing really good until he hurt his shoulder. I guess they wanted Kale to be on the field because Kale is a playmaker. He’s an athlete. I’m pretty sure he could go play safety if he wanted to.”

Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy

A recap of the game:

“We’re very proud of our football team for rallying in the second half. Kansas had a nice plan in the first half. We didn’t play as fast as we wanted to. Our defense gave up 200 yards. They came back in the second half and only gave up 80. (Their) Offense played very well. They didn’t turn the ball over. We were fortunate enough not to have to punt today. I was proud of the way (quarterback Brandon) Weeden played. I thought offensive line played fairly well; I don’t think we gave up a sack. Overall, I thought it was a good day. The game-changer was the blocked punt. It was a great call by Coach (Joe) DeForest. It was very well executed. It changed the game for us and it was nice to come and get the road victory.”

On the first half penalties:

“We didn’t play smart at all. We had a hands to the face (call) which I have to watch and see. Sometimes that happens accidentally. We have to try to do the best (we can) to make sure that doesn’t happen. We had a play where we had a late hit. I saw it on the replay and I know it was a late hit. That wasn’t very smart. That was on 3rd-and-10. We had them stopped. Then Lane Taylor got called on a play down the field. They said he was blocking after the whistle had been blown. We have to play smarter football. That’s our fault as a coaching staff. We’ll do everything we can to get that corrected.”

On the goal line stand:

“That was really big. For us to be able to stop them while being on the road, and not letting their crowd back in to the game could have been huge. That was a really big stand.”

On the road victories this season:

“It shows that we have some character to our team. It difficult to win on the road, but our players have bought in 100 percent. They believe in each other and they believe in our coaching staff. We have a good group of guys. They like being around each other. They care about each other. Usually when you have those ingredients the results are good.”

Oklahoma State senior defensive tackle Shane Jarka

On how it feels to be Big 12 South Champions:

“It feels amazing, it feels great to go down in the history books. It is wonderful to accomplish it with this group of guys – it’s great to accomplish something we’ve been working for all season long.”

On the defense in the second half:

“We definitely picked up our intensity level, Coach (Mike Gundy) gave us a pep talk, and the defense really stepped it up – we just got a lot better overall.”

Oklahoma State junior quarterback Brandon Weeden

On setting the single-season school record for total offense:

“I didn’t realize I had broken the record until the game was over. It’s more important to me that we got our 10^th win, no team has ever done that in Oklahoma State history. It says a lot about this team.”

On if they spoke about getting their 10^th win before the game:

“It was in the back of our minds. When we were in the huddle, I told the guys about it, that we have a chance to make history. The offensive linemen had no idea, other guys had it in the back of their mind.”

On their drive in the second half that started from their own one yard-line:

“Of course, when you are inside your own one, it’s great to drive that far down field – even though we came up short and kicked the field goal, we still did a good job. It was great to get the momentum going.”

On their 5-0 record on the road:

“Road wins are tough, everyone talks about how important they are, but winning five road games with a young squad is very impressive.”

Oklahoma State senior linebacker Orie Lemon

On winning the Big 12 South for the first time in Oklahoma State history:

“It means a lot, I give a lot of credit to our young guys. The seniors know what we have to do to come out and get a win, as do the coaches. It was a huge game for us to come out and get this win against Kansas.”

On their 5-0 record on the road:

“We’ve worked hard since January to accomplish this goal – we knew what we wanted to do since the beginning of the season. We stayed focus and kept being motivated by our goal.”

On the defense in the second half:

“We knew we were making mental mistakes in the first half, we knew we had to read our schemes and produce on our assignments better.”