Oklahoma Sooners College Football Postgame Quote, 12/30/2020

Well, thank you. What a great night, great night for Oklahoma football, I think. A night that our team and everybody associated with it is very proud. I know our former players, former coaches, our fans, I know they certainly enjoyed that one. So what a great night to win. Absolutely one of the most elite bowl games that there’s ever been and ever will be in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. It’s very meaningful to us with the way the year has gone for everybody to be able to look at some of the tough things and not see obstacles but see opportunities. It’s been our mindset.

And I really commend our players and our staff because we felt that way the entire year and really closed so strong. Really fun to be able to win the Big 12 championship ten days ago and come back and play like we did here tonight. It’s very special. Because of this year, we’ll remember this one forever.

Just with the interceptions to start the game, I’m curious what you just make of the defensive effort from the Florida offense that’s been so good all season. What do you make of the way that they came out tonight?

Yeah, our guys did a good job. We capitalized on a couple of mistakes they made. We were able a couple of times to confuse the quarterback and coverage. And he let go a couple of throws that weren’t quite as decisive as what we’re used to seeing him make. And our guys did a tremendous job with it.

It says a lot about it. We have the most respect for that offense, for Kyle Trask who undoubtedly has been one of the best quarterbacks in the country this year.

I told him after the game, just as a you know, I know this is my profession but, also, as just a fan of college football, I very much appreciate him for what he did in high school, hanging through it when a lot of other people would have left. What he did playing in this game tonight, even through he’s got a really bright future ahead of him. I very, very much appreciate it. I hope college football can keep peole like Kyle Trask involved. And all the respect in the world for him.

You gave a really passionate speech between third and fourth quarter. You had a 4113 lead. What did you tell your team going into that fourth quarter where you scored four touchdowns?

We came here we decided we’re going to be a team on a mission. We said we were going to finish no matter what happened. That we wanted to make a statement with the way that we play, and we didn’t want that to be just a parttime statement. And so just encouraging our guys and also making sure that our guys remember, one, the quality opponent on the other sideline and also the fact that you’ve only got one quarter left. One quarter left for this team, some guys one quarter left in their careers. You’ll remember that quarter, so let’s make sure we remember it the right way.

I’m just curious, you guys have been through so much with COVID this year. I don’t know if you had to kind of play mental gymnastics with your team with all the news about optouts, especially on the offensive side. But how did you keep that from, I don’t know, becoming a distraction or something that you couldn’t overcome or didn’t play well because people were overlooking this team?

No. I mean, no, there was no overlooking it. It’s Florida, a Heisman Trophy finalist, a tremendous coaching staff, and a very talented roster. I was not worried at all about overlooking, and we did not really address that at all. Didn’t feel like we needed to, honestly.

We had a lot of respect for Florida and the team they are. And, listen, everybody has had to go through that this year, whether it’s losing players to COVID, dealing with players’ decisions on these bowl games. We’ve all had to deal with it. We’ve all had to fight our way through.

Our recipe has been we just got to worry about ourselves. We got a group of guys that were excited and committed to come in and play this game, and I think it showed. I think we probably played our most complete game of the season.

Over 400 yards rushing, big play after big play from all three of your guys. Was that something you thought would be successful? Why was it so successful tonight? Your running game really carried your passing game.

Oh, it absolutely did. We were a little sloppy in the passing game early. Had a couple of things that we missed and a couple that we didn’t catch, and we were just a little sloppy there. The run really got us going. It was easily the best we’ve ran the ball all year.

I thought our offensive line played outstanding because that’s still a supertalented defensive front that we just played against. And so I thought our Oline was outstanding. I thought probably the best game we’ve played all year. And I thought our backs was easily the best game our backs played this year other than the [Rhamondre] Stevenson fumble. We ran through tackles. Those were some tackles that at different times this year, we were ending up on the ground. Our guys ran aggressive. I thought the line really made them confident.

And all three of those guys had big, big plays for us. So it was excited about certainly the way Rhamondre played. I can’t say how proud I am about the way Marcus Major and Seth McGowan stepped up. Those are two guys that really did a great job.

I wanted to tack on to what you just mentioned about [Seth] McGowan. He tied his career high tonight with 73 yards on one carry. So how proud were you of him with what he was able to accomplish in just four touches?

That’s a pretty good average. Yeah, that might be a Cotton Bowl record, I would imagine, for average yards per carry.

I was proud of him. It’s been a every player’s first year is always not easy. Seth got a lot of playing time for us early when so many of our guys were out. Probably wasn’t quite ready for all we had to do. He really fought and did a good job, and he’s had a chance to take a step back and get behind the scenes and learn and work. He’s gotten better throughout this.

And Marcus Major, too. I was really excited to see Marcus tonight, too, because those guys have been working hard behind the scenes and have really improved. We were all, I think, pretty excited about that work showing up here at the end of the year and here with the great opportunity.

It’s a great lesson for all young guys. You may not be the star or the feature guy at the beginning. You may have ups and downs. But if you don’t let them get to you, if you hang in there, if you keep swinging and keep working behind the scenes, when your opportunity comes you’ll be ready. And they were ready tonight.

The idea that strong bowl showings can really catapult and spring board a program into the offseason, I know you want to enjoy tonight, but just what kind of momentum does what happen here provide you guys?

It’s obviously good. Excited about the way we finished. Excited about what this team could be next year. We’ll definitely enjoy it quickly on the ride home. We have got exit meetings with our guys tomorrow and then we don’t see our guys for 25 days, you know, with our schedule here is going to be a little different.

We’ll certainly be excited to get back, though. There’s just I like where the just the attitude and just kind of the overall environment within our team, within our program, like where that’s at. A ton of young, exciting players that grew and learned so much this year and have a chance to be better for it. But it’s going to be a great challenge to us to continue to climb because these last several teams have really set the bar high. I think we all sense the opportunity ahead of us.

You mentioned remembering this team forever this team being remembered forever. What do you think as your career evolves in coaching, what do you think you’re going to remember about this team most, given the totality and the scope of the season?

Just that we didn’t let all that’s been going on around us, we didn’t let it break us or we didn’t let it come between us. And, actually, we kind of flipped it and actually let it bring us together. Yeah, it’s hard to explain right now. I mean, it is. It’s been difficult, but at the same time, it’s really been a lot of fun, too. I mean, it really has.

All anybody wants to talk about is how tough this year has been. And it really has been challenging. But at the same time, it’s been a blast, to see these guys come together, to see this staff come together, and not say “poor us” and try to find solutions to anything that came our way and continue to work regardless of what was going on around us. And we’ve done that.

And so I’ll remember that. I’ll remember how close this team really came together, how close they became during this run and then certainly being able to close out like we did here the last several weeks makes it all the better.

Yeah, Lincoln, kind of following up on that, when you talk about how close this team was and all you guys have been through, what was it like being in the middle of that scene down there on the stage when the guys were all rapping? I mean, that just looked like a pretty neat scene to be in the middle of and you were right in the middle of it.

Oh, that was the best, the old Malcolm Kelly. I know just about every word to that as well. That was pretty cool. Our guys they deserved that moment, man. Winning is hard, and it’s hard to do it here at the end against great competition.

Yeah, they deserve that moment. So those guys are happy and enjoying the moment with each other. There’s not a whole lot that makes you feel better than that.

Were you singing with them? Were you rapping with them?

I know quite a bit of it honestly. I don’t know if I can do it a capela right now, but it’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard it, let’s put it that way.

Lincoln, you kind of touched on all this so far, but I asked you a question in the middle of the season about moments that this team has kind of been through and come together. Is there any that stick out in your mind now looking back at everything that just turned this whole thing around?

I don’t think anything turned it around. It was just, you know, here’s the challenges. Are you going to stick together and be mentally tough enough and care enough about what we’re doing to overcome them and believe in yourself?

So I don’t think there’s been one moment. I mean, there was challenges just to be able to play this season. There were challenges with all that was going on in our country. It’s just kind of been one challenge after another.

So I don’t think there was the Hollywood moment where all of a sudden it was going bad and all of a sudden it was going great. It was kind of just a constant grind. You had to get up each day and just go do it again. You couldn’t become tired of it. You just had to stick to it. So I’ll remember that more than anything, just the perseverance throughout the entire year.

Lincoln, your defense has been growing all year, and you’ve talked about it a lot. You’re on the biggest stage. You’ve got a national primetime game. And your defense tackled well, pursued well, knocked the ball out defensively. The growth of your defense all season, but especially in this game, what does it say to you about what you got on defense?

Oh, I couldn’t be more excited about the direction of our program defensively. And I give our players a ton of credit. I give Coach [Alex] Grinch, our defensive staff, a ton of credit. They’ve done just a fabulous job.

It’s been so far, two years in, it’s been what we hoped it would be. I think we sat here after last season and said, It’s a great start, but we will be disappointed if it’s not a whole lot better in year two. And it was better. And now we’re going to sit here and say, Really good twoyear run, made a lot of improvements, love the way our guys are playing and improving, and we expect it to be a heck of a lot better in year three.

Sort of along those lines, just looking at the defense tonight, outside of the interceptions, what stands out to you about the performance on that side of the ball?

How we played the key downs. We did a good job in the red zone. We had obviously the fourthdown stop down there, but had a couple of stops down there in the red zone that were great. I thought we did a good job on third down.

And they do a lot of things to challenge us. I mean, they do a great job schematically. And, obviously, when they started playing [Emory] Jones and you add in all the different quarterbackrun game, it’s a lot to handle.

So I’m proud of those guys. Proud of how some of those young secondary players stepped up, did a tremendous job. So it was playing the key downs and being our best in the big moments, that’s what championshiplevel groups do.

We talk a lot about your improved defense and the old reputation of the Big 12 and Oklahoma that you don’t play any defense. And you’ve sort of put that to the side. But playing the physical kind of ball you did on offense tonight, do you think you changed any perceptions about, You’re not just a bunch of Heisman Trophywinning quarterbacks slinging the ball around. You’ve got guys that break tackles, you mentioned that. And going up against an SEC team and sort of popped them in the mouth most of the night. Do you think you made some inroads nationally in showing people you’re not just an air raidtype operation?

You know me, Barry. I don’t get too caught up in what people think nationally. I mean, it’s a good opponent we went against tonight. We played well. Proud of how physical we played.

We feel like we can go in there toetotoe physically with anybody, anytime, anywhere, and that’s just our belief in ourself. So we’re I think we’re improving in a lot of those areas, both sides of the football.

And, certainly, to do it here on a big stage against a quality opponent is always a great step. And I think it says a lot about the direction of where this is headed.

Lincoln, after seeing what Florida went through tonight, I know a lot of people are asking the questions and I don’t know if life has to get back to normal before we talk about this. But is it time to start talking about maybe expanding the playoff if optouts become such a big deal for everyone who’s not playing in them?

I think that’s two separate discussions. Do you expand the playoff? Do you not? It’s so hard to judge it after this year. That’s a shame.

I mean, right now we’re probably sitting here I would be surprised if there’s four teams in the country better than us right now. But it’s been such a very unequal year to gauge it. I’m not saying we should have been in the playoff.

I’ve said many times, I don’t know how you do it this year. So I think you’re going to have to toss this year out and just make decisions about the playoff longterm. I do think it is always very difficult to not include Power Five conference champions because everybody’s road and league and the way they set it up is so different. I think that’s always going to be a topic until it’s expanded, if it does, and probably should be.

And then as far as optouts in the bowl game again, you’ve got to be careful judging this. As Dan [Mullen] said, I think they’ve only had one in the last several years. I believe the one that we had this year was the first one unless I’m forgetting somebody, is the first one we’ve ever had. So this is a different year.

I know this, a lot of our guys were excited and really wanted to play in this ball game. I think if we’re in the same scenario in the future, I feel like it will be the same way. So it’s kind of a roundabout way to answer, but I think it’s two different subjects. I think there’s still a ton about these bowls that are so special and will continue to be special for these guys.

And then with the playoffs, we’ll see what happens.