Oct. 9, 2012
CB Carrington Byndom
On Oklahoma’s QB Landry Jones: He is a veteran. He is able to make those calls back there, and he has that experience where he is going to command and control an offense. We expect him to play his best on Saturday.
On comparing West Virginia and Oklahoma’s offense: I think they are very similar. Oklahoma State, West Virginia, along with Baylor are all very similar. They all run the same type of offenses, so we kind of have a little bit of experience under our belt by playing those other two teams, Oklahoma State and West Virginia.
On DT Malcom Brown: With the stops he got this weekend, he made the best of them. That definitely showed the coaches something, and it showed us something. I see a bright future with him, and I think he is going to be pretty good here.
On Oklahoma’s receivers: They have another group of great receivers. They have [Justin] Brown from Penn State and Kenny Stills so they have some pretty good receivers coming back this year. We expect them to be pretty solid out there.
On the OU offense: I think they are still the same OU. They will be good. We always get their best shot, and we are ready for it.
RB Johnathan Gray
On his mentality heading into his first AT&T Red River Rivalry: My mentality is work hard, play hard and I feel like as a team we have been practicing very well for this game. As a freshman, I have to know my job and what to do when I get in and just play hard every snap to get the play done.
On his impressions of how the team reacted from their first loss: We all fought. West Virginia fought, we fought and the best guy came out and won and that was West Virginia. That put in our minds that we have to work a little bit harder, make less mistakes and hit the ground running against OU.
On sharing the ball with the other running backs: I know Joe [Bergeron], Mal [Malcolm Brown], Jeremy [Hills], D.J. [Monroe] and all the RBs have been here before me and as a freshman you have to sit back and watch. You have to take that back seat of learning pass-pro and learning which steps to take. There was just a learning curve for me, but that is what I am doing right now. My dad helped me a lot with that. He was like, “You are not going to start right away as a freshman. You have some great backs in front of you and you have to watch what they do and then you’ll start getting in the mix.” That is what I am doing. I am working hard and learning from those guys. They are teaching me some great things, and I am taking it from there.
On his nerves during his first college play: My first carry was nerve-racking as a freshman going into a game like that. I saw the chains, and we work everyday on down and distance. For me, I felt like I had to get the first down to prove that I could play. That was my first reaction, and we got the first down so I was happy and we went from there.
On learning how to run the “wild” formation: I watched film on [former Longhorn] Fozzy [Whittaker] and how he did it. When Coach [Mack Brown] puts you in the game and expects you to run a play to the best of your ability, you have to do it. For me as a freshman, “wildcat,” I have to perform it and try to do my best at it.
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RB Joe BergeronOn scoring four touchdowns against WVU: A lot of people have congratulated me on getting four touchdowns, but it was just me playing ball, really. If you put the ball on the one [yard line], it is a gimme - we are going to pound it in there. It is guaranteed, it has to be.
On his memories of last year’s OU game: Unacceptable. That is not our standard. Whenever you think about it, it is what can we do to change that to prevent that from happening again. The mindset of it is to go back in and play like we have been playing this year and hopefully we will come out on top.
On how the team has responded to the loss: After the game, of course like anybody we are going to hang our head. We had that game, and we were just a couple of plays away. We have a 24-hour rule, and it was really more of a two-hour rule with our team now. We see how losing feels, we know how losing feels and we can overcome that. We are on a different level where it is not going to get to us or phase how we play from here on out. Really it was more like,”Let’s just move on from this.” Let’s look at what we did wrong and look at what we did right and fix everything because even if you did something right there is always something you can do better. We need to prepare more, and we need play harder.
On this week being a must-win game: Every game is a must-win game. You have to go into every game with the same mindset as the week before. Even with the loss last week, we are going in this week that we are not going to lose. You can see it in the players’ eyes, even in the young cats. We have to do everything we can do to prepare to win this game.
On Oklahoma’s defense: They are a very physical defense. They make plays and they have a lot of individual players that contribute to their defense. Like any other team, they are going to be prepared to stop anything that you are going to throw at them. You just have to out-scheme them and out-play them. Coach [Brown] always says that it is a one-on-one battle every play. So running backs have to take advantage of whenever they screw up on something. The [offensive] line has to win their one-on-one battles with the D-linemen and receivers have to win on routes down field. Really it is just one-on-one as well as playing with your other teammates. It sounds difficult but once you have practiced it for a while it is second nature.
PK Anthony Fera
On transferring to The University of Texas: When I first got here, you know it was kind of tough at first, getting injured. But I’ve adapted to it all. I’m excited that I’m playing again. So I’m really excited about that.
On the decision to transfer from Penn State University: It was really hard. I was there for three-and-a-half years. I really loved it there. But I had to make a family decision.
On the reaction of Penn State fans to his decision to transfer: I mean a lot of people were understanding. Family comes first in my opinion. I just made a family decision.
On being injured and having to sit out for the first four games of this season: It was tough. I was actually a little injured before I got here. And then I just made it a little worse when I got here. It was the second practice. It was tough. But I’m back out there now, so I’m excited.
On if there is added pressure to kick well in a game like the AT&T Red River Rivalry: I mean I’ve kicked against big teams before, so it’s not too big of a deal.
On transitioning back into game preparation and play: It was obviously tough. I mean last week was the first week I’ve actually kicked. I think last week was the first time I actually tried to kick the ball 100 percent. It was obviously really sore on Wednesday after I kicked a bit. I didn’t even practice on Thursday. And then, you know going [into]pregame I felt really good. Really confident. I was excited to get in there.
On adjustments he has made as a kicker at Texas: I mean it was tough at first, just adjusting with the snapper and holder. Stuff like that. Today I didn’t miss any field goals with the team. So I feel pretty good about that.
