Stoops & Barnett Quotes on Title Game

Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops
“We are definitely excited about playing in the Big 12 Championship. I congratulate Colorado's coach (Gary) Barnett, his staff and his team for all they have fought through this summer and this season. We have a great opportunity to go out and play well and win the championship.

"Bottom line from last year: Kansas State played better than we did. We had a good week of preparation that week and just got outplayed. I feel like we have stayed focused this year, and we scrimmaged for about 30 plays Sunday (Nov. 28) and looked crisp. About the BCS, the Big 12 Championship is first, and we're working hard on accomplishing that.

"We kind of looked at both Iowa State and Colorado last week and looked at tendencies as we watched to see who we would play. Colorado's kicker Mason Crosby has been great all year, and their punter (John Torp) has been excellent. They have very good special teams.

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"We won't sit around and watch other games on television Saturday; we will keep focused on the Colorado game. There is more a sense of alertness and the need to finish well for us this week. We played 12 games as well as we could have played to start 2003, and we want to come in and play better in the Big 12 Championship and the bowl game. I thought we could have played better against LSU, too.

"(QB) Joel Klatt is an excellent competitor for Colorado and makes plays for them; he throws an excellent ball. We start our defensive plan to do our best to best against the run and then get pressure on the passer and makes some plays there. Our quarterback Jason White has been able to play under center, and he has his legs back; plus, his efficiency rating is better this year than it was at this time last year. He throws the ball downfield as well as anyone in the country.

"It has been a huge boost to have both (RB) Adrian Peterson and Jason with us this year. You talk about offensive balance and effectiveness, and they complement each other.”

Colorado Head Coach Gary Barnett
“We played a very focused Nebraska team in Lincoln, and we knew we were not in control of our own destiny. I was proud of our win on the road and the way our team responded in a pressure situation. I told our coaching staff and our players this is the biggest game they will play in unless they are in the NFL playoffs.

"It is a big, big game, and we just want to give our best shot to Oklahoma. Eleven other teams have tried and come up empty, and it's a very tough opponent. The BCS gets tweaked every year, and this year is a quirk that just happens every once in a while. You have to wait and see if there is a pattern that happens over a number of years.

"This season has not changed for me significantly on the coaching end. You're still preparing 80 players to play another 80 players, many time in a hostile atmosphere. We're playing in this game for the third time in four years. I don't think we will approach this game from an underdog's role. That stuff doesn't last very long. It's all about execution and game planning.

"This team has been so much fun to coach, and I don't think any year has flown by as quickly. I don't think I have had a young team like this that has accomplished so much. Everything changes every year, and they will have to readjust their attitude from year-to-year. They have hung on and listened and been coachable, and that has been satisfying. A really good team separates out what is important and what isn't important, and these young guys have down that.

"I give a lot of credit to our assistant coaches and seeing where the players are on a given day. Our four captains and the few seniors we have deserve a great deal of credit to keep the attitude where it needs to beespecially in the month of October.
"Oklahoma is much more two- and three-dimensional on offense and in special teams. They don't have any apparent weaknesses, and they have unselfish players. I've noticed that all Bob Stoops' teams have a very unselfish attitude and play well together.

"We're spending time on things in the tape room and working on execution. (Oklahoma's) Jason White and Adrian Peterson make it hard on your defense. It forces your defense to play a crapshoot and chess game, and you have to have a balanced defensive game plan.”

Colorado QB Joel Klatt
“After high school I played three years of minor league baseball and learned a lot of life lessons. You have to overcome quite a bit of failure and grow and mature quickly. Against Iowa State, the coaches decided to start James Cox, and I was able to step back and evaluate my role. I had been putting too much pressure on myself. I was watching the Iowa State-Missouri game and felt much like I did when my Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

"Our team just kept plugging away, and we had a couple of heartbreaking losses at Texas A&M and Missouri. We stayed the course and kept passionate about what we had to do in order to win. We have a young team, and it was extremely important for the upperclassmen and the seniors on the team not to panic in the offseason. We knew we had a fairly good team and knew we had a good schedule.

"(PK) Mason Crosby has been a tremendous asset to this team, and he has been a safety net for our offense. We know when we have reached his range, and he has kicked extremely well on long kicks and under pressure.”

Colorado LB Brian Iwuh
“This game means a lot to us. The underdog's role gives us more determination to get a victory Saturday. We always keep a positive attitude, and that helped us win our first three games and our last three games.

"Oklahoma presents a great challenge, and Peterson and White are great players. I don't think we're taking it as a personal challenge or their Heisman pursuits, but we are trying to focus on the whole team. Coach (Mike Hankwitz) has a great personality and has been a great addition to the coaching staff. We have tried to play hard for him, and he's a good coordinator for us."

Colorado PK Mason Crosby
“I haven't thought about being team MVP that Coach Barnett mentioned, but that would be cool. Right now I'm concentrating on the game against Oklahoma. The chemistry on this team is so good that we seem to be able to overcome a lot. We have overcome a lot of things and are excited about playing one of the best teams in the country Saturday in the Championship game.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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