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Saturday, October 4
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Meacham, Bowen and players meet with media ahead of road test at Arizona
September 29, 2025 | Cowboy Football
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State interim head coach Doug Meacham, interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen and several players met with the media ahead of Saturday's Big 12 matchup against Arizona. Some of their comments:
Oklahoma State Interim Head Coach Doug Meacham
On how his first weekend as a head coach went:
"I've never been the head coach of an elementary school before, so this is a lot of new stuff that I've never thought about. Everyone thinks being a head coach is easy, and then you do it and you realize there's a lot more to it than you thought. The bottom line is, I'm so proud of the kids' willingness to participate and be a part of. The vibe they're providing makes it easy for all of us coaches to go out and do our job and have fun and stuff like that. Just continuing to devote all of our time and effort into what we can do to help them win a game, because it's all about them in the end. That part has been fun. The media stuff, things like that, it's definitely different for me. Other than that, it's not that much different. Other than game days, they look a little different on the sidelines. I've got special teams guys yelling at me, asking if we want a timeout or not, and I'm trying to find the next play. That's kind of different. It's been good. The common denominator for me on all of it has been the players and enjoying them and having fun. We could've had 10 guys hop in and redshirt, and I don't feel like that's going to occur, as of now. That's a positive sign, and I think the guys are galvanized a little bit. It's encouraging."
On how aggressive the offense was on Saturday and limiting turnovers:
"Well, we thought they were good plays on Monday, and we thought they were good on Tuesday, so we just read them off a sheet of paper and call them. I don't think you can coach and try to have an answer for every little minor detail when there is 22 moving parts out on the field. Make sure, when you're doing something special and different, the guy who's got the ball in his hands is explosive and can make things happen when it breaks down. If you've gotten to know me a little bit, you'd find out I'm not necessarily a color-by-number kind of guy. I'm more of a just paint it kind of guy. That's where some of the stuff comes from."
On Sam Jackson V:
"I recruited Sam out of high school, He was with me at TCU. Then he went to Cal and started until he got injured. He probably would've started eight-to-10 games there if he hadn't gotten injured. When you say wildcat, that's really not correct. He's not a wildcat. He's a quarterback playing receiver. It's a great pet to have, so to speak. When he's on the field, I'd say that you'd be a little bit more apprehensive about certain things defensively, which then can clear the picture at times. It's also one more thing to have to defend and prepare for, so it could help with everything else, too. As much stuff as you can have them (the opponent) have to process, and not really change what you have to do up front or at the skill positions, I'm all for it."
On interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen:
"He's such a great guy, and I think he's a players' coach. I think the players feel like he cares, and the players feel like he's in it to get the best out of them. He's such a good person and highly intelligent. I think he was the coordinator at Kansas for 12 years, so he's got a lot of experience. I think his M.O. is carry over what we've done and plug in things that we feel like fit based on the opponent, and just mesh with the staff from here moving forward. For me, I'm so comfortable with him because I know him. He's a back-end guy, a secondary safety and corners guy, and that makes me feel good too. He fit the profile for what we were looking for immediately, and I think that he'll have that room go off and galvanized pretty soon. I feel like he's going to do a pretty good job."
On Clint Bowen getting to be at the same school as his son:
"You know, as a dad, that'd be super cool, right? To be at a P4 school with your son and he's a quarterback. He's a coach. He's been around his whole life. His son's been around his whole life. It's kind of cool. It'd be really cool for me, for any of us, to think about your son on the same team you're coaching on, that'd be kind of neat, because that'll carry with you the rest of your life."
On what stood out Royal Capell:
"Royal is super hungry for information and studying. He's always up there with David Glidden. I mean, every day, he's the one guy that's up theremore than anybody asking questions, watching the tape, taking notes, getting out his iPad, watching film. That kid does exactly what you tell him. For a true freshman, he's unbelievable. And wherever you want him to be, he'll be there and do it correctly and do it full speed. I think he comes from a military family and he's originally from Cincinnati. I know at some point they moved to San Antonio, but just a great kid, that, for a quarterback, to know that kid's going to be in the right spot no matter what, it's a big comfort zone for you when he's in the game, and he's 18 years old."
On if Royal Capell earned his playing time in the spring:
"Not really, I think he kind of earned it through camp more so than in the spring. Because in the spring, I think he was just trying to figure out how to survive, because it is a lot different. You know, in high school, you can be the man, show up and have a bad day, and still be the man. In college, you have a bad day, you get beat out. So, you've got to show up every day with your stuff dialed and ready to roll, and it took him a minute to kind of figure that out. He's just a great kid. He's going to have a great career in college. He's going to make a lot of plays. He's just a comfort for those QBs because they know, going through a read, you can go one, two, and he's supposed to be in a certain spot, he's going to be right there. He's going to do it right."
On the possibility of transfers and redshirts from players:
"They talk to their position coaches or whoever recruited them, and I make this coach about anything, just conversation. I'm not necessarily trying to sit there and beg them to stay. I want them to want to be here too, but I just try to be factual and give them the information I think would help lead them to the smartest decision. Not just make it about, I want you to stay just for me, because it's about them too. So, if I think it makes sense, I'm not going to necessarily try to bend it or shape it in a way that'll make them stay, because I want them to stay, but at the same time, I think there's a lot of information I can offer that they can understand. It's probably my benefit to stay."
On the status of the offensive line:
"They're pretty solid, kind of galvanizing. We've had some injuries up there. We lost Markell at the left tackle, actually, in the hotel walk through. I've never seen that, that was a new one… Grant, the right tackle, has gotten so much better, and he is a massive individual. He's got a bright future ahead of him. #74, [Grant] Seagren, I really like what he's doing. Nuku [Mafi] on the left edge. I just think we got a really solid unit. You have to keep them healthy, keep them out there, and take care of them here during the week."
Interim Defensive Coordinator Clint Bowen
On transitioning into the role of defensive coordinator:
"It's a unique situation, taking over somewhere where the players are embraced in a system, a scheme. They've had their coaches in mind. That does make it a little bit unique. In doing this, I got to be me and do the things that I'm comfortable with and with that, it really kind of starts no matter where you're at. But my philosophy as a coach, I think, will help me in this situation more than anything. I told our guys, no matter what a player does wrong, if you're a good coach, it's your fault. So, if you're responsible for a defense or an individual position or anything, if a player makes a mistake and you don't embrace it, that it's your fault as a coach. I don't know where that really leads. For me, that carries over to this spot, that when we go out there and we do something, we have to understand it's our job to fix and correct mistakes. It's not the player's fault. It's our fault. We go out and ask a kid to do something that he hasn't had the experience level or the knowledge to learn, that's our fault. If we ask a player to go out there and do something that he's not physically developed enough to do, or doesn't have enough experience, that's our fault. If we go out there and haven't put them in a situation, that's our fault. I always base my coaching from that platform, that anything that happens on that field is my fault as a coach. So, for me to go out there and get mad at a player for doing something wrong, it's not where I go with things. This is us together. That philosophy and building that into our defenses has gotten me through a lot of years in terms of, this is us together. We're going to figure it out together. We're going to do it together. So, we're going to start with that premise, and we'll work from there."
On the culture here at Oklahoma State:
"Mike Gundy recruited unbelievable players for this program. He built an unbelievable culture. I've been a lot of places, coming here. I told Coach Glass and Coach Gundy, the first winter workout I watched, the first spring ball I watched, I went to him, I said, 'this is unbelievable.' The things I've seen our guys do to help each other, to listen to coaches, to be respectful, everything, it's the most unbelievable culture I've ever seen, and so these kids will handle it fine and this will be good."
On taking the current scheme and adjusting it to the players:
"That's always been a philosophy of mine, that it really doesn't matter what I know, or the assistant coaches know, all that matters is what the players know. We'll go back today to day one tackling techniques. It's our Monday ritual for 20 years, our tackling technique. I'm not saying anything's wrong. There are eight million ways to ever do anything in the game of football. I've been in this game long enough. I've given up big plays in every form of coverage known to mankind. Everything has strengths and weaknesses, but I do have a firm belief in some base fundamentals that have to be executed. And tackling, we can draw any 11 things on the board. If you can't tackle someone, it doesn't work. You can't cover someone, it doesn't work. So, those things can never get lost in the mix, and you can never push your scheme past what your players are ready and developed and trained to do. We always thought of defensive football, there's a process that kids have to go through. One, what do I do? Two, get enough reps so that the repetitions build muscle memory to where they don't even know how to react differently. They see react, then they see react. Then third, when you've got all that mastered, now you start going, all right, what are those guys on the other side of the ball doing? The tailbacks a yard behind the QB, the splits a little tighter. That's when you start anticipating plays and being good. So, my approach is we have to go back to step one of the process. What do we do? Master the reactions, and then start figuring out what the opponent is doing, and we'll start from there, and we'll be as basic as we need to be."
On the resiliency of the defense and their reactions to the staff changes:
"I believe we have guys who are competitive and tough kids. They're going to go out and they're going to play because they love Oklahoma State Football. They love being here. It's been a great place for them. I don't really worry about that. Kids show up and play. It's in their nature, it's in what they've done their whole life. So, I think they're going to look for us to give them a plan that they feel helps them get better, helps them accomplish their goals. They can see themselves improving. And if they do that, it's been my experience, the players will buy into anything."
On what stands out about Arizona's offense:
"I looked at Arizona for the first time last night at about 12:30 a.m. It was the first time I put that one on. So, I watched him for a couple of hours last night and haven't gotten back to them today. I am admittedly behind on them a little bit. I spent about two hours in the middle of the night last night, looking at it for the first time. The QB impresses me. He's got some danger to him. He can throw the ball on the run, can move and does both scrambles to throw and scrambles to run. They do a lot of things with their tight end, and they have some capable guys on the outside, so they're doing a nice job on offense. They have some creativity to them. We kind of always said, you get a motion and a run, you're going to get a lot of different looks. So, we'll zero in. You know, a big part of what we've got to do defensively is make sure that we're handling shifts and motions. That's a big emphasis for us today."
Offensive Lineman Grant Seagren
On the offensive line:
"We've got a lot of guys in the room that are trying to bring us together more and more, and the more that we go through, that's what we get. Adversity is one of the best team-building things because you figure out who wants to be here and things like that. We're really starting to put our best foot forward in practice each day and building that into, hopefully, performing better each game."
On his changing positional responsibilities:
"Responsibilities shift a lot, there's definitely some differences that are fun and things like that, but at the end of the day, your job is your job. Just completing that job to the best of your ability provides more satisfaction than anything else."
On the offense's performance against Baylor:
"It's always fun to get things rolling. The most important thing is just getting the first down and getting the ball rolling from there. Trick plays are trick plays, but some of our base plays were doing really well too, and that's just us doing our job each play."
On defensive lineman Wendell Gregory:
"Wendell is a great player. He's so fast off the edge, but he's also a big guy. It's such a mix of speed and power that you have to be ready for everything, but you can't expect anything, specifically, because that's when the other thing will get you. He's such a unique guy to get to go against every day, and I feel like that helps me get better and everyone else that has to go against him."
Outside Linebacker Malik Charles
On the attitude in the locker room:
"I feel like for the most part a lot of our guys are pretty reserved, and everybody just wants to win ballgames here and restore Cowboy Football."
On his versatility on the defensive line:
"I play a little bit of everything now. I'm inside a little bit. I play Jack a little bit. I play edge a little bit, and I feel like that's been the most fun, honestly. Stuff comes easy to me when I'm learning and so being challenged by knowing multiple positions has been really fun for me. That's really the biggest thing, the mental part, that's fun for me."
On the defense playing with energy:
"That was a big message the whole last week. No matter what's going on, let's bring energy. I try to bring as much energy – I know a lot of the other guys I talk to try to give as much energy to the field. Pregame, during the game, everybody stands up when the offense is on the field, standing up during kickoff and kickoff return. Just trying to bring as much energy and liveliness to the sidelines as we can. This game is all energy-based, with momentum and all that, so you feed off the energy from the field and your teammates."
On returning to his home state of Arizona:
"I need to start affecting the game more. This is a big game for me. I'm excited I get to go back home and play against a childhood university, so I'm excited. I really am. I can't wait for Saturday to come."
Defensive Lineman Iman Oates
On the changes that have occurred this past week:
"It's a tough situation, tough times, but as a man, as a college football player, and as a teammate, you just have to stick together. The main thing throughout it all is that we still have games to play. We have a whole season to finish. We go out there and prepare each week to play a game and to do our best. That's what we're going to do."
On if Coach Bowen has spoken to the defense yet:
"I'm sure we are going to meet formally as a defense today, but he has reached out and let us know that it's going to be simple. We are going to be flying around. It's kind of the same mentality that Meacham had, just having fun, that's the main thing. Going out there and having fun at the same time as executing assignments and playing for each other. I think it will be a good thing."
On the discipline needed for a mobile quarterback like Arizona's:
"That's the biggest thing each week, even with mobile or non-mobile quarterbacks, giving them time if they aren't mobile, but even if they are mobile, the smallest lane they can find. Lane integrity is big. I know Coach is going to be big on us this week about it and being able to just go at the same time, like having the mindset of getting off the ball and getting to him and having lane integrity at the same time."
On Wendell Gregory's playing style:
"I think he is electric, to be honest. He has some God-given ability as far as his natural instincts. He is still growing, still a young guy. I tell him all the time to keep focusing on the things he needs to work on, and he has the ability to go as far as he wants to. I feel like as he continues to become a complete football player, the sky is the limit for him."
Tight End Josh Ford
On his feelings scoring in Boone Pickens Stadium for the first time:
"I've always wanted to score here (Boone Pickens Stadium) and finally being able to do that was so fun. Being able to do that in front of my home crowd was really cool."
On having Sam Jackson's versatility on the offense:
"He's a versatile player, like you said. He can do everything. It was really cool having him on that side of the ball."
On if the team can build on Saturday's game:
"Yes sir, of course. Obviously, we scored more points than we have in the past, so that was good. I feel like we can just keep building off of that."
On how he's developed as a player:
"I'd say overall, my coach, Coach DJ (Tialavea), has done very well in excelling all parts of my game. Running routes, catching the ball in general, run blocking and technique."
Oklahoma State Interim Head Coach Doug Meacham
On how his first weekend as a head coach went:
"I've never been the head coach of an elementary school before, so this is a lot of new stuff that I've never thought about. Everyone thinks being a head coach is easy, and then you do it and you realize there's a lot more to it than you thought. The bottom line is, I'm so proud of the kids' willingness to participate and be a part of. The vibe they're providing makes it easy for all of us coaches to go out and do our job and have fun and stuff like that. Just continuing to devote all of our time and effort into what we can do to help them win a game, because it's all about them in the end. That part has been fun. The media stuff, things like that, it's definitely different for me. Other than that, it's not that much different. Other than game days, they look a little different on the sidelines. I've got special teams guys yelling at me, asking if we want a timeout or not, and I'm trying to find the next play. That's kind of different. It's been good. The common denominator for me on all of it has been the players and enjoying them and having fun. We could've had 10 guys hop in and redshirt, and I don't feel like that's going to occur, as of now. That's a positive sign, and I think the guys are galvanized a little bit. It's encouraging."
On how aggressive the offense was on Saturday and limiting turnovers:
"Well, we thought they were good plays on Monday, and we thought they were good on Tuesday, so we just read them off a sheet of paper and call them. I don't think you can coach and try to have an answer for every little minor detail when there is 22 moving parts out on the field. Make sure, when you're doing something special and different, the guy who's got the ball in his hands is explosive and can make things happen when it breaks down. If you've gotten to know me a little bit, you'd find out I'm not necessarily a color-by-number kind of guy. I'm more of a just paint it kind of guy. That's where some of the stuff comes from."
On Sam Jackson V:
"I recruited Sam out of high school, He was with me at TCU. Then he went to Cal and started until he got injured. He probably would've started eight-to-10 games there if he hadn't gotten injured. When you say wildcat, that's really not correct. He's not a wildcat. He's a quarterback playing receiver. It's a great pet to have, so to speak. When he's on the field, I'd say that you'd be a little bit more apprehensive about certain things defensively, which then can clear the picture at times. It's also one more thing to have to defend and prepare for, so it could help with everything else, too. As much stuff as you can have them (the opponent) have to process, and not really change what you have to do up front or at the skill positions, I'm all for it."
On interim defensive coordinator Clint Bowen:
"He's such a great guy, and I think he's a players' coach. I think the players feel like he cares, and the players feel like he's in it to get the best out of them. He's such a good person and highly intelligent. I think he was the coordinator at Kansas for 12 years, so he's got a lot of experience. I think his M.O. is carry over what we've done and plug in things that we feel like fit based on the opponent, and just mesh with the staff from here moving forward. For me, I'm so comfortable with him because I know him. He's a back-end guy, a secondary safety and corners guy, and that makes me feel good too. He fit the profile for what we were looking for immediately, and I think that he'll have that room go off and galvanized pretty soon. I feel like he's going to do a pretty good job."
On Clint Bowen getting to be at the same school as his son:
"You know, as a dad, that'd be super cool, right? To be at a P4 school with your son and he's a quarterback. He's a coach. He's been around his whole life. His son's been around his whole life. It's kind of cool. It'd be really cool for me, for any of us, to think about your son on the same team you're coaching on, that'd be kind of neat, because that'll carry with you the rest of your life."
On what stood out Royal Capell:
"Royal is super hungry for information and studying. He's always up there with David Glidden. I mean, every day, he's the one guy that's up theremore than anybody asking questions, watching the tape, taking notes, getting out his iPad, watching film. That kid does exactly what you tell him. For a true freshman, he's unbelievable. And wherever you want him to be, he'll be there and do it correctly and do it full speed. I think he comes from a military family and he's originally from Cincinnati. I know at some point they moved to San Antonio, but just a great kid, that, for a quarterback, to know that kid's going to be in the right spot no matter what, it's a big comfort zone for you when he's in the game, and he's 18 years old."
On if Royal Capell earned his playing time in the spring:
"Not really, I think he kind of earned it through camp more so than in the spring. Because in the spring, I think he was just trying to figure out how to survive, because it is a lot different. You know, in high school, you can be the man, show up and have a bad day, and still be the man. In college, you have a bad day, you get beat out. So, you've got to show up every day with your stuff dialed and ready to roll, and it took him a minute to kind of figure that out. He's just a great kid. He's going to have a great career in college. He's going to make a lot of plays. He's just a comfort for those QBs because they know, going through a read, you can go one, two, and he's supposed to be in a certain spot, he's going to be right there. He's going to do it right."
On the possibility of transfers and redshirts from players:
"They talk to their position coaches or whoever recruited them, and I make this coach about anything, just conversation. I'm not necessarily trying to sit there and beg them to stay. I want them to want to be here too, but I just try to be factual and give them the information I think would help lead them to the smartest decision. Not just make it about, I want you to stay just for me, because it's about them too. So, if I think it makes sense, I'm not going to necessarily try to bend it or shape it in a way that'll make them stay, because I want them to stay, but at the same time, I think there's a lot of information I can offer that they can understand. It's probably my benefit to stay."
On the status of the offensive line:
"They're pretty solid, kind of galvanizing. We've had some injuries up there. We lost Markell at the left tackle, actually, in the hotel walk through. I've never seen that, that was a new one… Grant, the right tackle, has gotten so much better, and he is a massive individual. He's got a bright future ahead of him. #74, [Grant] Seagren, I really like what he's doing. Nuku [Mafi] on the left edge. I just think we got a really solid unit. You have to keep them healthy, keep them out there, and take care of them here during the week."
Interim Defensive Coordinator Clint Bowen
On transitioning into the role of defensive coordinator:
"It's a unique situation, taking over somewhere where the players are embraced in a system, a scheme. They've had their coaches in mind. That does make it a little bit unique. In doing this, I got to be me and do the things that I'm comfortable with and with that, it really kind of starts no matter where you're at. But my philosophy as a coach, I think, will help me in this situation more than anything. I told our guys, no matter what a player does wrong, if you're a good coach, it's your fault. So, if you're responsible for a defense or an individual position or anything, if a player makes a mistake and you don't embrace it, that it's your fault as a coach. I don't know where that really leads. For me, that carries over to this spot, that when we go out there and we do something, we have to understand it's our job to fix and correct mistakes. It's not the player's fault. It's our fault. We go out and ask a kid to do something that he hasn't had the experience level or the knowledge to learn, that's our fault. If we ask a player to go out there and do something that he's not physically developed enough to do, or doesn't have enough experience, that's our fault. If we go out there and haven't put them in a situation, that's our fault. I always base my coaching from that platform, that anything that happens on that field is my fault as a coach. So, for me to go out there and get mad at a player for doing something wrong, it's not where I go with things. This is us together. That philosophy and building that into our defenses has gotten me through a lot of years in terms of, this is us together. We're going to figure it out together. We're going to do it together. So, we're going to start with that premise, and we'll work from there."
On the culture here at Oklahoma State:
"Mike Gundy recruited unbelievable players for this program. He built an unbelievable culture. I've been a lot of places, coming here. I told Coach Glass and Coach Gundy, the first winter workout I watched, the first spring ball I watched, I went to him, I said, 'this is unbelievable.' The things I've seen our guys do to help each other, to listen to coaches, to be respectful, everything, it's the most unbelievable culture I've ever seen, and so these kids will handle it fine and this will be good."
On taking the current scheme and adjusting it to the players:
"That's always been a philosophy of mine, that it really doesn't matter what I know, or the assistant coaches know, all that matters is what the players know. We'll go back today to day one tackling techniques. It's our Monday ritual for 20 years, our tackling technique. I'm not saying anything's wrong. There are eight million ways to ever do anything in the game of football. I've been in this game long enough. I've given up big plays in every form of coverage known to mankind. Everything has strengths and weaknesses, but I do have a firm belief in some base fundamentals that have to be executed. And tackling, we can draw any 11 things on the board. If you can't tackle someone, it doesn't work. You can't cover someone, it doesn't work. So, those things can never get lost in the mix, and you can never push your scheme past what your players are ready and developed and trained to do. We always thought of defensive football, there's a process that kids have to go through. One, what do I do? Two, get enough reps so that the repetitions build muscle memory to where they don't even know how to react differently. They see react, then they see react. Then third, when you've got all that mastered, now you start going, all right, what are those guys on the other side of the ball doing? The tailbacks a yard behind the QB, the splits a little tighter. That's when you start anticipating plays and being good. So, my approach is we have to go back to step one of the process. What do we do? Master the reactions, and then start figuring out what the opponent is doing, and we'll start from there, and we'll be as basic as we need to be."
On the resiliency of the defense and their reactions to the staff changes:
"I believe we have guys who are competitive and tough kids. They're going to go out and they're going to play because they love Oklahoma State Football. They love being here. It's been a great place for them. I don't really worry about that. Kids show up and play. It's in their nature, it's in what they've done their whole life. So, I think they're going to look for us to give them a plan that they feel helps them get better, helps them accomplish their goals. They can see themselves improving. And if they do that, it's been my experience, the players will buy into anything."
On what stands out about Arizona's offense:
"I looked at Arizona for the first time last night at about 12:30 a.m. It was the first time I put that one on. So, I watched him for a couple of hours last night and haven't gotten back to them today. I am admittedly behind on them a little bit. I spent about two hours in the middle of the night last night, looking at it for the first time. The QB impresses me. He's got some danger to him. He can throw the ball on the run, can move and does both scrambles to throw and scrambles to run. They do a lot of things with their tight end, and they have some capable guys on the outside, so they're doing a nice job on offense. They have some creativity to them. We kind of always said, you get a motion and a run, you're going to get a lot of different looks. So, we'll zero in. You know, a big part of what we've got to do defensively is make sure that we're handling shifts and motions. That's a big emphasis for us today."
Offensive Lineman Grant Seagren
On the offensive line:
"We've got a lot of guys in the room that are trying to bring us together more and more, and the more that we go through, that's what we get. Adversity is one of the best team-building things because you figure out who wants to be here and things like that. We're really starting to put our best foot forward in practice each day and building that into, hopefully, performing better each game."
On his changing positional responsibilities:
"Responsibilities shift a lot, there's definitely some differences that are fun and things like that, but at the end of the day, your job is your job. Just completing that job to the best of your ability provides more satisfaction than anything else."
On the offense's performance against Baylor:
"It's always fun to get things rolling. The most important thing is just getting the first down and getting the ball rolling from there. Trick plays are trick plays, but some of our base plays were doing really well too, and that's just us doing our job each play."
On defensive lineman Wendell Gregory:
"Wendell is a great player. He's so fast off the edge, but he's also a big guy. It's such a mix of speed and power that you have to be ready for everything, but you can't expect anything, specifically, because that's when the other thing will get you. He's such a unique guy to get to go against every day, and I feel like that helps me get better and everyone else that has to go against him."
Outside Linebacker Malik Charles
On the attitude in the locker room:
"I feel like for the most part a lot of our guys are pretty reserved, and everybody just wants to win ballgames here and restore Cowboy Football."
On his versatility on the defensive line:
"I play a little bit of everything now. I'm inside a little bit. I play Jack a little bit. I play edge a little bit, and I feel like that's been the most fun, honestly. Stuff comes easy to me when I'm learning and so being challenged by knowing multiple positions has been really fun for me. That's really the biggest thing, the mental part, that's fun for me."
On the defense playing with energy:
"That was a big message the whole last week. No matter what's going on, let's bring energy. I try to bring as much energy – I know a lot of the other guys I talk to try to give as much energy to the field. Pregame, during the game, everybody stands up when the offense is on the field, standing up during kickoff and kickoff return. Just trying to bring as much energy and liveliness to the sidelines as we can. This game is all energy-based, with momentum and all that, so you feed off the energy from the field and your teammates."
On returning to his home state of Arizona:
"I need to start affecting the game more. This is a big game for me. I'm excited I get to go back home and play against a childhood university, so I'm excited. I really am. I can't wait for Saturday to come."
Defensive Lineman Iman Oates
On the changes that have occurred this past week:
"It's a tough situation, tough times, but as a man, as a college football player, and as a teammate, you just have to stick together. The main thing throughout it all is that we still have games to play. We have a whole season to finish. We go out there and prepare each week to play a game and to do our best. That's what we're going to do."
On if Coach Bowen has spoken to the defense yet:
"I'm sure we are going to meet formally as a defense today, but he has reached out and let us know that it's going to be simple. We are going to be flying around. It's kind of the same mentality that Meacham had, just having fun, that's the main thing. Going out there and having fun at the same time as executing assignments and playing for each other. I think it will be a good thing."
On the discipline needed for a mobile quarterback like Arizona's:
"That's the biggest thing each week, even with mobile or non-mobile quarterbacks, giving them time if they aren't mobile, but even if they are mobile, the smallest lane they can find. Lane integrity is big. I know Coach is going to be big on us this week about it and being able to just go at the same time, like having the mindset of getting off the ball and getting to him and having lane integrity at the same time."
On Wendell Gregory's playing style:
"I think he is electric, to be honest. He has some God-given ability as far as his natural instincts. He is still growing, still a young guy. I tell him all the time to keep focusing on the things he needs to work on, and he has the ability to go as far as he wants to. I feel like as he continues to become a complete football player, the sky is the limit for him."
Tight End Josh Ford
On his feelings scoring in Boone Pickens Stadium for the first time:
"I've always wanted to score here (Boone Pickens Stadium) and finally being able to do that was so fun. Being able to do that in front of my home crowd was really cool."
On having Sam Jackson's versatility on the offense:
"He's a versatile player, like you said. He can do everything. It was really cool having him on that side of the ball."
On if the team can build on Saturday's game:
"Yes sir, of course. Obviously, we scored more points than we have in the past, so that was good. I feel like we can just keep building off of that."
On how he's developed as a player:
"I'd say overall, my coach, Coach DJ (Tialavea), has done very well in excelling all parts of my game. Running routes, catching the ball in general, run blocking and technique."
Players Mentioned
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/ Cowboy FootballInside Oklahoma State Athletics: Arizona Game Preview with Doug Meacham
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