QuoteBook: The Best from Oklahoma-Nebraska
“In some ways I had some flashbacks to the Army game a few years ago, especially there in the third quarter. We had the one great possession to start the half, and then I look up when we got the ball back I think there was eight seconds left in the quarter. Went quick.”
— Lincoln Riley
“Just wanted to make those guys aware. Someone has to be the truth teller around here, making those guys aware that being OK is not OK.”
— Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch on naming players last week who hadn’t shown progress this year.
Brian Asamoah
Kevin Jairaj / USA TODAY Sports
“I was just the extra guy checking for fakes, and then I see the ball blocked. It went up in the air and then (claps hands). I kinda just had to hit it, and then Coach (Bennie) Wylie and Coach (Jamar) Cain, they always track our speed because we always have GPSs, so every single week we're competing for who has the fastest in-game time. So, whenever I have the ball, I'm trying to go 23 miles an hour.”
— Pat Fields on his 100-yard runback of a blocked PAT
“If I had a nickel for everything we're doing to try to avoid those mistakes, I'd have a lot of nickels.”
— Nebraska coach Scott Frost
Scott Frost
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
“Drake, that’s what you expect from Drake. He never busts. He never messes up in practice. He’s the hardest worker. Anybody would vouch for that. Drake puts in the work. Drake puts in the time.”
— Spencer Rattler on Drake Stoops
“Our defensive line obviously was the difference in the game, being able to limit them for the most part running, especially as many times (Nebraska quarterback Adrian) Martinez ended up carrying the ball. We didn’t ever really give him the big, big one which was really key.”
— Riley
“I mean, the last word I would ever use is fun in those moments. But the takeaway is how critical it is to find a way to get a stop and two of the first three games, you know, I would make the comment, you know, especially early in the season, if you could guarantee me a win, then give me all the adversity we can possibly handle. Because that's what grows a football team, specifically early on.”
— Grinch on the final stop
“We’ve got a long, long, long ways to go as a football team. There’s so much we can do better, but we found a way to win in a tough game that meant a lot to both schools and both fan bases. I hope our fans, former players, coaches, everybody that has been involved in this game, watched this game, been a fan of this game forever and ever is proud of our guys for finding a way to win. I certainly am.”
— Riley
“I thought he played pretty smart. I think he felt the game a little bit. There’s an art to playing quarterback because you have so much control of the game with your decision-making. All of these game unfold differently. You don’t always know how they’re going to play out. There’s executing your plays but there’s also a feeling of how the game’s going and how the rest of the team is playing. I thought he had a good feel on that.”
— Riley on Spencer Rattler
Spencer Rattler
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
“It took everything in him to get down there. That's a long way to run, now. But I remind him is only worth two points so if he gets a little big-headed. It wasn't worth seven. But no, I was thrilled for him to make a big-time playing that game.”
— Grinch on Fields’ 2-point runback
“We still make too many mistakes. The ones to me are some of those first and second downs where we’ve got plays that ought to be getting easy, easy yardage and we’re not executing those plays and we put ourselves in long yardage.”
— Riley
Lincoln Riley
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
“The first thing I've got to do is congratulate Oklahoma. That's a fine football team with some really good coaches and a bunch of talent. I'm so proud of our players and how they fought and competed with that type of team on the road.”
— Frost
“It was awesome. It was. The atmosphere, just how close you are on the sideline. I mean, we maybe had a foot of room over there and I loved it. You know, I had the student section chirping me. Let's go. Bring it on, you know what I mean. So you got to love it. It's a part of college football. And I was happy to be here today.”
— Nebraska QB Adrian Martinez
“I think my two personal favorite games are 2019 when we played Texas in the Red River Rivalry – our first year of Speed D – and I think this one is right up there.”
— Fields
Pat Fields
BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN-Imagn Content Services, LLC
“I think I might have been the first coach in the history of college football to challenge a play that we got an interception on. We were watching the replay and we thought it was juggling around. I literally walked over to the official and I might have challenged it. But he said they had 100 percent confirmed it up there.”
— Riley on D.J. Graham’s one-handed interception on fourth down
“He does that all the time in practice. He’ll go up and make an Odell (Beckham) catch. In pregame, I’m sure you guys see it. He’s impressive. He’s a ball hawk. He covers the ball well when it’s in the air.”
— Rattler on Graham’s pick
“It was fourth-and-17, I was contemplating on stepping off or pressing. I decided to press. I committed to the inside release. He threw a pass up, and you know, it just happened. I can’t really explain it. I just tried to catch it.”
— Graham
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
“What I see, I'm running and I turn my head and I'm like 'Oh!' Nah, it's just a crazy play and we're just used to it from D.J. And then it's crazy because I think everybody knows that last year he tried to switch back to offense. Because he was an offensive guy, a receiver. And he's always the guy in practice where everybody is catching the ball with two hands and D.J. jumps up and catches it with one hand. He's just always doing crazy things like that.”
— Fields on Graham’s catch
“It was a major commitment to not turn him loose. When he rushes for over 100 yards, they win football games.”
— Grinch on defending Martinez
“That’s a sign of our mentality growing as a football team. Some people think, ‘A little extra point. Big deal.’ How many do you see take that play off? And all of a sudden we flip that and instead of being a four-point game it’s a seven-point game. It was a huge play, great job by our guys down the field not getting a penalty. It was a great play.”
— Riley on Fields’ return of a blocked PAT
“Just a tremendous play, and he had one to make up for, and let's be real frank on that. But he did. This goes back to that emotional reaction, right? You have an emotional reaction to the previous play, you know, how do you feel? Well, football doesn’t care how you feel in that moment. There's a response, and we talk so much about with our guys is you’ve got to respond to the good stuff, you’ve got to respond to the bad stuff and a non response is your response. So there's no vote in this. We’re not asking you whether or not you believe in the ‘R factor.’ It’s happening, whether you believe it or not and so that to see him respond in that moment, very proud of him for doing that.”
— Grinch on Graham’s INT
“It’s kind of like the Tulane game where all of a sudden it’s four-down territory all the time. When you are playing a team where it’s four downs instead of three, it’s just a different world. We’d all be a lot better on offense if we knew we had four downs every time we touched the football.”
— Riley
Adrian Martinez and Perrion Winfrey
BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN-Imagn Content Services, LLC
“This is just another reason why we’re going to be one of the best defenses in the country. From this game right here, it’s a rivalry game. We knew we weren’t going to see the exact same team on tape on the field. It’s a rivalry game. They’re amped up. We’re amped up. It’s their pride vs. our pride. We’re going to keep playing the way we know we can play. If we keep playing like that, we’re going to be one of the best in the country.”
— Graham
“I hear your point on there’s been some things that have changed. But if you think there haven’t been a pretty intense spotlight at the quarterback position every year that I’ve been here ... You just name the challenges, they’re there. But I think Spencer has handled it well.”
— Riley on Spencer Rattler’s off-field distractions
“Mario threw me a good ball and Marvin was wide open. I just had to get it to him. Luckily I didn’t get blown up on that. We made it work. It was a huge spark for our offense to get going. I think you could see that after that play.”
— Rattler on the reverse-double-pass from Mario Williams that went to Marvin Mims
“They’re probably the most talented group on the whole football team. They’re probably the deepest group on the whole football team.”
— Riley on the OU defensive line
Joshua Ellison
BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN-Imagn Content Services, LLC
“He's a good player, man. He's not just fast and athletic but he’s built pretty well, too. He's a big kid and almost kind of slips out some some stuff the way Baker used to a little bit, kind of the thickness, and it's just not real easy to bring down. So that's obviously one of their best weapons is when he pulls it down and runs it and he's gifted.”
— Riley on Martinez
“The best part of his game is with his legs. So we knew the spy role was going to be a really good plan this week, especially with a guy that’s dynamic like him. He can make a lot of plays on the run. We won’t face too many guys like him. So I feel like it worked really well and hats off to the coaching staff.”
— Nik Bonitto on spying Martinez
“He’s the best … d-end in the country, in my opinion. I get to go against him every day in practice and he’s in the backfield all the time. That guy kind of plays … he was a basketball guy in high school. He kind of plays basketball out there, crossing a guy up, crossing a tackle up and getting into the backfield.”
— Rattler on Bonitto
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