Oklahoma State Cowboys College Football Pregame Quote, 09/30/2024

Looking back at the film, what were your takeaways from Saturday?

“Really what I thought. I think I might have said this but when you play a good team and you play on the road, and you play in a good college football environment, you have to capitalize on your opportunities. We didn’t do that. We left some points on the board in the first half. It was very similar to what it was like when I watched the Utah video. I kept watching where we had made mistakes and then I looked up and we’re only down three. We had the ball down 1 on the 30 going in. There’s like six minutes to go in the first half. You’re in great shape. That’s exactly what happened. We didn’t capitalize on those opportunities. Then when you don’t, at times, it can snowball in the latter part of the game and it starts to add up really quick. That’s what happened in the game.”

Was there a common theme in settling for field goals?

“Not really. One time we ran a pitch play and got hit for -2. Kinda set us back on the chains. The next play they covered up good. Bowman could have hit a different receiver that would have helped on that series. One time we snapped the ball on the ground. It really wasn’t anything that would be worth noting that was glaring.” 

Are there things with Bowman that you’re noticing in his struggles?

“There’s things that we’ll coach him on. I’ll be really honest with you. There were four or five plays that would make the general public look and say ‘he was really bad.’ When the other 55 plays he played good. That’s what happens when you play that position. When you make glaring decisions like why did that happen, at crucial times, that can happen. When I graded him Saturday night, that’s what I saw. When I watched it again Sunday with the staff, that pretty much confirmed what I saw.”

How much weight does the QB position hold in fan’s perception?

“It’s always that way right? The head coach and the quarterback take a lot. Good or bad. I think Bowman is handling this very well. His play in this game was much better than his play against Utah. There’s not even a comparison. There are four or five plays that are glaring that were really bad. One of them ended up being an interception. He’s older and more mature. I saw him yesterday and I think he’s fine. I really believe that. With me, I don’t care. I do what I do. Nothing bothers me. What you said is correct, but it’ll always be that way.” 

What happens when you lose the run game like y’all did?

“It’s a little bit of what I alluded to. I mean, it wasn’t worth going into such great detail, but when you’re within a two-score game, a lot of things are still active. And when don’t capitalize on those situations then ‚Äî for example, the drive to open the second half ‚Äî we didn’t capitalize on or we’re right back in great shape. And when you don’t against a good team that has a good environment, that can snowball on you. Now, it’s not a hundred percent. There’s been a lot of games here over the last 20 years where we’ve rallied back even after that. But when you’re in that situation, it’s gonna be glaring more so when you watch teams play and you’re in a situation, unless you’re just more physically talented than the other team.

Have your analysts/coaches noticed adjustments being made by the other team early in the game? Maybe from the tablets?

“We do care; it’s important. I think the tablets have been valuable for everybody, in my opinion. I know they have been for us. I’m sure they’re doing some of the same things. And in the big picture in a situation ‚Äî I guess, kind of to summarize what you’re talking about ‚Äî is that the momentum and the ebb and the flow of a game is more important than what the general public may sometimes feel like it is. In the third quarter or whatever, when Bowman threw the interception, that was kinda a crucial time where the ebb and the flow went all the way over there. So it’s if and buts, but when their quarterback made a bad decision and threw the ball to us, we didn’t capitalize on it. So even though they made the mistake and we didn’t capitalize on it, the momentum went back to them. That’s what happens in those situations. I’ve done this a long time… Those are situations you want to capitalize (on) and they become more evident and glaring on the road than they do at home.”

Did you feel like K-State adjusted to what you were doing in the run game?

“Not necessarily, no. We started to get two scores down, so then, I’m giving away all my good secrets for future coaches.  So I have to start adding that up in my head. That’s how that happens. My brain has to start working with the clock. So the clock’s running. If you stay with the original game plan, the clock’s going to run. So what I have to do ‚Äì right, wrong or indifferent ‚Äî I have to figure out, in my head, how many more times we’re going to get the ball and what our success ratio can be to allow us to score enough points to at least tie the game. Based on what they’ve done during the game, you have to say they’re probably going to score at least once because they’ve already scored X number of points through 41 minutes of the game.So if you just keep playing the way you’re playing, we don’t get to play until tomorrow. The game’s gonna end when the clock expires. So do you actually give yourself and your team a chance versus just fizzling out and losing by 10 points, and you never had a chance because the clock just began to run? And it’s a little bit more of a factor now with the new clock rules.”

On how different it would be for Kendal Daniels to fill in for Nick Martin:

“Some, not a lot — 20%, probably. Something like that. They’re in the same ballpark, let’s pit it that way. Now, if he would’ve not played down closer (to the line of scrimmage) a lot this year, it would’ve been a drastic chance. But not so much.”

On Nardo usually being good at halftime adjustments but K-State still finding success in the second half Saturday:

“We stressed them. We stressed the defense offensively in the second half. I’m repeating myself now, but just the ebb and flow of the way the first half went. I’m just giving you straight answers here — if we’d have just played like normal, we’re ahead at halftime. But we didn’t. OK, so then we got in the third quarter, we got down plus two scores, so we start stressing the defense. Earlier when I said it alters the run game based on the time and the clock and how things go in a game, right? Clock’s gonna eventually run out, so the defense has to think the same way. They have to put themselves in position to try to get quicker stops for us to get the ball back, or if we don’t score, it’s not gonna matter. So people say, ‘Well, I’d rather lose 28-26 then take a chance on maybe losing worse,’ but if you can’t ever catch up, who cares? It’s no fun. So you might as well do what you can. We went for fourth down on our own 30 or whatever. ‘Why’d you do it?’ Because if we don’t keep the ball and drive, we’re never gonna win the game. So if they score, what difference does it make? If we don’t score, then it’s not gonna matter. It’s all part of that process that we stressed them. So, you’ve heard me say that before — we stressed them a little bit. We stressed them a little bit, and they took advantage of it. In the Utah game, we stressed them. We didn’t work with them, so our football team needs to work together. That’s who we are right now. We need to be sound in special teams, try to win the hidden yards. We need to work offensively and defensively together to find a way to win the games.”

On K-State and Utah going for it on fourth down:

“That’s been going on for about three or four years now. You see a lot of that. I’m not in their corners, so I don’t know what their thought process is. But, some coaches follow that book of analytics. That’s what it’s called, right? Whatever that book is? I don’t follow it. I don’t read. Don’t listen to it, but some people do. Most of the time, that book says go for it because the book doesn’t know the crowd, doesn’t know the field, doesn’t know a lot of things. It just sees numbers. That could be part of what you’re talking about. I don’t know if Chris (Klieman) follows that book. I don’t know if Kyle (Whittingham) — I doubt Kyle does. But either way, that might be the answer.”

What would a Big Ten, SEC scheduling agreement mean for college football?

“So there’s just a few things. It’s a simple process. College football needs a commissioner. And if it’s one of the four guys, now, if it’s the guy at SEC commissioner, I don’t care, we need a commissioner. And then we need the Power Four, Power Five if we go back to it. Those commissioners are under them. And then we need a football oversight rules committee that is going to enforce the whatever rules that we say there are. Whether that is recruiting, nil, salary cap, employment agreements, transfers, whatever those rules are, and they need to follow the NFL model. The NFL has been an ultra-successful money-making machine over 50 years, and the reason why is because they have equality amongst the troops. So they have, what is it, 32 teams. They have salary caps, they have free agency. They have all the things that are in place to create equal. Which allows the last-place team to have the first draft and the Super Bowl champion to have the last draft. So they continue to have equal teams. So you might have a team in the NFL that wins four games in the next year, if they get a good free agency trade, which is the portal we have, or they pick up a high-round pick, they might win 10 games next year, make the playoffs. So people turn TVs on and they continue to watch it now all the time. That’s what has to happen in college football. In my opinion, it’s going to be driven by the commissioner of the SEC and the Big Ten, because they have the most money right now based on long-term television contracts. But that money is not going to matter if everything becomes one dimensional, one sided, if we get a bunch of teams that have all this money and then we have the other 30 teams that have a moderate amount of money, then how many people on the west coast and the east coast who don’t have teams playing in the playoffs anymore, and it’s all the teams from the same two conferences, maybe. And I know that a winner Big 12 gets in. I get that, but you see what I’m saying. And then I live on the east coast or the west coast, and I never have a team in the playoffs. And so why do I watch that anymore? I don’t care. I don’t, there’s no teams, I don’t get to see anything. There’s no equality among college football. And I turn the television off. Now we got a problem.”

At that summit, the SEC and Big Ten are only going to play each other in bowl games.

“So it is a big picture.  I don’t have enough time to go to all of it. I just gave you a short version of what I think should happen. You know, coach Brown in North Carolina when he retires, coach Saban, that’s your football commissioner. That’s who, that’s who, that’s Roger Goodell for us, in my opinion. Because he knows what he’s doing, he gets it. But in that situation, the reason that’s being driven that way is because of money. So there is some thought based on the amount of money that’s going to be spent, because we have no idea now, because she hasn’t even gotten close to signing off on this agreement, and the plaintiffs, who are set to earn over $100 million, attorneys haven’t gotten close to signing agreements. So that tells you, in my opinion, they’re a long ways off. Most people that have the ability to earn hundreds of millions of dollars probably find a solution. So something’s going on. Okay? Those two conferences have more money than anybody based on television revenue and money now for NIL can be funneled through the universities, correct? So when that happens, then there’s going to be money funneled. Ten days ago, Georgia signed off and said, the NCAA now has no legislation or no power over schools that are in the state of Georgia. If we want to pay our players through the school, we will pay our players through the school. Isn’t that what he said, yeah, okay, so what does that mean?”

NCAA, college football has no control.

“Well they don’t. Because in the United States of America, every state governs themselves. The federal government is not supposed to control state laws. Each state governs themselves. So what they did is they stepped up and said ‘We’re gonna do what we wanna do, and if we wanna pay our players through our school and our money, we’re gonna pay our players.’ So that tells me that we’re really close in heading that direction. It’s already been started. There’s schools that are doing it. But the point being, in the big picture of these meetings that you said, is that they’re gonna be the schools that are distributing the most revenue to players. So they feel like they should compete against each other to a certain extent. And maybe that’s true.”

Want to govern college football after coaching?

“It’ll be hard to find me when I’m done coaching. It won’t be watching football, at a game or any of that. Or being a college football commissioner, because that’s just ‚Äî but I will say this. For the sake of the game, we’re at a real dangerous predicament right now. And I hope somebody, like ‚Äî I probably need to text Coach Saban before I say this, but I hope somebody like that becomes a college football commissioner, because he understands the importance of equality, in my opinion, because he’s a smart man that’s been in it for a long time. But that’s what we need, and we need to get it as fast as we can, before we start to lose it and then try to recover back, ala NASCAR and LIV with PGA golf has become a mess because of that.”

Big 12/ACC scheduling partnership?

“I think all of that is bad for college football, because why change what we had five years ago? Now, I understand the portal, I understand NIL. I get all that. But let’s just look at what we had. The only thing that we’ve changed is the 12-team playoff, which everybody in the country is excited about. Correct? We like that, so if you’re excited, you turn the TV on. TV generates more money. But other than what we had, why should we take two conferences playing against each other all the time and two conferences playing against each other all the time, when there should be some equality and everybody plays everybody. That’s what the NFL does. And I can’t imagine there’s a better footprint for success. I just read the other day that some organization, I don’t know which one it was, but in 2016 or ’18, the guy bought the team for $3.3 billion. And now, the team’s worth $6.6 billion, and whatever team it was, they hadn’t even won any games. And he’s already doubled his money. That’s a hell of an investment, and I’m not even a financial guy. That’s what happens when you have a plan and you’re disciplined and you say, ‘This is the way it’s gonna be.’ That’s what we can do in college football if we just get the right people together. And we play West Virginia this week.”

What about West Virginia?

“Gotta stop their quarterback. He’s a good runner. Very similar to what we saw last week. Coach Brown’s done a good job with them. They’ve been in their games. Every game they’ve played, they’ve been very competitive in it. Penn State kinda took them over later, but not really. It was a very competitive game. Same coordinators, same defensive structure. Neal’s offense is the same as what it’s been. The quarterback that’s there, he’s been there for I don’t know how many years. I think he played against Rudolph. Been forever, still there. I’m really excited. I told the team after the game and they all looked at me like I had three heads. I’m excited about today’s walk-throughs. I’m excited about Tuesday’s practice, because I like things like this. I like things that are challenging, I like things that are intriguing. I really like the attitude of our team. They’re acting like grown men for the most part. They’re competing, they’re playing with effort. So I get excited about today. I’m excited about tomorrow. We need a good week of fundamental practice and I’ll be excited about playing West Virginia.”

Does it help seeing a similar team to KSU in West Virginia and does it bother you to play a team coming off a bye when you played?

“Yeah you know you would think … You guys come up with all these statistics that people send me and I don’t know what to think out of them. There is talk that if you are in a flow and all of a sudden you stop then you start again a week later and people think that doesn’t work as good. Most people think if you get a bye then you recover, refresh, guys that are injured you get back, and you get an extra four and a half days-ish  game planning. So, in most cases their concepts in the first quarter and a half should look really good. Time has been a friend to get ready for this game. And then with the two open dates it’s a little unusual. I mean I don’t have any idea when our next one is. But I’ll be very honest with the team today at 1:30. I’ll tell them, ‘I understand that you’re tired. I know you’re beat up and sore.I need you to focus. I need you to be very in tune mentally. I need you give us a good physical practice and get ready to play this game, then we’ll worry about the next thing on the next thing.'” 

West Virginia similar?

“They are playing more on an air guy, so they are playing some odd front, they play some four-down also. more so than what we saw up here (Kansas State). They’re, they’re odd front is an air guy that stand on the line all of the time, more like an NFL-style of defense, but there are similarities, yes with what they do. They play some (cover) one, 13 percent cover one. They are playing majority what would be kind of a cheat quarter, quarter, halves deal to the field and to the boundary. Same deal that they’ve always done.

Does this spot this team is in feel similar to last year?

“That is a tough one. You know we do have 140 players and 76 employees so it is difficult at times, even as good as I am, to engage and get a feel for everybody. Ya’ll didn’t laugh, that was a joke, so I’m going to take a lot of heat over that shit because ya’ll didn’t think it was funny. Danielle (Clary administrative director of football) is throwing up in her mouth. Anyway, these guys have been good and part of the process in the culture that we have here is what we accept. So the one thing that I think is important is that at the end of the game, whether we’re not being flamboyant because we won the game or whether we’re not trying to show disgust and anger because we lost the game, is that there needs to be a culture where we look no matter what we look to improve, whether we win, for the next game. I think that what we have here and that is all we accept here. For that reason I think they’re fine. I thought they were fine last year, and that is the reason that I think they’re fine.”

Can last year be an example of what a team can do?

“It should never be a factor in but I think it does. Because they think of everything. When I tell them not to read social media, they still read social media. So, things work on their brain. Social media works on a part of your brain that you don’t even know about and it stores stuff in there that messes with you. It does it to them too. I think there is a lot of truth to that and in the back of their mind, ‘we went through this last year and we’re good.’ Whatever it takes them to get them to that point, I’m good. I just need them to get to that point.”

Garrett Greene, have you seen him develop and evolve?

“He’s, experience has helped him, and I’m guessing the relationship he has with his play callers and his position coach helps him. They are further along now just with the experience. And he’s been good at rushing the ball and they do a good job with that. What you said is exactly right, you have to do a good job with controlling the quarterback and keep him from flushing out and running around. I was right, right? Every time he (Johnson) got out something bad happened. Now, guys that can really run and get out there, it’s hard to think that realistically you are going to control them all the time. You certainly have to have a good ideal about doing it most of the time because of the downfield throws, they take off and run, and all the things that you are talking about.”