Texas Head Coach Quotes on Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. -- Texas head coach Mack Brown met with the media at his weekly football press conference in Austin on Monday afternoon.

Oklahoma and Texas meet for the 100th time at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Saturday. The game will kick shortly after noon and will be televised by ABC.

Texas Head Coach Mack Brown
"The Missouri game ended up exactly how we wanted it to. It was much hotter than we anticipated; it ended up in the 80s and the first quarter was as strange as any we have been around. I think we had the ball for five plays and they had it 31 and then we ended up with maybe 12 plays, but they dominated time of possession because we scored on the first two plays we touched the ball.

Sooner Gameday Central - Texas | Game Notes | Notes (PDF)

"We used a lot of depth and our guys came through it. Missouri has a really good offense and they threw some things at us we didn't anticipate and I thought our coaches and players adjusted well. The guys played hard, we were able to play a lot of people, which is important in this football team's personality right now. We won the turnovers even though we did turn it over some. We had the most explosive plays we have had in any game since we've been here. We had 16, which was probably the personality of our team throughout the day, we made big plays.

"We rushed for over 300 yards and I thought the kicking game was probably the best we have had since we've been here. The obvious problem was the penalties and we were very inconsistent with those penalties and that is something we have got to do a better job of this week.

"As you look at the last year since the Missouri game, our team has won 11 games. They were able to play against Michigan, which is a historic game in the Rose Bowl because Texas had never been to the Rose Bowl and because we had never played Michigan.

"Then this team this year was able to go to Ohio State, never played Ohio State, never played in the Horseshoe which was a great experience for our guys and they really had fun at the Rose Bowl and they really had fun at the Horseshoe, won both games and now this is even a more special game, because it's the 100th game against Oklahoma.

Oklahoma has been playing football for 110 years, The University of Texas has been playing for 112 years and even though this might not be the game of the century this will definitely be the century game. The guys will be able to remember this for the rest of their lives. They are pulling Keith Jackson from the west coast to come in and do the game, because he wanted to do it because he has done so many 100th games across the country and he has done so many of the Texas versus OU games that this would be fun for him.

"The two great universities have been competing a long time. I think in every case, if you start looking at the top 10 rivalry games in the country, this one is always mentioned in the top, which is a great credit to the two schools. The stats are always different, the game is always full of surprises, it's usually about championships, because the team that comes out on top in modern times is usually going to play for the Big 12 Championship at the end if they stay healthy and they do the things they need to do.

It's definitely about pride and it's definitely about bragging rights and there's no question that we obviously have not been able to brag over the last few years. We will handle the hype and dial up our focus and dial up the tradition because it is a very important part of this game this week.

"OU is the same team they have always been, they played great Saturday night against Kansas State and we will work on our focus. It was an interesting stat in looking at it this morning, I really hadn't realized it, over three of the last four years the game has been within six points of each other going into the fourth quarter. You really have to give Oklahoma credit for playing well down the stretch and we have to finish better.

"One of the things we like so much about the team right now is since the Missouri game last year, this team has finished better. We've played in the fourth quarters better than any team I have been associated with in my coaching career. It should be an exciting time, it's always a great game, it's the reason I personally came to Texas -- to coach in games like this.

"It was fun at the Rose Bowl, it was fun at Ohio State and this should be a fun week for everybody, with the talk and the chatter. Just the talk about the history, not even knowing it was the 100th game this year, which even makes it more special.

On going into this game as the favorite:
I don't think in a game like this favorites matter. History doesn't matter. The last five years, the last twenty years doesn't matter. It's the best team on that Saturday. I think it will be a great game on Saturday. I think you always have to look at this one as an even game because of the emotion, because emotion changes a lot of things that happen. We never look at who is supposed to win, who is not supposed to win; Coach Royal said that's why they have 0-0 on the scoreboard to start.

On this being a big game similar to Ohio State:
It is like Ohio State because of the history, the consequences of the game because we want to be in Houston for the Big 12 Championship game. This is a game for both teams that is very important to try and continue to reach that goal because OU is undefeated in the league as well.

On if he is surprised that OU has lost two games:
I don't know anymore in college football. I get surprised every week. What I know is Saturday night against Kansas State it looked like the same OU team we have been playing since we have been here. So I think whatever struggles they had early, those are out of the way and they have a really good football team right now.

On Jordan Shipley's health:
He did pull a hamstring, which is a new injury because his knee was what was hurting before. He re-injured it two weeks ago, the Thursday before Ohio State and what happens is that with his knee injury it usually takes about a year and a half to get well and he is so competitive that he was working so hard to get back, we are not sure that he didn't go too fast. We are trying to slow him down right now and make sure that he gets well before he continues to play. So he didn't practice last week and we are not sure what he will do this week, but they are putting him through a battery of tests and until he is 100 percent with no pain we are not going to allow him to practice again. We have to make sure that he handles all of these tests properly instead of putting himself in a positions saying he is well, but he is limping a little bit and he is not well.

Most memorable experience in the Texas-Oklahoma rivalry:
The most memorable experience would be the first one I had and that was driving into the fairgrounds in '84 and that was because it was pouring and you couldn't see on either side and in the old days you drove right down the middle of the fairgrounds. You didn't come in the back and I have never seen that many people in the rain screaming at each other. It was the most unbelievable thing, and I think it was No. 1 versus No. 2, and it rained so hard you couldn't see throughout the game and not one person left the stadium. I just wasn't used to that, there is usually a TV in a bar somewhere that somebody would go watch. That told me how special this game was back then.

On Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson:
Adrian is a great player and he is a tough guy and he is from the state of Texas and he will be full speed and ready to go on Saturday. I am sure we will see the best out of Adrian.

On Oklahoma's Offense:
We thought Rhett Bomar was the number one quarterback in the country the year he came out. We think he is a great player and he really got settled on Saturday and threw his first touchdown pass and I think he will be one of the great quarterbacks to ever play at Oklahoma before he finishes.

On being judged by his performance in this game:
It really doesn't matter, it bothered me four or five years ago and I get judged on different things by different people and if this is the one they are judging me on, I haven't done very good. You don't need motivation to coach in any game, especially this one. I wish they would judge me by some of the ones we won all the time.

On the offensive line being better:
It sure helps to have a better offensive line. You start looking at the really good football teams that are consistent throughout the year and when you can run the ball and block people consistently and when you can stop the run consistently, it is your best chance to win. There are days when the timing and the passing game just aren't working and on those days, you still have to be able to win. The last two years our offensive line has been really consistent and I think that is one of the reasons we have been successful.

On Oklahoma:
I think they have a lot of new faces and it took the new faces a game or two to get coached and to get settled and Bob as done a great job with them. I think they have already replaced a lot of those guys last year, just by the experience of the first four weeks. You have to give them a lot of credit to come off of a loss to UCLA and rebounded like they did in two weeks at Kansas State. I think they did a great coaching job. The difference in the team at Kansas State and UCLA, they are not the same team, so give Bob and that staff credit for doing a great job.

On Oklahoma's defense:
The best thing they have done on defense throughout the years is stop they run and they are No. 3 in the country against the rush again. I think they are giving up less than 100 yards and they do a great job with low pad level and chasing that football. That is something that traditionally we have seen out of their football teams and they are well coached. Some people have questioned their talent level, but they have recruited as good as anyone in the country every year. It's hard to brag on somebody for having the best recruiting class in the country and then say they don't have any players. If you look at the guys, they are well coached, they are very talented and they play very hard. And that is a credit to their coaching staff.

On Special Teams:
We made a mistake early, depending on Richmond for all three kicking phases when he had a sore back in the summer and we thought he was well. Putting that pressure on him, he was unable to respond because the back problem kicked back up. We are really proud of Greg Johnson. He kicked four out I think and he has done a really good job of getting height on the ball, and the re-emphasis we have put on kickoff coverage has helped us. OU is a really good kickoff return team. That is important this week. Missouri and Rice are not as good as Ohio State and Michigan, OU will be. It will be a great test for us to see if the guys are still covering as well. Last weekend we improved in every phase and we have worked so hard on it, we should be getting better.

On being able to stop the running game:
If you go back and look at this game on certain years, neither one of us has run it that well, on some years we haven't run it well, and they have run it for a bunch. That is a concern. Anytime you go into a football game and the other team can run the ball on you, you will most likely lose. Sally asked me when she first started watching football what do you need to look for to see if we are in trouble or not, and I said if they are running it really good and we are not in the first quarter we are probably in trouble.

- Quotes courtesy Texas Athletics Media Relations

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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