Baylor Quotes on Oklahoma Game

NORMAN, Okla. -- Baylor head coach Guy Morriss, offensive coordinator Lee Hays, defensive coordinator Larry Hoefer, senior corner Josh Bell and senior linebacker Nick Moore met with the media in Waco to discuss the game at Oklahoma on Saturday.

No. 4 OU hosts the Bears at 5:30 p.m. at Owen Field. The game is Oklahoma's 55th consecutive sellout. FSN has the national broadcast. View complete information on the game at Sooner Gameday Central and learn more about Baylor with the Sooner Scouting Report.

Head Coach Guy Morriss

On Oklahoma:
"Well it's a big challenge; you heard from the coordinators how good they are. However, I for one am not going to roll over just because it's Oklahoma, and I don't think our kids are going to do that either. We took some extra time to see what we could do against this Oklahoma team. We just need to go up there and get after them. Who knows what's going to happen, but I think this team has some character and resolve and will go up there and play hard."

"This is a tough league. This week will be no different. This may be the toughest team so far. They're a good football program no doubt. I think they're a better team than last year because they've gotten a lot more physical.... They're not finessing people, they're mauling people. This is the game you love to play; against the big guys in their backyard."

On Baylor vs. Texas Tech:
"I believe that we ran the football better and that's good to see. That is good for our offense. I think giving the lack of pass rush, the DB's held up fairly well. They didn't give up a whole lot of yards and it could have been a lot worse."

On OU's stadium:
"Well, it is a really tight sideline and the fans are right on top of you and very loud and they aren't very friendly."

Offensive Coordinator Lee Hays

On Texas Tech:
"The offensive line came out and played hard. They did a good job up front. I thought the skill was solid, I was just disappointed that we didn't create any explosives. We stayed on track and tried to follow the game plan where we just really wanted to keep the ball moving down field. We wanted to try and shorten the game and try to maintain possession of the football."

On Blake Syzmanski:
"I thought that Blake played a solid game. He had a few mistakes here and there and it's never going to be perfect. He played good enough. You have to give Texas Tech credit. I thought the defensive coordinator did a good job keeping everything in front of him, matching well with what they do offensively; they will bend, but they don't want to break. They don't want to give up the big scores because they know they have a pretty good offense behind them."

On Baylor's Running Game:
"I am a little bit disappointed. I thought we might have a little bit more on the rushing end. We went with a little bit more option and doing a few things different to try and produce more yards on the ground to try and take the pressure off of the quarterback.

On Oklahoma's Defense:
"I think they are the best defense that we have played athletically. Their defensive coordinator, Coach Venables does an outstanding job. There is not a weakness."

On OU Linebacker Curtis Lofton:
"We have had a few conversations about that guy over the last few days. One of them was when we saw him run a tailback down from behind; that was pretty impressive. The other was when he crushed the fullback on the iso; that was impressive. We are going to have to find some way to get some yardage out of him. There are a bunch of kids like that on the defense that does a great job. But I would have to say that he is probably one of the best that we have faced if not the best."

On Offensive Game Plan:
"Well, you got to burn the midnight oil and be really good on trying to get them in a positional weakness like coverage. Sometime you just have to try and set plays up knowing that they will not be the most productive plays to create the explosive plays and at the same time get some first downs to help our defense out so we don't leave them out there."

Defensive Coordinator Larry Hoefer

On Texas Tech:
"They did a nice job against us. The difficult thing playing them is getting pressure on the quarterback and when you can't do that."

On Oklahoma:
"There is not a lot of weakness on that football team. Their quarterback looks like he is going to be as good of a quarterback that they have seen in a while."

On OU's QB:
"He is young but he is poise. He does not turn the ball over and he does a nice job of checking off."

On Crawford's and Stigger's Injuries:
"Dwayne got hurt in pre game warm up and our solution was to move Brandon in who played there the year before and both of them end up breaking their leg. We are going to look at it for a day or two we have got a couple of different options and we'll see what we can do."

On Ray Sims:
"He will play strong safety this week. He will get some reps in practice and he has a excellent chance to play this week."

Senior Cornerback Josh Bell

On the mindset of the team:
"Well I am sure we will see in practice today the mindset but the thing we want to salvage is get two victories, it is a whole lot better to be 5-7 then to be 3-9 and number 12 in the Big 12 ranks."

On looking toward this Saturday:
"We used to play pretty well up in Norman. It is a great challenge and great opportunity."

On opportunities in the next two games for a win:
"The older guys on the team know that any team can be beat at any given time."

Sophomore Quarterback Blake Szymanski

On the mindset of the team:
"We just have to play for ourselves and for the guy next to us. We don't have the pressure on us anymore. It would be nice to have the pressure, but that is just not the way it turned out and we just have to go out there and have fun and execute like we know how to and hopefully just leave it on the field and the rest will take care of itself."

On the last few games:
"We will just go out there and play hard and have fun. When you have fun, usually you play well."

On the opportunity to be the spoiler for OU's season:
"Yeah we have the opportunity to. Any team can be beat by any team in this conference and it just depends. They are a really good team and they deserve their ranking and we would definitely have to bring our "A" game if we want to win."

Senior Linebacker Nick Moore

On the mindset of team:
"I think you just have to draw it out of your heart and finish out your season. I believe that a lot of the players on the team feel the same as I do and love the game of football, and this is what it is all about. Even if you are losing and getting beat all season, you have to stick to it and play because you love the game. Nobody likes to lose so we are going to go out there and fight."

On any pressure the team is facing:
"There is always a little bit of pressure. You don't want to go out there and look stupid on national television. We want to go out there and give it our best. I only have two more chances as a senior. I think we should want to go out there and play for each other and show people we have a better team than we have been showing."

On the opportunity to play spoiler:
"It would be great to go out there and take away their BSC chances, and it would be great for our school. We have played them tough the last two seasons, and we believe that we have confidence in ourselves to go up there and stop the run and make them throw the ball and see what we can do after that."

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Quotes courtesy Baylor Athletics Media Relations.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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