Oklahoma-Texas 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:

“Hell of a fight, it really was. I told the team I've just — I'm trying to think of the moments in my career that I've been prouder of a team. I don't know, there's not — if there's any, it's not many.”

— Lincoln Riley

“In those moments, you’ve gotta give all the credit to the players. I mean, every last bit of it. Because they’re the ones that ultimately gotta find that resolve.”

— Alex Grinch

“Initially, we were obviously disappointed, kind of bummed, but we couldn't get too down. Coach Grinch always preaches about controlled emotions, so you gotta control your emotions in a game, and this was a fourth-quarter game. And everytime something happened that didn't go our way, he would always say there's a lot of time left on that clock. And we would always look up and like man, he's right. … First thing we think of is 28-3 down there in Waco. So we weren't down, we weren't stressed or anything like that. We just had to play our version of football, and we did that in the end.”

— Isaiah Thomas on the slow start

“He came in and he executed. He did what he was coached to do and that was a big help for us. The fans were into it, everybody was into it. We just got rolling at that point so that was huge for us and huge for the game.”

— Marvin Mims on Caleb Williams

“What an epic comeback. This was really, really special here. It is. It's, you know, I don't think it will be the pinnacle of our season. Certainly don't expect it to be. But at the same time, you can appreciate this for what it is. And those of us that have been in this game know how hard it is to win it, for both sides, always.”

— Riley

“Just an attentive group at halftime. And the quick message is life’s not a Disney movie. It’s very, very hard and here we go and it’s not gonna take one play or one stop to get this thing done. You’re talking to an audience that’s listening. You’re talking to an audience that was listening, and again, none of the words matter. But just the fact that we’re not throwing chairs in the locker room or pointing fingers. I just give the guys a lot of credit cause they’re so many plays that had to take place in our favor in the second half to find a way.”

— Grinch on his message at halftime

“The ones speaking to the defense out loud were definitely Brian Asamoah and Justin Broiles. Those two guys, they're really good vocally out there when we need someone to speak up, if someone isn't. Those were the two guys who carry a lot of emotion and also let it out when we need it.”

— Thomas on the halftime energy

“I’m running and I see Caleb stepping up in the pocket. We kind of made eye contact and he lets that thing go. But I had no idea where I was on the field. I didn't know I was in the corner. The only time -- I saw the pylon as I was falling down to my left so, yeah. Crazy play. I didn't know if I was in or not. I waited for the referee to give the signal.”

— Mims on his 52-yard touchdown

“Yeah, it was. It was because I mean, Spencer was seeing some things that we missed early that weren't on him. And then I thought the big thing to me, though, was the turnovers. I mean, I just, you know, we made just a mental error on the first one and then obviously the fumble. And I mean, just knowing this game — you can't turn the ball over and win this game. I mean, it's very, very difficult to do.”

— Riley on if it was difficult to pull Spencer Rattler

“Just playing Isaiah (Thomas) a little more inside. He’s obviously had success there in the past. And so rotated, so there’s several guys. It wasn’t much the lack of other individuals not getting it done, it was just trying to put the playmakers we got in the best position to have an impact and make a play.”

— Grinch on his biggest in-game adjustments

“I saw the fox. That was hella weird. I don’t even know where that came from.”

— Nik Bonitto on the appearance of a wild fox running onto the field and into the Cotton Bowl stands

“Only adjustment that I say we probably made was moving me inside more for the rest of the game. Other than that, we just told each other, we gotta do our job. It's not what they're doing that's not giving us success, it's what we're not doing that's giving them success.”

— Thomas

“Coach Tibbs (Calvin Thibodeaux) came to me, he went to Coach (Jamar) Cain, 'Can I get something from you at d-tackle? You got some plays in you?' Yeah, yeah, for sure. At halftime, it became a final decision, like they wanted me and P (Perrion Winfrey) on the inside. Nik (Bonitto) on the edge, and Reg (Reggie Grimes) or Ethan (Downs) out there. So it was a decision the coaches made and they were comfortable with. Feels good to have them be able to trust me to be able to play inside and out and do different things and be able to help out our defense.”

— Thomas

“That was crazy. It felt like a home game the way everybody rushed the field. I just saw everybody trying to take pictures out of nowhere. It was just crazy.”

— Bonitto on OU fans rushing the field after the game

“He stayed engaged. He took it like a team leader. He's one of our captains and we didn't make him captain just because he's the starting quarterback. That's who the guy is. He's a huge leader. Caleb went in and he supported Caleb, he supported everybody else. Kept talking to us and all that stuff and that's what we need out of him.”

— Mims on Rattler

“I really was expecting to put him back in, didn't know it would come on maybe the single most important play of the game. But he handled it like a pro.”

— Riley on Rattler’s 2-point conversion

“You look at that first part of the game and we’re dying for a swing in momentum. Just something to kind of right the ship and it wasn’t coming. And it again was self-inflicted on our parts.”

— Grinch

“Even when I got moved out to end, I kind of switched up. I had a spin move, I don’t know if ya'll seen that, it's actually pretty nice, y'all go back and look at that. Pretty nice. Had a spin move, hit the quarterback.”

— Thomas

“Coach Grinch always just talks about adversity. Obviously, we saw that in the first minutes of the game. I don’t even know if it was a minute had gone by and it was 14-0 just like that. That was just being proud of the way we reacted.”

— Bonitto

“I’ll tell you what, I know you guys are going to go write a bunch of stuff. Do what you do. That's that's your job. That's not my job. But the trust I had to put Spencer in, back in in the most important play of the game, the guts he had to do to go in there and perform for his team — a guy that (critics say) would sulk and not a team guy, not into it, not still wanting to win, no matter what happened for him personally — that's him. And that's why he was ready to go execute the most important part of the game.”

— Riley on Rattler

“Probably my biggest regret was playing Delarrin (Turner-Yell) today. You know with his hamstring, he wanted to go. Thought maybe he could go. Had the clearance to do so, but probably put him in a bad spot, which obviously not his fault, on the first play.” But that was the only play he was able to go. So I regret that.”

— Grinch

“I don't think it would have been hard to give it back to Spencer.”

— Riley

“That's the play we were going to put Caleb in for no matter what. I mean, that’s a play we feel like he can make, and he obviously did it. And when teams load up on short yardage and you pop one out, you can go. And he did a great job. It was a tremendous play, but that wasn't a factor in keeping him in. I just thought when he came in, he managed it pretty well.”

— Riley on Caleb Williams’ first-play, 66-yard touchdown run

“We made enough plays to kind of allow ourselves to get in the Rolodex of calls and mix some things up and put the guys in some some situations that maybe they can be successful. In the end, the chief thing was that our guys made plays to allow that to take place.”

— Grinch

“It was a great call by Lincoln Riley. The O-line did a great job. They blocked it out. I went to the outside. The receivers did a hell of a job blocking downfield. I just ran straight and scored. It was amazing feeling to be able to win the game. I did it for the team. It was a great feeling.”

— Kennedy Brooks on his game-winning touchdown run

“Execution can get better, yep. But I'm proud of their insides. I'm proud of their guts, their commitment to this team, despite whatever people are going to write on the outside, man, those are two dudes who just want to win and they want to win until the final whistle, and we needed them both to do it.”

— Riley on Rattler and Williams

“Caleb came in and did a great job. I'm not taking away from Spence because Spence did a great job too. It was Linc's decision. All we did was just execute ... that's all we did. He did a heck of a job.”

— Brooks

“You can see, he's a freak athlete. He ran, I think he had 22 (mph) in the offseason, doing flying 40s or whatever, flying 50s, flying 10s or whatever they call them. He's just a good athlete. He came here for a reason. It was the spark we needed, for sure. He came in and did what he needed to do. He brought us back. As a freshman, in this game, to do that, I mean, I'm so proud of him. I love the kid for real.”

— Caleb Kelly on Caleb Williams

“It took pressure off me and made my job a lot easier. He did a heck of a job coming in and making it easier for me.”

— Brooks on Caleb Williams’ running threat

“Guys tackled better in the second half. Nothing magic, we just played better football all the way around.”

— Riley on the defensive improvements after halftime

“It's hard to explain it, because that arena as much as any in our sport man, there's no hiding. If it doesn't go well, you just poke in another corner and nobody sees it. You're out there and you've got two choices. Our team made its choice before the game got started, stayed with it and that's why we won it.”

— Riley on the comeback

“Just because a game starts a certain way doesn't mean it's going to finish that way. I mean, we've been on the other side of this at times.”

— Grinch

“A huge thank you to the fans. They kept it loud even though its half of them in that stadium. I mean Texas was quiet most of the time until that last touchdown, but at the end of the day we were already up on them at that point.”

— Mims

“Honestly, I considered it a lot. I was, at halftime, talking to those guys, all that, I felt really confident in either one. Even the decision to put Spence in for the two-point play, it wasn't a hard decision. I thought Caleb's came in and played well. I thought Spencer was still razor-locked in. He's pretty unflappable, man, and so I was just going to kind of feel it out as we went and honestly I was just going to go with my feel on it. It wasn't going to be a 'Well, do I have confidence in this guy or do I have confidence in that guy?' I have confidence in both guys. Otherwise, I wouldn't have played Caleb a bunch like I did and I wouldn't have put Spencer in on the single most important play of the game. So high confidence with how they both handled it. I felt like they were both ready to play and like I said, we just got on a run and I decided to stay with Caleb.”

— Riley on if he considered letting Rattler return for the final drive

“I’m surprised it took 10 questions to get that. No, I'm not ready.”

— Riley on naming a starter for next week’s TCU game

“The guy's a baller, man. The guy's a gamer. He's just a guy that, I don't care what side of the ball it is, when he's out there, you feel better. Just because you know you're going to get a smart, tough, physical player that's going to give you everything he has on every snap. What a huge play that was. An unbelievable play. I mean, it was really, really special by him. And I know here in his last one, with all he's been through, to see him make that play for the team — would've obviously been happy with seeing anybody make it — but to see Caleb make it was no surprise, it was extra special.”

— Riley on Caleb Kelly’s takeaway on a Texas kickoff return

“I actually ripped the ball kinda like you would back in junior high. It was weird. I grabbed it and just turned with it and just took it. Everybody else was looking for it, but it didn't hit the ground or anything. I just grabbed it and just stripped it to my chest and held it. I'm sitting there hiding, just kinda holding it, and I see everybody looking for the ball and then I run out and I'm holding the ball out and it goes crazy. It was cool.”

— Caleb Kelly

“I love watching KB run. Even whenever I was a recruit coming to this school watching film, I love watching KB run. Dude never goes down. First two tackles I mean I put my money on it that he's gonna break them. He's just a special player, a special guy.”

— Mims on Kennedy Brooks

“Oh man. Epic. Epic. That second half run, the energy in that stadium? One of the best things in our sport, man. Our crowd was great. I appreciate our crowd. They stayed into it even as we started to make the run. I think we really kind of both fed off of each other — us off the crowd, crowd off of us and that's why it's the best rivalry in college football, it's the best setting. I mean, it was awesome, man. It was as good as I've ever seen.”

— Riley on the atmosphere

“It was weird though because everybody got to storm the field. I was like, ‘Whoa, this is a miracle.’ Like, I've never had that happen at OU. It was funny. There were just a bunch of people in your face. It was cool though because my mom got to come on the field. That's her first time being on the field all six seasons, so that was really cool to get a picture and do that. I tried to beat J-Hall to the flag but he knew where the flag was. I was over there first, I'm looking around and he ran right to the flag. I was like dang, alright, you got it.”

— Kelly on the postgame pandemonium

“When you’re the backup quarterback naturally you’re not going to get as many reps. With him being young I’ve tried to get enough that we feel comfortable with him. Are there a handful of things that when he’s in the game I wouldn’t call? A couple. But it’s not game-changing. You’re talking maybe less than five percent. I feel like I can call a lot of the offense with him. He did good. He saw some things very well, made some plays. He did a really good job outside the pocket. He also missed a couple really, really easy things that all of us, regardless of who’s playing quarterback, have gotta do better and I’ve gotta coach better. I think he was ready. He handled it well.”

— Riley on Williams

“If you’re a true competitor, you love it. The good momentum swings when the crowd’s going crazy and things are going good, of course they feel good. But the true competitors love when you’re down at half. You love when things don’t start right. You love the competition. If you get too caught up in these momentum swings, you’re too worried about the outcome, as opposed to just play the game, man. Just play the game. Compete. Just coach the game where it’s at right now. Just kind of keep going. That’s been our push. I think that’s been a hallmark of this program way before I was here. Just be an elite competitor, coaches and players. If you do it, there’s not going to be moment that you walk into or anything that happens on the field, good or bad, that’s going to change your approach. I think you saw our team do that. That’s why we were able to hang in there and flip it and go win it.”

— Riley on the wild momentum swings

“This rivalry is crazy. I saw a fan get kicked out today. Minding my own business, just behind coach, I see a dude getting walked up by security. These people really bleed their colors and really fight for them. It's so special. … It's awesome and I love the OU fans and how they were drowning out Texas all day long.”

— Kelly

“Gosh darn, what a play. We threw a couple of ‘em and my man went and got ‘em. He was very special today.”

— Riley on Marvin Mims’ 52-yard TD catch

“A guy’s first Red River game, a young freshman like that ... Is he playing fast? Is he playing physical? Is he executing the calls? From my vantage point, you notice him out there. He’s very physical. He can really run. He’s a really smart kid. It was great to get him back.”

— Riley on the return of freshman LB Danny Stutsman

“He absolutely does. I mean, there's some guys that, as much as anything, whether it's motor, it’s just, when he's on the field, we felt it going back to fall camp and our first time getting it, just very quickly, you just feel it when he’s out there. And then he's only going to get better as we go through this thing.”

— Grinch on Stutsman