Stoops, White and Cody Meet With Big 12 Football Media in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, quarterback Jason White and defensive end Dan Cody represented the Sooner football program at the Big 12 Conference Football Media Day on Tuesday afternoon in Kansas City.

Stoops and the players sat at a table in front of the assembled print media and then moved to different banquet rooms to meet with television and radio media.

The conference holds its annual media day in the city that will host the championship game at the end of the season. For the second consecutive year, Kansas City will play host to the title game at Arrowhead Stadium on December 4.

The following are quotes from Stoops, White and Cody.

Head Coach Bob Stoops
On the strength of the program...
"We do have a sense of pride. I believe that we have a very strong program. I think that we have established ourselves as one of the better programs in the country over the last four years. I think we have a program that can compete for championships every year."

On losing the last two games last year...
"It doesn't matter whether or not you win the Big 12 Championship or National Championship because it doesn't help you win the next year. You need to have every year be a new start. You have to have perspective as a coach. When you look back at the whole year, it wasn't easy to do what we did. We held the number one position for 13 or 14 weeks. We won 12 straight games. All that happened is that we failed in our last two games. But that's the past. We just need to look forward to next year."

On what happened the last two games of the year...
"I would say that they played better than we did and coached better than we did. There is no master plan after 13 weeks of the season. They played the same defense, offense, special teams as to what we saw all last year. Sometimes when you make key turnovers and miss some crucial tackles, you're going to be beat. Sometimes you get a call here or there, not say they were bad calls, but they are going to hurt you. There's a very fine line between winning and losing, especially when you play good football teams."

On Bo Pelini becoming the defensive coordinator...
"It's important to me that the staff has camaraderie and everything works together. We needed to have the guys fit together. I've known him my whole life. At the end, I knew he was the guy for the job."

On the defense next year...
"My brother had a big impact, but everyone on the coaching staff had input. Bo comes in with great experience. They all shared concepts and we had a lot of communication with him throughout the years. There will be different wrinkles that will fit us well, but the defense won't be noticeably different."

On freshmen contributing to the team...
"We have always given freshmen the opportunity to contribute, and have had a lot of freshman contribute. So we aren't that concerned about freshmen playing. Last year we probably didn't have as many as we have had in the past."

On talking with Jason White about coming back...
"We sat down at his home and talked about the positives and negatives. We discussed what the positives of coming back would be and what the negatives of coming back would be. That's what I even do with juniors and guys that think about leaving. I tell them to think about what would be better about them coming back and what would the downfall be. I do my best to make sure they have all the information. Jason has been with these guys. I think things that will help Jason are guys like Dan (Cody) and all the other seniors on this team. Overall, there's a lot of maturity that Jason brings to the team. In the end though, the players need to make the decision for themselves."

QB Jason White
On the change of entering the season as the Heisman winner...
"I think the biggest change is the banquets you have to go to. It's a great honor. It's great to be part of that fraternity. I don't think that I'm going to know how much it means to me until after I'm done playing all together."

On if he feels overlooked...
"All of the preseason polls are for the fans and the media. Last year, we were preseason No. 1, and it didn't end up that way. You have to wait until the end of the year to see what happens."

On making his decision to return another year...
"It wasn't that tough. Coach Stoops did everything he could to give me information I needed. I got to thinking about it, and there aren't many people that get to play six years of college football. It's not a job and you don't get fined for things and you can't beat the camaraderie of a football team."

DE Dan Cody
On the transition from Bo Pelini and Mike Stoops...
"They are both equally good coaches. The thing that coach Pelini is doing right now, is just trying to work the relationships out with the players and get us in a groove and that we all kind of synchronize together. When he came in during the spring we focused most of our time with the younger guys, but as two-a-days get started he will fall right into place."

On what Pelini has brought over from Nebraska...
"He hasn't really said much about Nebraska. He just put a lot of emphasis on how hard they played, and he wants us to do the same."

On expectations after losing two in a row...
"I don't think there is anything unfair about it. We accomplished more than most teams last season. Coach Stoops has established Oklahoma as a perennial powerhouse. Granted, we didn't finish the way we wanted to, but it gives us something to build on for this year."

Big 12 Conference Football Media Day Central

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Stoops, White and Cody Meet With Big 12 Football Media in Kansas City

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors