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
Sooners Ready for Showdown vs. Texas
September 28, 2010 | Football
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View video from Tuesday's press conference via the links at the right. Quotes are available below.
The No. 8 Sooners (4-0, 0-0) square off with the Longhorns at 2:30 p.m. (CT) Saturday in Dallas. The game will be televised nationally by ABC.
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.
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Head Coach Bob Stoops |
Opening statement:
"Getting back through the Cincinnati game I felt here we are again in a tight game and we're able to win away from home at Cincinnati, a team that's won the Big East Championship the last couple of years. Though I'm not at all pleased in the manner in which we did win it, I still recognize as a team that there is a big difference between winning by two and losing by one or two. I'm positive and feel good about the team, that we are making the plays necessary to be on the other side of that.
"We're only a year removed from the start of our season last year. In the first four games we lost two games by one point. In the end, that part is good and positive. We have put ourselves in the position to be up late in the game with a good lead 24-9, what I'm not pleased about on both sides of the ball was our overall play in the fourth quarter where I feel we can be better. In my eyes, if you play three quarters in a way that you're playing in a decent way and have a good lead, you ought to be able to play the fourth quarter the same way. That's something we've recognized that we have to continue to improve at and be better at and I think we can. I still am very happy with the attitude, the work ethic, the way the players are preparing. We have to learn from it and keep building on it.
"Some of the guys that really played well offensively: Ryan Broyles had a fifth straight game with over 100 yards receiving and I think his seventh straight game with 10 or more receptions. Landry Jones had an excellent day. It was fun to see Mossis Madu come in and give us a boost running the ball at times. I was pleased that some of the other receivers stepped up. A young guy, Trey Franks, came in and had a couple of nice plays. Dejuan Miller stepped up and had a big third down catch. Kenny Stills had another good day. I feel a little more and more confident with our receivers stepping up, making plays, blocking downfield and giving us a boost as well.
"Defensively, some guys that played well: Jonathan Nelson had a huge game. Jamell Fleming, Travis Lewis, Jeremy Beal, the usual guys. Overall, for a good part of the game up through three quarters, we had a few breakdowns still playing a decent way up 24-9, and then we had a poor fourth quarter. Some of it due to missed tackles, due to being out of position on the run game or the passing game. We're working to iron those things out and have more consistency and I believe we will. We've had it in the past and I believe there are quality players here to get it done. Kicking game was overall pretty good again."
"That gets us into this game with Texas here this week. First conference game and a big step going into conference play starting out with this game. It's exciting, as everyone knows. It means a lot, looking at the south division and the Big 12 Championship race. It's one that everybody embraces and everybody is excited about."
On Texas' loss to UCLA:
"I was surprised, definitely. We all recognize there's a quality of Texas teams and how they've played. You haven't had time at this point to really study them until you get into this week. Like everybody, it was surprising."
On what's different from this time last year:
"Well last year, if you remember, we didn't have any tight ends or a fullback. If you have a fullback without tight ends it only counts for so much. We also had a bunch of linemen hurt. In the end, we're much different right now offensively a year ago then we were a year ago at this time."
On how much better Landry Jones is playing compared to last year:
"Well obviously he's like night and day. He just went on the road and threw for 370 yards, he didn't do that a year ago. But I think it's fair to say not just how different Landry is, but I think the guys around him are different which complements him and makes him look better. I think overall there's more experience there from what we went through all a year ago to now."
On Texas' defense:
"They've played really well defensively, that's one of the bigger surprises. Because they play so consistently they've played really good run defense, they've been very aggressive in going after quarterbacks, their pass defense. Like I said, through most of this year and last year they've been consistent with it. They were put in some bad positions, turnovers always make a difference. We know they've played really good defense."
On OU's running game:
"It needs to improve. It isn't as consistent as it needs to be. It gets down to some better execution and finishing some blocks and some of the ways we're calling things to give them more opportunities. I will say some of it definitely shows up in the passing game. The way people are defending you, there are opportunities. We've had a lot of success with play action passes and a lot of those quick screens that we run. In our eyes, those are runs. If someone's going to squeeze you in such a manner to take away the run game, then you pitch it out there and those guys have a chance to pick up yards too. We've done that pretty consistently."
On Texas' offense:
"Their offense this year with Garrett Gilbert is very similar to a year ago. You see a little more of the running back in the home set or behind the quarterback, a little more of that. There's a little more downhill run game, a little more play action off of it, those kind of things that you see complementing things that they've always done well in the past."
On Texas quarterback Garret Gilbert:
"I still think he's a heck of a quarterback. I've watched him coming up and in the championship game and what he's done this year. He's a guy with a good arm, very capable guy. It's kind of like what I've said about Landry at times, it's the whole cast with him to complement him as well. He's a very capable guy with a good arm. I'm not around him, but I'm sure he's a bright guy too, it seems that way to me."
On if playing a road game last week will benefit OU this week:
"I imagine it will help them to a degree, but going on the road this week only 50 percent of it is away and 50 percent of it is home, a little different from last week. We only had about 10 percent last week. In this one it's the same for both teams."
On if he has a relationship with Texas head coach Mack Brown off the field:
"No, we don't have much opportunity to have one to be honest with you. None of us do. We're all working our jobs and are with our families. In the end, there isn't much opportunity to have a relationship off the field."
On if the defense gets comfortable and lets up in the fourth quarter:
"I think that's an excuse but it's a poor one. We've talked about if that's the case. You get feeling comfortable and now we're good, that's a pure setup for someone to come back. It could be some of that. Then it gets down to our execution and still coming up with stops like we have been through two or three quarters."
On the importance the game has on deciding the Big 12 South champion:
"There's such a huge body of work left after this game, so much of the time, people want to act like this is the end-all. It's far from it. This game without the rest of them is pretty shallow. You need the next seven coming. If you win seven you have the Big 12 Championship. To me, it's a big step but surely not the end-all."
On if OU-Texas should be moved to the end of the regular season:
"I doubt they'd move the State Fair to last game of the season, so I don't see that happening. I think everybody has that routine down since 1929. I don't see that happening. I surely wouldn't be the one promoting it, I'd like to keep my job for awhile."
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Senior DE Jeremy Beal |
On if he has faced more double teams this year:
"Yeah, a little bit more than last year. I'm the main guy on the line so I have to expect that. Cincinnati did it to both ends the whole game and it's pretty tough to handle a double team."
On the Texas offense:
"They really haven't gotten away from what they've done the past couple of years. Last year was a little different, but what they are doing this year is what they've run the last 10 years."
On if he feels the defense is close to being a great defense:
"I think we are pretty close. It's just one guy here and there, just playing inconsistent and not being fundamentally sound. We're far off, but not that far off."
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Senior RB Mossis Madu |
On OU's running game:
"We know that every year, the team that runs the ball the best is going to win it. So we definitely want to come out and salvage our run game against Texas. We need things to slow down a little more. Our steps are a little too quick, so we need to pace things out more and be more patient and wait for the hole instead of hitting so hard."
On Texas' defense:
"They're very, very fast. Every year they're fast. We have to go out there and just run downhill. We can't run sideways, sideline-to-sideline, we have to go north and south on them."
On the OU-Texas rivalry:
"They've won the last four out of five years. Everyone's talking about how they just lost last week. Well, we lost the last four times we played them, so we're coming in with a chip on our shoulders."
On the OU's experience as a team after last season:
"You can see it, we're 4-0 right now and last year we were 2-2. We had lost two really close games. Almost all of our games have been really close this year, but we've matured a lot from last year and you can tell by our record and how we've won our close games."
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Senior DT Adrian Taylor |
On this Saturday's game:
"We have to get back to the football that we're used to playing. Everybody just sees OU vs. Texas, but we have something to prove to ourselves. We haven't been playing up to our potential, especially on defense. I feel like this is our opportunity to come out and show what we can do."
Assessment of the defense this season:
"We still have a lot of young guys, but I'm not putting it on them. We have to gel together. It only takes one guy to be out of position and it can make the whole defense look bad. Sometimes you can look at the score and you can look at the rankings, but it doesn't tell the story. We're not a bad team; we've just been out of position a lot. When we get in position, then there's no telling how good we can be as a defense."
On stopping the Texas run:
"As a defensive lineman, your main concern is being able to stop the run as a defense. If you stop the run, you're trying to make them one-dimensional, and that helps you determine how the game goes. But as a defensive lineman, if you can get them into a one-dimensional pass, you can pin your ears back and get ready to go get that quarterback."
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Sophomore DB Demontre Hurst |
On Aaron Colvin playing at Cincinnati:
"It was pretty surprising, it was a challenge for the whole secondary. But he's out there and we trust him to make plays. He's a good player, he knows what to do. He's confident, I have trust in him and the defense has trust in him. So it shouldn't be a problem whether he is out there or not."
On Texas:
"We know we are going to get their best shot, it's OU-Texas, a big game. They just came off a loss and they're mad so we're going to get their best shot and we have to give them our best shot. They're going to come at us and we're going to come at them and you just have to make the most plays. We have to do what we said we're going to do, not get over confident and just play football."
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