At 3:30 today, Head Coaches Bo Pelini and Bob Stoops held press conferences with members of the national media inside the Dallas Cowboys stadium. The following are quotes from Head Coach Bob Stoops press conference this afternoon (quotes from Bo Pelini follow below):
Opening Statements... "We're, of course, as a team and program, really feel fortunate and excited to be in this position to compete for another Big 12 Championship. We're proud to represent Oklahoma in the south division; and playing another great tradition and program in Nebraska, with such a history in this game of competing for championships these two programs. Awful proud of Bo and his group of coaches, so many that I know that have had such an outstanding short career there, and to be back in this game again, we recognize it as a big challenge, of course. But exciting one and one we're really looking forward to being out here tomorrow night in this stadium and competing for another Big 12 Championship. So the team has had a great week of work, and we're really -- they'll be bussing down here shortly. They get in in the evening, and kind of our normal routine from here."
On what he saw out of Demarco Murray in Thursday's practice... "He looked good. He went through the entire practice and was feeling good afterwards. So that's all a positive sign. So we anticipate him being prepared and ready to go."
On the uncertainty of preparing against three capable quarterbacks with Taylor Martinez's health up in the air... "You take a little extra time and work on some of the stuff you've seen from Cody Green and Zac Lee. And we did that. A lot of it, some of it doesn't really matter. It's the same offense and a lot of the same plays. Other parts of it, particularly some of the passing game you work a little bit more and prepare for. That's what we've done, and hopefully we're ready for it."
On the one or two areas in where he has seen his team improve... "We are, in the last several weeks playing really consistently and confidently. I think a couple of the areas first would be mental mistakes, primarily defensively being aligned and in proper position. So much at a time some of the plays we had given up, not to take anything away, people take advantage of it when you're not disciplined to be doing what we're supposed to be doing. We've been very much better and very consistent about that in the last few weeks. Offensively I think two areas we've been, for the most part, balanced. We've been effective running the football and persistent running the football which has opened up a lot of big plays and passing for Landry Jones and his continued emergence as a special quarterback."
On if Jonathan Nelson [senior safety injured early on in the Bedlam Game] would be ready to go Saturday... "He's ready to go. He's practiced since Monday, and has been solid. And I never talk about any type of injuries if a guy's set to play. Just no matter what it is, I just don't think there is no sense in anyone targeting what his issues were."
On how much more confidence he has in Landry Jones going into this game as opposed to last year's game with Nebraska in Lincoln... "It's not even comparable. But I think the big reason is not only Landry's mindset, his experience, and the confidence that he's played with here in the last, you know, this whole year. I think more than that it's also a year ago knowing that everybody wants to dump it all on him. He wasn't supported very well. Look at the penalties we had in that game. Look at our banged up offensive line that we didn't have. Look at the receivers and dropped balls. It goes on and on. I thought to finish the year like we did, I thought our offensive coaches did a marvelous job piecing it together. We play Oklahoma State the last game of the regular season. We have one lineman walk-on left to play, to go in. If anybody's hurt he's got to play all the positions. We move our third team tight end to right tackle to play that game the day of the game. So in the end, we were just hanging on. It's not Landry's fault. In a lot of ways through all the different injuries and all, it was all we could do. He wasn't supported in a great way, but I still thought through the year he had a really good year for his situation."
On if he feels like the "people's champ" going into this game with Nebraska leaving the conference after this season... "I don't know. In the end maybe that's the case. I'll take it if that's the -- I'll take all the good vibrations I can get. But I'm not out there meaning out in the public, papers, reading, listening to news. I don't know if that's the case or not. I guess maybe I'm not the best one to ask that. I'm kind of in a cocoon, going to practice, getting ready for the game, so I'm not aware of it. But if that's the case, we'll take all the rooting and all the cheering from whoever wants to give it to us."
On what makes Nebraska's defense so good... "A number of things. They're coached well. They do a great job coaching. I know Bo has a hand in it. His brother Carl as coordinator and Mike Ekeler and those guys have done a great job. You see the discipline. They play physical. They've got excellent talent. When you look at their cover guys, you look at them up front with their toughness in their front four. So, all of it together they play an excellent scheme. They're well-schooled at it."
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