Bob Stoops Quotations | Page 2

We had our opportunities, we just didn't convert.

Offensively, I think we took a step back today. I don't think we executed very well in anything that we were doing.

No status right now. It's not something I said I'd even consider until after the (TCU) game. It's after the game and I haven't seen him. So, I'm assuming he's quit the team for good and until I know different, we'll see. I won't entertain anything until he shows he has a good reason or he can justify what his actions have been.

Every year coming into the season, I'm always the most anxious because you want to see what you are. How competitive are we? How tough are we? What's our attitude?. And what's the players' demeanor in the locker room and coming out of the tunnel?

Sometimes it concerns you that when you have won for a period of time, the players start thinking you have a right to win. You have to earn it every play, and I say that every week. We didn't go out there and do it last week, and TCU played harder and tougher than we did.

Sometimes it concerns you that when you have won for a period time, the players start thinking you have a right to win. You have to earn it every play, and I say that every week. We didn't go out there and do it last week, and TCU played harder and tougher than we did.

Now, it's more building their confidence. That's where we're at, ... We have to just do our job, do it as hard as we can do it and just play smarter. If we do that alone, we've got a chance to improve. Just not making mistakes and take care of the ball.

Defensively, it was kind of frustrating. I have to compliment their quarterback. He did such a good job. What an excellent competitor.

That's fundamental, basic football that we can be better at. That's what we've got to get across to our team. To me, the biggest factor is we can play smarter than we're playing. We can play harder. Our guys wanted to play, they were prepared to play, but we have to learn to play at a higher tempo when we're playing.

That was a big swing, ... We're hanging in there, with a chance to make some plays and we don't. That was tough to overcome.

They've been back and forth, so that's it. There's nothing else to talk about.

They're still learning and improving as they go, but they played with some attitude and toughness that we needed, ... I believe we'll build off of that.

Rufus Alexander made probably the biggest play of the game down at the goal line, and he got the ball back for us.

Our expectations are always high. I don't know why anybody could ever argue why they wouldn't be. Once our expectations are set, this is what we're after, and then it gets down to each game.

Even if it goes against us, I told (the official), I thought it was fair,

This shows the youth that we have and the way that we have grown throughout the year. We have a number of young guys who are capable of being really good, and I think they'll get better and better.

This game isn't real complicated, in that if you turn the ball over you're going to get beat. Those guys (quarterbacks) each need to be more responsible with the ball.

Adrian needs work. He can polish a lot of things up to become a better and better player, and he's aware of that. I think this can really help him. When you think of the time he has lost - spring last year, two-a-days the year before - he's playing on a lot of raw ability and I think some of this practice time can really benefit him.

You're not going to win when you turn the ball over and put the ball on the ground like we did.

This is great, and as much as anything, it'll change the perception of our program. What you write about it may be a little bit different. Other than that, what we do in our program is going to matter more than anything.

I keep reading about all the guys they have coming back, ... We have 10 starters coming back on offense, eight on defense.

I know what will be written, but we're a work in progress, ... We're fighting that. We're going to keep pushing and making improvements each week, and if we do that, we have a chance to have a good team.

I'm sure possibly all the extra work probably could be bothersome to him healthwise, and he just decided he wants to move on. Good for him. He'll have a successful career in whatever he does.

I like the fact that the players feel it and have some life in them,

I have no idea why Mark would have done that. I was as shocked as anybody in the stadium. How do you explain that? I don't know. That goes back to Pop Warner football. Mark should have made a better decision. I'm not going to sit here and go any further in front of the whole media, but it's as bad a play as there is.

In the end, they're here to go to school, and it should be our job as administrators or as coaches that if they're not, we can't put you on the field.

If you can run the football, your opportunity to win increases big time, no matter who you're playing, and we're going to always try to, ... With the potential that we have in our backfield, everything should set up off of that.

I'm not much of a rooter. They're two really good teams. I don't get into anybody's business but mine.

I'm not sensitive. That's what you guys do. There are some areas where we need to play better, you don't have to tell us. But I'm smart enough to see the positive side, that as badly as we played in the first half, we were still close enough to come out with the win.

I'm not going to sit here and critique our quarterbacks in front of everybody. We weren't very productive, we need to do a better job and that's what were going to try to do.

I'm not going to sit here and lobby anyone. We just got our butts whipped.

I'm not going to sit here and lobby for any bowl, ... We just got whipped. They outplayed us in every part of the game.

I'm not going to sit here and lobby for any bowl. We just got whipped. They outplayed us in every part of the game.

TCU just outplayed and outcoached us. ... Sometimes it concerns you that when you have won for a period of time, the players start thinking you have a right to win. You have to earn it every play, and I say that every week. We didn't go out there and do it last week, and TCU played harder and tougher than we did.

Everyone said, 'That was a recipe, this is how everyone will do it,'

Once, he was a little mad that we only gave him one yard on a run. I said, 'Don't' worry about it. You'll get plenty of yards.' I guess that was a way to keep his pride a little bit while wearing blue.

On both sides of the ball I see strong discipline, very good schemes, and players that play in a physical way. They play hard. That's why they win so often.

Don't anyone ever tell me that Adrian Peterson isn't tough. Guys like him don't come around all the time.

It's pretty obvious we need to continue to develop and improve our passing game, and to make sure of what we're asking our guys to do, they are capable of doing.

It's really developed into somewhat of a short-term rivalry, which is kind of nice.

I want our team to know that we are not far off. We'll get those turnovers and we'll get those calls as we go through the year.

It needs to improve. What we are asking them to do needs to be assessed to see if they can actually do it. Can our receivers do what we have been doing the last few years? We need to adjust and make some modifications.

It's better than it was (Sunday), ... He's improved. We'll probably take the boot off tomorrow and be ready to go on Wednesday.

It's better than it was (Sunday). It's improved. They're probably going to take that boot off (Tuesday). He'll probably be ready to go, hopefully by Wednesday.

It's better than it was yesterday, it's improved. They'll probably take the boot off by (today) and he'll probably be ready to go by Wednesday.

I know everybody thinks I've got the final veto and/or approval of somebody, and I guess I do, ... But he and (linebacker) Clint Ingram by far and away had all the votes. That tells you that guys who are working with him every day believe in him, too.

I just felt overall that there was a little more, maybe, consistency there to some degree, ... but it's still very close when you look at them overall.

I have total confidence in Chuck, and I think his track record speaks for him. The proof is in what they've done.

But I feel overall that coming into the year that we would have been stronger and better than we have been. You can name a bunch of reasons why we haven't been. Blame it on me. That's fine.

He's still a few weeks away from what the book says, but strength-wise he appears to be solid. What's the magical day is hard to determine. I think the doctors will evaluate him on (today) and see if he can't start doing some work.

By no means am I sitting here saying that Paul Thompson is responsible for the way we played Saturday. That's not the case. We had a lot of guys, mostly older guys, play as poorly as I have seen them play. We feel Rhett deserves the same opportunity that Paul had.

I probably shouldn't have said (Monday), but everyone finds out anyway. .... In fairness to him, it probably doesn't need to be me coming out and saying that. In the end, that's the situation, and it's better than all the rumors being around about it.

He's the best. You can say all you want about him. He makes the plays that matter, and you see it every week.

He's probably still not fully healed, but you won't notice it. He looks great. He's back. He jumps through the hole. You notice it. He looks really good.

It was kind of a fluke injury. There really wasn't much contact.

They came in here and beat us, and that is it.

It kind of just typifies our whole year, having to scratch and claw through it all. It's not always easy. We were playing the number five or six team in the country and we knew it was going to be tough, so I'm proud of the way our guys did compete.

It kind of just typifies our whole year. We've been fighting all year. I'm proud of our guys for competing the way they did.

All those guys are coming in ready to play at some point.

This is a guy who, when he's healthy, has been phenomenal. Once he regained the strength in his ankle this year, he was right back to running with power and making the same kind of cuts before he was injured. He really came on once he was over the injury and he has been sensational in every game since.

The competition there has been really close and really good. Between all those guys, we have a lot of confidence in whoever is out there. Who plays the best and makes the best plays will get the most time.

You can't give up those big plays in these kind of games and overcome them.

You could point fingers all you want. But in the end, we are thin there and it has affected us to some degree.

It's one thing to give up some plays and get beat when you're in position or if you execute properly and you're just not quite able to make the play. It's another when you put yourself out of position and allow someone to convert on you or make a big play just because of your own doings.

It's not the ideal situation, I understand that, ... But I think people respect Paul and how hard he's worked, and this gives him an opportunity to do something that excites him.

It's not one of those injuries that heals even in four or five weeks. It's one of those that takes a significant amount of time. It's just unfortunate. It was kind of a funny fluke injury where he just got tangled up with Travis Wilson, I think. And it was a pass skeleton, where it wasn't even much of a contact drill. He just got kind of tangled up with him. It doesn't take much sometimes.

It's still the Roy-back position until someone plays like him.

They outplayed us and outcoached us in most all areas, ... I felt we would be stronger and have a little more attitude than this. I told the players that just because you've done it before doesn't mean you're going to do it again. They may have tuned me out.

They are a very talented group of guys. They all have different styles in the way they run.

They have always really committed to the run game and stopping the run. They do a good job of it.

It's just unfortunate. People didn't know it, but he had that stress fracture for about six weeks. (We were) taping it, limiting practices here and there trying to get him through it, and then it just blew up on him.

When a guy's really good, he's really good. We realize that, and we realize that everything runs through him. When you look at not only the passing but also the run game, it all goes through him. He's a big factor, and we've got to really defend him.

We're going right now with Rhett, but we've still always got Paul ready to go.

We felt we needed to bolster our team along the offensive line because we had the fewest number of scholarship players returning at those positions. We feel like we met our needs. We recruit the kind of players that we feel can play early in their careers.

This typifies our whole year. We've been fighting and clawing this way all season. Fortunately, our ball magnet came up with the big interception.

We want to give him opportunities to get on the field. He's excited about it. He sees opportunity there.

It's easy to jump on any one guy when something goes wrong.

It's easy to jump on one guy when something goes wrong. Hey, that's fine. We deserve the criticism, but track records over time also stand for something.

It matters, your game plan. But in the end, there are a lot of ways to play defense, and there are a lot of ways to run or throw the football. If you don't block anybody, I don't care what your grand scheme is, if that nose guard is in your backfield three yards, it doesn't (matter).

It maybe typifies our whole year. We've been fighting and scratching and clawing through it all. I appreciate the guys for that.

This just kind of typifies our whole year. We have a great group of young guys that are capable of becoming very good. This team just continued to fight and make plays as it gained confidence down the stretch.

There's a very fine margin in winning and losing, ... The way we've played in so many games, the point production, the great defense -- there's a lot more to deal with that's positive than negative.

They're a very solid team in everything they do. Watching them against Minnesota, there were a good number of plays and series where they were really playing well and executing on both sides of the ball.

I am not at all questioning the call. But we thought we had it, then we didn't.

He's got another year after this one to contribute and play. He's an excellent athlete who works hard. We just want to give him more opportunities to get on the field. I think he will give us more production.

He only threw five balls and didn't have nearly the number of snaps in preparation coming into the game,

He only threw five balls. He didn't have nearly the number of snaps and preparation coming into the game ... He's had the fewest number of snaps overall when you look at his amount of time here and he's been that close all along that we feel maybe giving him more opportunities, more snaps, maybe he'll do more with it. We'll see.

I felt the law of averages would eventually swing back your way. We were due for something good to happen, and sure enough, it happened.