Sooners Regroup for Home Opener

NORMAN, Okla. -- Head coach Bob Stoops previewed Oklahoma's home opener against Idaho State during his weekly press conference Tuesday. Click the links above to view video from Tuesday's press conference. Quotes from OU's coaches and players are available below.

Saturday's game will be televised on a pay-per-view basis. More information on the TV broadcast will be released later in the week. For complete coverage throughout the week, visit Sooner Gameday Central.

Head Coach Bob Stoops

Opening Statement:
"Addressing the game from last week, again, it's very disappointing to make as many mistakes as we did. I fully credit BYU, Coach Mendenhall and their staff and team. They played a hard-fought game and won, they made plays down the stretch that made a difference in the game. Credit to them, but when you have 12 offensive penalties, you really put yourself behind the eight ball. I felt there was a lack of execution. Poise and discipline to play with fewer penalties and to take care of the football were major factors in us not being able to give ourselves an opportunity to win. In the end, those mistakes cost us in a big way. We weren't able to overcome them."

On Sam Bradford's injury status:
"Sam Bradford, his situation hasn't changed today and it won't change tomorrow, all indications are that people who sustain an injury of this type takes about two-to-four weeks to be back on the field. The rest of the joint, rotator cuff and everything else look fine. It just depends on soreness and how he heals. As everyone knows everyone heals differently and all injuries are different. So we just have to see as time goes, how that will heal and how that will improve. He has talked to a number of other quarterbacks who have had this injury that have come back and have been fine once they came back. He has talked to, and we know of many, NFL guys that have dealt with this. He personally spoke to Eli Manning who told him he was throwing the ball in 10 days and played two weeks later. That was the year they went on to win the Super Bowl, so we will just see how it goes."

On Jermaine Gresham's injury status:
"Jermaine Gresham, who didn't even enter the game due to a cartilage injury from the week before the game, is going to have orthoscopic surgery this afternoon. It has yet to be determined because the MRI doesn't show any damage. The scope is going to tell us what is making his knee lock. It could be a loose body in there that can be removed and he can resume playing, but sometimes the cartilage needs to be stitched together. Until they know that we won't know. If there is something they can remove he will be able to resume playing in a couple of weeks but if they have to stitch it and repair the cartilage that is a five-month recovery. That would mean he would be out for the season, but his long-term health would be fine. All his ligaments look fine, it would just be stitching that cartilage back together. The outcome of that won't be known until this afternoon, and once we know we will have a release on what they found. It's pure speculation right now because none of that shows right now through three different MRIs. Until they are in there, they won't be able to tell."

On facing Idaho State without Bradford and Gresham:
"We will move on going onto this week against Idaho State with Landry Jones and Drew Allen at quarterback. I thought Landry really did a nice job in the game the other day, he needed to be supported in a better way by the guys around him. I thought as far as his execution, his demeanor and the way he handled the situation, he was as good as you could expect and even better. Our focus is moving forward with the guys we have. We need to push forward and get ready to play this week, continue to improve and hopefully eliminate the things that are hurting us that we hurt ourselves with; Penalties, foolish penalties, busted assignments. Hopefully we can prepare ourselves to have the poise, to not have penalties and to execute better when we have the opportunity. That's what we're trying to do with practice."

On the performance of the wide receivers against BYU:
"Brandon Caleb had a good game and played competitively. Ryan Broyles played at a pretty good level. Outside of that, that was about it. I'm not going to sit here and address changes. We'll give other guys opportunities and make it more competitive. We'll see who is going to show up and make plays, same with the offensive line."

On Brody Eldridge:
"Brody Eldridge will play more at tight end and we will prepare him more that way definitely with Jermaine out and with time to prepare for the week. Again, a lot of that depends on making sure that Ben (Habern) is still in good shape at center. He played pretty well the other night, so that's a dilemma that we will continue to have to work through. Brody was mentioned as one of our players of the game, he had a really good game even at center. He's a valuable piece wherever we play him, it just depends on where we need him."

On if playing a challenging non-conference schedule is a disadvantage:
"It's easy to second-guess now in the end. I said last week though, it's only advantageous if you win and if you don't then you're in this position. We will deal with it, we will move forward. I'm not second-guessing it. At least you find out in these situations the areas you need to address and what needs to happen."

On Landry Jones' performance against BYU:
"We need to support him better. The players around him need to play like they are capable of and with some discipline to play by the rules. That would be a starter. From there, we feel that with Landry our offensive style doesn't change. Again, it would be a guess with limited experience to be careful with how much we do. But, we'll be able to do enough to hopefully keep people off balance and execute. Obviously what Sam is able to handle mentally and through the series of repetition over three and four years is further along. We'll just have to be smarter about what we're asking him to do."

On the defense's performance against BYU:
"Gerald McCoy had an excellent game and played great in there and Ryan Reynolds, those were the two guys who were our players of the game. Travis Lewis had a really good game, Keenan Clayton, a bunch of guys did. We had four turnovers and played strong for a good part of the day but it isn't good enough. We gave up a deep pass at the end of the half and we missed a couple of tackles that led to a long run at the end of the half, I felt like it wasn't necessary. It's simple, if there are two guys that make the tackle and miss and let the guy run all the way down to the goal line it isn't good enough. We also had a 16-play drive at the end of the game that we needed to come up with a play and didn't get it. Sometimes you have to win low-scoring tight games or high-scoring games. You have to do what is necessary to win and that is to come up with a stop."

On the delay of game call in the fourth quarter
"Once the whistles blew, the BYU defender picked up the ball and starts running down the field as if it were a fumble, so the 40-second clock stops as they're on the pile once the whistle blows so that ate up part of the clock. When they set the ball down the umpire was still standing over the ball with 17 seconds, he leaves with 16 seconds and the referee is signaling to pump the clock, but it never gets pumped. Ultimately that's our fault. Their standard procedure is that if the ball is being spotted with 20 seconds or less they re-pump it. It was still at 16 seconds, that's what caught us off guard, we were at the line and no one substituted and we were ready to go. We thought we had plenty of time, there wasn't a huddle, there wasn't a substitution, but we didn't have the clock, we had 16 seconds. That's the way it goes, ultimately we should have caught it."

On his mindset coming off the loss to BYU:
"It's improving, we need to improve what we have control over. That's playing by the rules, playing with some efficiency, executing, taking care of the football, not having mental breakdowns and that kind of thing. That is pushing us to play better and to improve, regardless of who we are playing. Everyone loves to get to the end of the year before it's ever started, and that's just never been my way. To me, it's all about earning your way and we're starting in a tough spot. That's how it is, to me you have to fight your way out of it and as cliché as it may be, we need to take one game at a time and work for improvement. That's what we need to do."

On Ryan Reynolds' performance against BYU:
"I was really proud of Ryan to be back on the field. He just plays so well, he finds the ball. He put himself in good position, made a big interception and he had a lot of tackles. He just played consistently well."

On similarities between quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Landry Jones:
"All of those guys, even Drew (Allen), when you watch them walk around they are very similar people. They are bright guys. They are competitive guys without jumping up and down and letting everyone know it, but the players see it. They have a calm demeanor about them. They are all similar that way, I don't want to say they are just like each other but (Landry) is similar to (Sam) in that way."

On the kicking game:
"I thought the one plus overall through the entire day was our entire kicking game. Tress Way averaged 44 yards a kick, had three of them around the 10 yard line with one that they fumbled. Matt Moreland's kickoffs were really good and Jimmy Stevens' field goals were all solid. Demontre Hurst, on our kickoff team, showed why we have talked about him a lot through camp and his ability to make plays. He, along with the whole team, put himself in a good position."

On not overlooking Idaho State:
"Our team can't overlook anybody, if we can't play correctly and play smart. It is painfully obvious to them after what happened last week. We have to play better. We have to play more responsibly and more disciplined to have a chance to beat anyone."

Sophomore WR Dejuan Miller

On Landry Jones:
"He has a great arm and plays with a lot of poise. He doesn't seem to get frazzled, like he did last year, now that he's been in our system longer. I think he's going to do a great job at replacing Sam."

On the loss to BYU and preparing for the rest of the season:
"The game that we lost is a learning experience. We can't harp on the loss. It was a disappointing loss and a lot of our mistakes cost us the game. We have to play smarter and we have to play with more discipline."

On upcoming game vs. Idaho State:
"It's another week, it's another game. We have to bounce back and learn from our mistakes. We have to learn from the loss and hopefully come out with a win against Idaho State this week."

Sophomore K Jimmy Stevens

On starting the season with making both field goal attempts:
"It's a real positive start for me. It definitely helped making both those kicks in the game and it just gives me more confidence moving on for the rest of the year."

On Sam Bradford's injury:
"Losing Sam definitely hurts, but Landry did a great job in the game and I think he's going to do a great job this season."

On playing at home this week:
"I love playing at home. I love our fans and how they're always loud and supportive. It's just a great atmosphere."

On confidence coming into this season:
"My confidence this year has been a lot higher throughout camp and the season. All of the competing with Tress Way, the other kicker, during camp really helped me out with my confidence."

Senior WR/H Carter Whitson

On the game last Saturday against BYU:
"Everybody was kind of shocked at first. We were so frustrated with everything going wrong that we didn't really know how to react. It wasn't embarrassment, we weren't depressed. We were shocked and trying to figure out how to fix it early. If you have to lose, you lose in week one, that's okay. Nobody has won the national championship undefeated in the last four years, so it was a matter of 'we have to get this fixed early.' Whether it's the dumb penalties, or holding calls, or making mental errors, we just knew we had to fix it fast."

On field goal attempt at end of the game by Tress Way:
"I had all the confidence in the world that he was going to make it. I was pulling for him to get the chance to do it. It was fourth-and-15 so we kind of left Coach Stoops in a tough spot. He felt like we had to kick it because fourth-and-15 is tough. We went out there and called a timeout, but that didn't scare them at all. That didn't ice them like they say that does but I thought he had everything. The snap was good, the hold was good, the timing was fine. I think he got under it, or hit it fat like a chip shot. I could tell from the start because I've held so many balls for Tress (Way) that I knew he didn't get everything he could get on it. So I knew from the start it wasn't going in and it actually got further than I thought. That's not his normal kick. I knew he could get it there. That's his first collegiate field goal attempt, that's tough on a guy."

On Jimmy Stevens:
"He's just more confident. He's not a freshman anymore, he's not nervous. He's got his head into it now and obviously a year of strength and conditioning helped him. He's kicking it better and he's more solid."

On the injuries to Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham:
"It's tough. We're really excited for the opportunity for Landry [Jones]. We've seen everything we can do all spring. When Sam takes the day off from practice, which we'll give him every once in a while, Landry comes in and drives us up and down the field. So we're really excited about the opportunity for him. Obviously we want Jermaine back as soon as possible. He's the best there is in the country."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors