Oklahoma-Texas Tech QuoteBook: The Best of What They Said
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Saturday, Oklahoma’s season ending in a disappointing, but predictable, collapse on the road in Lubbock. The Sooners fell to 6-6 after losing to Texas Tech 51-48 in overtime.
Oklahoma’s season seemed over long ago, but it was alarming to see the same September mistakes popping up in late November. The Sooners jumped out to a 24-6 lead against the Red Raiders, and from there, it was damage control. Texas Tech's second half surge, and Oklahoma's overtime field goal miss, led to the Red Raiders securing a home victory.
Once again, Brent Venables’ team sputtered down the stretch dropping another one-score game. Oklahoma’s off-season will be an interesting one to follow, both on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal.
Here’s what the team had to say after Saturday’s loss in Lubbock:
“To me, whatever your goals and aspirations and standards are, the teams that win their close, one-possession games are going to have outstanding years, and the teams that don’t are going to have years that they’re not satisfied with. Just finding a way to get over the hump. We’ve all got to do our part.”
— Defensive coordinator Ted Roof
“Fourth game that we’ve come down to the last drive of the game. There’s a lot of inefficiency during the game. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game and we came up short. So it’s disappointing. It’s incredibly disappointing. Lots of plays, lots of situations, lots of opportunity to make plays or be more efficient, be on the right side of it.
— Head coach Brent Venables
"I do. We’ll see. I sure hope so. I do."
— Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, on if he expects Dillon Gabriel to return next season
"It’s definitely frustrating. Not much to say but for us we’ve got to play the next play. If we go out there and have a three-and-out, we can’t let that dictate the rest of the game or the rest of that three or four drives. We’ve got to be able to put that behind us, refocus, replay the next series."
— RB Eric Gray
"I don’t know. It goes back to coaching. I think that’s where it starts. We have moments where we have great discipline and moments where we’re not. We’re just very inconsistent. To me, it goes back to coaching. That’s where it starts.
"Players got to decide they’re gonna, in those moments of pressure, we’ve got to have that kind of discipline that you’ve gotta have to execute and to win. It’s a game of execution and it’s a game of, again, discipline, so obviously got to do a better job coaching."
— Venables
"Yeah this year was kind of the year I wanted to have, you know what I’m saying? With the yards, the touchdowns, it’s the year I definitely wanted to have. I’m blessed and grateful that I was able to have this year. Looking back on all 12 games, really testament to the o-line, to the receivers blocking all year. But this is definitely the year I wanted to have. So that’s a positive. I’m pretty proud of myself."
— Gray on his career-year statistically
"I think I’ve learned about the culture that we’re creating and building and how proud I am to be a part on this staff under Coach V, how proud I am to be back at my alma mater and also how disappointed I am that we’ve fallen short. All of those things."
— Lebby
"We didn’t play well enough to win. There were plenty of good things that happened. But we didn’t well enough to win. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
"I can’t say how humbled I am to stand here right now. I’m sick that we’ve fallen short, but I take a lot of pride being here, I take a lot of pride in our locker room and getting our guys to play good enough to win."
— Lebby
"I think that we came out and executed pretty well. We were tackling well. We were making a lot of the what we call layups. And then just sort of after that first quarter they got a little bit of momentum and we just kind of started to miss the layups which were pretty simple plays."
— LB DaShaun White
"Man I love this team. I love the hell out of this team. And this is the closest team I’ve ever been a part of. So I just, for us I just really don’t know to be honest with you right now. It’s one of those things we kind of take day by day and I think that just the amount that we all love each other kind of helps get through stuff like this."
— White
"I don’t think any of it happens quickly. There’s a million things that you’ve got to do at once. At some point in time we’ll evaluate everything. Everything has its time, so don’t have a calendar schedule of where all those things that you’re talking about, how that fits, but it’ll all have its time as you evaluate the season and as we know we’re not done right now. Looking at things that we do have on the calendar that we’ve got to address right away the first part of this week and we’ll do that."
— Venables
“It’s the culture of our program, as far as the developmental phase and what happens and the condition and the history of this place. So all those things, to put a class together and an opportunity at the same time. There’s wonderful opportunity here at the University of Oklahoma. We’ve got a good class put together, we’ve just got to finish it off.”
— Roof on the recruiting trail
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