On quarterback Jake Waters…
“As I have said often in here, I see a young guy that is committed to becoming a better player and works diligently at it. He studies the game, has made that improvement, has gained more and more confidence about his abilities in all the facets of the game. Over a period of time, it goes with the experience aspect of it. He has started 18 or 19 games for us, and if you are committed to that continued improvement, then that experience is very beneficial to you. He is a good player.”
On the goal-line stand at Oklahoma…
“It was impressive. Our players did a great job because Oklahoma did not have any trouble getting the ball down there. I thought we did awfully well. We played hard and our guys gave up no ground up front. I was proud of our defensive front. I thought they did extremely well. We probably had a little bit of an advantage as Oklahoma had two of their players that are normally on their goal-line package that were out at that particular time. That may have helped a little bit too. Our guys stood in there against some pretty big and pretty good offensive linemen as well.”
On the importance of having multiple explosive running plays…
“Well it was. We had a couple of substantial gains in the passing game as well. But we had a 50-plus yarder with Jake (Waters) and a 30-plus yarder with D-Mac (DeMarcus Robinson), and that is something that has been instrumental. My dialogue with our team is that we need to create big plays offensively and certainly defensively as well. From an offensive standpoint, you just do not like to put yourself in that position where you have to drive 80 yards at four and five yards a clip. You need some of those breakaway runs or throws, and fortunately we got some.”
On the Texas defense…
“They are probably as good of a front four as you will find in the game today – big, physical and run well. You take a guy like Malcom Brown and he is 320 pounds or something like that and runs a 4.7 40 (yard dash). He is athletic and he can do all of it. He can knock you around and run you down when you try to run away from him. They have a very physical, mobile and athletic front, and that makes it hard to run on them.”
On K-State’s offensive line…
“We have improvements still to make. We gave up three sacks, but that was not all on our offensive line. What I was pleased with is that we only had one penalty. In reality, they were not penalized and being in that environment down there with so much noise, it is easy to get discombobulated with the cadence and snap counts and communication. They handled that part very well. They are becoming a little bit more seasoned.”
On the Texas offense…
“They have two very fine running backs that have been in the system for a long time. (Jaxon) Shipley, I have always admired him. He is a young guy that just makes plays, he always does and always has. He can do so many things. He can catch it, he can run great routes, he can throw it, he can run the ball on reverses, he can do all of it. (John) Harris has really come into play at wide receiver and has made some tremendous plays. The other receiver, (Marcus) Johnson, is a 4.4 guy, so he can run awfully well. The guy that has really come front and center has been the quarterback. You can just see the progress that he has made. He is a talented, talented young guy who is extremely capable. The numbers just show what experience will do in a particular system. He is growing rapidly. The last two games he has accumulated 800 yards of total offense. They utilize him in a lot of different ways. He has invested in the quarterback run game and does that well. He is as big as most linemen, so he is not an easy guy to bring down by any stretch of the imagination. He really gives it that added dimension.”
Linebacker Jonathan Truman
On his feeling after the Oklahoma game…
“A Big 12 win on the road is always hard to come by. With it being such a hard-fought win against a great Oklahoma team, we just felt really good after it.”
On memories from the game…
“I do not know what I think of first, but I will remember being with my teammates in the locker room afterward. Everyone congratulating each other and being so proud of one another it was just awesome.”
On his motivation…
“I am pretty self-motivated. I think a huge motivator for me is my teammates. Those guys, they work so hard and I cannot let any of those guys down. So I try to do whatever I can to do my best for this team.”
Release by Ryan Lackey Assistant Director / Athletic Communications