Completed Event: Football versus Illinois State on August 30, 2025 , Win , 35, to, 3
Final
Football
35
vs Illinois State
3
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Postgame Quotes
September 12, 2009 | Football
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Opening Statement:
"I was just overall pleased with our guys' fundamental play. Leaving the field, I understand we are going to see more difficult and tougher opponents moving forward, but I still was pleased with our basic, disciplined fundamentals and not having penalties. It was a difficult night managing the rain and the wet and the bad weather and we still took care of the football most of the night. I thought our special teams, our kickers really kicked well. Just overall fundamental play, I thought we needed to improve on that and regardless of who we were playing, I thought we improved on some of those areas tonight. We have a lot of improvement to move forward with Tulsa coming here next week."
On the play of quarterback Landry Jones:
"I thought Landry did an excellent job. Again, in a bad night, one of the worst nights I can remember here in my 11 seasons. He threw some great passes, managed the football, took care of it and the line of scrimmage and had excellent communication."
On wide receiver Ryan Broyles:
"Ryan (Broyles) has stepped up and really made some explosive plays and he is capable of doing that and hopefully he will continues doing that. Ryan has the ability to make some great plays and he showed up and got open tonight and Landry threw some excellent passes to him."
On the offensive line:
"It is going to remain competitive really every week because certain guys need to continue to play well. If you are not, we need to put someone else in there. It is going to remain competitive, as well as through practice through the week."
On the defense:
"I was overall pleased again. Overall, we were sound fundamentally. There were very few, if any, busted assignments. Guys were where they were supposed to be and they just played solid. Regardless of who you are playing, if you are out of position you are going to give up plays and we really were in position all night."
On punt returns being a big weapon this season:
"You hope it will be. Those guys, between Ryan (Broyles) and Dominique (Franks), are capable of some big plays if you give them some space. Again with the conditions as they were, their punter was hitting some at us where you had a chance instead of being able to hang them up there and let the coverage get there."
On next Saturday's matchup against Tulsa:
"That is an excellent football team. We have always been aware of that and going down there two years ago we understood that you have to be prepared. They have been really explosive offensively and they are winning 11 or 12 games every year so we are aware that they are a really good football team and we have to make significant improvement this week to give ourselves a good opportunity next week."
On opportunities for younger players to see playing time:
"I looked out there on defense and we had about six freshmen in there and they did a nice job. Jonathan Miller showed some excellent signs, making some explosive strong plays. Tyler Evans seemed to do a good job at guard in there. I thought they handled their situations pretty well."
On the wide receivers:
"Ryan seemed to make all the big plays. The other guys are coming along. Brandon Caleb a week ago I thought had an excellent game. I don't know how many opportunities he had tonight but they need to continue to improve. We need more guys to step up and make plays."
On quarterback Landry Jones:
"I thought that he played well. He has got a lot of confidence. We had some guys on the perimeter making plays for him. I think he might have forced one ball but we have a lot of confidence in him with the ball. He manages things in a good way and I think that he is going to be a good player. Tonight is a good start."
On the game:
"We got to some of the things that we couldn't do last week. Our first half, we didn't have a penalty and it was a completely different ball game. We were trying to get in a rhythm and look like a offense."
On WR Ryan Broyles:
"We wanted to try and get him some touches. We wanted to last week but I didn't go that way. We are not trying to force it. But he made some plays and did good, like he needs to."
On the offensive line:
"We think that there is a lot of talent and potential there. We had some competition and I think (the BYU) game was a little tight and we didn't play some guys, so we wanted to foster that. So we played some young guys and I thought that it went OK.
On the play of the starters:
"You don't want to come out and slop around. I think that our mission was accomplished in that regard because we played like we are capable of playing and regardless of who we are playing. I thought again that we played like we are capable of playing and we played well, really well."
On Oklahoma's offensive performance against Idaho State:
"Landry is a great player, we all had confidence in him and he had confidence in himself. Whatever was called, we had confidence in what he could do."
On his third touchdown reception:
"I knew I had my foot down, I didn't know if I was in bounds or not so they had to replay it. I was just glad it was a touchdown. The throw was on the money, you can't really get a better throw than that."
On Oklahoma's offensive performance against Idaho State:
"We just wanted to come out and show that we can still run our offense, we can still catch balls and we can still make plays. We just focused back in this week and just played our game."
On Landry Jones' performance against Idaho State:
"He definitely stepped up and made plays tonight. Landry's been a guy who has been here the whole time behind Sam (Bradford), just taking it all in. He is very confident coming in ths week and starting as quarterback. We love that he came in and made plays, he did a great job."
On the weather delay:
"Somebody said something about it lightening outside. We looked outside and saw it pouring down. We just waited around and stretched so that we could try to stay loose."
On the defensive line:
"I was really pleased with our defensive line's play. Our interior guys made a lot of plays. A lot of time they were able to push the quarterback out of the pocket."
On facing Idaho State:
"We go out there and try to treat every opponent the same. Coach Stoops talked to us about the Michigan vs. Appalachian State game last season during camp. We just play hard for four quarters and go all out."
On the defense:
"I was really impressed with our preparation. We came out ready to make plays and I hope we carry that into next week."
On his performance:
"I felt a little more confident. I wasn't as nervous (as last week). I had a game underneath me, so it was a little different, but not much. Obviously I liked the outcome a lot better. I came out there this week knowing that I had big shoes to fill. I tried to step up and play as good as I can. I was really pleased with how it turned out and the way I played."
On his connection with Ryan Broyles:
"Oh it's pretty easy to throw to Ryan. You just put it out there and let him run to it. So I felt like we had a pretty good connection."
On his pass to Broyles in the end zone:
"I felt him running by that guy. So I just put it up there and let him run to it. Use his speed and get it to the corner of the endzone."
On playing against Idaho State:
"It was a dream come true. I've been waiting on this moment for a long time -- to be able to go out there with my teammates and play the way we did. It was amazing."
On dropping his first pass:
"Things happen, that's part of the game. I felt like I needed to get up and make the next play and whatever helped the team."
On Oklahoma QB Landry Jones' performance:
"Enough said tonight; he did his thing. He knew what he was doing, he made the right calls and the right checks. He went out there and did a pretty good job. Landry's a great guy, he knows what he's doing, he knows the offense just as good as everyone else. He knows when everyone is open, he knows his checks and if someone is open he is going to find them."
On the game:
"It gave (us) a lot of playing experience. It got the twos a lot of experience which adds to the depth of this team. You still have to go out and execute in a game like this. We came from a loss last week and we had a lot to prove so that's what we came out to do."
On overall game performance:
"I thought we were more consistent. We came out and played hard and most importantly, smarter. We protected the ball all game. I think we really got better this week."
On Tulsa:
"Tulsa has an extremely dynamic offense. I think they passed for 350 yards on us last time we played them and we can't allow that to happen. We have to prepare very well this week. We have to put this one behind us and get ready for this game coming up."
On his 49-yard run in the first quarter:
"It felt really good. I guess I ran out of gas a little bit at the end, but I'm getting back in the groove of things. I thought I was in the end zone. I was trying to get it in there because I didn't want to have to run another play after that."
On the no-huddle offense:
"I think it went pretty well for us. There were a lot of times when we were having to get the call from the line and the ball from the refs, but it went pretty well for the first game. It's always an advantage to get more plays in than the other team."
On returning from last year's knee injury:
"It feels good, just getting out there and getting hyped because you're in game mode. It feels great carrying the ball and getting some blocks. I felt well out there."
On coming off of last week's loss:
"We had a statement to make. Coming off the loss was tough. We felt like at the end of that game we had the chance to make that a win. We were kind of frustrated so we wanted to come out and play hard tonight."
On the game:
"Well, the weather wasn't very good. Tough competition coming up here and playing OU. Two weeks in a row playing top 10 teams, Arizona State and then following it up against Oklahoma. It's a great experience for our guys. I was proud of our guys. They kept competing and playing hard. The positive we're going to take out of this is going back and playing in our conference.
On improvement from last week's game:
"Well I mean, last week was week one and this was week two and just that much improvement from another week of practice and I think that we got better on defense. Just like coach was saying, we've been missing tackles out there and we can't use the field and the weather as an excuse because they were playing in it too. We got better and we obviously got more experience."
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Head Coach Bob Stoops |
Opening Statement:
"I was just overall pleased with our guys' fundamental play. Leaving the field, I understand we are going to see more difficult and tougher opponents moving forward, but I still was pleased with our basic, disciplined fundamentals and not having penalties. It was a difficult night managing the rain and the wet and the bad weather and we still took care of the football most of the night. I thought our special teams, our kickers really kicked well. Just overall fundamental play, I thought we needed to improve on that and regardless of who we were playing, I thought we improved on some of those areas tonight. We have a lot of improvement to move forward with Tulsa coming here next week."
On the play of quarterback Landry Jones:
"I thought Landry did an excellent job. Again, in a bad night, one of the worst nights I can remember here in my 11 seasons. He threw some great passes, managed the football, took care of it and the line of scrimmage and had excellent communication."
On wide receiver Ryan Broyles:
"Ryan (Broyles) has stepped up and really made some explosive plays and he is capable of doing that and hopefully he will continues doing that. Ryan has the ability to make some great plays and he showed up and got open tonight and Landry threw some excellent passes to him."
On the offensive line:
"It is going to remain competitive really every week because certain guys need to continue to play well. If you are not, we need to put someone else in there. It is going to remain competitive, as well as through practice through the week."
On the defense:
"I was overall pleased again. Overall, we were sound fundamentally. There were very few, if any, busted assignments. Guys were where they were supposed to be and they just played solid. Regardless of who you are playing, if you are out of position you are going to give up plays and we really were in position all night."
On punt returns being a big weapon this season:
"You hope it will be. Those guys, between Ryan (Broyles) and Dominique (Franks), are capable of some big plays if you give them some space. Again with the conditions as they were, their punter was hitting some at us where you had a chance instead of being able to hang them up there and let the coverage get there."
On next Saturday's matchup against Tulsa:
"That is an excellent football team. We have always been aware of that and going down there two years ago we understood that you have to be prepared. They have been really explosive offensively and they are winning 11 or 12 games every year so we are aware that they are a really good football team and we have to make significant improvement this week to give ourselves a good opportunity next week."
On opportunities for younger players to see playing time:
"I looked out there on defense and we had about six freshmen in there and they did a nice job. Jonathan Miller showed some excellent signs, making some explosive strong plays. Tyler Evans seemed to do a good job at guard in there. I thought they handled their situations pretty well."
On the wide receivers:
"Ryan seemed to make all the big plays. The other guys are coming along. Brandon Caleb a week ago I thought had an excellent game. I don't know how many opportunities he had tonight but they need to continue to improve. We need more guys to step up and make plays."
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Offensive Coordinator Kevin Wilson |
On quarterback Landry Jones:
"I thought that he played well. He has got a lot of confidence. We had some guys on the perimeter making plays for him. I think he might have forced one ball but we have a lot of confidence in him with the ball. He manages things in a good way and I think that he is going to be a good player. Tonight is a good start."
On the game:
"We got to some of the things that we couldn't do last week. Our first half, we didn't have a penalty and it was a completely different ball game. We were trying to get in a rhythm and look like a offense."
On WR Ryan Broyles:
"We wanted to try and get him some touches. We wanted to last week but I didn't go that way. We are not trying to force it. But he made some plays and did good, like he needs to."
On the offensive line:
"We think that there is a lot of talent and potential there. We had some competition and I think (the BYU) game was a little tight and we didn't play some guys, so we wanted to foster that. So we played some young guys and I thought that it went OK.
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Defensive Coordinator Brent Venables |
On the play of the starters:
"You don't want to come out and slop around. I think that our mission was accomplished in that regard because we played like we are capable of playing and regardless of who we are playing. I thought again that we played like we are capable of playing and we played well, really well."
On OU's rush defense:
"Not to take anything away from them but we played like we should have played. I don't think that we did anything that was Superman like by any stretch of the imagination. We outmanned them but we played well. We played with technique, very sound and discipline focused and wanted to play well"
On practice leading up to the game:
"We were ready and I was really pleased with the guys really our preparation at practice and film study and thing of that nature. We talked a week ago Tuesday about investing in a process every week and this is how you play well, regardless of your opponent, you play well. If you invest in the process the right way you will play well.
On playing young players:
"I'm happy for them. We don't just play guys to play them and I think that you earn that right by how you practice and how you prepare. We do a lot of mental checks leading up to the game and you prove that you are ready to play and the guys that got on the field did just that."
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Sophomore WR Ryan Broyles |
On Oklahoma's offensive performance against Idaho State:
"Landry is a great player, we all had confidence in him and he had confidence in himself. Whatever was called, we had confidence in what he could do."
On his third touchdown reception:
"I knew I had my foot down, I didn't know if I was in bounds or not so they had to replay it. I was just glad it was a touchdown. The throw was on the money, you can't really get a better throw than that."
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Senior WR Brandon Caleb |
On Oklahoma's offensive performance against Idaho State:
"We just wanted to come out and show that we can still run our offense, we can still catch balls and we can still make plays. We just focused back in this week and just played our game."
On Landry Jones' performance against Idaho State:
"He definitely stepped up and made plays tonight. Landry's been a guy who has been here the whole time behind Sam (Bradford), just taking it all in. He is very confident coming in ths week and starting as quarterback. We love that he came in and made plays, he did a great job."
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Senior LB Keenan Clayton |
On the weather delay:
"Somebody said something about it lightening outside. We looked outside and saw it pouring down. We just waited around and stretched so that we could try to stay loose."
|
Senior DE Auston English |
On the defensive line:
"I was really pleased with our defensive line's play. Our interior guys made a lot of plays. A lot of time they were able to push the quarterback out of the pocket."
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Junior DB Dominique Franks |
On facing Idaho State:
"We go out there and try to treat every opponent the same. Coach Stoops talked to us about the Michigan vs. Appalachian State game last season during camp. We just play hard for four quarters and go all out."
On the defense:
"I was really impressed with our preparation. We came out ready to make plays and I hope we carry that into next week."
|
R-Freshman QB Landry Jones |
On his performance:
"I felt a little more confident. I wasn't as nervous (as last week). I had a game underneath me, so it was a little different, but not much. Obviously I liked the outcome a lot better. I came out there this week knowing that I had big shoes to fill. I tried to step up and play as good as I can. I was really pleased with how it turned out and the way I played."
On his connection with Ryan Broyles:
"Oh it's pretty easy to throw to Ryan. You just put it out there and let him run to it. So I felt like we had a pretty good connection."
On his pass to Broyles in the end zone:
"I felt him running by that guy. So I just put it up there and let him run to it. Use his speed and get it to the corner of the endzone."
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Junior WR Cameron Kenney |
On playing against Idaho State:
"It was a dream come true. I've been waiting on this moment for a long time -- to be able to go out there with my teammates and play the way we did. It was amazing."
On dropping his first pass:
"Things happen, that's part of the game. I felt like I needed to get up and make the next play and whatever helped the team."
On Oklahoma QB Landry Jones' performance:
"Enough said tonight; he did his thing. He knew what he was doing, he made the right calls and the right checks. He went out there and did a pretty good job. Landry's a great guy, he knows what he's doing, he knows the offense just as good as everyone else. He knows when everyone is open, he knows his checks and if someone is open he is going to find them."
|
Sophomore LB Travis Lewis |
On the game:
"It gave (us) a lot of playing experience. It got the twos a lot of experience which adds to the depth of this team. You still have to go out and execute in a game like this. We came from a loss last week and we had a lot to prove so that's what we came out to do."
On getting a win after the loss to BYU:
"I think we came out with something to prove tonight. Last week didn't go the way we wanted it to, but we stepped up tonight. Even though it wasn't a bigtime opponent, we still went out there and prepared like we were playing the best team in the world. I think we got a lot better tonight."
On the team's preparation for Idaho State:
"We always prepare the same, if its Idaho State or Texas, we prepare the same. We watched as much film as we always do. We just went out there with a chip on our shoulders tonight and really played like we had a lot to prove. It was good to see those twos get in and really continue to hold up our standards on defense."
On the defensive line's performance:
"They were great tonight. The front four played like they always do -- Gerald McCoy was a beast like he always is. It's a real luxury playing behind those guys."
On the defense's fumble return and safety:
"Anytime we can put points on the board, that's part of our goal to do that. It's fun when we do."
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Junior DT Gerald McCoy |
On overall game performance:
"I thought we were more consistent. We came out and played hard and most importantly, smarter. We protected the ball all game. I think we really got better this week."
On Tulsa:
"Tulsa has an extremely dynamic offense. I think they passed for 350 yards on us last time we played them and we can't allow that to happen. We have to prepare very well this week. We have to put this one behind us and get ready for this game coming up."
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Junior RB DeMarco Murray |
On his 49-yard run in the first quarter:
"It felt really good. I guess I ran out of gas a little bit at the end, but I'm getting back in the groove of things. I thought I was in the end zone. I was trying to get it in there because I didn't want to have to run another play after that."
On the no-huddle offense:
"I think it went pretty well for us. There were a lot of times when we were having to get the call from the line and the ball from the refs, but it went pretty well for the first game. It's always an advantage to get more plays in than the other team."
On returning from last year's knee injury:
"It feels good, just getting out there and getting hyped because you're in game mode. It feels great carrying the ball and getting some blocks. I felt well out there."
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Senior LB Ryan Reynolds |
On coming off of last week's loss:
"We had a statement to make. Coming off the loss was tough. We felt like at the end of that game we had the chance to make that a win. We were kind of frustrated so we wanted to come out and play hard tonight."
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Head Coach John Zamberlin |
On the game:
"Well, the weather wasn't very good. Tough competition coming up here and playing OU. Two weeks in a row playing top 10 teams, Arizona State and then following it up against Oklahoma. It's a great experience for our guys. I was proud of our guys. They kept competing and playing hard. The positive we're going to take out of this is going back and playing in our conference.
On expectations of Oklahoma:
"Yeah, it's obviously a program rich with tradition. They played for the national championship last season so you know it was going to be tough and be a battle. BYU was a top 10 program they lined up and played against. So you know I felt good for BYU last week, but bad for us because they stirred up a hornet's nest. I knew it was going to be a tough, intense practice week for OU and I knew they were going to be ready to play. They had a younger quarterback, but they have good players. I was proud of our guys early; how at the line they took a stand and kept them out of the endzone. The first three scores they had were quick strikes and beat us with basically physical mismatches and we didn't get everyone covered and that happens. Their guys are pretty quick. You make a mistake, you get burned by it. Our guys didn't quit. I'm proud of them. Now we need a safe trip back and to get ready for conference play."
On best avenue for success:
"Our best avenue for success, I think probably, would have been defensively. I think against Arizona State we competed and did some very good things defensively, and did early here. But when you're on the field a lot, you get warn down and it's tough and we did a poor job. Missed some tackles, we need to tackle better defensively. I wanted to see competing and improvement out of our offense as we get ready to play in our conference. It's hard to judge when you played against a couple good defenses where you're at. Hopefully we come through, besides Isiah [Burel] getting hurt. They say he didn't break his ankle so that's good news. We need to get healed up and find out more and hopefully we'll be better off for playing more tough competition like this, fast competition, big competition, as we get ready for our conference."
On if the good outweighs the bad:
"Well yeah, you know you worry about your guys and you worry about them and how they come through in to their state of mind. We're competitors, they're good tough kids and they realize the tasks that they stepped up and played, but also great experience and memories for them too. A great environment and venue like this, back-to-back, two weeks in a row and take some confidence away from it and work hard, again, like I said, to get ready for our conference."
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Sophomore LB A.J. Storms |
On improvement from last week's game:
"Well I mean, last week was week one and this was week two and just that much improvement from another week of practice and I think that we got better on defense. Just like coach was saying, we've been missing tackles out there and we can't use the field and the weather as an excuse because they were playing in it too. We got better and we obviously got more experience."
On if the good outweighs the bad:
"Yeah I think so. Next week when we go back in conference, it's going to be a little different than playing over here, so I think it outweighs the bad."
On any OU players sticking out:
"I mean everybody. They're all great players. They're all big, they're all fast, they're all strong."
Sooner Gameday - 9/5/25
Friday, September 05
Coaches Corner - 9/4/25
Thursday, September 04
My First Game: OU Football vs Illinois State
Wednesday, September 03
Sooner Magic Moments: 1976 Orange Bowl vs Michigan
Wednesday, September 03
