What Bryan McClendon Said After Oregon Lost to Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl
McClendon’s opening statement:
“First, I would just like to, again, just like I said to the team, these guys, man, they’re special. They’re a special group of guys. They’re a special group of men. I just love everything about the group that we had.
I said it, and I told these guys, I said it every time I got in front of the mic, that I would not rather go into this fight with any other group of guys, whether it be players and coaches and strength staff, everybody’s a part of this program. I’m just really appreciative of the job they’ve done.
You got, truly, everything right now telling these guys not to go out there during this time and give it all that they have, and they were able to block out everything and be able to kind of put the forefront of themselves, the team, the goals that they’ve had as a team, and I’m just really, really pleased with those guys.
[You] got to credit Oklahoma. Guys did a really good job of taking advantage of anything that we gave them. Obviously they’re a talented team. They’re well coached. Those guys did a good job, did a good enough job to be able to win the game, and that goes to a credit to them, and the scheme and everything else that they put forward to be able to put those guys in position to take advantage of anything that we gave those guys.
Like I said man, not negating the fact that those guys did a good job. I felt like we helped them out at times, as well, but those guys earned it. Those guys earned it, and gotta give credit to those guys as well, man.
It really hurts. As well as we played and everything else in the second half, I mean, there’s not a consolation prize. You come here to win the game, and it hurts like hell when you don’t. Right now, that’s where we are.
But again, I appreciate these seniors. I appreciate everybody and the job that they did throughout this entire bowl prep process. I mean, just really, really pleased with these guys, and I love everything about them.”
On Injuries to Noah Sewell, Daymon David and Dontae Manning:
“Nothing real serious on any one of the fronts. I think Scoop has a shoulder; Noah got taken out for concussion symptoms; Dontae had a lower leg extremity that they want to reevaluate and everything else.
Anything else was just bumps and bruises associated with play. But as far as those, nothing real serious. Nothing that I feel like will keep those guys out of a good offseason or anything else.”
On Oregon’s improved second half effort:
“Well, I feel like you can’t credit it to me. I’m not out there playing. I mean, it’s these guys. The only thing I said to those guys were hey, man, we’ve come too far to really let a bad half kind of define us. At the end of the day there is no one play that you can run that can get you out of a 30-3 deficit. The only thing we can do is go out there and fight our ass off one play at a time and go out there and keep doing it, keep doing it, keep doing it.
Those guys, like I said, it wasn’t just me. Those guys out there, man, they believed in each other that they could go out there and get that done. At the end of the day, it’s those guys that need all the credit, not me.”
On never giving up:
“That’s not what we do. That’s about as simple of an answer as I can give you. That’s not what we do. There is nothing – we feel like there’s nothing that we can’t overcome as a group regardless of who’s here, regardless of who’s there, regardless of next man up, regardless of what deficit, what situation, what turnover. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t feel like there’s anything that’s going to stop us from going out there and giving our all.
That’s just really how we’re made up. But again, it really comes from a belief of the people in the locker room, in each other, that those guys knew, man, that there was no quit in anybody. They knew the guy next to them wasn’t going to quit, they knew their coaches weren’t going to quit, they knew trainers and everybody else weren’t going to quit. It makes it really easy to be able to fight for one another when that’s the case.”
On the performance of Oregon’s young receivers:
“Proud of those guys. I thought we started off a little off in the sense of, I mean, I felt like there were some balls that we could’ve handled that were off target a little bit, and that’s the receivers’ job to be able to handle it. I felt like we were inconsistent at first being able to do that. I felt like those guys settled in because it’s a young group of guys that – all of those guys are playing different spots, playing different – playing a lot more. But that’s no excuse.
But at the end of the day, those guys came in there and did a really good job of just keep fighting, doing what they’re coached to do, going out there and making those plays and doing their job. Not just them, but everybody. Everybody. I mean, I’m proud of them, but I’m proud of everybody over there in that locker room for doing that as well.”
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