transcribed by Bill Seals
Opening comments:
“After the game, I was pretty honest of what my evaluation was. Watching the football game again, I think a lot of growth in areas that needed to grow and areas we need to efficiently get better at. I do think this football team is improving. It’s another huge challenge for this football team this weekend in Oklahoma State. I think they’re very comfortable right now in their football team and it’s gotten off to a good start and played good football for the most part. Defensively, a lot of guys are back. Offensively, their offensive line and run game are playing about as well as anybody in our conference right now.”
On teetering back and forth between giving David Montgomery a lot of carries and resting him:
“I think it’s a balancing act in a lot of ways. With some of the big games we’ve played, they’re games that are coming down to every possession being critical. You’ve got to be start. One thing I’m comfortable with is you see more guys getting in at the running back spot the last two weeks. Johnny (Lang) has been getting more carries and Sheldon (Croney) has done a nice job. Kene (Nwangwu) and Mike (Warren) are two guys that we know are available to us and we need to find ways to use them.
“When it’s a critical situation, you want to put the ball in your best players’ hands. I’m not naïve to that and it’s something I believe in. David is really starting to play well and getting into a rhythm the past two weeks. He’s playing some of his best football right now. As a true running back, maybe the best I’ve seen him play.”
On the origin of Montgomery’s injury:
“He got banged up in that first carry he had of the football season in the rainout game. He’s dinged up, nothing terrible. It’s just bruising and pain he’s had to deal with. It’s not easy and a lot of credit to him and how he’s playing at less than 100 percent. But other than the early part of fall camp, as a running back you probably never really feel 100 percent.”
On Zeb Noland’s outlook coming out of a difficult test at TCU:
“You play a defense like that that’s going to challenge you in a multitude of different ways. Now you’re going to play a very similar style of defense with what Oklahoma State is doing. The one thing that’s been part of the growth of Zeb is you turn the ball over and are not playing your best football game, but when our team needed him the most to make a play he made a play. That’s a credit to him.
“When you look at the stat sheet after the game, no, it wasn’t the best football he’s ever played. I still felt like him being able to make that play was a good confidence booster to him. We go down, score and put the game back in the category of us having a chance to win. For him, it’s part of the growing process. He’s a four-game starter that is continuing to grow and play through it.
“It’s not just Zeb. You’ve still got to get open, make some tough catches and do all those things. If you look at our passing game, we’ve got to help him out and some of those receivers out in some of those situations.”
On some areas of Noland’s game he’d like to see more strides in:
“I think a little bit of it is poise and poise when things get crazy in a football game and you’re being challenged, it goes back to your fundamentals and details, being able to hang back on those things. When you can settle into those things, you can fall back on those things. At times that was off kilter as the game went on, but he did a great job of regathering himself.”
On the progress made by freshman defensive end Will McDonald:
“He’s as talented of anybody we have brought in here, as far as physical God-given ability. It’s through the roof. He could probably could go over there in some way, shape or form and head Coach Prohm on the basketball court. His athleticism is through the roof. Sometimes when you’re still learning the game of football, you lack a sense of physicality and sense of awareness, but with him it’s quite the opposite. He’s got elite awareness and high-end physicality. Where he’s at right now and how we continue to use him, we need to feed him enough and still be intelligent enough to continue to utilize the other guys that are also playing really good football. It’s a good problem to have. We have a lot of guys at our disposal.”
On how much Braxton Lewis continues to impact the defense on game days:
“Going into the season, there were two areas I would have said were major concerns for me and those were offensive line and safety. What Braxton has done in four games for that safety group has been really fun to watch. He’s given us a chance to be as steady as we’ve been at safety since we’ve been here. His work ethic and what he’s put into it…he’s one of the hardest working players in our football program and shows up every day.
“I recognized him in year one. When we first got here, that first winter workout we were searching for ‘these are our kind of guys and these guys fit our mold’. How he carried himself, how he worked and what his intangibles were…this guy was really impressive. You saw the next year he plays on special teams. Everything we gave Braxton and every opportunity he got, he took advantage of. The guys that have succeeded for the past three and a half years here, they have had the same (path). They have gotten their opportunity, prepared for their opportunity and flourished after getting that opportunity.”
On the style of game that he expects against a prolific against a high-scoring OSU team:
“Every game has a different tempo and different set of ‘how you manage it and give yourself the best opportunity when the scoreboard ends to win the game’. So, you mitigate through a lot of different scenarios. This is a team that has really good talent. They’re a talented football team. You’ve got to find a way through the rhythm of that football game to have success. The last few years we’ve played, we’ve been able to find that rhythm at times and then at times we’ve lost that rhythm in the game enough to cost us the football game.
“They create pressure for you, because you know they’re going to make big plays. I think they’re leading the Big 12 in big plays, so they’re going to push the ball down the field. Their running back, they’re going to hand it to him 25 times a game and he’s going to make big plays. So, it’s a matter of how we help our defense out and get that ebb and flow in a football game.”
Opening comments:
“After the game, I was pretty honest of what my evaluation was. Watching the football game again, I think a lot of growth in areas that needed to grow and areas we need to efficiently get better at. I do think this football team is improving. It’s another huge challenge for this football team this weekend in Oklahoma State. I think they’re very comfortable right now in their football team and it’s gotten off to a good start and played good football for the most part. Defensively, a lot of guys are back. Offensively, their offensive line and run game are playing about as well as anybody in our conference right now.”
On teetering back and forth between giving David Montgomery a lot of carries and resting him:
“I think it’s a balancing act in a lot of ways. With some of the big games we’ve played, they’re games that are coming down to every possession being critical. You’ve got to be start. One thing I’m comfortable with is you see more guys getting in at the running back spot the last two weeks. Johnny (Lang) has been getting more carries and Sheldon (Croney) has done a nice job. Kene (Nwangwu) and Mike (Warren) are two guys that we know are available to us and we need to find ways to use them.
“When it’s a critical situation, you want to put the ball in your best players’ hands. I’m not naïve to that and it’s something I believe in. David is really starting to play well and getting into a rhythm the past two weeks. He’s playing some of his best football right now. As a true running back, maybe the best I’ve seen him play.”
On the origin of Montgomery’s injury:
“He got banged up in that first carry he had of the football season in the rainout game. He’s dinged up, nothing terrible. It’s just bruising and pain he’s had to deal with. It’s not easy and a lot of credit to him and how he’s playing at less than 100 percent. But other than the early part of fall camp, as a running back you probably never really feel 100 percent.”
On Zeb Noland’s outlook coming out of a difficult test at TCU:
“You play a defense like that that’s going to challenge you in a multitude of different ways. Now you’re going to play a very similar style of defense with what Oklahoma State is doing. The one thing that’s been part of the growth of Zeb is you turn the ball over and are not playing your best football game, but when our team needed him the most to make a play he made a play. That’s a credit to him.
“When you look at the stat sheet after the game, no, it wasn’t the best football he’s ever played. I still felt like him being able to make that play was a good confidence booster to him. We go down, score and put the game back in the category of us having a chance to win. For him, it’s part of the growing process. He’s a four-game starter that is continuing to grow and play through it.
“It’s not just Zeb. You’ve still got to get open, make some tough catches and do all those things. If you look at our passing game, we’ve got to help him out and some of those receivers out in some of those situations.”
On some areas of Noland’s game he’d like to see more strides in:
“I think a little bit of it is poise and poise when things get crazy in a football game and you’re being challenged, it goes back to your fundamentals and details, being able to hang back on those things. When you can settle into those things, you can fall back on those things. At times that was off kilter as the game went on, but he did a great job of regathering himself.”
On the progress made by freshman defensive end Will McDonald:
“He’s as talented of anybody we have brought in here, as far as physical God-given ability. It’s through the roof. He could probably could go over there in some way, shape or form and head Coach Prohm on the basketball court. His athleticism is through the roof. Sometimes when you’re still learning the game of football, you lack a sense of physicality and sense of awareness, but with him it’s quite the opposite. He’s got elite awareness and high-end physicality. Where he’s at right now and how we continue to use him, we need to feed him enough and still be intelligent enough to continue to utilize the other guys that are also playing really good football. It’s a good problem to have. We have a lot of guys at our disposal.”
On how much Braxton Lewis continues to impact the defense on game days:
“Going into the season, there were two areas I would have said were major concerns for me and those were offensive line and safety. What Braxton has done in four games for that safety group has been really fun to watch. He’s given us a chance to be as steady as we’ve been at safety since we’ve been here. His work ethic and what he’s put into it…he’s one of the hardest working players in our football program and shows up every day.
“I recognized him in year one. When we first got here, that first winter workout we were searching for ‘these are our kind of guys and these guys fit our mold’. How he carried himself, how he worked and what his intangibles were…this guy was really impressive. You saw the next year he plays on special teams. Everything we gave Braxton and every opportunity he got, he took advantage of. The guys that have succeeded for the past three and a half years here, they have had the same (path). They have gotten their opportunity, prepared for their opportunity and flourished after getting that opportunity.”
On the style of game that he expects against a prolific against a high-scoring OSU team:
“Every game has a different tempo and different set of ‘how you manage it and give yourself the best opportunity when the scoreboard ends to win the game’. So, you mitigate through a lot of different scenarios. This is a team that has really good talent. They’re a talented football team. You’ve got to find a way through the rhythm of that football game to have success. The last few years we’ve played, we’ve been able to find that rhythm at times and then at times we’ve lost that rhythm in the game enough to cost us the football game.
“They create pressure for you, because you know they’re going to make big plays. I think they’re leading the Big 12 in big plays, so they’re going to push the ball down the field. Their running back, they’re going to hand it to him 25 times a game and he’s going to make big plays. So, it’s a matter of how we help our defense out and get that ebb and flow in a football game.”
