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Nov. 1, 2009

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TEXAS

Head Coach Mack Brown
On the game: I'm really, really pleased with the team - the way they played, the attitude they played with. They rose to the challenge against an outstanding Oklahoma State football team. Mike's done a great job. They've got great players. They've got tremendous speed, and this is the first time we'd ever come up here and not been behind. We didn't know what to do at halftime. We were sitting in there, we're usually in bad shape, two touchdowns down. We kind of laughed about it and said we're not sure how to handle this halftime because it has not been this way. The interceptions for touchdowns are something that our defense is priding themselves in. The kicking game was probably a wash tonight. We didn't have a lot of great things, but Hunter Lawrence continues to do a great job, and Colt (McCoy) is playing as good as anybody in the country. He moved the ball with his feet. He played with a great head. He was very accurate, and we just felt like it was a complete team win. On the road is tough. These guys beat Colorado at home. They beat Oklahoma in Dallas, went to Columbia and won and came up here. A lot of people questioned whether they could come up here and play better than they have in the past, and they did and I'm really proud of them. I do think the reason they played better is that we have great respect now for Oklahoma State. They're a much better football team than some of the ones we've played here, and I didn't do a good job, in some cases, of getting our guys ready to play here and Mike did. I thought tonight both teams were ready to play, and our guys played much better.

On Oklahoma State's missed field goal on the opening drive: I thought it was huge. When you defer and can keep them from scoring and then your offense goes right down and scores, usually if we can do that, we've won the game. Then I also thought Oklahoma State did a great job of answering when we were sitting there before the half, but Colt took the offense right down to score right before the half. That changed the momentum back in our favor after they took it, and that was about the only time I thought they took it during the night. Then for us to come out and score points immediately to start the third quarter. The game was really over at that point.

On if the win signals Texas is the dominant team in the nation: I think the signal is we have a chance to be really good here at the end. Thank goodness we divide our season up in three sections, four (games) each. Two of those sections are gone so we have a four-game season that's left, and we have to restart that next week. Now we're continuing to play for the Big 12 South Championship. We're continuing to try to get in that Big 12 Championship game and at the same time, we still have a lot at stake on the national scene. We want to be the best team in the country, and we want to continue to play like that.

On Texas' ability to score on defense and special teams: I think that makes you an unusual team. We've never been able to do that, and our offense is getting better. Our defense is continuing to score and we didn't score on special teams tonight, but we usually do. Scoring in all three phases is something that gives you a chance to be really, really good, and we've just got to keep that hammer down and keep pressing in those areas.

TEXAS PLAYERS

Quarterback Colt McCoy
On how sweet it is to get the win and still be able to control their own destiny: Well we feel much better as opposed to last year. This was big for us. We focused all week. Hats off to our defense, they played tremendous. Oklahoma State's goal was to keep us off the field, and they did a really good job of that in the first half. Honestly it felt like we only had like three or four drives probably, and we scored on three f them so that was good. Our defense came to play tonight and played well and put our offense in some good situations.

On making sure what happened in the Texas Tech game last year didn't happen again this year: That was a bad feeling, and I think you gotta put it on the seniors' shoulders. It's your team and you control your own destiny, and we couldn't let it happen again. I think our team really stepped up and came ready to play. Oklahoma State's a tremendous football team. They have a lot of good players, and we were able to play effective tonight and execute while on the field.

On being on the fast track to the national title game: Our focus is one at a time. It's been like that since the beginning of the year. I think our team has definitely bought into that. Our focus right now is UCF. We're going to enjoy tonight as it's a big win obviously.

Defensive End Sergio Kindle
On how nice it is to come into OSU and beat them the way they did: It's always nice to come into someone else's place and win. But to perform like we did, it shows how hard we did to prepare during the week.

On people saying that Pasadena (the national championship) is in their sights: We've gotta take it one game at a time. There's teams out there every week that lose to a nobody so we only want to think about Pasadena if we get to that time or if we're in a position to be there. Now we've just got to get prepared for Central Florida.

Safety Earl Thomas
On how the strategy of forcing OSU into passing worked: It helps when you make a team one-dimensional. When they were down late, we knew they had to pass the ball. Coach did a great job of play calling, and we were able to execute basically the whole game.

On having three safeties in the game and how rare it is: It just shows how versatile our safeties are and how any of us can just play like another cornerback out there.

On how big of an impact it was for Dez Bryant to not be playing: Dez is one of the best receivers in all of college football, and he is a deep threat and we could've taken him away enough. We did good against him last year, but he would've just been another weapon they had.

On how every time the offense is going to throw it seems like a potential opportunity for the defense to score: Yeah, we just try to put it in the end zone as much as possible and create turnovers. Our goal is three a game, and it's just falling our way this game.

On if OSU was stunned with Texas' speed: I think we were good sideline-to-sideline. Now we've just gotta keep it going. As a team, we have good team speed definitely.

OKLAHOMA STATE

Head Coach Mike Gundy
On his team's second loss of the season: That's a tough one. I don't know any other way to put it. I hate that we didn't give Texas our best effort. I think they are really good football team. They've got great skill and great speed. I thought their coaches had a good plan tonight. When you turn the ball over and make that many mistakes against a team that has got that much ability, it's very difficult to win the game. Getting behind by more than two scores makes it very difficult to execute on offense and defense.

On having to play from behind: You become one-dimensional. You have to be a little bit more aggressive on defense and on offense, the clock is working against you and the score is working against you. It takes you out of your game plan a little bit.

On his team's effort: I was very proud of the effort. Without watching the tape, I talked to the team after the game and told them from standing on the sideline, I thought the guys played with great effort. The preparation of college football, the Sunday to Friday work, is very important to these young men. On Saturdays, we want them to go out and have fun and play hard. We put together a game plan in all three phases each week that we feel like gives us a chance to win the game. We played hard, but it didn't work out for us tonight.

On Zac Robinson's struggles: Zac Robinson is our quarterback, and we're going to stick with him. It just didn't work out very well for him tonight. He made a few mistakes. It's important that he keeps his head high and keeps playing. He's a good quarterback and a good player. He just had a tough night.

On Texas's touchdown at the end of the first half after near fumble: My angle wasn't very good. They said his forward progress was stopped. So it's not something you can really question. I couldn't see it from where I was at, but I'm guessing that they have a pretty good shot at it in the booth. They determined that it was not a fumble, and they were able to go down and score. They made a play there to convert on third-and-long either once or twice. That was a big momentum swing.

Defensive Coordinator Bill Young
On Texas: They are a great team. You have to give them credit. That touchdown at the end of the first half was huge for them. They are a really skilled football team. I thought (Jordan) Shipley played an excellent game. Colt McCoy did a great job getting him the ball. He caught several passes when we were doubling him up. You have to give him a lot of credit.

On pass rush: We have to get better as pass rushers. There is no question about it. We lost containment on a man-under, two-deep three- man rush, and McCoy scrambled for 19 or 20 yards. That is what led to that touchdown right before half time. Any time you lose containment on a guy like that who is such a good athlete, you are going to be burned. Plus, your defensive backs and linebackers have their backs to the ball and do not know he is running. I think Texas is a heck of a football team. I do not think I have seen a better one in the last two or three years.

Offensive Coordinator Gunter Brewer
On offense: We had our opportunity here and there to keep it a competitive game. We were moving the ball, playing fast, our stats were good, but we just were not getting any points. That comes from turning the ball over, mistakes we made as a coaching staff, our kids not getting the play done or whatever it was. You go back and look at the tape, and there is a case where we have opportunities, we just did not make the most of the ones we had early.

On big plays: In this type of defense where they put a lot of pressure on you, we have to be able to make the plays when we get our opportunities with big plays or explosive plays. We did not come up with those. We were short on a few. You have to give them credit. They made some plays defensively. Unfortunately when they made them it ended up in scores or big plays that hurt a lot.

OKLAHOMA STATE PLAYERS

Defensive Lineman Derek Burton
On Texas: They have really good players. If we give them any room, they are going to take it for a lot of yards. We did a pretty good job on them, but we still have to make more plays.

On Sexton's near strip: There is not much you can do about it. You just have to move on from that. It was a big momentum swing for them. We should have stopped them, and we did not. You still have to play.

Quarterback Zac Robinson
On game: It was just a tough night. We could not really make the plays early in the game to stay in it. We fell behind. As a quarterback when you fall behind, you feel like you have to start making big plays by forcing it. That is when the interceptions come. That is what happened tonight. You have to give them a lot of credit. They are a really good defense. That is probably by far the best defense I've faced in my career. They did a great job covering things up. I was trying to force it there late in the game, and it all went downhill.

On Texas's defense: It seemed like they were all over just about everything that we had. There were probably times when I should have tucked it and ran or something. I did that some in the first half. We got to the second half, and I tried to throw some things up that I probably should not have. That is just kind of the way it went, but their secondary is very good. They did a great job.

Linebacker Andre Sexton
On near strip: It was winding down on the half, and somebody stood him up. I came in there, ripped the ball outright and tried to run with it. I was surprised. I thought the refs would be signaling the ball the other way, and the crowd would be going crazy. They just whistled it dead. We did not really know what was going on. We did not get an explanation on what happened. We still should not have given up that touchdown at the end of the halftime. It was a big momentum swing for them going into the half.

On play not going your way: It hurts a lot. It was hard for a lot of players to let that play go, even though you are supposed to let plays like that go, but it was just so hard. They ended up going down the field and scoring on us right before halftime. It could have easily been a 14-point swing the other way, if we score. It was very hurtful to our team. It could have been a big momentum swing going into halftime.