Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Oklahoma Quotes
September 29, 2007 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Dan Hawkins
General
“We turned the ball over a couple of times there and put our defense at a disadvantage. We have to figure out this turnover thing and we were fortunate that our defense got some turnovers. Our guys were where they needed to be. All week I told them we were going to win this game. I've been doing this for 25 years and you know when your team is ready. You know when they are poised. I was really pleased when it looked like things were getting away from us and our guys just kept coming.
On Getting Too Excited Over The Win
“Not necessarily. I have just been doing this a long time. You have to stay the course. We have to be able to get back in here tomorrow and look at what we did wrong and what we did right and get better. You have to be mature enough as a staff, and as a team, to get back in here and say, ?We did these things well, and these things not so well.' We just need to keep pushing forward.”
On What This Win Means To The Program
I think last year we let the
On Being Down 24-7
“Again, if you look at it we had a couple of tipped balls that led to 14 points. We felt like we had some things going offensively. You're not going to run up and down the field on these guys?they're too good. But, we felt like we could get some things on them. We felt like we could get a little rhythm going. A game always turns on one or two plays and we were fortunate that we got a few turnovers and that helped us.
On Halftime Adjustments
“On defense, we didn't make a lot of changes. There were a few plays when we would miss a line ourselves and we had the right adjustment in, but our guys were not necessarily getting to the right spot. We tweaked a couple of things, but it was not really a wholesale deal.”
On
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On Cody Hawkins' Play
I got a big squeeze out of him. There were some things he missed, but there were some things he made. He is my son, but I love all these guys the same. I don't look out there saying, ?look at the plays my kid is making.' I'm looking at, if he's making the right read or getting rid of the ball and throwing it to the right guy. He's been in a lot of big games and he's been around this thing for a long time. I think he was happy, but he wasn't surprised.”
On Hugh Charles
“We really believe that he has the capability of becoming an All-Big 12 type of running back. However, we're also trying to get him to be a Walter Payton-type guy and bring it. He obviously has speed and power and he made some plays for us.”
On Patrick Williams And Wide Receiver Corp
“We were really trying to get him (Patrick Williams) to believe in himself and we thought maybe we need to back off on him a little bit and not force the action and he responded by helping Cody (Hawkins) out on a couple plays. If you're going to be great you have to have people come in and step up and fill roles and be happy to do it. As long as they can all focus in that direction, we've got a chance to be pretty good.“
On the Upset “It's never a shock when you're the one who is competing. We understood we needed to play well to win and we didn't. We made some really poor penalties and we didn't play very smart, we turned the ball over there late. You just can't have those things happen. The really poor, foolish things we did just killed us. We're not a very smart team right now.” On Turnovers “It definitely doesn't help when you do one play and turn it over, stop them, and then do one play and turn it over again. You're out there the whole time. We're not very smart at how we conduct ourselves. We made some poor choices and it is disappointing. We emphasize and talk about it all the time but guys need to listen.” On Colorado's Running Game “They executed and played better than we did. We had a lot of missed tackles and they blocked better than we defended. They made the holes and their running backs found them and ran through some things and made people miss them and made their plays.” On QB Cody Hawkins “I thought he did a great job. What you appreciate about him is that we had some interceptions and some big plays on him and he hung in there and made his plays in the second half to help his team win.” On SS Daniel Dykes Interception (6:37 4th quarter) “I thought that the turning point was the one down the middle when (Juaquin Iglesias) was wide open and it just goes off his fingers. With that, we would've had a big play and it would've put us in scoring position again but then ( On Mistakes “We need to do more offensively and we can't have the dumb penalties we had on defense and we can't turn the football over. Anytime you turn the football over like this, away from home, you have a hard time winning.” On “At times they scrambled and found some guys. I thought we also defended a few balls. We got our hands on some and we intercepted some but in the end (Cody Hawkins) made some plays in the second half and we obviously could have covered better in some situations.” On His Thoughts at Halftime “You just have to keep playing. I don't know if there was a change in intensity or not and there can't be. We got a good lead at 24-7 and knew there was a lot of football left to play. We didn't play very well from that point on and we need to do better than that.” On Next Week vs. “We've already talked about QB Cody Hawkins GENERAL?“Getting the win and doing what we came here to do was what really felt good. We came in prepared and just went out and did what we needed to do. We knew coming in, it was going to be a crazy game, we new the crowd was going to be a factor and we had to make some changes. We changed up the snap count and just did a couple other things differently. It was a dogfight all day and in the end we came out with a win.” THOUGHTS BEFORE [KEVIN] EBERHART'S FINAL FIELD GOAL - “I hope he makes it, I hope he makes it, I hope he makes it. We have a lot of faith in Kevin, he's a great kicker, and unfortunately he missed that first one. But he came right over to the sidelines and I told him ?We're going to need you to kick the game winner. I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but it sure did. And he came through when we needed him. I'm still a little excited, and I need to breathe.” GENERAL OFFENSE/DEFENSE ? “We know that with the guys we have on offense, we had a lot of stuff dialed up that we knew would work. We just had to execute our plays well and get the ball back. Our defense played out of their mind, they just played a great game. ON BEATING AFTER ON HIS BROTHER DREW HAWKINS' PERFORMANCE THIS WEEKEND ? “I was pretty impressed with the kid. I was more fired up last night than for any game I've ever played in, except for today. It was nice for us to get the win, and get the family rolling on a positive note, going into the rest of the week.” ON HOMECOMING ? “When you look at your schedule and see that your homecoming game is against ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE ? “We've got some great players on our offensive line and unfortunately they've been catching a lot of heat when they don't need to. When the running game is going bad, you're always going to blame it on the offensive line. And when your QB is getting sacked, they're going to blame it on the offensive line. We have a great coach in [Jeff] Grimes and he's got our offensive line to the extent that they think they can play with anybody.” ON BELIVING THE TEAM COULD WIN ? “Every single guy on the team did. There wasn't anybody inside the locker room who thought we were going to lose that game. If you just watch film, they are a great football team. But if you look at how they're actually playing, we can def match up, and def have a chance to win. Everybody's kind of been making fun of us for the ?could-of, would-of, should-of' but finally we did go out and we ?should-of and we didda [did it]'.” ON GETTING A SIGNATURE WIN ? “The era is definently not over, because we have a long season and a lot of games. A lot of people have been talking about getting a signature win, and I don't know if this is it yet, it's a huge win for the program. Just for the people's opinion on the potential we have on this football team. I'm really excited for what we've done and where we're going. Obviously we'd like to be 5-0 right now, but that isn't the case. We have to prepare for the Bears and right on down the line to keep coming out the rest of the season and keep working hard.” ON THE OFFENSE ? “If you're running the football successfully, it's only going to help your passing game. College football is a really long game, there might be 12 minutes left in a football game, and you could be down by a couple of scores, You can score a lot of points really fast. And you know you're never out of it, we just needed to execute our assignments and make plays when the opportunities presented themselves.” AFTER THE GAME ? “My helmet got jacked, and Stephone Robinson took one in the eye. There were people all over the place; I've been to some crazy concerts and that was worse than all of them. I thought it was very exciting to see the students get in to it like they were. The guys on our team, we respect LB Jordon Dizon GENERAL ? “We just did the things that we had to do. There was no one being superman out there, and nobody was doing things that were unnatural, everyone just did their job and did the right things when they had to do it. In the fourth quarter, we came in with some interceptions and got the ball back, and we played hard.” ON THE OFFENSE - We've had confidence in the offense since I've been here. We have a bunch of new players and a new system, and it's hard. Defense is easy; you just run up and tackle the offense. For them to come out (the offense) and do what they did against one of the top defenses in the nation is awesome. It gives them a bunch of confidence and gives the team a bunch of confidence. They know what they can do now.” ON THE DEFENSE ? “It was great coaching. We took care of our details, and we did whatever we had to do to get them off the field. That's the defense's job, you either make them punt or you get the ball back by making a turnover. We did both, and when things like that happen, the offense has a lot of opportunities to score points. They had two interceptions, which were tipped balls, and if that didn't happen, that's two less touchdowns. But it can go both ways, we had two interceptions, so it kind of evens things out in the end. But we came out victorious and that's all that matters.” ON THE TEAM'S CONFIDENCE ? “We're on the verge; we're on the edge of being a great team. We just need a little confidence in ourselves. The players are trusting in the coaches, and the coaches are trusting in the players. We just need a little confidence to push us over the edge. We knew we had a lot of confidence after ON THE FANS ? “We've got the best fans. I've played in Texas A&M and ON QB Cody Hawkins ON THE WIN?“I don't know how to describe it, it's great. When Kevin (Eberhart) missed that first one I told him to keep his head up because we were going to need him to kick the game winner, and he did. Coach Hawkins told us all week that we were going to be able to do this and we came out and proved him right. We were down 24-7 in the second half and a lot of teams would have folded in that situation, but not us not the Buffs.” ON MAKING PLAYS WITH HIS FEET?“I think you might be the first person ever to say that I did something positive with my feet. We have some playmakers on offense and its my job to get them the ball. I was just trying to do that, so they could make plays.” ON THE OFFENSE'S SUCCESS?“We know that running the ball benefits the pass and throwing the ball opens up lanes in the running game. In the first half, we were so hit or miss and at halftime we talked about putting it together. I have to give credit to the offensive line, they came out and played with a chip on their shoulder the whole second half and that allowed us as an offense to have the success we had.” LB Jordon Dizon ON DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE?“Stopping their running game was the focus of our game plan. All game the defensive lineand the secondary played great, they played great all day. Our critics really criticize our secondary, but what now? What now? They proved that they are a strong secondary and that the players back there can play with anyone in the country.” ON SECOND HALF TURNOVERS?“We looked over at the sidelines and all of our coaches were telling us to get the ball back, then when we did get the ball back we ran off the field telling them we got the ball back. I have to take my hat off to our defense, my teammates really played great today.” ON TEAM IMPROVEMENT?“Trust me, we won the game but we have a lot of mistakes we have to fix before we go down to Baylor. We can't let this win go to our head, we have to come out and keep preparing like we've been preparing and continue to work hard all week.” ON WHAT THE WIN MEANS TO THE TEAM?“It's confidence, all confidence. When you have the trust that our coaches and players have with each other it enables us to do a lot of special things. We've been sitting on the edge and this game was the push we needed to go in the direction we want to go in.” ON SIZE OF OKLAHOMA'S OFFENSIVE LINE?“No, their size wasn't that big of a factor for us. (Head Strength Coach Jeff Pitman) Pit does a good job keeping us ready when it comes time for games. I've seen bigger offensive lines. WR/PR Chase McBride ON HIS LATE-GAME RETURN?“I just knew if we got in field goal range, Kevin (Eberhart) would make it. Fortunately, I was able to break a big one and the offense did the rest. It was a middle return and I just tried to wait for a hole to open up. While I was returning it, Byron (Ellis) pancaked his defender and I saw a hole and I was able to get some good yards. ” ON KICK CATCH INTERFERENCE?“I don't really like doing that fair-catch stuff. It's not really my style. But, I knew that I needed to and I always put the team first and we were able to get a penalty out of it.” ON GAME-WINNING KICK?“I feel great. It is an amazing win for our team. I've been up here a long time and this is the greatest win we've had while I've been here, in my opinion. I also think it's been too long since we've had a win like this.” ON MISSED FIELD GOAL?“You know, I thought it was good, but that's not what the officials called. Luckily, I got a second chance and was able to redeem myself. I need to quit missing my early opportunities, but I really want to give it up to Chase and the offense?they really stepped it up in the second half and did their thing.” ON REPLACING MASON CROSBY?“I never really felt that I had a monkey on my back. Mason was a great player here, the best I've played with. I just try to come out and have fun and help the team in any way I can.”
TB Hugh Charles ON THE WIN?“I feel great. I think we as a team did a great job. We knew they were a good team, they were No. 4 coming in, but numbers really don't mean anything to us. We're Colorado Buffaloes and we're not really surprised with any win we get, but we are really happy right now. “ ON RUNNING WITH PURPOSE?“That's all on Coach Hagan. He's a great coach and he's really helped me. He believed in me and helped me get the best out of my abilities. I just try to go out there, work hard, and do my best.” GENERAL?“All I do is go out and give 100 percent every time and be ready. I go watch film at 7:30 a.m. every morning and everyday I was in there, I was not alone. Everyone was doing what they needed to do to be ready. No disrespect to any of the other teams that have played here, but I really feel like it was our time to get our big win. This is the best game that we've played since I've been here. ON DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE?“In the beginning of the game, we gave them their touchdowns. Just guys not being in their gaps, trying to do too much and little mistakes here and there. At halftime we talked about doing what we need to do because they weren't doing anything different than what we had seen on film. The second half, we just came out, played better, and didn't make those little mistakes. FS Ryan Walters ON THE WIN?“It means a lot because this program has been in the upper echelon in recent history and Coach Hawkins is bringing it back to that level. We believed we could win this game and this time we were able to finish the game. What I'm proud of is that it wasn't just that we believed we could win, but we knew we could play with anyone and we actually finished this game. Since I've been here we haven't beaten a ranked team and today we beat a top five team, arguably a top three team. We can't get too caught up in the win. We have to go back to work. We have more to accomplish this season. Everyone did their job. Nobody tried to do too much. We were all reading our gaps, reading our keys and attacking. We knew we could play with anyone in the country. We can play hard-nosed defense and we need to continue to play like this. ON HIS INTERCEPTION?“We were in cover two and their slot receiver was running a seam route and he got open. I saw this and broke on the ball. To be honest, I was just going for the knockout shot. When I saw the ball was a little high, the receiver missed it and I was able to get my hands on it and get the interception. SS Daniel Dykes ON THE WIN?“Personally, the win means a lot. I've only been here a short time, but this is why I came. This feels amazing and it's one of the best feelings I've had in my life. For the team, we just continue to keep taking strides. Our defense is able to stop teams at will when we play like we can. We played hard all game, we never gave up and there was a lot of fight in this team.” ON DEFENSIVE SUCCESS?“I think everybody was just trying to do their job. We have the athletes and the players to stop anyone. Everybody was reading their keys and doing their job. We've proven we can play with anyone in the country, with how played against ON HIS INTERCEPTION?“The receiver was running a seam post and I have to give all the credit to Ben (Burney). He got a hand in there and tipped it to me. My part was the easy part, I just had to go get the ball that was sitting right in front of me. It was a big play, at a big time and I was fortunate enough to be the guy in the position to make that play.” ON DEFENSIVE MENTALITY AT HALFTIME?“I think we were a little bit frustrated. We made some mistakes and they had some easy opportunities to score. We knew we were playing the game well enough where we could win. We just had to stop making the little mistakes, whether it be offensively or defensively. We never stopped believing we could win the game. I think it was everybody just doing their job. I think a lot of times people get confused and think that they're super human. They try to do too much, they try to cover three people or play the whole field and you can't do that. We were out there playing as a team and, as a defense, we were trying not to make it too difficult. It's the same game that most of us have been playing since we were 10-years-old. We just needed to go out and play hard, have fun and do our jobs.” ON THE WIN?“We knew we were playing a good team in ON THE WIN?“I think it was a big win, but it's just a start. We found out who we are today and what we're capable of doing. We just have to keep getting better and work towards our goal of winning the Big 12. ON HIS TOUCHDOWN CATCH?“I did the easy part, it was set up well from the beginning. I just got behind the DB's, Steph (Stephone Robinson) carried out the fake well and Cody threw a great ball. For me, it just couldn't get there soon enough. When it did, I just had to make the catch. ON SECOND HALF OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT?“We missed some plays in the first half and gave up some turnovers. We didn't really do anything differently, we just came out and executed better in the second half. That's really what we're learning and that's really what Coach Hawk emphasizes?is to come out, do your job and execute. If you do that, anything is possible. WR Juaquin Iglesias GENERAL---“We weren't really clicking like we have been. We need to keep doing what we've been doing and come out ready like we need to. We have to come out every game like our record is 0-0. All credit goes to ON WR MALCOLM KELLY HAVING ZERO RECEPTIONS?“Malcolm is a great player, he makes great plays; we need to get him the ball so he can make plays for us. We didn't do that today.” ON COLORADO S RYAN WALTERS' INTERCEPTION?“Me and Sam ( ON BOUNCING BACK FROM THE LOSS?“We have to bounce back from the loss like good teams do, great teams do. We think we're a great team. “ ON THE SLOW START?“I think it carried over from last week, we were flat coming out against QB Sam Bradford ON WR MALCOLM KELLY HAVING ZERO RECEPTIONS?“ ON COLORADO S RYAN WALTERS' INTERCEPTION?“The interception was my fault I have to put the ball in front of (WR) Juaquin (Iglesias).” GENERAL?“We have to show up every week, play hard every week; this is the Big 12 so you have to come ready to play. We have a big game against ON READJUSTING GOALS AS A TEAM?“The Big 12 South, we can still come out and win that. If we want to achieve the goals we set at the beginning of season we have to come out and play hard and play to the best of our ability every week.” RB ALLEN PATRICK ON THE SLOW START?“The offense just wasn't clicking like how we usually come out there and play.” GENERAL?“We approach every week the same way, we have a regular routine, we're going to have to come out and execute. We have CB REGGIE SMITH ON THE FIRST HALF THIRD AND FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS BY CU?“I think they could have got whatever they wanted. We can only watch the film and understand what's going on and understand what happened to us and make sure it doesn't happen again.” ON DEFENSE BEING WORN OUT?“We were on the field a lot but we have to be tougher than that. We were away from home and naturally things are going to happen that aren't going to be in our favor. We have to be tougher than that.” ON STILL BEING ABLE TO ACHIEVE GOALS?“We achieved every goal that we have. No one snuck up on us, we beat ourselves today.” ON ON NEXT WEEK?“We have to come in and have a great week of preparation for WLB RYAN REYNOLDS GENERAL?“We allowed them to run on us. They opened up their running game on us, not that it wore us down. We knew what they were going to throw at us, we just didn't stop it like we should have.” ON LOSS?“As hard as it is, we have to put it behind us, its only one game. We still have the whole season in front of us. We have to take it one game at a time. S D.J. WOLFE ON STILL BEING ABLE TO ACHIEVE GOALS?“There is a lot of the season left. I don't think the BCS goal is gone.” ON BEING ON THE FIELD FOR MUCH OF THE SECOND HALF?“There is no such thing as too many plays, that's what you condition for, in the off-season and during the season for so that's no excuse.” ON FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS?“It's something that the defense can't allow. We have to put our foot down on that and to get off the field.” ON RUNNING GAME?“They were able to run it, they ran the ball well. We gave them a lot of opportunities and opened up the passing game a little bit. They did a good job up front; we just weren't able to stop them. We have to get that corrected and we're going to put our foot down.” ON LOSS?“It's a tough loss. You know we don't expect to lose any games so this is something where we have to rebound Monday and come out ready to play. A loss is a loss.” ON
Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops
General
“I knew they had a great defense, they really played well and we knew that coming in (
