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00:00 - All right, let's roll here.
00:01 Thank you all for being here.
00:02 Very disappointed.
00:03 I said this after the game,
00:05 so I won't get into a whole bunch of repeat,
00:07 but very disappointed how we played on Saturday.
00:11 Credit to Oklahoma.
00:12 We caught them at the wrong time.
00:14 They were juiced.
00:15 We got their best.
00:16 That's as good as they played.
00:18 They were ready to go, and we weren't,
00:20 and they got after us, and it was not pretty.
00:24 And so special teams was really the only bright side we had.
00:29 We challenged, really, our core group of players,
00:32 and I thought they really responded.
00:34 Best we played on special teams.
00:37 You know, won the field position battle,
00:40 but on offense and defense, we didn't coach good enough.
00:43 Fundamentally, we weren't good enough,
00:45 and our execution just sorely lacked in that game.
00:50 They soundly beat us up front.
00:53 The strength of our football team's up front,
00:54 and they really, they did some things,
00:57 moving their defensive line,
00:59 that negated some things we did in the run game early.
01:03 Got some penetration that nobody else really has,
01:06 and then their O-line did a nice job.
01:09 They got movement, and I thought their backs
01:13 did a nice job, too.
01:14 Quick recap, special teams-wise, again,
01:17 mostly positive there.
01:19 Our kickoff returns, best we played,
01:20 had two really, really nice returns there.
01:23 We blocked much better.
01:26 Our punt team forced a takeaway.
01:29 I think it's the second or third we've had this year,
01:32 and then Ollie bounced back, didn't play,
01:34 didn't punt it very good versus BYU.
01:36 Came back and had a really good day on Saturday,
01:40 and our coverage was really good,
01:42 and I thought our kickoff team was much better.
01:44 Mike gave us a chance, and made a couple changes on there,
01:48 and I thought we're much improved there.
01:51 You know, would've liked to made that field goal.
01:54 You know, we missed the field goal.
01:55 Didn't have a great hold on that,
01:56 and then we had a missed opportunity there on punt return.
02:00 We really had everybody blocked but one,
02:03 and that was an early in the game
02:04 where we could've, you know, could've helped us,
02:05 but going to defense, just not good enough.
02:09 We really didn't come close to slowing them down.
02:12 Gabriel had all the time.
02:14 Tried to put some pressure on him.
02:16 It didn't work.
02:17 They picked it up.
02:18 Several different types of coverages.
02:22 You know, we didn't even slow 'em down.
02:24 I think the stats say it all.
02:25 I don't have to really go into much detail on that.
02:28 Y'all can read the stat sheet.
02:29 So, third downs were critical.
02:32 Early in the game, while it was still a game,
02:35 you know, we got 'em into third downs,
02:36 and then they converted every one of 'em,
02:38 and too many explosive plays, and just not good enough.
02:43 You know, didn't put our kids into good enough spots.
02:45 We didn't play very aggressive.
02:49 Once the game, once they started hittin' us,
02:51 just disappointed in how we played there.
02:54 Offensively, we had a great opening drive,
02:56 and then really come up empty on the next five possessions.
02:59 And first time we've really struggled in a long time.
03:02 Our best players weren't good enough in the game.
03:05 You know, goal line stand, it was really bad ball.
03:09 You know, not a very good call on my part on the fourth down.
03:13 I thought we scored on first down.
03:15 I feel even stronger that we scored on first down
03:17 after watching it on tape.
03:20 And then, really not pleased with how we played
03:22 after the initial touchdown in the second half.
03:24 We scored on opening drive of the second half as well,
03:27 and then I didn't think we played very well.
03:30 Garrett's decision-making was poor.
03:32 He was inaccurate, but he settled down, you know,
03:36 kinda late in the second quarter and was better.
03:38 And then our O-line, I talked about it.
03:41 They're the strength of our team,
03:42 and we didn't play well enough up front.
03:44 And so, and that's kinda the story there.
03:48 Again, very disappointed.
03:49 Changed up our schedule.
03:51 We practiced yesterday,
03:53 and the point being just to flush that game.
03:55 You know, it's not one of those things
03:56 where we don't show the kids.
03:57 I know some people talk about that,
03:58 but that never really makes sense to me,
04:00 is because when you get exposed in certain areas,
04:04 you better prepare for it 'cause your next opponents,
04:06 your two regular season and your bowl opponent
04:08 are gonna watch that.
04:09 And so, you better correct it.
04:11 And so, we brought 'em in yesterday.
04:13 We practiced.
04:14 We put that game to rest and cleaned up the mistakes.
04:17 And we'll start it fresh in the morning.
04:19 Today was our day off.
04:20 We'll start it fresh in the morning on Cincinnati.
04:23 And moving on there, I think that,
04:25 obviously, a former Big East foe.
04:28 You know, I think this is a game that,
04:30 it should kinda grow into a rivalry.
04:33 You know, it's obviously the closest proximity school
04:36 in the Big 12 to us.
04:38 And I think this is a game that both fan bases,
04:43 you know, as time goes on,
04:45 this has an opportunity to grow into a rivalry game.
04:47 It was a good win on the road for them last week.
04:50 I think that was the best they've played.
04:53 And I think they'll have some confidence rolling in here.
04:58 Know Coach Satterfield very well.
05:01 We had several matchups in Sunbelt.
05:03 Really good offensive mind.
05:04 He's kept his core group of coaches together
05:07 for a long time.
05:08 They do a nice job.
05:10 If you just looked at the stats,
05:11 you know, like one of the first things I do
05:13 when you kinda turn the page to a new opponent
05:15 is you look at the stats.
05:16 And, you know, if you just looked at the stats
05:19 and didn't look at the win-loss record,
05:21 you know, they're a team that's one of the top rushing teams
05:24 in the whole conference.
05:25 They're, defensively, they stopped the run at a high rate.
05:32 And then you look at their win-loss record,
05:33 you know, and they've won three games and one league game.
05:36 It just, it really kind of a weird makeup.
05:41 And they've been in almost all their games,
05:44 lost some close ones.
05:46 But they did play their best against Houston down,
05:49 down on the road.
05:50 And a team that we've got it,
05:53 that we have a great deal of respect for.
05:54 So, you talk about them as special teams,
05:56 they've got an Australian punter.
05:58 He's very good.
05:58 He's 6'7", big long guy.
06:00 He's got a bunch of punts inside the 15-yard line.
06:03 Their field goal kicker's been very good.
06:05 Offensively, it starts with their rushing attack.
06:10 And if you look at what Sat's done,
06:12 since he's been a coordinator or head coach,
06:15 really everything they do is built off the outside zone.
06:17 They were really one of the early people
06:18 that ran the outside zone, really committed to it.
06:20 And he's continued to do that, you know,
06:23 at Louisville, now here at Cincinnati.
06:25 They've always ran the ball well.
06:27 And they've got, you know,
06:28 the knackers and the play actions off of that.
06:31 Their O-line does a really nice job.
06:33 Quarterback's dual threat.
06:34 They're playing two now, but both of them can do.
06:36 The Jones kid's really fast.
06:38 He breaks tackles.
06:39 Running, the running back, we know well.
06:41 He's originally from Cincinnati.
06:43 We tried to recruit him out of high school.
06:45 I think he went to LSU originally.
06:47 Now he came back home to Cincinnati.
06:49 He's tough.
06:50 Really physical runner.
06:51 Breaks a lot of tackles.
06:53 Has one of the, or he's one of the guys in the country
06:55 with the most broken tackles.
06:57 And they got several receivers.
06:58 And they've got a couple big guys that can run.
07:01 And then they've got a little slot
07:03 that they get the ball to a bunch of different ways.
07:05 Defensively, you know, if you look, again,
07:09 you know, statistically, they're close to the top
07:12 in almost every stat category.
07:15 Maybe outside a couple in our league,
07:17 if you look at league games.
07:19 And three man front, I think starts with the D-line.
07:23 They have the best interior D-lineman in our conference.
07:26 You know, he's special.
07:27 And Corleone, he's from Cincinnati there.
07:32 And man, we're going to have to really know where he's at.
07:35 And he's a disruptor.
07:37 He's one of those guys, if you didn't have to play against him,
07:39 you really appreciate how he plays.
07:41 But he's difficult to run against.
07:44 And he generates pressure.
07:46 And I think the strength of their defense is up front.
07:48 Their D-line's really good.
07:49 They do a lot of different slants and pressures
07:52 to switch up the looks, mix up their coverages.
07:55 But huge challenge.
07:58 And I have zero doubt that our guys will bounce back.
08:00 It's been a resilient group all year.
08:02 We'll bounce back.
08:03 We'll play well on Saturday.
08:05 And finish strong here at home.
08:07 Last home game and senior day.
08:09 And probably the most important thing on Saturday
08:13 is honoring Coach D-lin.
08:14 And getting in, you know, I don't even know what we call it.
08:18 I know it's, what do we say?
08:20 What are we using?
08:21 What term are we using, Manny?
08:22 Immortalized, there you go.
08:24 But I always say ring of honor.
08:26 We don't really have that.
08:27 But if you get your name put in the stadium permanently,
08:29 that's a pretty damn big deal.
08:30 So, but we're going to honor him.
08:32 And I hope we have a big turnout.
08:35 I know our fan base really appreciates him.
08:37 And I hope we have a bunch of people show up.
08:38 And he can feel that when he gets announced
08:41 during the break in action there.
08:43 And I know some of his former players
08:46 are coming back to an event on Friday.
08:48 So, it really should be a weekend about celebrating him.
08:50 And I look forward to that.
08:52 And look forward to getting back on the field
08:54 and just redeeming ourselves.
08:55 'Cause we played a lot better football
08:57 than we put out there on Saturday.
08:58 So, with that, questions.
09:01 - Neil, so you said immediately after the game,
09:03 about as bad as you can remember your passing game being.
09:06 As you watch film and you break that down.
09:09 I mean, obviously you talk a little bit about Garrett
09:11 and his struggle.
09:12 But all Garrett receivers problems?
09:14 - Well, we dropped.
09:15 Yeah, we probably dropped five.
09:17 One running back drop, four on the wide outs.
09:22 So, that would have got us a 15 to 31.
09:26 So, I think when you look at it,
09:29 we had those drops, which outside of CJ
09:32 having a couple of versus BYU,
09:34 we really had that issue.
09:36 It wasn't a case where we had guys open in the game.
09:41 I think the deeper question is,
09:46 we've had guys open in the games we struggled.
09:50 'Cause that's what you first of all look
09:52 when you're evaluating it.
09:53 Okay, all right, we talked about Garrett's
09:55 fundamental issues.
09:56 And there's some of these things that are repeated.
10:00 And he knows this.
10:01 He's going to have to get them corrected
10:02 or he's going to be a 50% passer
10:04 and that's not good enough.
10:05 So, he's got to get those things corrected.
10:08 And they're really the same mistakes
10:10 that he made versus BYU and got away with it,
10:13 but didn't get away with it versus Oklahoma.
10:17 So, you see that from a fundamental perspective.
10:19 Obviously, the drops got to get corrected.
10:21 Then you go, okay, schematically,
10:22 are we getting people open?
10:24 Because if the people aren't open,
10:26 that's not Garrett's fault,
10:27 that's not the receiver's fault, that's my fault.
10:29 But we had people open.
10:30 So, I think the next question is,
10:32 as you look at it from a coaching perspective,
10:34 are we running the right plays that he can see?
10:36 Are they the best plays for him?
10:38 And then are we getting enough repetition
10:41 on these plays we're running?
10:42 And so, that's kind of what I've been doing
10:45 for the last several hours is going through
10:49 and saying, okay, all right,
10:51 hey, here's what he's really good at.
10:53 This is what we need to do.
10:54 We need to kind of, we need to thin down
10:56 what we're doing from a pass game perspective,
10:58 which we've already thinned down quite a bit,
11:00 but we need to even thin down even more.
11:02 All right, and then we need to get really good
11:03 at these plays on Tuesday and Wednesday
11:06 and try to give every look we possibly can
11:08 to these small pass plays.
11:12 And so, that's what we're doing.
11:13 And I really feel like he knows, Garrett knows,
11:18 and I think that he'll be better
11:23 and we'll give him a better chance on Saturday.
11:25 - I guess, 'cause obviously you've been mentioned
11:31 after the game that you're kind of surprised
11:33 by the poor play just for how well
11:36 your team had been playing and things like that.
11:38 And then now saying you know that the team
11:40 bounced back as they've done earlier.
11:42 Just any message to fans on why you feel that way
11:45 and why they should believe that,
11:46 just because this has been a better season
11:48 than last year, obviously,
11:49 but those games where you don't think
11:53 that the play is good enough still are happening.
11:56 - Well, I would say that if you looked at the body of work,
12:01 that would be the only outlier.
12:03 We didn't play very well defensively versus Houston
12:07 and we didn't play very well defensively
12:08 in the fourth quarter versus Oklahoma State.
12:11 But if you were gonna talk about good football
12:15 compared to bad football, those would be
12:19 some examples of bad football.
12:21 But that's the only game where that's really occurred.
12:27 I think it's too, it's like,
12:29 and I don't know if I did a good enough job of this
12:30 after the game 'cause I was pretty heated.
12:33 But you also gotta give Oklahoma some credit too.
12:36 There's a reason why year in and year out
12:39 they're in the top 10 in the country in recruiting.
12:41 They got good players.
12:42 They had a chip on their shoulder
12:44 'cause they'd lost two games.
12:46 They're fan base on their tail.
12:47 And they came out with their backs against the wall
12:50 and played their best game of the year.
12:51 And so I'd be remiss if I didn't give some credit to them
12:55 because they deserve it.
12:56 Now with that being said, is we didn't play well enough.
12:59 And they're not that much better than us.
13:02 And that's a game that we should
13:03 to for sure been competitive in
13:05 and with an opportunity to win the game
13:07 in the fourth quarter.
13:08 Now, whether we were good enough or not,
13:10 we'll never know 'cause we didn't play good enough
13:11 to give ourselves a chance.
13:13 But that's what I would say to you.
13:15 - With Coach Neal being honored this weekend,
13:22 the senior's also gonna be honored.
13:23 This is a senior day situation.
13:25 And has that lost something with the way football's gone?
13:29 - Yeah, I think just in general, it probably has.
13:34 'Cause not in the too distant past,
13:39 you'd had guys that were here four, five, six years.
13:42 And we still have some of those, but you don't have as many.
13:45 I think the biggest thing that's changed for me as a coach
13:48 is like, and some of this is due to the,
13:51 it's really a lot of it's due to the COVID year.
13:53 You don't know who's walking and who's not.
13:54 I don't really make a big deal about it.
13:56 And so it's kind of up to the guys,
13:58 whether they wanna walk or not.
14:00 The guys that have eligibility left,
14:03 the guys that don't have eligibility, they'll for sure walk.
14:05 But guys that have a year of eligibility left,
14:08 it's kind of up to them.
14:09 And we'll leave it to that.
14:11 I think that senior day's always a tough emotional day.
14:14 If it was up to me, I would probably do
14:18 what some of these high schools and middle schools
14:23 and things like that have done,
14:24 where they started honoring their eighth grade
14:26 and their high school seniors, like in the first game.
14:28 You know, and because I think it takes
14:31 some of the emotions out of it.
14:32 But it's hard, you know, like especially these guys
14:36 that have been in this program and that are from the state
14:39 that it really means something to.
14:41 You know, you talking about,
14:43 'cause football's a game of passion.
14:46 And you're talking about just before the snap of the ball,
14:51 you're put in a mental frame
14:53 where you got to really think about,
14:54 there's a lot going through your mind.
14:56 And so I think you have to prepare your guys for that.
14:59 And they got to be able to kind of think through
15:03 and visualize and be able to think through
15:07 how they're going to handle that
15:08 as they go through the week.
15:10 But it is what it is.
15:12 You know, it's one of those things that we've always done.
15:15 And our guys, they'll figure it out and we'll handle it.
15:19 - Do you think you're doing tempo?
15:21 - They'll do a little bit.
15:22 That's not who they are, but they'll do a little bit.
15:24 - Doug Walsh?
15:29 - You know, we'll see how CJ and Doug,
15:32 they didn't practice yesterday.
15:34 But we'll see how they do as we move later in the week.
15:38 Probably have a better, you know,
15:39 when Tony and I do the radio show on Thursday,
15:41 I'll probably have a better answer for you.
15:43 Everybody else that played, hurt feelings, does that count?
15:47 We got a lot of hurt feelings,
15:48 but I think we're pretty healthy.
15:51 - What do you think happened with the offensive line?
15:54 Like how would you guys-
15:55 - You know, like I have high expectations.
15:57 We still ran the ball for 176 yards.
15:59 We didn't give up a sack.
16:00 So it wasn't like, you know, they just weren't dominant.
16:05 You know, and I think it's one of those things too.
16:07 I think Oklahoma, you know,
16:08 their D-line got up for it.
16:13 And Brent did a few different things
16:15 than he had done in previous games.
16:17 It took us a little while to settle down.
16:21 It wasn't that we played poorly.
16:23 And honestly, most teams would probably take 176 yards,
16:27 no sacks versus Oklahoma.
16:28 But for us, at the standard that we're kind of setting
16:33 and how we play up front, it wasn't up to our standards,
16:36 or up to our standards, or up to our expectations.
16:39 And so I thought it took us a little while to settle down.
16:43 And then we lost some fundamentals
16:45 when they did some things that we hadn't seen on video.
16:49 - Third and long was kind of their deal.
16:52 Did they kind of play into that
16:53 with the way things transpired in the game?
16:56 - You talking about us on offense or them on offense?
16:58 - Third and long defense.
16:59 That's where they really made hay.
17:01 - Yeah, they did.
17:02 And really, I think it goes back to, you know,
17:04 I think most teams' plans versus us
17:06 are going to try to get us in.
17:08 And so I think if you were asking, you know,
17:11 I don't know if the third downs had as big a factor,
17:14 because if you told me we were going to be
17:15 in a bunch of third and longs,
17:16 I would have told you we were going to struggle.
17:18 And so I think more, you know,
17:21 their success was due on their early down success.
17:23 You know, especially if you look at first down runs,
17:25 you know, they did a nice job there.
17:27 And so, and then we missed some easy completions
17:32 on some first downs that got us
17:34 into some bad situations also.
17:35 - You started the last couple games pretty well offensively,
17:39 and then the two prior ones sustained it.
17:41 And I mean, just obviously the exception
17:44 would be last game.
17:45 Anything that you can pinpoint there?
17:46 You've explained some of them,
17:47 but something that was just,
17:49 you watched and said, man, not today.
17:51 - Well, so the second drive,
17:53 when you go back and look at it,
17:55 we really had, we had two really good plays.
17:58 And so the first one,
17:59 or the first play of the second series,
18:02 we did a handoff to Rodney.
18:05 We had everybody blocked,
18:06 and the running back just slipped off late,
18:08 and it ended up being a five yard gain.
18:10 So it was going to be, and I may have been six,
18:11 you know what I mean?
18:12 But it was going to be ballpark second and five.
18:14 And then we jump off sides,
18:15 and then it gets into second and 10.
18:17 And then we fall down on the backside of an outside zone,
18:21 and it ends up being third and nine.
18:23 And that's the one where we scrambled,
18:25 and Devin Carter's wide open up the seam,
18:28 and Garrett doesn't seem.
18:30 And so, you know, it's one of those things
18:33 that's unfortunate.
18:34 We had some plays, and we kind of got in our own way.
18:38 Now after that, the next really two series,
18:42 the one that's really frustrating is the third series
18:45 where we punt, and we have the turnover.
18:47 And man, we just didn't make very good decisions.
18:49 And that's the drive to me.
18:52 Like if we turn that into points,
18:53 then I really think it's a ball game.
18:55 Even if it's a higher scoring affair,
18:58 it's going to be a game, right?
19:01 And when we don't turn that into points,
19:03 they immediately score,
19:07 and then it went from there.
19:09 But I think going back to kind of the same thing
19:13 I was telling John, is really offensively,
19:17 is some decision making,
19:18 and some early success they had on first on drive starters,
19:23 and then on first downs.
19:26 - A lot of that scripted stuff,
19:30 you're kind of feeling things out
19:31 to see what works in a play and stuff for later on.
19:33 And again, prior to games,
19:33 thought in second game, that second drive,
19:36 you just mentioned third drive.
19:37 Does it, how much does it change when it doesn't work
19:39 and you, I don't know, you can't plant the stuff,
19:41 or you can't develop it,
19:42 or do you even abandon it and just keep going
19:44 and hope to eventually get--
19:45 - No, no, I think you have to change.
19:47 So like, if you look at what we did in that game right there
19:50 is we were trying to get some perimeter stuff
19:53 early in the game,
19:54 where it took out, you know,
19:58 I knew they were going to kind of
19:59 try to junk up our run game, right?
20:02 And so what we were trying to do early in that
20:04 is trying to get on the perimeter
20:06 and have some success on the perimeter
20:08 where they had to play more people outside the tackles.
20:11 And we had some good hits on that.
20:14 And then we got into it,
20:15 and just like when any pretty good offense struggles,
20:20 it ends up being where it's just a guy here and a guy there.
20:25 And it's usually, now if you're bad on offense,
20:29 it's usually a lot of, there's a lot of issues.
20:31 But when you got a unit that's pretty good,
20:34 it's usually when things aren't working
20:36 exactly the way they should,
20:37 it's usually one out of 11 or two out of 11.
20:39 That's what we had.
20:41 We had some guys that got cross-faced up front
20:43 where we had them blocked up pretty well,
20:45 and we got cross-faced,
20:45 and we had to make a cut sooner than later.
20:49 But after we struggled there,
20:52 we kind of went back and we got us some 12 personnel,
20:54 and it settled them down some,
20:55 and we had some success with that.
20:57 But yeah, like, I don't know if I'm answering your question.
21:01 I'm kind of talking you through the game,
21:02 but I don't know if I'm really,
21:03 am I answering your question?
21:04 - They're not the same, but like,
21:07 I just imagine you didn't score the first drive and say,
21:08 "Okay, let's put that on the shelf
21:10 "and do something different."
21:11 But when the game is going in a certain direction,
21:12 how hard is it to get it back on your side?
21:15 - Well, it's hard when they're scoring, right?
21:19 And so, 'cause you gotta, we had to throw the ball
21:22 probably a little bit more in that second quarter
21:25 than we wanted to,
21:26 because it was getting away from us, right?
21:28 And we went for that fourth and two,
21:30 because it was 17-7, and you can feel it,
21:33 like, you know, "Hey, if we have a punt here,
21:35 "we're gonna punt it back, and they're gonna go down.
21:36 "It's gonna be, this one's gonna get away from us," right?
21:39 And then when we didn't convert,
21:40 then we were gonna have to throw it to get back into it,
21:44 and we had to throw a little bit more
21:45 than we probably wanted to.
21:46 - The things that OU did to you that gave you issues,
21:50 are those things specific to what they do,
21:52 or are those things that you have to prepare for
21:54 for the final two?
21:55 - No, I think everybody, this is a copycat deal.
21:57 And so the things that they did,
21:59 like Cincinnati can get into very easily,
22:01 Baylor can get into very easily, you know,
22:04 and they're things that we've handled earlier in the year.
22:09 They didn't do anything that was,
22:10 it's just, it was a little bit different for them.
22:13 And so, you know, but yes, you know,
22:17 that's why we, that's why we worked yesterday, you know?
22:19 And we'll work it all week,
22:20 because the things that, from a front standpoint,
22:24 and some of the stunts and blitzes they did,
22:25 absolutely, we'll see them again
22:27 this Saturday, next Saturday as well.
22:30 - Did you say anything to Wilson or anybody
22:32 about how emotions almost got the better of the team?
22:34 - Yeah, that wasn't smart.
22:35 Yeah, and Brent and I talked about it after the game.
22:37 That's neither their group or in our group,
22:41 we haven't done that.
22:42 I don't really know where that came from, you know?
22:44 Like, the hit was clean in the end zone there.
22:49 Anthony shouldn't have stood over him.
22:51 He should have got out of the way.
22:53 And then they came out
22:54 and they shouldn't have done what they've done, you know?
22:56 And unfortunate, but yeah, we got it cleaned up.
23:00 - How do you, in football,
23:06 how do you explain the day that the running back
23:09 of Oklahoma State had against you guys,
23:11 the way you played against Central Florida,
23:13 what Central Florida did to them,
23:15 you know, Houston situation?
23:17 How do you explain that?
23:19 - Well, I don't know if you can, right?
23:24 I mean, it's like,
23:27 misery loves company, right?
23:28 So I'm sitting there looking on,
23:30 as we're getting back at 5 a.m. on Sunday morning,
23:35 I'm sitting there looking at scores
23:36 and we're not the only team
23:37 that got ran off the field on Saturday, you know?
23:40 Ole Miss did and Oklahoma State did
23:43 and there's several other ones,
23:44 but this couple off the top of my head.
23:46 And I think it goes back to this,
23:47 is you're dealing, and the truth of the matter is,
23:51 is you're dealing with 17 to 23,
23:55 ballpark 17, 23 year olds.
23:57 You're also dealing with some different things
24:01 that a common person doesn't understand is,
24:04 and what I mean by that is,
24:06 travels plays into it,
24:08 being home or away plays into it.
24:10 And there's not a whole lot of difference
24:14 outside a few teams.
24:17 And what I mean by that,
24:19 there's some clear cream in Power Five right now
24:23 and there's some clear bottom.
24:25 But there's a whole lot of teams that are very similar.
24:28 And so, if you have an injury,
24:31 or if one of your key players is off,
24:35 it could be something going on off the field,
24:37 it could be something injury-wise,
24:38 if they're a little bit off,
24:40 then it's a different group.
24:41 And then matchups are so critical.
24:45 Some teams like Houston,
24:50 their receivers were a really tough match for us.
24:53 So I knew going into that game,
24:55 even though our record was better than them,
24:58 I knew it was going to be a tough matchup.
25:00 And those happen, those happen in college football.
25:04 Central Florida and Oklahoma State,
25:07 Central Florida does some things in the run game
25:10 that were going to make it difficult for Oklahoma State.
25:13 And then the rain came.
25:15 You know, nobody talks about it,
25:16 it was raining sideways when I turned it on
25:19 on the second quarter.
25:20 And so, there's just a whole lot of different factors
25:24 than in professional sports.
25:27 And I know that's a long answer,
25:28 but I hope that made sense to you.
25:30 - Coach, I put a very high premium on honoring Coach Neal
25:33 and what he's meant to the program.
25:35 What has he meant to you?
25:37 - Well, he's been great to me.
25:38 You know, he really has.
25:39 He's been great to me,
25:40 he's talked to our team a bunch, you know,
25:42 through the years.
25:43 He's been very supportive.
25:45 And that's really all I can ask.
25:49 You know, I have a great deal of respect for him
25:51 as a coach and a man.
25:52 You know, he did it for a long time here.
25:54 He did it the right way.
25:55 And I'm glad, I really feel,
25:59 and I hope my feeling on this,
26:01 'cause I'm not necessarily just connected all the time,
26:04 but I really feel like the longer he's been away,
26:06 the more appreciation our fan base has for him.
26:09 And as well they should.
26:10 You know, he did it really well for a long time.
26:14 But he's been great to me, very supportive.