Sept. 12, 2015

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Tennessee head coach Butch Jones

(Opening statement)
"Obviously, in a game like this, you have to take advantage of your field position. It's all about negative plays. You can't have pre-snap penalties and you can't have negative plays. Too many times we were second and 15, first and 15. That's really, really hard to overcome versus a talented defense with which they have.

(On if he considered going for it in the first quarter on 4th and Goal from the 1)
"No. We're looking for points. We knew it was going to be this type of game. Football's a game of momentum and you create your own momentum. You don't what all or nothing plays at the beginning of the game. We just felt we needed to get on the board, get some confidence, and get some points."

(On whether the offense's second half struggles were related to adjustments made by Oklahoma's defense)
"They did pretty much the same things. They maybe brought a little bit more pressure. We have to do a better job obviously of handling some things. Again, that's a talented defense. I think Jalen Hurd is the first back to rush for over 100 yards against them since 2013, I believe. I have to give them credit. They're very quick. They're very athletic and they're very stout. They're everything we thought they were coming in to the game."

(On Todd Kelly Jr.'s performance)
"Todd again just continues to be a model of consistency, gave us the ball, obviously the one interception towards the end of the game. We have to take advantage of that field position and we weren't able to do that."

(On whether he was arguing that a fourth quarter pass interference penalty in the end zone should have been picked up because the pass was uncatchable)
"It hit the brick wall. And then the other one was an illegal procedure penalty on third and three that would have brought it to third and eight and that changes the game considerably."

(On losing Curt Maggitt in the game)
"Any time you lose a player of Curt Maggitt's magnitude, you are going to be affected a little bit. He brings so much to the table from an energy standpoint, from a competitive standpoint, but also from an experience standpoint as well."

(On his message to the team)
"Well you have to learn from it. I'm exceptionally proud of them. When we talk about 'My All,' they gave their all. And we came up a little bit short. That's competition. So what do you do? You roll your sleeves up, you come back in at it tomorrow and you work. You let this drive you. You let this fuel you. I told them, don't ever lose this feeling. When there's a day you don't feel like coming to practice or you don't feel like working hard, think about how you feel right now. We have a group of kids that take great pride in their performance. They give us everything that they have and I love them. I'm proud of them. We came up short but they laid it on the line. They played hard. And [Oklahoma] made one more play than we did. That's all you can ask is to give all that you have each and every day and they've been doing that. Again, I love them, I'm proud of them, and we have to correct the mistakes tonight, and move on and come driven to be a better football team on Monday."

(On if he expected to be more proficient in the passing game tonight)
"Well they are talented. I have to give them credit. Again, I'll know a little bit more when I see the video. I don't want to speak too soon and go back, so I'd rather watch the video a bit. Again, you can't give up sacks. You can't give up negative yardage plays. We have to have the ability to defeat man coverage, so I'll know a little bit more when I watch the video."

(On Josh Malone not receiving as many targets in the second half)
"It's just with the coverage. We had plays called for him. There's a progression in every throw game. We don't just say throw him the football. There's a progression that the quarterback goes through, and sometimes he's flushed from the pocket. But we had some play calls designed for him."

Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs

(On the offense's performance)
"We've got to pick it up moving forward. We know that they started pressuring us, hitting us up in the second half. They made adjustments like any good defense is going to do. We have to be able to adjust on the fly."

(On moving forward from Saturday night)
"We all have positive mindsets. We all are mentally tough. We know the last drive can't affect our drives moving forward. We're constantly talking, telling guys to stay up, telling us to have our defense's back. Our defense did a great job all night, giving up shorter fields and holding our opponent to a low scoring game."

Tennessee offensive lineman Kyler Kerbyson

(On what he can take away from the loss)
"We're definitely on the up-and-up, so it's very enjoyable and I can't say enough about the guys on this team and how hard they worked for this. No one gave up. Everyone was giving it their all out there. I'm really proud of the whole team and I'm really proud of the defense for being able to step up when we weren't doing too well. This definitely is a hard one to take, but we've got to, you know, bounce back. We've got to get ready for Western Carolina and get ready for SEC play."

Tennessee linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin

(On being on the field for 11 minutes in the fourth quarter)
"It doesn't really matter if we're tired or not. We've got a job to do. Doesn't matter how long we're on the field or how long we're not on the field, we've got to get the job done. We didn't do that late in the game."

(On if the momentum changed in the fourth quarter)
"No. I always feel like the momentum is on our side, especially when we're in Neyland Stadium. We just bailed them out a couple times with some big plays, and we couldn't get off the field."

(On the emotional impact of the loss)
"It definitely is [a letdown.] When we're in here, we're trying to get that win every time, for the fans, for us, for the coaches, just for the whole Vol Nation. When we've got them on the ropes and we let them off, it's not a good feeling."

(On what the defense did well)
"We knew we had to come back and bounce back from last week's performance, and it started in practice. Everybody was grinding, everybody was working, just focused on the goal of shutting them out. We did it for a little bit, but we didn't do it enough."

Tennessee punter Trevor Daniel

(On being able to change field position)
"I was just trying to do my job. [I] try to have good op times, good ball placement, and just make it easier for the defense."

(On what changed in his ability since the spring)
"Honestly, it's my technique that's changed. It's gotten a lot better, and punting is just all about technique. That's how I've been able to drive the ball farther."

(On the mood of the locker room following the loss)
"It was quiet. We knew we could have done better."

Tennessee wide receiver Josh Smith

(On his feelings about the loss)
"It hurts right now, but we're going to take a look at it tomorrow and fix everything we did wrong. We've just got to attack it for this coming week. It's behind us already, and we can't let that define our season."

(On the performance of the receiving corps)
"I thought we kept our composure. I felt like, our receiver group, we were all energy, all day. I felt like we never let up, and felt like we were all fighting. The whole team. That's just what we've got to have. We've got to have energy, and I feel like we had that."

(On moving on from the loss)
"We're holding our heads high. We're not going to let this define our season. We're not going to just wallow in this. We're going to pick up tomorrow, and get ready for the [rest of the season.] We've got a long season ahead of us. We're not going to let this dictate what we're going to do." (On Jalen Hurd's performance)
"Jalen never surprises me. I know how hard of a worker he is, and I'm happy to block for him. I love it. I love seeing him break away with runs and it just excites me, as long as we're winning."

Tennessee wide receiver Josh Malone

(On feelings about loss)
It's hard. I know as a team we are going to bounce back. I know what type of guys we have on this team. I know down the road we are going to build off of this. We are going to learn from this and we're going to do better next week.

(On lessons learned from game)
We just can't make mental mistakes. We really have to execute on offense and be lights out and continue that momentum that we had in the first quarter and carry that throughout the game.

(On bouncing back next week)
We bounce back by getting ready for our next opponent and putting this one behind us. Getting ready to finish out the season, we can't let the season end here. We've got to keep building and learning from this and roll with it. We have to focus on the next game now.

Tennessee defensive lineman Derek Barnett

(On not having Curt Maggitt)
"The next guy came in, Vereen he did a good job so I don't think it hurt us too bad."

(On the team's defensive discipline)
"I think we lost some of our discipline, but we hurt ourselves more than they beat us. I don't think they beat us, we beat ourselves ... We let them loose on some third down situations ... One was me, my offsides."

(On the difficulty bringing down OU QB Mayfield)
"He's shifty... we've got to stay on our quarterback points. He ran the offense well." "Credit to him and his team."

(On this team having enough fight to keep on going)
"We're going to come back, It's the second game of the season. We've got a bunch of ball games, I'm not worried about that. We're going to fix our corrections come Monday, we're going to have a good practice, and next Saturday we are going to play good. Then we'll start SEC play and do our thing in the SEC."

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops

(Opening statement)
"I want to start off my complimenting Coach Butch Jones, his staff and team. They really played hard, played well. They played a heck of a game. Their crowd was outstanding. It couldn't have been a better, more fun place to play. I feel fortunate that we were able to make the plays we did down the stretch to win the game. Fortunately, we got some things going to make the plays that made the difference in the game. They played awfully well.

"One of the more special wins--this may be my favorite of all of them. A little `Sooner Magic' came back out. It reminded me of Texas A&M back in 2000 where we made some plays to win the game that you feel fortunate and blessed to make, and I felt that way tonight. Defense, far and away, in the second half was as good as we have played in I can't remember when. That kept us in the game.

"It felt like, offensively, we were in the hole all day due to penalties, kicking mistakes, letting punts go where they shouldn't have, returning the kickoff out of the end zone. They were constantly at the 50 or better, and we were constantly at the 15 and back. It was hard to overcome. Give their defense credit, we could not do much for three quarters.

"What I loved was that Baker [Mayfield] stayed positive, stayed confident and made plays in the fourth quarter to make a difference. Defense kept us in that position. When [Tennessee] got the ball in positive position, we backed them up. We couldn't catch a break by picking up one of those fumbles, so we were snake bit a little bit with that. But, we were still making all kinds of big plays defensively, and that kept us around to give us a chance to win when we did score and got things going. The confidence was sky high.

"I loved overtime and the way out guys played. Sterling Shepard is absolutely spectacular. He makes the most competitive, tough catches and plays. For him to get in the end zone in that situation was pretty spectacular. Some of the tough catches he made were leading us in our last drive. Just really special how competitive he can be and his inspiration to make plays. That was a great, great night. It was an absolute blast in that environment."

(On reason this may be Stoops' "favorite of all of them")
"The mental toughness of our guys to have hung around from 17 points down in that environment. Now, we are 17-3, a 14-point deficit, for all that time in that environment and to know that everybody kept fighting and kept playing. They had the mental toughness and discipline to keep playing hard and had the faith that things would work. Things would come, and they did. It was a little late, but they came. That is what you appreciate as a coach is your players' mental attitude, toughness and character, especially when you are coming into the season where there has not been a lot glowing about us as of last year. For them to hang in there in that environment in that situation and to come through like they did, it was pretty special."

(On quarterback Baker Mayfield)
"He scrambled, he fought, he did everything he could. I am sure we will see some times where his reads weren't as good as they need to be. Sometime, there isn't a guy open. They cover better than we got open. Sometimes, it was our offensive line. It's a little bit of everybody. It isn't just on him. We sure did struggle for awhile. Credit to them, they made some good adjustments from a week ago. We played hard and well. But, we made plays in the fourth quarter when we had to."

(On key defensively)
"On defense, you aren't going to do it with one group. I think we really got in a rhythm in the second half. Mike [Stoops] began mixing up our blitzes and run stumps to help us on the run game. We got all kind of pressure. I don't know how many sacks we had, but we knocked the ball loose, sacked them a bunch. We made them throw the ball away. We got as good of pressure as any game we have been in. I thought our coverage was really good."

(On Baker Mayfield's mobility)
"Even though he hasn't been live at practice, I have seen him scoot around our scrimmages quite a bit. I've talked about him before and his ability to scramble. He is quicker and more elusive than he is running the 40 [yard dash]."

(On Mayfield's scramble on a fourth-quarter drive)
"That was a huge play, no doubt. It doesn't happen if he isn't able to escape all of that. He is a fighter. He is not going down, and he fought his tail off to make the plays he did."

(On 4th-down play call in OT)
"It was an option. He had the option to give it to Samaje [Perine] unless the end was crashing hard or he could pull it. He obviously made the right decision."

(On defensive in second half after the first two big plays of the half)
"We didn't have buffs, but we had the same calls in the first few plays than we had the rest of the time. We didn't execute them very well. The guys executed, had good discipline and were physical. I think we kept them off-balance run blitzes and run pressure. That isn't always the answer. We had pressure on the one they scored on. Everyone thinks why wouldn't you do it every time, but sometimes they pick it up. It's what they want. We got in and out pretty well. Mike did a great job of that, and our guys more than anything did a great job executing."

(On slow starts offensively)
"I think we are going to get to the stadium and put them in a cold shower. I think they'll start faster."

(On Joe Mixon playing so much)
"That's been in the works for three weeks."

(On linebacker Devante Bond)
"Devante's an excellent player. He's powerful, explosive and he had an excellent game. He's really a great athlete. He's getting better and better with his understanding."

(On celebration)
"It was awesome. I love the last play, and guys go running around. It's pretty special at home but on the road it's pretty good too."

(On end of game)
"People start grabbing you and then you get your headset tangled up. It's never choreographed just right."

(On winning a defensive game)
"Yea, it's two games so we play good defense other years too. We've got to do it every week. You got times when you go through certain games you have to win with defense. Sometimes you win with offense or a kickoff return and that helps you win. Again, it all goes together. I'm confident we'll make improvements."

(On Mixon's wildcat package)
"He's got great hands and great fuel for about everything that he does. So, having him and Samaje [Perine] working in tandem gives them something to think about."

(On trying to fire up crowd at end of regulation)
"Not really, just because the penalty of course really hurt them. I guess, you throw an interception and it gets returned on you then you should have just gone to overtime. Most people, I think the fact that you are at home gives you more of a reason to down it and go to overtime."

(On Oklahoma's fans)
"We have a great following. I appreciate our fans. That's why we elected to go down there at the end of the game. Their fans with the checkered, it was cool, I enjoyed it. The day before the game, not based on the outcome I'm not here being smart now that we won. You want to play in those kinds of environments. Its college football and these kind of games are pretty special."

(On happiness with defensive coaches especially Mike Stoops)
"I'm happy for all my coaches. I can separate that with our jobs. Listen, we're all amazed, I'm amazed with [Mike Stoops] too. I know with our situation I understand what comes with it, and he does. I'm happy for the whole team not just Mike but anyone else. It is a group effort. Probably way too much is given, criticism and/or praise is given to one guy. We're all doing this and that's just part of how it goes when we get in these positions."

Oklahoma running back Samaje Perine

(On converting key 3rd downs)
"The offensive line settled in. They still had their jitters, but once they got used to the crowd noise, we knew what we had to do. They just settled in and got the job done."

(On this win on the road and the team)
"We're never going to quit. We're trying to make a new identity. Last year we kind of gave up in the fourth quarter a little bit. This year we are going to come out strong and we're never going to quit."

Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield

(On the win on the road)
"It's huge. Its a great, great crowd that we just played in front of, and you know, its huge for out team to be able to come back and get a victory out of that situation."

(On how much resiliency OU showed)
"A lot, I mean we were down, I mean we had three points going into the fourth quarter. So it shows a lot about our team never giving up, we were shooting ourselves in the foot the first half. Two turnovers. We stuck with it and never got negative, and trusted each other."

(On if he got frustrated early on)
"Not at all. I really knew how close we were, and that's the thing ... you can't get negative about it , and it turned out well for us."

(On his touchdown rush on fourth down in the first overtime)
"All the credit goes to Samaje Perine. I pulled the ball, and he..instinctual football player came back and cut the guy. He wasn't even supposed to. He did it, and that's the reason I got in the end zone. So, all the credit to him and the offensive line for giving me that chance."

Oklahoma wide receiver Durron Neal

(On the team and the win)
"As a unit this team is resilient. I was just talking to the guys on the sideline. Just trying to be a senior leader. Keeping the guys encouraged. Keeping Baker encouraged. Everybody was just positive. Not at any point was anyone pointing fingers."

(On the Oklahoma defense)
"Definitely, definitely. We knew how good out defense was playing. They didn't score until the fourth quarter, I want to say over time. Our defense was saving our butts. We knew once we got that touchdown that the flood gates started opening."

University of Tennessee Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Oklahoma 31, Vols 24