OU Coaches' Quotes from Sugar Bowl Media Day

HEAD COACH BOB STOOPS

I'm excited to be here once again. I've had a few of these press conferences, but we took a team picture and we look great. I'm excited to play for the national championship here in a couple of days. Again, it's a great environment, and the city of New Orleans has been great to us all week.

I feel like we have prepared well, practiced well, and we're anxious to go out and compete with LSU to see who will win the BCS national championship.

Any reaction on the Rose Bowl?
My compliments to USC for a well-played game, as well as Michigan. But for USC to come out and play well and win like they did, to win an excellent Rose Bowl, and they are in excellent position to stay number one in AP poll. My compliments to coach (Pete) Carroll and his team. It was a well-played game.

Sooner Sugar Bowl Central

Do you wish the winner of this game could play USC?
Well, I think it would be in this circumstance this year, it would work out and be good anybody. I'm like coach Carroll, and I think that coach Saban is the same way. Anyone who has won the number of games as we have, and we've all won 12 now and lost one, and someone in this game is going to win 13. But you're not worried about playing anyboyd. You'd like to go play, because it's great competition, but you know that sounds great.

You think back to 2000 when we were the only undefeated team in the country. Would have it been fair to play the national championship and play one more, for us to have to win again? You guys always fail to realize that it's never going to be perfect. Some years, it sounds good, but in other years, it doesn't make sense and isn't fair. We have what we have, and it isn't that bad.

If they came to you Sunday night and say you'd meet USC in the Rose Bowl in a week, would you be prepared?
I think we'd all drive there, because that would mean we would win this one, too. I'm sure LSU would do the same, and I'm sure coach Carroll feels the same way. You don't worry about winning the number of games we had and playing someone else. It would be great this year the way it is all set up, but would it be great in other years when one team may be the only undefeated team? I don't know if it would be totally fair.

Have you been a tough guy since the Big 12 championship game?
I've been very nice and sweet as I always have been. My wife has tolerated me, and I'm no different.

Has the loss in the Big 12 championship game been the toughest?
This loss has been as tough as the other nine. None of them are good. So, I'm feeling pretty good today.

How would describe the mood of your team?
They're excited, and they realize the opportunity in front of them, and they're anxious to compete and see what they can to do.

Coach Saban seems a lot like you in that he seems happy being unhappy. Are you like that?
I don't know. I don't know how to describe me. I'm not much on describing me, so happy doesn't enter into this equation. It doesn't much matter, you get yourself ready to play and compete however you do, and I'm really looking forward to it.

How does it feel to go to three BCS bowls in four years?
It's pretty exciting for our seniors. I was saying at our banquet the other day, I said that this group of guys here in the last four years, you look at, has been in an Orange Bowl for the national championship and won it, a Cotton Bowl, a Rose Bowl and now a Sugar Bowl national championship. That's a pretty special four-year run for that group of seniors. That's exciting.

How do you feel about the AstroPlay surface in the Superdome?
It's great. We're going to wear the same shoes that we have worn all year, and we have a similar surface in our indoor practice facility. We have SafePlay in the indoor facility that is very similar to this, and we're very pleased with this.

Is your approach the same here as it was when you were an assistant to Steve Spurrier in 1996 (at Florida)?
I don't know. Probably, it's more similar to what we've done in our last three bowl games, in some of the scheduling in what we've done, and some of that has been tailored off of my experience here with coach Spurrier in the Sugar Bowl and in other bowl games.

Did you allow Mike Stoops in the team picture?
We did, then we made him leave. Of course, this a team picture for the year, but Mike is here, so I wrestled him out of the car, and I said that the guys wanted him in their team picture for the year, so that's not a big deal.

How?
I don't know. That's a long time ago. When you have this time to reflect, you realize too what you've done through 13 football games, and we've won 12 of them. We're going to focus on how we've won those 12, and the difference in the small margin sometimes in making plays and not making them, and I think that they're aware of it.

In games like this, you need to make plays when you get the opportunity, and when you lose one, that becomes very evident. When you see a couple or three plays that swing the game, you have to make them. They see other games, 12 of them, that we did make plays to give us that opportunity, and when you don't make them, you come up short.

What do you like about college coaching compared to the NFL?
It's not fair for me to say not having coached in the NFL, not that anyone couldn't. Many of our assistants have been offered NFL jobs, and I have, and I don't know if all of it is that much different.

What I like about our situation in college is that the players play for a different reason, first and foremost, and they are still developing in so many ways that you can help them and assist them with and are so eager to continue to develop that way.

Maybe guys that have played eight or 10 years in the NFL are as developed as they can be, and it just can be different. I'm not criticizing it, but you like bringing these guys along at the age they are and relating to them and how eager they are to learn. The reason they play is for their school, their community, their parents, for themselves. Again, 99 percent of them aren't going to make a dime from playing football. So, it's a different situation for them.

What were your thoughts on the way Steve Spurrier left the NFL?
It wouldn't have an effect on me. I think that all situations and circumstances are different, and you know, my thoughts are with coach Spurrier. Everyone understands how much respect and how much I appreciation I have for coach Spurrier, what he's done for me, and without wanting to be a mentor, he has been. He's been a better friend than that.

Coach knows what he wants for his life, and he feels this is a situation where he gave his reasons, and if you know him, he gave you exactly what they are, because that's how he is. He wants to move on to something else and didn't feel it was going in the direction that he wanted it to, and so, he's moving on and heading on to something different. Also, it shows to, it's never been about money, but rather the challenge of it, and money doesn't seem to enter into the equation, it seems to me.

Have you gotten back to fundamentals during the month layoff?
We've tried to, and as everyone who has covered us this week has seen, that in the first two days here, being extra days before a regular game week, we scrimmaged. On the first day, we scrimmaged for a good while, and so you try to do that and make your inside drills a little more physical. We even made some of our inside drills live to get that on-field tackling and positioning.

How long did you scrimmage?
First day, about an hour; second day, about 45 minutes.

Do you have any plans for next weekend?
Gee, I haven't gotten that far. Recruiting. We've got three more weeks of recruiting once this week is over. We have the coaches' convention, and then three more weeks of recruiting, so I have to go see all of our recruits there the next few weeks.

If we put together a game next week, would you be there?
I'm sure all of us would be. Can you get it worked out?

The other part is that it always sounds good, but is it fair to these guys. These are kids that go to college and don't' get a chance to see their family much. These guys will go home and get literally one week to see their parents and family and then have to go back to school. My point is that we're not going to take them and train them again for another full week. They're not professionals, and that's what we have to keep in mind.

It's a big difference to be scrimmaging for 45 minutes or an hour in front of nobody than training for another huge game.

They have to be back at school on Monday, January 12.

Did you watch the Rose Bowl? What were your thoughts?
I watched part of it. I was kind of back and forth seeing some of it. I thought both teams in a lot of the game looked good. I thought USC winning the football game made a lot of big plays, I thought their defense looked really good, forcing turnovers and creating sacks, creating pressure. I thought their quarterback looked sharp, and I guess everyone saw that.

Do you expect LSU to blitz you?
Of course. It's like the 13 other games.

It still gives us a chance, so it's about the same situation that way in that we come in again with everybody doubting us or not giving us a chance, and hopefully, we've prepared the right way that will give ourselves a great opportunity to win.

This game is supposed to be the national championship game Does it lose its luster now?
No one understands that it's not going to be perfect. In 2000, the big debate with all of you was who should be playing Oklahoma in the national championship gameit should have been Miami, not Florida State. Whenever there are more teams available than spots available, you'll always have a debate. It's okay to debate it. This is as good as it can be without doing a playoff or without having extra game, and that's what our administrators believe that these are college kids. This isn't the NFL, we don't have to appease you, and that's the best we can do.

We do the best we can, and it has worked. It's worked sometimes. There are a good number of years that it's worked out really well, hasn't it? Once in a while, it's not going to be perfect when there are three teams for two spots. Let's face it, the BCS in strength of schedule has been great for non-conference games early in the year, because there are a lot better games than there used to be. We wouldn't have scheduled UCLA and Alabama together. Remember, when we scheduled Alabama, they were 10-3 the year before when we went to Alabama. You don't do that without thinking that this is going to put you in a better position to win a championship as opposed to playing a bunch of cream puffs going through your season.

Also, is it fair that some teams play championship games and some teams don't? We all crown our champions different. If we (the Big 12) crown our champion like some of those, there's nothing to talk about. You'd talk about who the other one was supposed to be. It isn't going to be perfect and that's okay.

Is a split championship okay?
Sure it is. We agreed to these rules before the season started, all of us, and said okay, let's go play. Now if they change them next year, we'll say alright, here's the rules this year and we're going to play ball. That's all you can do.

Will the coaches vote USC number one?
They won't. We vote for two through 25, because the winner of this game will be national champion in the BCS poll. You guys, as much as you opinion, I think that's what frustrates you guys, you can't control it. I know one thing, LSU or Oklahoma will leave with that crystal ball and be crowned national champions. That's the way it works. You guys, again, can control what people want to read, but you can't control how coaches and administrators and the way we conduct college football.

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR BRENT VENABLES

(on special teams)

"Mark Clayton starts on our kickoff team. He's one of our best players on our kickoff team. I see a lot of similarities, a lot of parallels between Coach Saban and how their coaching staff emphasizes special teams across the board in their two-deep and special teams. Watching them on tape, you see a lot the same faces on offense and defense."

"It's everything. You go back going into this year, you can find games where special teams created the field position that gave your offense a short field. Blocked punts, your punt returns, pinning them inside the 20, it dramatically influences your philosophy when they're backed up on their end of the field. It's one thing to give it (special teams) lip service, it's another thing to go above and beyond to show the players in a very short amount of time so they can understand and truly appreciate their significance and the significance of each individual guy."

(on the Kansas State game)

"The same way they've responded over the last four and five years when we've faced adversity. We face adversity each and every Saturday that we play. Obviously, we're disappointed in the outcome and the way we played, but that being said, our players played hard. K-State had a great deal to do with that. You play enough, that happens sometime where maybe you don't play your best and collectively, we didn't. Our players appreciated certainly that we still had earned an opportunity to play for the national championship and had a chance to rectify things and a chance for people to forget about that."

(on how he sees the Sugar Bowl shaping up)

"If you look at the history of championship-style games, defense and field position are the most integral in the outcome of the games. When you have three weeks for someone to zero in on you, sometimes you get in these bowl games and you see these offensive fireworks. But, if you look at the two types of defenses coming into this game, and how aggressive, athletic and physical both of these units are, we as a defense, are assuming that the game will be won on defense. If our offense is clicking on all cylinders, so be it. But, we are anticipating it to be a field-position type game."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

OU Coaches' Quotes from Sugar Bowl Media Day

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