Tennessee football had the chance to beat Oklahoma at home, but fell short in its bid to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive. The result was a deflating 33-27 defeat to the Sooners to hand the Vols their third loss of the year. Afterward, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables met with the media to give his thoughts.
Venables was asked about the fumble return for a touchdown, the play of John Mateer, bringing respect back to Oklahoma and more.
Here’s what he said.
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Opening Statement
“Well, that was what the doctor ordered there. I’m really proud of the fight and the belief of our football team. The team that is very, very determined. A team that is hard to kill, and a team that really came together. A team that wasn’t bothered by the noise. A team that we know when we put it all together, we have everything that we need to win every game here in the fourth quarter of our season. A team that found a way to overcome a lot of things here tonight. Went on the road in the SEC, and it went probably right according to script. Nothing that really surprised you, but I loved the ‘refusing to flinch’ mindset. I thought we knocked them back for a good part of the night.
“From a physicality standpoint, I thought that was a big part of the game, and the pile consistently went in our direction. All those little piles that fall forward add up a lot. Second half, the second quarter defensively, I know we gave up the touchdown drive on the first drive that their defense was back out there. We really had them dead to rights and just missed the tackle there for a long touchdown. After that, really, in the middle late, we go and they miss the field goal, two interceptions, back-to-back drives. Then, inside that first drive of the third quarter, the defense made punt, punt, turnover on downs. And we had to go back out and defend another drive because we turned the ball over there, inadvertently, foolishly. But the resolve, the leadership of this team, I have been saying it a lot. It’s the team that really is highly invested. And again, going into this game – vision, belief, and action. You have to be willing to walk the walk. You have to have a ‘kick the door in’ kind of mindset. It’s going to be a big-time environment, big-time atmosphere, and you’re going to have to overcome that when you are in the stadium.
“Nobody, other than the guys in the black jerseys, are going to be the ones that you’re competing against. Second half, offensively, we were fantastic, outside of the interception with John Mateer. Twelve out of sixteen. Over 100 yards, just under 120 yards. Average of 6.5 yards of play. And then, we are starting to really complement each other. Offensively, had a little over 250 yards in the second half, and it really just came to life. Got into a great rhythm. We were a lot better. I think we had given up two defensive conversions on third down. One, we had the interference on the very first third down of the game. Then, we hit the quarterback late on another one that we were off the field. We have to go play with better discipline there. The second half was a lot better in the third and fourth downs. We had a couple of really huge stops down there on the plus side of the field that at the end of the day, it all made a big difference. Two onside kicks that we had to recover with RJ Spears and Ivan Carreon – fantastic.
“And Tate Sandell, he was probably the MVP. He was an absolute animal. We had a really fantastic guy in Grayson Miller. You have to be able to control the field position. He was great again, just under 50 yards (average) on three punts. We did what we needed to do. This isn’t the game of statistics; this is a game of will and physicality. Execute when we need to, and we were able to do that. So I’m proud of the guys. The bye comes at a good time for us. We get a few guys back. They had several guys go down as well. We had some guys – R Mason Thomas and Kobie McKinzie. I’m thinking it will be short-term. I don’t see them missing much time if any at all.”
On the scoop and score by R Mason Thomas
“That was huge. Again, I thought we had really good pressure all night. We were doing some things to stunt the run game. We played with a light box for a good part of the night; we were willing to give up some things underneath. I know they had a handful of some big plays, but they got the post route there late. They weren’t able to get behind us in the competitive play, and man-to-man coverage on a third down on Reggie Powers III. But it really felt like their explosive plays, where they’re running free on the back end, we were able to limit that and still not allow them to run the ball. Our guys up front, they played fantastic. Again, some snaps, many snaps, we were two guys short from what I would say were gap sound in order to keep the ball in front of us and stay on top of everything and make them work the field. They’re a good offense, man. They have a good quarterback, excellent receivers. We really felt like they were the most physical offensive line. They’re night-and-day better than what they were a year ago. Our guys matched the physicality and then some. At the end of the day, I thought that on both sides of the lines of scrimmage, I felt like that was, you know, one of the biggest differences in the game and why we won.”
On the play of LB Owen Heinecke
“Played out of his mind. First start, get twelve tackles in the first half. Where the hell did he go in the second half? He only had one tackle. But, I’m really proud of him and thankful. He’s really become a really good leader and player. He was fantastic tonight.”
On finishing one-score games in conference play
“Again, if you go back to Michigan, we made a bunch of mistakes. We went back to Auburn, we made a bunch of mistakes. We go to South Carolina, that’s football, you know? And it’s easy for everybody when you don’t win, those mistakes are magnified, and every play has tremendous magnitude. I know I talked about that on Tuesday … where sometimes you learn the hard way, and tonight, fortunately, we were able to overcome just like Tennessee. They made plenty of mistakes, too, and they still had a fighting chance there in the fourth quarter. That’s football. It’s never going to be perfect, and I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful for where everything didn’t go the right way, perfect. That’s how you grow and you improve, get better, and we’re incrementally getting a little bit better. Winning on the road at a place like this does a lot for your belief and your confidence, the rhythm that you want to try and create here in the back half. And it doesn’t get any easier. I’m thankful for the adversity that our guys were able to overcome. It’ll do a lot for them and for this team.”
On creating turnovers
“They were huge turnovers… It makes a big difference. You go on the road and you want to win, you have to create the turnovers. You can’t just continue this trend and expect to win. It’s too hard. We’re very, very fortunate. The last one there could have been catastrophic. Got to be a little bit smarter, a lot smarter in that situation.”
On if the final interception was an RPO
“There should be no option whatsoever. Hand the ball off every time.”
On his message about dealing with noise
“Just affirmation. It’s all starting from vision. You’ve got to see it, play the moment. Walk it through. Belief foundationally, that’s what it’s all about. You got to believe in yourself, you got to believe in this opportunity, you got to believe in your coach, you got to believe in the game play. You’ve got to take action after that. It takes that. You’ve got to walk the walk. You’ve got a kick-the-door-in mindset. That’s how tough and challenging it is. It takes those three things to win on the road. Just celebrated their will, their toughness, their belief. A team that’s ‘Hey, man, when are we going to bring real respect to the name on the front of our jerseys?’ There’s going to be some type of a narrative at the end of tonight. It should look like we’re bringing respect to the name. When are we going to be tired enough is enough and we’ve got to be able to overcome. We’ve got to make our plays, close someone out. Tonight was just kind of a start for that. You get one shot, you get one kill. You don’t get to go back and do this again. Making the most of the opportunity, figuring it out, finding a way. My hope and my expectation and my belief is that we’ll be able to build on that and all the things that I just said and become part of our identity. This football team, leaving your mark and doing something that maybe for some people is unthinkable.
On what it will take to bring real respect back to Oklahoma
“Continue to have nights like tonight. The will, the grit, the toughness, the belief, how you do what you do. It all matters. Laying it on the line and fight until the end.”
On why John Mateer was better in the second half
“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. I thought we played with a better rhythm. Sometimes that’s him making good decisions. Sometimes that’s the play-caller getting us in and out of the right kind of plays and establishing the run. I thought the quick game that we played with, a lot of three-step game, there was some free access, take what they’re giving you, that helps you stay on schedule. I just thought we stayed on schedule, didn’t press, got into a great rhythm running and passing. And we didn’t make a lot of mistakes. We made some critical conversions that helped create confidence and momentum in the second half. I just thought we played in a really precise, accurate, confident, yet aggressive way. I thought we played to win. We played to win. I thought the end of day, that showed up.”
