Sam Pittman talks double overtime loss to No. 16 Oklahoma State

Um, congratulations. Oklahoma State. They found a way to win. Um, well, coach, we saw it last year against Byubyu had put a, made a nice run on them half and in the third quarter and then, uh, lost late. Um, obviously we're disappointed because we had the statistics were way in our favor. I thought our defense like three quarters of great football. Um, they wore out a little bit offensively. Uh, we made too many mistakes, um, put the ball on the ground to a pick six. Um, and, uh, and we went through a spell there in the third quarter that we were moving to football, but we couldn't, the snap was either low or we couldn't catch it. I had to watch on tape 2 to 3 times there really stop drives. Um, and, you know, we just had a chance to go up 11 and unfortunately we're able to make the field goal and, uh, but Oklahoma State they came back and they beat us. Uh, we've got to take care of the ball. I like the intensity that we played with. Um, and it came down to, we turned the ball over too many times and we got beat and, uh, congratulations to them. Uh, we've got a good football team. Uh, we've got to correct these mistakes, uh, moving forward. S what, what did you tell your guys in there? Probably just about what I just told you. We made too many mistakes. Um, um, we played extremely hard. Uh, I was proud of our defense, you know, that's a good offensive team and for three quarters, you know, we held them to six points defensively. Um, um, and just the same thing, talked about the turnovers, uh, talked about it's one loss. It's, it's not an sec loss. It's the one that, uh, you know, if we'll, we'll learn from it and then flush it and then come back. Well, I, I feel like we've got a really good football team. Uh, we just, we, we can't win games, turning the football all over. I thought we did a good job going Ali Gordon. I thought he was as good as what we thought he was gonna be. Uh, thought we did a nice job there. I thought for the most part we did a good job of covering and I just talked to him about that. Um, and I know they're disappointed but, uh, once we get home, we got to bounce back from this one and, and head to the next one. It's early in the year. I think we proved that we've got a good team. Uh, we just gotta, we gotta hang on to football and we'll win a lot of games. Ok. Coach, what was the halftime locker room like? It looked like you guys were dominating them and then third quarter just did not go well, I think we still played well, defensively, Trey, you know, um, uh, offensively it was, uh, uh, you know, uh, we would have pressure on the quarterback. Uh, we didn't run the ball as well in the third quarter is what we had. They were, uh, putting a little bit more movement on us, a little bit more pressure on us to try to stop the run. And then, you know, like I said, we, we had three or four snaps that were low. Um, and then, uh, uh, we, you know, right when we thought we were gonna come back, we have a punch, you know what I mean? But, uh, I was pleased with, with how our defense played for three quarters at half time to answer your question. We knew that they were gonna make a rally. We, we knew they were, we talked about, um, they have done it in the past. They're at home. They're a veteran team. We're gonna have to go beat them. Uh, and what happened is we just, we shot herself in the foot a little bit and, and, uh, seemed like there for a while, maybe 20 minutes of the 3rd and 4th quarter. We, we, you know, everything, we did was not, not right. In other words, we was putting the ball on the ground snaps, uh, trigger play, uh, muff punt, Miss Figo, uh, everything seemed like could go wrong, kind of went wrong there. And that's that span of time. I was really proud of the two minute drive at the end and, and Ramsey for kicking a field goal to get us into ot, you know, that's the first ot game we've lost since I've been here. I felt like once we can get into ot, we, we would find a way to win and we just didn't, you had 1/4 and four in the fourth quarter game? I think the field goal distance would have been 4042. Is that a good feeling or? Yeah, I just felt like at that point, we just missed one from the same distance and, uh, I felt like we need a little bit of momentum and, and, uh, I felt honestly, I felt like we were gonna make it on fourth and five. We busted, uh, we busted the protection and, you know, honestly, Tom, we were probably lucky to get the 4.5 that we got, um, understanding that, uh, they had, uh, uh, 80 yards to go and I, to me risk, risk reward. Uh, I had, I have no, uh, uh, second guessing that at all. I felt really good about, uh, what Bobby had called, uh, our opportunity to convert that and maybe change a little bit of the momentum and probably we just missed the one before from the same distance. I probably had a little bit to do with it, but I really thought we could, we could either a get the first down and score a touchdown or I felt like we could hold him right there and, and, uh, this didn't happen. Rodney Hill was in on the last play. Yeah, Quentin just was, you know, we, we didn't know whether he could make it out there or back or, you know, it just had a lot of cramps and they were everywhere. They were in his groin, they were in his hamstring. He's probably getting ivs now because you're probably gonna go in a full body cramp if we don't watch out, I'm sure they're taking care of the armstrong. I miss and miss the opener, but a huge games which is coming off. Yeah, I thought it was really good. You know, I had a lot of, a lot of yards after he caught the football, you know, made some guys miss and ran extremely hard. Uh, um, yeah, played hard blocked well. Uh, but, you know, 1010 catches for 100 and 64 yards. I thought he had a really good day and of course, of protection and the thrower has something to do with it as well, but he got open and I was just as I was pleased to get him back out there. You can take out of a tough loss that he and t seem to have a good, yeah, I think so. I mean, I think you can take a lot of positive things out of this game. You, you certainly can take a lot of negatives out of it as well. Uh, we got to clean up, like I said, we gotta hold on the football and if we do that, this game would have been, in my opinion, quite a bit different, but we didn't. So we've got to figure that out and we, we practice it every day, you know, practice it on Monday and on Tuesday, on Wednesday, um we just didn't hold on to it. I think you mentioned the pond. What did you see on that play, you know, on the M pot? Exactly what happened was one of our guys got knocked into, stain his, uh, into his legs and, uh, man, it was, it was legal, you know, but about the time he was getting ready to catch it, uh, some guy hit him and hit him in the legs and, uh, and he dropped it. I think you mentioned on Monday we asked about kickers, he mentioned Shipley and Randy. They, you know, they have no opportunity to competition open up today. Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's always a competition but, um, I think so. I mean, um I hate it, you know, I hate it for him. You know, I, I know we missed a couple but he also made the one put us into overtime and if we played a little bit better, maybe that wouldn't have come up, you know. But, you know, their kicker missed as well, uh, to put us in, I think, over time too. So, but yeah, that competition is always up certainly is now defensively. Um, the focus was what was the main focus when defending Ali Gordon on the one because you guys help me check the, yeah, we, we were trying to, we were trying to, uh, make him run east and west and not north and south. So a lot of our games and a lot of things we were doing was trying to kick him outside. Uh, we knew that if he ever got his shoulders turned on us that he'd be, you know, he broke 13 tackles last week and he probably broke a bunch, you know, today as well. But, uh, that was our game plan on him. Yeah, I just so I was wondering if you could touch on y'all got out to such a quick start today. Is there something that you noticed that you might be able to duplicate from that regard? I'm sorry, I didn't hear the last. Just if, if there's anything you notice that, that you're able to duplicate maybe moving forward in terms of just getting out quick, you know, from the first game to the first half, you know, we, we, we, we had a sack that stopped the very first drive and got us out of fail, fail goal range as well. Um But no, not anything more than what we know. We Bobby's calling really good game of mixture, mixing up and throwing and passing and waggles and getting outside, moving the pocket. Um You know, when we lost our big back, you know, Dr Quinn and he, he's a good player for us when he, when he's cramping and things that, that hurts us a little bit. I thought Rodney did, did a really good job of coming in and running there, uh, made a really nice run, uh, to get us a first down down there in the second overtime. Um, but not, oh, not anything different than what, what, um, um, the way that we practice in our openers, our openers have been good. Uh, so we'll continue to do that nice. Seems like they were pretty aggressive with the list and how tough was that for you guys? Yeah, I thought, you know, we obviously they, they had a total, in other words, they're all zero and they're gonna bring more than you can block. We, we certainly prepared big time for that. Um, we missed a couple, we had Sagna open on a post once that we missed in that same situation. Uh, but, you know, the pressure got there a little bit faster than what we wanted it to. Um, but we worked extremely hard whether we were in 11 personnel, 12 personnel or in 20 where we didn't have a tight end to use as a blocker. So we, we worked on several different situations that we knew they were gonna do it. And uh, we just didn't execute quite as good as what, uh we had anticipated that we were able to, we practice it, it, uh, IFI felt like if they got into that, we could get it out, get them out of it pretty fast. And, uh, it was kind of the opposite. They, they got a shack on early and then, uh, continue to do that a little bit. And, uh, the first real test up front this holistically. What do you think the, how the offensive line? Well, I thought, I thought we played well, I mean, we had 650 yards, you know, so the, the line had to, against a good team. So the lion had to play. Uh, well, uh, did we play consistent? Did we have MA S buzz? Yes. And so we've got to, we've got to correct those. I didn't notice a lot of holding calls and things like that. So that means that our, we, our feet are moving. We're in good position. Uh I thought we played hard. Um, you know, we need to get kiss back so we can rotate a little bit more and, and keep, keep our guys fresh out there. But, um, for the most part I thought the, the line played pretty well. We've, we've got to, we've got to get better in pass protection on the edge. Uh, but I thought we played as a unit pretty good. Right. But I guess that's the second overtime, you know, he sort of gets to stop and he got flag and, you know, I, I don't know, I think, well, I think any time that you pick a guy up and you slam him to the turf, I, I think it's no different to you make a tackle and you stand up or what they did, they did the guns and all that. You know, if you give opportunities, uh, for officiating to make a call, they can or they can't. And on that one, I said, hey, he was still trying to move forward and the official said no coach, he just, anytime you, they're gonna pick him up and slam him to the ground that that's gonna be a personal foul and you know what? He's right. So, and then t, and I know, you know, he had some mistakes here and there but he had almost 500 yards rushing the pass. What do you think? His, his game? He's a warrior. You know, he works awful hard. It's unfortunate he got on, on the, on the pick six, he got hit, you know, he got hit and it wobbled out there. And the kid made, the young man made a nice interception and, and turn returned it. But, uh, he, he's, he's our guy and, and, uh, obviously I'm sure he'd like to have some throws back. He'd like to have, uh, some decisions that he made back. But that's, you know, to have 500 yards against a good football team. I think we've got a good one there and, and he'll continue to get better and we got to get better around him. Wrap up to you said in camp that the first test of adversity was gonna be a real meaningful for your team. What's your anticipation of what this team is gonna do? I really like the team. I do. I think, I think we're gonna roll up our sleeves on, on Monday and learn from, uh, the mistakes that we made, learn from the good things that we did today. I think we'll roll up our sleeves and we'll be ready for that home opener, uh, against you, uh uab and, and, uh, I think that the kids will be excited to play. I mean, you can't look at our team and say that man, where do they go from here? They're not very, I don't, I'm not saying they're not very good or they don't have talent or the, we gotta learn how to finish games and hang on to football and I think we do that. We're gonna have, have a really good year so we got to flush it. We had to flush last week, got to flush it and, and head towards the next one. I think they will to be honest with you. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. All. Appreciate it. Yeah, you're happy.