Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes - OSU-Oregon
September 12, 2026 | Cowboy Football
Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris
On how much this win means
"Not as much to me… For this place that has been down for a while and struggled… At Incarnate Word, I lost my first two games… At North Texas, I lost my first two games. So 1-1 is actually an improvement for me… I'm happy for our fans. It's been a long time coming, and we'll have to find some new goalposts."
On team responding to last week's performance
"We challenged our players this week in a really tough way and tough manner, and we had some meetings that weren't very pleasant… They had to listen to how bad they were after hearing how good they were for such a long time and to see them practice this last week, the intensity, the focus, the effort that they had and to be rewarded for it… I mean, without the two tipped passes that ended up being interceptions in that first half, we might have won the game by 25 plus points… I thought that physically, we played so much faster and we were more aggressive and the guys went out there and competed their tails off… For me to have that moment as a coach, that's what's rewarding."
On quarterback Drew Mestemaker's performance
"Drew is a dog man, I have no other way to say it… He was so good… He made some throws today that were just eye-opening… There was a throw on the flea flicker that he threw to Wyatt Young across the field that not many people in this world can make… With our gameplan going in, we thought we could run the quarterback a little bit just with what we do… They came out in a bit of a different defense and so with our offense, we thought it was something we could get to at times… You can see his competitive nature, it sure came out today."
On countering Oregon's momentum
"I thought we played great complimentary football today… We just kept fighting and kept swinging on all three sides of the football… I thought the big thing was we sustained so many great drives on offense and were able to build that lead… There will still be so much to learn from this, but we'll come back and continue to coach them hard next week."
On overall team defense
"I thought our defensive line was phenomenal today… Our one goal this week was to play fast… A great example is on that last play, James (Williams) was so fast to it… I don't even know if he was doing the right thing, but he saw that ball and they were so damn fast… But we pushed the pocket around the edge and got some key sacks… (Oregon) went for a lot of fourth downs and longer fourth down situations that was a little bit ironic… Credit to our defense on making those key stops to get it back to our offense."
Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker
On his touchdown run that sent him airborne
"I moved up underneath that and kind of slid out of the pocket. Everyone was standing in the end zone, so I was like, 'All right, I'm just gonna fit as much as I can here.' That same guy I jumped over earlier in the game hit me low, and I got close, and I was like, 'I'm gonna just go for it.' I saw him going low right when I jumped, and it was perfect. I felt like I was in the air for a year, and then I hit the ground so hard. But it's all good because I was in the end zone."
On the fans storming the field
"I think it exceeded every expectation I had, honestly. That's the best moment of my life, honestly, and to have the fans behind us. It was unreal the whole game."
On how rewarding it was to show what the offense was all about
"I think that was awesome, and that's what I was telling the guys the whole time. This is who we all are. This is how we play football here at Oklahoma State. I think to get those great plays early really, really built confidence in the guys. I'm just glad we had a bounce-back week after last week."
Oklahoma State linebacker Tate Romney
On holding Oregon's offense to 281 total yards
"A defense playing well comes down to everyone doing their job, executing their job and playing fast, and that's what we did. We did a really good job, and even when you make mistakes, if you're playing fast, you're going to be able to recover from those mistakes."
On holding Oregon to 101 yards in the first half
"We came into the game with confidence. I know we're coming off a loss, but we knew how we could play as a defense and we had a really good week of practice. Coach Morris, you heard him talk about it, he emphasized playing fast. We started faster, that first three-and-out got some momentum, got some more confidence from that, and we were able to roll that over."
Oklahoma State wide receiver Wyatt Young
On finding a way to switch momentum
"You can never get too high or too low; you have to stay level-headed, and that's something we preach on the sideline. Drew (Mestemaker) walks around, 'Hey, don't worry about it.' We run such an explosive offense; you can never be worried about us."
On being able to be themselves on offense
"It felt great, finally put on tape what we should. Got that bad taste out of our mouth from last week and ready to go celebrate."
Oklahoma State defensive end James Williams
On holding Oregon to 5-of-14 on third down and coming out on the winning side
"I knew that is who we were as a defense. You don't really see the effects of a one-for-eight third-down containing a team against Tulsa because you lose. Versus when you're on the other side of it, it's like, 'Wow, that was actually really important.' Defense can hold and withstand third downs, which is important, and we got the ball back to our quarterback."
On how it took a group unit on defense to win the game
"It really was a group unit because of a lot of those plays. Guys like me, Jaleel (Johnson) or Malik (Charles) on the other side, keeping contain so Dante (Moore) can't step up and run. That was a lot of what our game plan was built on. It was real selfless ball today. I was really proud of everyone; you could tell by how everybody came up to me after I got the fumble. I didn't leave hugs for probably three or four minutes. That's how much we all love each other."
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning
On the defensive scheme by OSU
"Ultimately, you don't know what any game looks like. I thought our guys prepared well, but they gave us a lot of looks that were different, especially defensively, than what we had prepared for. We hadn't prepared them quite for what we were going to see. I thought their defensive coordinator (Skyler) Cassidy did a great job of changing things up."
On concerns after the game performance
"I think there's definitely concerns in general from our performance standpoint. It's not about the players, it's about what we're asking them to do as coaches and what we're applying out there on the field. We should be able to execute on a high level. That falls back to myself so we have to evaluate everything that we're doing."
On discipline and execution as a team
"It's hard to explain. We'll have to go back and watch the film to see exactly where the lapses are when you play a team that's explosive like that. We knew they were going to go fast. They're going to create one-on-ones. We go back and watch that film and find the guys that are able to do that at a high level for us."
On the environment inside BPS
"It was a loud environment. The goal is to take the environment out of it. We didn't take the environment out of it because of the way we played the game, and that created some of the penalties that existed."
On Devon Jackson's big plays
"Those were big plays and really kept us in the game. Like I said, it wasn't as close. They [Oklahoma State] got into the red area a couple times. If they hadn't turned it over in the red area, this game could look worse than what it really looked like. Being able to score on defense is huge."
Oregon linebacker Teitum Tuioti
On the Oklahoma State offense
"Yeah, we can't take anything away from that team. They are a great team, and they won today. Great quarterback, great players and they play tough. Obviously, we have some takeaways, but it wasn't enough. Great team. They came out with the victory.
On the Oregon defense
"We have to find a way to stop them. We keep on killing ourselves… penalties, just one person not doing their job and that goes for everyone, including me. So all of us have to do our job, and we have to be better. We got to start practice tomorrow… we have to clean up a lot of things, and it's good for us to know there is so much to clean up. All this hype about the defense, like we got to lock in, really."
On the rest of the season
"One game isn't going to define us, we'll say that. Everyone in the locker room right now, we've got to stay together really closely right now. You know, it's going to be hostile around here. So, Oregon got to stay together no matter what. I ride with the people in my locker room, and that's what I'm going to do all season."
On how much this win means
"Not as much to me… For this place that has been down for a while and struggled… At Incarnate Word, I lost my first two games… At North Texas, I lost my first two games. So 1-1 is actually an improvement for me… I'm happy for our fans. It's been a long time coming, and we'll have to find some new goalposts."
On team responding to last week's performance
"We challenged our players this week in a really tough way and tough manner, and we had some meetings that weren't very pleasant… They had to listen to how bad they were after hearing how good they were for such a long time and to see them practice this last week, the intensity, the focus, the effort that they had and to be rewarded for it… I mean, without the two tipped passes that ended up being interceptions in that first half, we might have won the game by 25 plus points… I thought that physically, we played so much faster and we were more aggressive and the guys went out there and competed their tails off… For me to have that moment as a coach, that's what's rewarding."
On quarterback Drew Mestemaker's performance
"Drew is a dog man, I have no other way to say it… He was so good… He made some throws today that were just eye-opening… There was a throw on the flea flicker that he threw to Wyatt Young across the field that not many people in this world can make… With our gameplan going in, we thought we could run the quarterback a little bit just with what we do… They came out in a bit of a different defense and so with our offense, we thought it was something we could get to at times… You can see his competitive nature, it sure came out today."
On countering Oregon's momentum
"I thought we played great complimentary football today… We just kept fighting and kept swinging on all three sides of the football… I thought the big thing was we sustained so many great drives on offense and were able to build that lead… There will still be so much to learn from this, but we'll come back and continue to coach them hard next week."
On overall team defense
"I thought our defensive line was phenomenal today… Our one goal this week was to play fast… A great example is on that last play, James (Williams) was so fast to it… I don't even know if he was doing the right thing, but he saw that ball and they were so damn fast… But we pushed the pocket around the edge and got some key sacks… (Oregon) went for a lot of fourth downs and longer fourth down situations that was a little bit ironic… Credit to our defense on making those key stops to get it back to our offense."
Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker
On his touchdown run that sent him airborne
"I moved up underneath that and kind of slid out of the pocket. Everyone was standing in the end zone, so I was like, 'All right, I'm just gonna fit as much as I can here.' That same guy I jumped over earlier in the game hit me low, and I got close, and I was like, 'I'm gonna just go for it.' I saw him going low right when I jumped, and it was perfect. I felt like I was in the air for a year, and then I hit the ground so hard. But it's all good because I was in the end zone."
On the fans storming the field
"I think it exceeded every expectation I had, honestly. That's the best moment of my life, honestly, and to have the fans behind us. It was unreal the whole game."
On how rewarding it was to show what the offense was all about
"I think that was awesome, and that's what I was telling the guys the whole time. This is who we all are. This is how we play football here at Oklahoma State. I think to get those great plays early really, really built confidence in the guys. I'm just glad we had a bounce-back week after last week."
Oklahoma State linebacker Tate Romney
On holding Oregon's offense to 281 total yards
"A defense playing well comes down to everyone doing their job, executing their job and playing fast, and that's what we did. We did a really good job, and even when you make mistakes, if you're playing fast, you're going to be able to recover from those mistakes."
On holding Oregon to 101 yards in the first half
"We came into the game with confidence. I know we're coming off a loss, but we knew how we could play as a defense and we had a really good week of practice. Coach Morris, you heard him talk about it, he emphasized playing fast. We started faster, that first three-and-out got some momentum, got some more confidence from that, and we were able to roll that over."
Oklahoma State wide receiver Wyatt Young
On finding a way to switch momentum
"You can never get too high or too low; you have to stay level-headed, and that's something we preach on the sideline. Drew (Mestemaker) walks around, 'Hey, don't worry about it.' We run such an explosive offense; you can never be worried about us."
On being able to be themselves on offense
"It felt great, finally put on tape what we should. Got that bad taste out of our mouth from last week and ready to go celebrate."
Oklahoma State defensive end James Williams
On holding Oregon to 5-of-14 on third down and coming out on the winning side
"I knew that is who we were as a defense. You don't really see the effects of a one-for-eight third-down containing a team against Tulsa because you lose. Versus when you're on the other side of it, it's like, 'Wow, that was actually really important.' Defense can hold and withstand third downs, which is important, and we got the ball back to our quarterback."
On how it took a group unit on defense to win the game
"It really was a group unit because of a lot of those plays. Guys like me, Jaleel (Johnson) or Malik (Charles) on the other side, keeping contain so Dante (Moore) can't step up and run. That was a lot of what our game plan was built on. It was real selfless ball today. I was really proud of everyone; you could tell by how everybody came up to me after I got the fumble. I didn't leave hugs for probably three or four minutes. That's how much we all love each other."
Oregon head coach Dan Lanning
On the defensive scheme by OSU
"Ultimately, you don't know what any game looks like. I thought our guys prepared well, but they gave us a lot of looks that were different, especially defensively, than what we had prepared for. We hadn't prepared them quite for what we were going to see. I thought their defensive coordinator (Skyler) Cassidy did a great job of changing things up."
On concerns after the game performance
"I think there's definitely concerns in general from our performance standpoint. It's not about the players, it's about what we're asking them to do as coaches and what we're applying out there on the field. We should be able to execute on a high level. That falls back to myself so we have to evaluate everything that we're doing."
On discipline and execution as a team
"It's hard to explain. We'll have to go back and watch the film to see exactly where the lapses are when you play a team that's explosive like that. We knew they were going to go fast. They're going to create one-on-ones. We go back and watch that film and find the guys that are able to do that at a high level for us."
On the environment inside BPS
"It was a loud environment. The goal is to take the environment out of it. We didn't take the environment out of it because of the way we played the game, and that created some of the penalties that existed."
On Devon Jackson's big plays
"Those were big plays and really kept us in the game. Like I said, it wasn't as close. They [Oklahoma State] got into the red area a couple times. If they hadn't turned it over in the red area, this game could look worse than what it really looked like. Being able to score on defense is huge."
Oregon linebacker Teitum Tuioti
On the Oklahoma State offense
"Yeah, we can't take anything away from that team. They are a great team, and they won today. Great quarterback, great players and they play tough. Obviously, we have some takeaways, but it wasn't enough. Great team. They came out with the victory.
On the Oregon defense
"We have to find a way to stop them. We keep on killing ourselves… penalties, just one person not doing their job and that goes for everyone, including me. So all of us have to do our job, and we have to be better. We got to start practice tomorrow… we have to clean up a lot of things, and it's good for us to know there is so much to clean up. All this hype about the defense, like we got to lock in, really."
On the rest of the season
"One game isn't going to define us, we'll say that. Everyone in the locker room right now, we've got to stay together really closely right now. You know, it's going to be hostile around here. So, Oregon got to stay together no matter what. I ride with the people in my locker room, and that's what I'm going to do all season."
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/ Cowboy FootballSunday, September 13
Sunday, September 13
Sunday, September 13
Sunday, September 13
