Oklahoma-TCU QuoteBook
After Oklahoma executed the largest comeback ever in the OU-Texas game, pulling off 21-point deficit to beat the Longhorns 55-48 in the highest-scoring Red River Rivalry game in history, Sooner players and coaches had plenty to say.
Here are the best from Saturday's postgame press conference:
“Certainly wasn’t perfect throughout the night but we made enough plays on all three sides of the ball to separate there at the end and get it done. I think we continued in a lot of ways to improve as a football team. Still, obviously, a lot of ways that we can continue to improve but I like this team. I'm excited about what I see behind the scenes. I see a lot of unselfishness.”
— Lincoln Riley on the OU defense
“All that junk that's been reported on the outside now I did not see that from either one of these guys all week. They were both both focused and ready to help to help the team on our however they were called on. Caleb go the opportunity tonight, and obviously did a great job with it. I’m confident that had Spencer gotten the opportunity tonight with the way he practiced would’ve played very well also.”
— Riley on the QB situation all week
“I’m just getting more chances and taking the opportunities that I get. I’m just doing what I can for the team.”
— Kennedy Brooks
“To be an elite group, you’ve got to be consistent. I think at this moment, just as we sit here through seven games, to be an average group, we’ve got to be more consistent.”
— Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch
“I thought he had a clear mind and saw it well. I think the line being where they needed to be — just really keeping the pocket clean for him the majority of the night and getting some run game going early certainly aided that. But he saw it well. I thought he did a good job. Missed a few things here and there that he'll continue to learn on and grow from. That's always one of the big things for us as quarterbacks. That's one of the number one things we hold our hats on is being decisive. I tell our guys that you know if you're decisive you know that even sometimes if you're wrong as long as you're decisive it can still work. You can make the right decision a lot of times but if you're indecisive it can still not work with the speed of this game.”
— Riley on Caleb Williams’ night
“We already know he’s built for it. Throughout the week, he handled it pretty well, in my opinion. We all know Caleb is talented and has a good mindset towards the game. He just came in and did what he always does. It was no difference.”
— Mike Woods on Williams
“He made a few things happen with his legs obviously. He brings that to the table, and then it was just some of it was the way we got played. We got played pretty aggressively.”
— Riley on Williams
“Just his big plays, using his feet. You saw it versus Texas when he took it (66) yards down the field. When you see a quarterback do that … he can run. He just takes pressure off of me knowing that there are two people that can run the ball out of the backfield.”
— Brooks on how Williams helps the running game
“We’re starting to play more 11 man football on offense — not all the time. Listen, we’re long ways from perfect, trust me, but we’re starting to do that and when you do that, than the big ones come, just the more you can put pressure on people and consistently do your job, and so we've taken some good steps over the last few weeks offensively.”
— Riley
“We're obviously pretty thin defensively right now. We're playing with a lot of different guys. Working different lineups. I think we would expect here in the next couple of weeks to start to be able to add to that, in terms of getting some guys back, which will be a great thing. We've given a lot of guys opportunities here to produce and a lot of guys opportunities to show why they need to be on the field. So, I think we're getting better. We definitely missed too many tackles tonight. I think that's the No. 1 thing that showed up defensively.”
— Riley
“You call them 50-50 balls for a reason because they're low-percentage throws. Right now against our defense, they're very high percentage throws. and so offenses are getting rewarded for again, it doesn't have to be a perfect ball. It can be under thrown. It could be inside or outside shoulder. And we're failing to make that play.”
— Grinch
“As a defense and as a team, we were in position to make plays on a lot of those 50-50 balls, we just didn't make the plays. At the end of the day, there's no excuse for it.”
— Pat Fields
“We were dying for guys to make plays, we didn’t make many.”
— Grinch
“We're fighting through it. I don't think anybody out long term. Handful of these guys, I think, will be back here in the next couple weeks. Some sooner than others. But I think we've got a chance to get a bunch of these guys back here pretty quick, which will be good.”
— Riley on the injuries
“I think we’re definitely feeling it. But to be honest with you, it’s one of those things, like nobody’s gonna feel bad for us or try to say that’s the reason Oklahoma performed that way. Like, we’re expected to perform a certain way no matter who’s in the game, who’s injured, who’s not. At the end of the day, we’ve got a job to do and we have to be much better than we were today.”
— DaShaun White on injuries piling up during nine straight games without an open date
“It’s a tall order for young guys. Young guys are targets a lot of times, and you’ve got to find a way to make a play when the ball is in the air. And obviously there’s not many we made tonight.”
— Grinch on playing so many young players due to the injuries
“It was amazing, man. Just him blocking all last week for me and now seeing him catch three touchdowns, I’m so stoked for him. He deserves it. He’s been balling in practices. He worked his tail off all week. I’m so happy for him.”
— Brooks on Jadon Haselwood scoring three touchdowns
“It was very exciting. I haven't had a game like this since I was in high school so I'm very happy. I know you can tell a lot right now. I feel like even just as an offense man we played more complete than like the whole season. I feel like we're getting better every week.”
— Haselwood
“I’m hoping so. I'm praying for it. I mean we don't know what's gonna happen in a game, so tonight was just one of those nights where I was on and I was hot.”
— Haselwood on wondering if he would ever have a breakout game
“Don't try to change, just be confident in yourself and just go be yourself and go play football. It's really that simple. It's not easy, but it's that simple. You gotta block all of the things going on and just try to go play great ball and go enjoy it. I thought he did a good job of staying in the moment, being himself.”
— Riley on Williams’ mindset all week
“Every receiver wants that. we want to go out there and make those ESPN plays. A lot of those come from 50/50 balls. Definitely love those 50/50 plays. We tell them all the time, just throw that thing up. We’re gonna go get it.”
— Woods on Williams’ deep throws
“You’re trying to make a play and the obvious answer is you can’t do that. You’ve got to know better in that moment, it’s the risk/reward element of things. But Latrell, another young corner, made a play, got the ball out, which was tremendous. It was good to get a scoop there by DeShaun, but we’ve just got to be smarter, excited as you get when you see that endzone coming, gotta be smart that way.”
— Grinch on DaShaun White’s fumble recover and fumble out of the end zone
“To be honest, everybody in the locker room, they probably heard me talk trash about how I could be on offense, I could run the ball and do all this stuff. So I had my opportunity, and I tried to make the most of it. I just there at the end, yeah. So. I mean, very unfortunate that it ended that way, but I was just trying to make a play.”
— White on his runback
“I think that’s 13 straight games with a takeaway. I don’t want to minimize that because those are big plays, but when you hand it right back to them, that’s kinda the tale of the evening for us.”
— Grinch
“Everybody wants the ball. It’s a great feeling when the head ball coach loves you enough to give you the ball eight times in the last drive. It was an amazing feeling.”
— Brooks on carrying eight straight times on the final drive
“It's difficult because although we're not playing to our standard, there is beauty in the struggle. We're finding ways to win, especially the game against Texas. But at the end of the day, there's a standard of play that the University of Oklahoma demands, and we chose to come a premier university like this. A lot of us, if we had this offer, we could've went anywhere in the country and to a team that doesn't have as high of a standard. They don't win as often, but because we chose to come to one of the powerhouse universities in the country, our standard of play is at a very high level.”
— Fields, on his message winning close games
