Offensive Media Session Quotes

Co-Offensive Coordinator Josh Heupel

On the effect of not having Keith Ford:
“We are down one back that has performed really well for us. At the end of the day, we need to decide which guy is going to be the guy and how do we feature a guy. Like today we had all of them and we will need all of them for the entire season. The other two guys (Ross and Perine) are going to have to step up as well as the guys who haven't.”

On Durron Neal:
“He is continuing to get better. As a whole, I think our passing game has continued to develop from week one to week two, week two to week three. I didn't like the way we performed last week on third downs. For us to go out there and get a win against West Virginia, we are going to have to be better.”

On Neal's improvements helping Sterling Shepard:
“It helps all of us, first of all. Having only one guy running people are going to bracket him and roll to him. The development of all those guys has been critical.”

On when he knew Samaje Perine would be an asset to the team:
“I thought he would during recruiting. You never know what you have until they step onto the field during game day. During training camp he was a very mature player and I thought he was going to be an asset.”

Co-Offensive Coordinator Jay Norvell

On K.J. Young's mental mistakes:
“He hasn't made any more than anybody else. There's pressure on young players to play. There's pressure on them to prepare and be ready. They know these games are important, and now that we're going into our conference games, these are opponents that know each other very well. There's pressure on our players to play well and to play well for their teammates and to know what to do. I'm sure he puts that on himself to be ready. He's played well he's done a lot of things. He's also done some things that he'll learn from, improve on the rest of the season.”

On getting players to play without thinking too much:
“That's the key for all our players. We really want them to be able to play without thinking and to play naturally and we do so much work during the week before Saturday so before Saturday comes they can just play and relax and enjoy the moment. These games are designed to be fun. When you're not worried about what to do, you can really play hard and play aggressively and play fast and that's what our goal is offensively.”

On Durron Neal:
“I really have been happy with Durron's progress. This whole season since spring practice and the summer, he just continues to come on and make progress every day. He's really turned himself into being a good receiver, and I think it's because a lot of his hard work and determination, but he's got some real running ability with the football. He showed some of that Saturday. We need that. We had over one hundred yards receiving after the catch with some runs by (Sterling) Shepard and Neal and that's got to add to what we do offensively. We really stress that every week. What are you going to do without the ball in your hands and when you do get it into your hands what are you going to do with it? Those are all things that are effort plays for use or hustle plays and Durron's been very good so far.

On how the offense reacted against Tennessee:
I thought we were inconsistent. We did some good things early on in the game. I was disappointed on how we responded later in the game. I thought we could have scored more points. But overall it was good enough for Saturday to win, and we know we're going to have to clean up some of the things that we weren't clean on—some of the penalties, just errant plays that were clean, and our overall execution on third down. We looked at third down. There wasn't one thing that you could put your finger on and say this will help us. It's just overall focus execution, everybody beating their man, making the play, and we're just going to have to do better there to be competitive in real tough games.

On how Durron Neal's improvement helps Sterling Shepard:
They're like Mutt and Jeff anyway. They feed off of each other, but it's just good because they know that one guy can make a play on one side, the other guy can do the same thing on the other side. They're very close. They're roommates. They always talk, and they're competitive. They both want to do well, so I think they push each other. They play off of each other and together they're really giving a good example to the room on how to come to work every day, how to stay on top of your assignments and how to prepare for big games.

Running Back Samaje Perine

On what he told Keith Ford after his injury:
“We just rallied around him and told him to keep his head up. It's only for a couple of weeks, as bad as that sounds. Preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. We just told him to keep his head up, that everything is going to be okay and that we're going to pray for him.”

On going on the road for the first conference game:
“Going on the road is really no different. West Virginia is a great opponent and we're going to come out and do what we do best, which is how to get the win.”

On the running back rotation:
“Going into this this summer we kind of knew that the rotation would be great and that we were going to work great as a team because we're all young and we've been together since day one. The relationship has grown these past couple of weeks and there is only more to come.”

On if he looks to juke or make contact:
“I look for contact for the most part. I'm not the one that will try to juke you. I will if I have to but I don't look to do that. I would rather just go over someone.”

Wide Receiver K.J. Young

On why he chose Oklahoma:
“Oklahoma develops a lot of good receivers and I figured it would help a lot if I came here to get developed by Coach Jay (Norvell). I feel like I fit in perfectly with the offense and I feel like I made a good choice coming here.”

On Durron Neal:
“Durron (Neal) is a great receiver. He helps me a lot and he tells me what I don't know and with the assignments he helps me out. He's a great guy to look up to. He does his job well so it's only right that I try to perform at his and Sterling Shepard's level.”

On progressing every week:
“Every week is a week to get better. Every week I feel like I make progress and I do feel that I need to perform better. I think I fit perfectly in the offense and they put me out there for a reason.”

Running Back Alex Ross

On the increased work load after the Keith Ford was injured:
“It's going to be nice. We'll take care of it. [Ross and Samaje Perine are] both conditioned really well so we'll take on the load pretty well.

On Keith Ford getting injured:
“I hate seeing my teammates getting hurt. It's like seeing a brother injured.”

On how he thinks he's playing this season:
“I just started. I'm getting pretty comfortable out there. Nothing but success down the line.”

Co-Offensive Coordinator Josh Heupel

Co-Offensive Coordinator Jay Norvell

Running Back Samaje Perine

Wide Receiver K.J. Young

Running Back Alex Ross

Players Mentioned

Keith Ford

Durron Neal

Samaje Perine

Alex Ross

Sterling Shepard

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics