Oklahoma State Cowboys College Football Pregame Quote, 12/20/2021

On the benefits of veteran leadership on the defensive side of the ball:

The majority of the guys that are playing on defense have a really good feel for what we do. That’s one of the reasons we had success this year. Obviously Malcolm [Rodriguez] and even Devin [Harper] ‚Äì he didn’t have as many game reps but he’s been here for a long time. Jim [Knowles]’s system takes a little time. Every year, they’ve been able to get a little better. Jokingly, I had friends of mine that said, ‘Why don’t you just let Malcolm call the game from the field.’ You know, the old Joe Namath days. It’s a little more complicated than that, but it certainly helps to have those guys, like Malcolm [Rodriguez], that are playing.

On Devin Harper’s contribution to this year’s defense:

He’s been here a long time. He gets it. He just couldn’t get on the field last year with Amen [Ogbongbemiga]. Obviously Amen [Ogbongbemiga] was good enough to make an NFL team, so he didn’t get a lot of reps. He’s really kind of a throwback to the ‘I’m going to stay here and keep pushing’ mindset and it worked out well for him being a key contributor and he’s made a lot of plays for us.

On the status of Jaylen Warren:

Jaylen [Warren] will be fine. We’re not letting him practice as much as we are the other guys, but he’s doing fine.

On the opportunity for non-starters to get extra reps during bowl practice:

Well, we’ve practiced and our young guys have scrimmaged between 30 and 40 plays every day at the end of practice. So they’re getting a considerable amount of reps. If you put a pencil to it: by the time we finish bowl practice, the young guys will have had a spring practice and they’re doing fine. They all make mistakes and then they all make some plays, which is what’s going to happen. They’re getting really quality work.

On the efficiency of the defense at practice in the absence of Jim Knowles:

Essentially, I’ve switched from offense to defense. I haven’t watched offense at all, live anyway. I’ve watched defense every day and I’m very pleased. I don’t think the players have noticed him not being here with the way we’ve divided up responsibilities and I think they’re practicing very well at this time.

On the intensity of practices so far:

“I think that’s fair. These guys have practiced really well. By the time we get to the middle of next week, we will have had 10 heavy practices, which is comparable to six to seven on a normal bowl cycle. These guys practice hard every ay and they go two, then they are off one and then come back and practice hard again. Between the small distraction we had with coach Knowles and being out of school, I don’t really see an issue.

On the maturity of the team:

They don’t have a lot of free time, even to this day. They have training in the mornings, we practice and meet in the midmorning, practice into the afternoon, then they also have other responsibilities to take care of. They have some time at night. Now, they can go do anything they want, we just don’t have many issues here. This system runs itself. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I could walk away for a month and they would be just fine without me. We have good young men who understand responsibility. I’m not saying they can’t make a mistake because that can happen, but there’s 138 of them and we don’t really have issues. They understand the importance of nutrition, sleep, proper hydration, training, all the things that give them the best chance to play well, they do.