Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas Postgame News Conference - 9/7/2024

glad we won that the only thing I can say statistically was we won the turnover margin obviously won the penalties and then uh we were really good in overtime on both sides of the ball we wasted the first half their coaches had better Concepts and schemes than our coaches did uh our players got out of position some but for the most part I thought the particularly um through the first quarter and a half that they had better Concepts uh did a better um job of scheming than we did and then at halftime our coaches were fantastic the adjustments we made the players were really good about um absorbing information not panicking not pointing fingers taking it back out on the field and executing it and playing much better obviously I don't know I think we had like eight yards in the first quarter or something um so we started really really really slow but I think they out coached Us in the first half uh again I have to watch the tape but um they got us on six or eight plays on their offense and and then um they they got us on two or three concepts that they were using um to slow us down in the running game and what we should have done is get to the passing game quicker now we did have a couple drops and we did misfire uh early in the game Bowman misfired on on at least three plays that that would have given us big plays uh it is what it is but for the most part um I think we won the game because we were in better condition the the latter part of the third quarter the fourth quarter in overtime you know when you get tired the first thing that goes is your mind mentally you don't play well you make mistakes that didn't happen to our guys our guys are in great condition they they uh were able to function when when they were fatigued and we were able to finish the game and that's the reason why we won the game all the credit to those guys they're good coaches um I had a really nice conversation with Coach Pitman before the game and first time I had really cross paths with him surprisingly that he's from Oklahoma but um they're doing a good job over there coaching they've they've improve their roster guys in the off season with free agency they're they're a better team much better team now than what they were and um as I said on Monday this is going to be a real challenge for us moving forward every game will be this way I mean pretty much everybody's equal it say about I guess your players that they were able to handle that that bad first half as cely as you said is that a product of the experience so I'm gonna I mean I'm going to go to my C the culture we have here I know everybody gets tired of hearing that but our culture allows us to function in in critical times in in times when most people panic we don't panic we take we take advantage of it and stay the course what is winning a game like this we can get a lot of things out of it um one there'll be a lot of good coaching on video think mistakes we made there was a lot of mistakes that we made coaches made mistakes as I said early in the game you know my job is to evaluate everything equal and they out coached us certainly in the first quarter but they can understand if they stay the course Don't Panic Take information make the adjustments then you can always figure out a way to win give yourself a chance you think some of the ups and downs of last season maybe help this group going very well could have the maturity helped us so the culture allows us to function in situations like that but the maturity allows coaches to communicate with the players because they've been here before they've all seen this during their career and that helps considerably if you had a really young team today might have been a little bit more difficult when you're down at the end of regulation going towards the scoreboard uh two two stoppages in play one on the uh reset of the clock the other on the uh drawing them off sides what were the explanations you got on those so um when we when we go on Two And we clap and then clap again well we we we motioned a tight end to run the ball over here they jumped and the explanation me was is you can't do that but we've done it before so so there's the issue you have with officiating crews that's the SEC crew we we did it we've done it before we did it all preseason in scrimmages with Big 12 Crews and did it didn't get it called so Steve Shaw is the head of the officiate and he needs to fix it he needs to get them all in one room and everybody has the same rule that's the way I see that what about the time when they reset the time well I was just telling them they were wrong was or not 147 before the ball was snapped I looked at the clock and I saw 147 cuz I in my brain I was doing a a 45 second play and a 40 second runoff call timeout and then deal with it after that so I saw 147 and they messed something up I'm not sure what they messed up I don't really care but all I know is is they gave us a three second play on a nine yard run correct he made what he get eight or nine yards and that's where I had an issue with it they said when the ball was blown dead after the play at um 3 seconds after the snap there's no way I mean maybe it was I've been wrong before but I'm going to guess it was a sixc play before he went down because not only did that happen they were pushing and shoving so my my argument to them was okay I'm good that you're going to restart the 40 but it wasn't 143 it should be about 139 and here's what's interesting in football um they said coach it's only three seconds anyway and I said every second counts do you realize how much how many seconds there were left when they tied the game two so I'm not I'm just saying I mean they said okay well every second counts okay really it's only three seconds coach there was two left worked out but it is what it is in my opinion they need to have all officiating crews in one room going over the rules so we don't have issues like that there's always a debate they called we scored a touchdown and they called illegal crackback block on a on a guy blocking back on a guy that was setting the edge here and he hits him at the side but sometimes they they say that's legal sometimes they say it's not either way it doesn't make a difference to me just make a decision and we'll go one way or the other we had a discussion before the game about it we talked to three officials and we told them exactly what we were going to do and they said it was good obviously we didn't talk to enough of them because somebody called it like obviously a lot of imperfections in this game but college football has some of its best games when it's a little bit hky jerky you've been in this game a long time do you still sort of find a thrill in days like this where maybe it's not perfect but pretty damn fun um you know the one thing is you guys that cover us you come here you're always going to see a good game that's one thing you you get your money's worth here you know we're sold out I think people they know they're going to see a good game here it's a lot of fun here unfortunately it's hard on coaches uh but there were so many things in that game as I shared with the players there'll be a lot of really good teaching and coaching not only for the players but for the coaches there's just a lot of things that happened in that game that um are very were very unusual but as you said you're correct that college football that's why people love to watch it every game matters G you in the Run game all day long but a fourth and one a couple of guys stand in there and make a play and end the game how much pride do you take in that last play so I shared that with them and we got a lot of things we got to fix one of the issues that we face is the ability of that quarterback to run pulls another guy out of run defense I mean you guys know that football is a numbers game causes some issues he took off early in the game couple times so you know it concerned us so we're doing a better job of checking him then you get hit you're about a halfman short inside uh but there was times when we had to make plays and I mentioned to them that uh they were able to do it again I think um you know hopefully their their grit and their grind and their mental toughness um allows us to do that and and um you know gave us a chance I mean we pitched a shutout in overtime it's pretty good with your your right game you talked last week about about need to improve that and seem to struggle a little bit more yeah more than struggleing you're being nice got our ass kicked in the running game um we got a lot of work a lot of work I will say this uh I probably shouldn't have said that we got beat up pretty good in it but we needed to get to the pass quicker okay there's there's an extra guy there and those are things we've talked about and you know once we started to expand the width of the field um we were able to I mean throw for 326 um if we would had a better plan of attack based on what we saw early in the game we probably throw for 450 just percentages in my head on knowing what happened and when it happened but we're not going to be able to get away with this much more not going to happen we're going to have to get better at that we're going to have to get to 4.2 yards of car period we we can't um we're not going to be this fortunate as we move move on down the road are that you carry over from last week or was different issues because of um this team was much more physical so but um the extra guy was an issue but a but a more physical team there's there's areas that we can improve and get better and those are things that we have to work on you know obviously whenever you you have an issue you got to find out what it is then you got to have a plan to fix it then you got to put that plan in place to fix it then you got to go execute it it's really that simple and that's what we have to do this week some otherwise sure-handed receivers Dro some passes today was that just out of character or what was going on there we're usually pretty good about catching passes we drop some early in the game that's you know what I said uh gosh we probably um couple of them were big plays also you know it is what it is it happened some rather it not happen um and and he misfired on about four throws which he's usually pretty accurate there um so U the combination of that's not good do you think any of the drops were not good throws or was that more I think we had I mean at least two leg legitimate drops I can remember maybe another one but I he miss fired three or four times you know combination of a few drops at critical times and misfiring you know it's kind of like the movie Airplane it's a bad time to not stop sniffing glute you know the pick six really stopped their momentum early you guys hadn't been able to get a stop up until that point uh then you have the MU that that you all recover those turnovers that you all were able to force get how how big was that well kept us in the game and um the Special Teams issue you know we talk about it particularly early in the season penalty yards critical mistakes in special teams they're going to look at they missed their field going overtime we're going to look at we missed our field going over time you know that happens I mean Logan's been really good this year what is he like seven of eight or something I don't know what he is but he missed one and so uh people they'll look at that as a critical mistake I'm sure uh coach will feel like the Muff punt they'll see that as a critical mistake they'll see that as change in field position see that is change of momentum would be my guess Colin came out on crutches after halim and he updates on his health yeah yeah uh I think that he's done for the year I'm not sure um I haven't gotten an update other than the game when they said that he wasn't coming back and they thought that he might have had um maybe a fracture or a crack or something but I'm not for sure his backup OB came in and looked great had finished with nine tackles two sacks just his play in game two at this level um without watching the tape welcome to Big Time college football whether you like it or not you're in when things matter um looked like to me he was active I think there was twice he had uh potential sack opportunities it didn't get him down um but he's practiced um you know he's been with us half a year and so uh it's it's extremely difficult for coaches to to take when good players and good young men that bust their butt get injured and potentially are out for the year especially Colin you guys know how good a guy Colin is what good a person is and and you know he's a legitimate Cowboy but Obie's got to step up now if he is finished Obie's got to step up and make plays behind him what's that who who steps up now into the second string behind OB I don't know that's a good question did you have something to say to Bowman about that after that personal foul that tante did um I waited till we got in the locker room um just based on what I try to I try to uh follow through on things I preach to the team which uh one of the areas that you're talking about you're referring to is anything that's negative that can happen in a game verbally body body language facial expressions attitude any of that I don't need to hear any of that I don't want to see any of that it's not going to do anything good I would ask you the same thing I asked team is there anything that comes good out of negativity or poor body language in life probably not right so at that time when I wanted to rip his ass I didn't and then in the locker room we discussed it talked to it about the team and essentially um there's going to be three ways that are automatic personal fouls as we move forward in college football toward the NFL like everything we do now is the NFL even celebrations correct the celebration that take place now in college football used to never take place U but if you spin a ball if you choreograph a bunch of people and you have some kind of dance or everybody falls on the ground or if you go look another player up or their bench or taunt them you're automatically going to get a 15 yard penalty so he got exactly what he deserved what he should have done is ran down the field and play the next play because in that situation he made an unbelievable throw we made a great catch we made a big play you knew it I knew it his mom and dad dad knew it his girlfriend knew it his wife knew it the fans knew it the other team knew it everybody knew it you didn't have to go tell them everybody knows you made a good play so he needs to play next play seemed like every time you guys needed him to get open brenon especially in that second half was able to get open with his physical as this game was what to say about your 51 yeah been with Brennan you know he's uh like a little rubber ball like a little bouncy ball you're twoo young when we were kids they little round bubble bouncy balls they threw everywhere that's what he's like he's bounces off everybody and I just keep knocking on wood that he he just stays healthy and we try to get him out of the game but he won't come out of the game we tell him we don't you know we got to get you off the return team he doesn't want to come out of the game so we just leave him in there and let him play and let him keep going I don't know how many catches had nine catches so and obviously there's not a red flag that we throw to him we only targeted him 19 times so no secret to that one Mike the Gordon touchdown uh you know you toss to him wide he's got momentum you may be having like a athletic full back out leading the run is that give you some food for thought you know when you say you got to do things differently or better in the Run game maybe those are options you can play with more yeah we got watered up too much inside right I mean you've seen enough football in your life it doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened and we stayed hard-headed and we didn't think about expanding the width it's 52 and a half yards wide field and we used about 11 yards so um if we can use it more of the field would give us a better chance because it creates a better chance from a numbers perspective and that was a good call by dun our coaches did a good job in the second half in halftime so I'm not saying they didn't coach good they just didn't coach good all week to get to the first quarter but we pulled both guys had overload in the boundary flipped the ball out to him had few lead rockers he gets out there and he does his thing deep deep was a deep throw SCH was that something you guys cooked up for this game or is that kind of been in your pocket for a while we've had that for a long time yeah we've run it before um I don't remember who it was but we run we've uh We've run that play before that was a great call um at that particular time it was a really good call it was a well executed play uh you know in the in the latter part of the third quarter and the fourth quarter narro called some really good blitzes at CR critical times so we had good coach good calls at particular times we just didn't start the game out that way Mike you threw it to the tight ends a lot what what was that was that defense given opportunities or is that well you guys complained about me not throwing to the tight end and social media is killing my ass uh Gage tells me social media is all over me about not throwing to the tight end and my old man's all over me about not throwing to the tight end so I said guys we got to start throwing to the tight end and works well no you're right I I'm I'm not disagreeing I mean that's why I don't let Dunn come in here and you guys rip his ass for not throwing to the tight end we got good ideas right I mean if you'll rip him I'll bring him in here but we need to throw the tight end the Freshman look pretty good huhse some receivers com manyy hours almost over guys the the receivers struggled at at times in the first half to kind of get separation that didn't seem to be as much of an issue late in the game was that something the receiver routes okay merley went Mo went one way curly went the other and the other guy ran into him three times we busted routes on routes and and and patterns that we've run here for long time and I don't don't know why right now I can't give you an answer for that but that's what happened that's why it didn't look good and it it wasn't a good result because we didn't execute thanks guys e