Stoops, Sooners Look Ahead to Baylor

Senior DE Jeremy Beal (Carrollton, Texas)

Sooner Gameday Central: OU at Baylor
View complete information on this week's matchup against the Bears, details for attending the game and broadcast options for following the Sooners from around the world.

NORMAN, Okla. -- Head coach Bob Stoops and senior DE Jeremy Beal met with the media Tuesday in advance of this week's game at Baylor.

View video from the press conference by clicking the links to the right. Quotes are available below.

The Sooners (8-2, 4-2) and Bears (7-4, 4-3) kick off at 7 p.m. (CT) Saturday in Waco. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

For complete coverage throughout the week, details on attending the game and broadcast options for following the Sooners from around the world, visit Sooner Gameday Central.

Head Coach Bob Stoops

Opening statement:
"Going back through, as always, last week's game against Texas Tech, I was really just overall pleased with really every part of the game. I thought offensively the balance we had was really good, being able to run the ball and set up a lot of play-action passing.

"DeMarco Murray, averaging almost nine yards a carry before he was out, had a really good day. Landry Jones and Ryan Broyles had exceptional days with Ryan tying or breaking five different receiving records at the school and just continuing to make big play after big play and having an outstanding year, with three touchdowns is really pretty special. I thought Landry was exceptional with five TD passes, no interceptions, 22-of-29, just a really good day.

"Some guys up front that also played really well: Brian Lepak, Eric Mensik, Ben Habern, Tyler Evans and Gabe Ikard. Those guys had really solid days up front. It's good to throw those names out there. A lot of the linemen aren't talked about a lot. They really played well.

"Defensively, that first drive (Tech) goes down and executes well and scores and then after that we really play excellent defense the rest of the way. Holding them to seven points the entire night is really pretty good. I thought our coverage was outstanding. Some of our guys I thought had big days. Quinton Carter had a huge day with 17 tackles. Some guys up front, Jeremy Beal, Jamarkus McFarland and Pryce Macon I thought really played well. Jamell Fleming with a bunch of passes defended. Jonathan Nelson's interception, really just solid all around. Kicking game was really good also.

"That's behind us and no we're on down to Baylor, a team that's really having a really good year. Coach [Art] Briles, since he has been there, has really done an excellent job in building that program with more consistency every single year. They really play some disciplined football with a lot of disciplined athletes running around.

"Everyone talks about their quarterback, Robert Griffin, who's an excellent player and everything begins with him, but they have a lot of good athletes on each side of the ball playing really disciplined in the way they play. You look at them, they're at the top of the league in mostly every offensive category. Defensively, their structure and the way they play is very sound and solid with what they're trying to do.

"We're excited about the challenge of it here. Two games remaining and going down to face Baylor is what has our full attention this week. We'll have a good week of practice. We started yesterday with a great Monday. The guys really worked well and are excited about the opportunity."

On if he's surprised at how the Big 12 South has played out this year:
"Not overall. I think every year it's difficult, there are a lot of good football teams. I watch and there's a lot of good athletes at all schools. Coaches are doing a great job everywhere. It's always, to me, been challenging."

On what determines how often Baylor QB Robert Griffin III runs:
"I think a better amount of it has to do with how you play him defensively. I think you have to be really disciplined in where his opportunities are. Hopefully you're able to cancel. You talk about certain ways the defensive ends should play, certain ways you put your structure and safeties and linebackers and where you're going to try to squeeze him off. Some of it's that and I'm sure other times in their play calling they're giving him more opportunities as well."

On Jeremy Beal:
"Jeremy's having a great year. He's had a bunch of pressures, tipped balls, sacks and tackles for loss. He's been as consistent of a player through four years as we've ever had. He's there every single day. He's always tough, physical and disciplined in how he plays, where he needs to be. We're really excited about the year he's had. He's been playing really well."

On where the team's energy level should be at the start of games on the road:
"You don't want to be too high, you don't want to be too low. In the end, after the first five minutes of the game, you're playing ball. There is a million scenarios you can write about, whether it's this, that or the other. In the end, we've won two games on the road and lost two games on the road."

On how often he plans to blitz Robert Griffin III:
"Sometimes they want you to blitz. They have certain schemes that they set up that can hurt you in different ways if you do. It's just something you're constantly mixing in. The more successful it is, if it's bothering them, you have a chance to do more. If they're picking it up and hurting you then you have to be careful. It's like that normally every week. You have to watch it."

On how Griffin has improved since OU faced him two years ago:
"You can see he's comfortable in the pocket throwing the football as well he's always been able to run with it. He stays in the pocket and is throwing it probably more than he did (two years ago) and he's got a lot of good players around him that he's aware of and he uses."

On OU's two minute drill at the end of the first half vs. Texas Tech:
"I think we had 55 yards to go. I thought Landry did a great job of getting the ball out of bounds to James Hanna, getting first downs. It took a total of 38 seconds and looked sharp. It's something we practice all the time. Like I said last weekend, in college football you get a timeout when you get a first down so it shouldn't be that tough really."

On if fourth quarter issues are mental or physical:
"I've looked at some plays, mostly defensively, the plays where we've mostly given it up were busted alignments, mental errors on our part."

On playing in Waco, where OU has never lost:
"Going to Baylor, in the end, whatever's happened in the past, we have to go and play this year. That's why when people bring up all of these other years, they don't matter. This year is always a new season and you have to go play. We're anxious to go down and hopefully play well."

On Kenny Stills' penalty for slamming the ball in the end zone:
"I'm not going to go into it because Kenny's done too well here all year. He made a bad choice. I don't think those kind of actions are spontaneous, in my mind. They're thought of and I don't believe it's right. I'm not talking about Kenny now, I'm talking about any action in that way. Football is the ultimate team sport. Those linemen protected Landry to get that ball off. Landry could not have thrown a better ball into the wind, he put it right where it needed to be. Running backs were protecting for him or they're running the football, sucking up the safeties to get them behind everybody. It isn't just you who made the play. If you're a tennis player of a golfer you can, shoot you can do all you want. There's a lot of parts to what happened there and then to force us to kick the ball off from the 15-yard line into a 20-mile-per-hour wind is not what you want to do. It just negates the touchdown and gives the other team a chance to get right back at it."

Senior DE Jeremy Beal

On if the Texas Tech game was a turning point:
"You can say that. The [Texas] Tech game, we played a really good game. We put a lot of good stuff together and hopefully we can carry that momentum on down to Waco."

On Baylor QB Robert Griffin:
"You got to cut the head off the snake. He's the leader of the offense and you got to get pressure on him. If you don't get pressure on him, he can buy time and that makes it harder on our secondary to cover a guy. He can't cover a guy for five, six seconds. So the D-line as a whole, we have to contain the guy and get some pressure on him.

"He's gotten better, reading his progressions and hitting the right people. Of course you know, we all know he can scramble and buy time. So he's definitely going to be the fastest quarterback we've played all year."

On the difficulty of having a thin defensive line:
"I wouldn't say it's difficult, be we do need some guys to step up and play well for us. Hopefully Casey [Walker] will be back. If not, then David [King] or Pryce [Macon] or whoever can step in and step up."

On Baylor's run game:
"It's very difficult [to defend]. You know, anytime you have a fast quarterback like Robert Griffin, it's going to be difficult. They try to get you in one-on-one situations and guys are going to have to tackle well.

"That's the first priority in every game, but it's going to be a difficult task. They run the ball very well. To win the game, we must stop the run."

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