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VALERO ALAMO BOWL: TEXAS v OREGON STATE


December 29, 2012


Ryan Murphy

Mike Riley

Dan Conroy

Storm Woods


SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

TEXAS – 31
OREGON STATE - 27


MIKE RILEY:  Well, I would say that in the second half we never really did get back to running the ball like we did in the first half.  We took some bad plays on 1st down.  I just don't think offensively we ever got anything going, and that allowed them too many chances, and that's a group of athletes that they can make plays and they sustained a couple drives and then they hit a big pass.  I think Goodwin had two long plays in the game for touchdowns, and that was going to be something that was going to be hard for us to deal with.  We couldn't give up big plays, and we gave up two big ones, and offensively we had a hard time when we dropped back pass blocking the front, and so they gave us some fits doing that.  It wasn't very good to get in very many passing situations, and we got ourselves in too many in the second half.

Q.  Mike, was any thought given to swapping out with Sean in the fourth quarter when that feeding frenzy was going on?
MIKE RILEY:  Well, sometimes when there's a feeding frenzy, it's not a great deal for whoever, anybody who's quarterbacking at that time.  You know, it's unfortunate that we just didn't keep our balance going better than we did in the first half.  It seemed like, like I said, we just took too many bad plays on 1st down in a couple of series there that didn't allow us to play like we had been.  We were using some quick turn‑back protections that allowed us to get the ball out or we'd hit a couple completions or we'd get a screen pass or might hit a bubble for a little bit, but as far as when we had to drop back and throw, it was all pretty hard tonight.
You know, one time we went in with a double extra protection, and they jumped into two man and got an interception on us.  You know, those are the kinds of things that really hurt you.

Q.  Why didn't you run the ball more in the second half?  You rushed for 111 in the first half, and it seemed like you came out throwing in the third quarter.  Most of your plays were passes in the third quarter.
MIKE RILEY:  Well, some of them, a lot of our running plays have a bubble pass mixed in with them, so we‑‑ and the quarterback is not wrong, we just didn't block it.  But we throw a bubble and the guy makes a tackle for a three‑yard loss and now you're in a bad situation.  So we had two or three series like that, and when that happens to you, you have two or three series, you're well into the second half.
I think we had a turnover, good field position touchdown, and that was really about it.  We couldn't sustain much besides that.

Q.  For Cody and Mike, did you feel like the offensive line was just rattled the whole night?  Cody, what were you talking about in the huddle?
MIKE RILEY:  I don't think rattled.  I mean, those guys are good players, and they gave us some trouble.  When we did try to just drop back pass, it became difficult, and that's why Cody had to hang in there very, very tough, and he made some plays, and other plays we really didn't have time to develop or he had to throw too soon.  We had a couple major league plays to Markus that I think would still be running right now, but if he'd had a little more time, given Markus a hair more time to get into the picture.  But things just got tough that way.
CODY VAZ:  Like coach said, we knew coming in they had great athletes, so I don't think they were rattled, but got to tip your hat to them, they played good tonight.

Q.  Mike, how critical was the play in the fourth quarter?
MIKE RILEY:  I thought that was huge right in there, and I don't remember our exact sequence right in there, but obviously it wasn't good, we ended up punting from where we got the ball, and I thought that was a critical time.

Q.  Cody, did you hurt your ankle early in the game, and did it hurt the rest of the day?
CODY VAZ:  Yes, I did, but it was fine.  I was 100 percent, no excuse.

Q.  Mike, what about the end of the second quarter there when it looked like you had a shot at a field goal and you had a timeout?
MIKE RILEY:  Well, the word came down, and I think we were right, and even on our bench, the word came down we got a 1st down, and I was just‑‑ I was amazed, so I didn't want to wait‑‑ I thought we might could get another play, and I didn't want to waste the timeout.  We were going to spike it, take a shot, see how much time we had to do that and then kick the field goal from there.  And I was‑‑ all I wanted them to do was at least be able to look at it upstairs and say‑‑ because I think they can review that and the spot of it, and I don't know why that wasn't at least measured.
And the guy told me later on, much later going in, that they had decided it wasn't that close.  So that was too bad because we would have at least had a shot at a field goal.

Q.  Right after the UW game you said immediately afterward that you regret that you didn't run the ball more.  Did you feel that right away‑‑
MIKE RILEY:  I probably will regret a lot of calls as we go through and evaluate this game.  You know, it's very obvious that's what was the difference in the second half.  We didn't have the running game that we did early, and some of it, they did a better job of, and some of it was we just didn't make the plays.

Q.  Ryan, for most of the game it looked like you guys were the better team.  Do you feel like you gave this one away?
RYAN MURPHY:  I feel like we played one half of football, and Texas just came out better than us the second half.  Yes, I felt that we had this game, we had this team, but then again, it's on us players to keep each other in, to keep each other focused in on the task ahead.

Q.  Storm, did Texas do anything differently in the second half to kind of slow you down?
STORM WOODS:  Not really.  You know, only difference I seen was instead of the linebackers being against the line, they were sort of stacked so one was in front of the other giving the deeper linebacker time to read the flow of the play.
MIKE RILEY:  They did play a lot more man‑to‑man in the second half and snugged up pretty tight on everybody.  A couple times, a lot of that stuff we were doing was an alert play, and so when they were back in coverage and Storm would get those plays, they were going pretty good.  But they ended up snugging it up pretty good and took some of that stuff away that we had tried to do, and then we've got to be able to hit the passes, and one time we drove quick and get the sack.  It was pretty rough sledding there for a minute.  But that was probably the biggest difference for Storm in the second half on some of the runs that we were doing so well early.

Q.  You guys have struggled to stop quarterbacks the last couple years.  When Ash escaped that would be Anthony Watkins sack, did you have flashbacks?
MIKE RILEY:  You know, those are plays that are kind of in the balance, right, and we made a lot of good plays.  I thought defensively I was really proud of our team.  There was a ton of really, really good defense against a good team and a lot of good athletes.  You know, and those are critical plays, and that's‑‑ if our player does that, it's a great play, and obviously if the other player does it we would like to make the play.  But you've got to give‑‑ at some point we would like to say that the next time our guy will make that play and we can watch it, coach it, help him be in a little bit better position to make it, and then we can also say I thought that was a great play by Ash.  It was a really, really good football player.

Q.  Storm, from your perspective did you feel like you guys gave one away?  You had a game coming home that you probably dreamed of having, but how much does the result change your emotions?
STORM WOODS:  Not taking away nothing from Texas, that was a great team offensively and defensively.  Like Ryan said, the first half felt like we played great sound football, and the second half felt like Texas just made some adjustments and they came out and they just‑‑ I guess they wanted it more or something.
But yeah‑‑

Q.  (No microphone.).
STORM WOODS:  He had a pretty good game tonight, hard, tough to block.  He had a good game.

Q.  Coach, I was wondering, do you feel your defense got a little gassed at the end of the game, or why did they give up those big plays near the end?
MIKE RILEY:  Well, again, it's football, so the ball goes up, and they made a‑‑ the receiver did a nice job of bursting out of his break and making the play, beautiful throw, and we were not in great position on the deep ball in the second half that ended up being the game changer.  But we probably were on the field too much offensively.  We didn't sustain enough, didn't get enough 1st downs to give our defense a chance.
You give a team like that with those athletes too many chances, that's what's going to happen to you.  I mean, there was lots of good defense for a lot of that game by the Beavers.  I thought guys made a lot of plays.  But in the end I think we had to play too much.

Q.  Storm, you guys are losing two pretty important seniors, and Markus Wheaton and Jordan Poyer have talked about how they want this program to take the next step.  Do you feel like the program is in good hands with all the young guys?
STORM WOODS:  It's huge to lose them.  At the beginning of last year during the off‑season those are the guys that grabbed this team by the neck and they demanded nothing but hard work.  But at the same time we have Brandon coming back, Cody, Ryan, myself.  While they were being leaders they taught us how to be leaders, so we've got to follow in what they did and do the same thing.

Q.  Cody, how would you rate your performance tonight?
CODY VAZ:  Not very good.  I definitely feel like I left some plays out there.  You know, it sucks, really.  I don't feel good about the way I played tonight, but it's in the past now, and this game will be good motivation for us this off‑season.

Q.  Cody, can you describe the start of the game, those first couple turnovers from your perspective, what happened on those?
CODY VAZ:  They just made a good play on the first interception, guy just read the screen and just jumped it, and the second one I was throwing the ball deep to Brandon and got the ball batted out of my hand by a D‑line man, I think.
MIKE RILEY:  There was a lot of pressure on him tonight.  He had to battle like crazy and the team did, too, and fortunately we got some good balance from the running game for a long stretch of it, but that was, I think, the big‑‑ the screen pass early was‑‑ they ran a stunt, Storm got mixed up with those bodies in there, so he wasn't clean, and really the guy fell right into the ball, and gosh, we had a great shot at a post route to Brandon, and No.80 came underneath‑‑ or came around the edge and just got a hand, I think, as Cody was letting the ball go.  So we had to sustain the block a little longer.  Maybe storm could have got a little chip on the guy.  I don't know how that looked, but those are the kind of mini‑differences that really hurt us.

Q.  Coach Riley, you said a few times this week that your team decided to get you here.  When you look back on the whole of the season what are you going to tell your team?
MIKE RILEY:  Oh, I think this was a great team.  In all senses of the word this group fought together hard, came back from a real rough year a year ago with just a great attitude, a great off‑season, lots of fun to work with.  It was a real team.  I was really probably most proud of that, and they got ready every week.  Even this bowl time with them was awesome because I think they were really dedicated to winning this game.  They enjoyed the experience, thought they practiced hard.  They were very attentive at the meetings.  They did everything right.  They just came up a little bit short.
But that doesn't diminish anything about what this team accomplished this year to me.  We would love to have been the Alamo Bow.  Champions.  We had a great chance to do that, but we didn't get that done, but this team did a great, great job for Oregon State fans.

Q.  The way you lost the game, does that make it hurt a little bit more?
CODY VAZ:  Yeah, I think so.  It was a close game all the way to the end.  It's definitely a game that we feel that we let slip away.  We don't take anything away from Texas.  Like Storm said, they're a really good team.  But I think we definitely let this one slip out of our hands.

Q.  Cody, after your first start at BYU, you talked about you needed to throw the ball a little bit more.  Is that something you two talked about tonight when you were on the phone with him, and were there times that you saw the sack coming and you thought maybe I can get the ball out of my hand anyway?
CODY VAZ:  Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a bang bang thing when you're out there.  That's something I've got to work on is throwing the ball away.  But at the same time you're trying to make plays, too.
That's something I can definitely improve on.

Q.  Coach, do you feel like there's anything else you could have done with Alex Okafor on the edge, more chips, or do you feel like he's just a force of nature?
MIKE RILEY:  Well, definitely there's things you can do.  The problem we got in too late was having to be in a two‑minute drill and it's hard to be able to attack a coverage and keep a bunch of guys in to help protect and still be able to get guys open.  So you're always in a situation like that where, yes, you need extra people, and at times early on we did that and were able to throw the ball a little bit and got some plays.  But as the thing wore on and we got into that mode where we had to move the ball, we had to be in a two‑minute mode, we had to get some people out.  It's one of those things that you try to balance and adjust and even get some quick throws involved in that so the ball can come out a little quicker.  But then you go, what, 3rd‑and‑long, 4th‑and‑ long, it makes it a little tough.

Q.  Can you talk about the job their secondary was able to do on Cooks and Wheaton?
MIKE RILEY:  I thought their secondary did a nice job, and they played smart and they were aided tremendously by a great pass rush.
CODY VAZ:  I agree with Coach.  We knew that they were good athletes.  I had said that.  But I think, like Coach said, they were added with some good pass rushers all night.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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