What Stillwater is saying
Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:31 am
Here is the what the local paper in Stillwater said about the game.
Gundy praised Lulay a lot
Just enough
By Wade McWhorter
Stillwater NewsPress
A Division I-AA opponent coming into the home stadium of a Big 12 Conference team which has been to three-straight bowl games appeared to be a mismatch.
But if Montana State was supposed to come into Boone Pickens Stadium and roll over for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, somebody forgot to tell the Bobcats.
MSU made Mike Gundy sweat out the final minutes of his head coaching debut, but in the end Gundy’s Cowboys hung on for a 15-10 win in front of 43,857 fans.
“We would have liked to put up 35 or 40 points and held them to 10, but that’s not what happened,” Gundy said. “I’m excited with what happened, and the way it finished.”
It finished with OSU’s defense clamping down in the final quarter, and the offense running out the final 4:44 to secure the win.
Trailing 15-10, the Bobcats drove into OSU territory with five minutes remaining. But on a key 3rd down-and-10 play at the Cowboys’ 33-yard line, Darnell Smith stuffed MSU tailback Justin Domineck on a screen pass for a six-yard loss that forced the visitors to punt.
“In the second half we were in a lot of crucial situations, and the defense made big plays,” Gundy said. “Being a coach on the sidelines, you get a little more nervous and you want to go out there and make a play. I’ve always been that way.
“Our guys never looked concerned at all. I was concerned, but they weren’t.”
Following the defensive stand that forced a punt, OSU took over at its own 20 and looked to backup quarterback Bobby Reid to engineer the offense.
And the redshirt freshman, along with a pair of Cowboy tailbacks, thwarted any hopes of a MSU upset.
Reid had a pair of rushes for 46 yards on the game’s final drive, the most critical of which came on a 3rd-and-7 play with less than two minutes remaining. On that play, Reid scampered 28 yards into MSU territory and the game was all but over.
“I was proud of the way the offense controlled the ball in the last four minutes,” Gundy said.
OSU’s offense had its ups-and-downs throughout the contest. The Cowboys capped a nine-play, 55 yard drive on their first possession with an 11-yard touchdown run by Donovan Woods and took an 8-0 lead when Julius Crosslin found the end zone for a two-point conversion.
The Bobcats quickly answered, getting a 35-yard field goal by Jeff Hastings to make the score 8-3.
That score would not hold up for long as quarterback Travis Lulay marched the Bobcats down the field and a three-yard touchdown run by Michael Bass gave MSU a 10-8 advantage that coach Mike Kramer’s squad took into halftime.
Lulay, a four-year starter who Gundy considers an NFL talent, finished with 205 yards on 22-of-34 passing and kept his team’s hopes of an upset alive throughout the game.
“I was not nervous going into this game, but I was concerned about playing a quarterback that had the maturity and as many yards and has been in as many battles as (Lulay) has,” Gundy said. “(Lulay is) a field general. He lets your defense move around or get into a certain look or a blitz or a stunt or a coverage, and then he waits until there’s six or seven seconds left and changes the play and gets them in right play.
“He did a good job of trying to attack the youth in our secondary.”
Added OSU linebacker Lawrence Pinson, who recorded nine tackles and a sack, “I don’t know how (Lulay) was getting that ball off on some of them. I’m in his face and then he’s got the ball downfield. He did a great job.”
Not to be outdone was OSU’s two-headed monster at quarterback. While Woods and Reid were not exactly sharp throwing the ball — Woods was 10-of-20 for 117 yards and a score, while Reid completed one of his two pass attempts — the duo proved dangerous with their feet.
Reid led all rushers with 82 yards on just six carries, while Woods racked up 61 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.
Complementing the quarterbacks were tailbacks Mike Hamilton, who had 13 carries for 54 yards, and Julius Crosslin, who added 49 yards on 12 totes.
“I was proud of the way they ran the football,” Gundy said. “That’s what we needed. We needed those players to make plays for us if we wanted to win.”
A win —convincing or not — is exactly what OSU got. And while the Cowboys were admittedly a little unhappy with the margin of victory, they’ll take being 1-0 any day.
“You say Montana State and we all talk about I-AA or Division I,” Gundy said. “I’m not gonna stand up here and tell you those 11 guys on defense are the same as Big 12 players because you’d all get up and walk out of here.
“They played extremely hard, and they had a good plan for what they did. But I’ll say it again that when you have a quarterback as experienced as (Lulay) is, a win is a win.”
Gundy praised Lulay a lot
Just enough
By Wade McWhorter
Stillwater NewsPress
A Division I-AA opponent coming into the home stadium of a Big 12 Conference team which has been to three-straight bowl games appeared to be a mismatch.
But if Montana State was supposed to come into Boone Pickens Stadium and roll over for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, somebody forgot to tell the Bobcats.
MSU made Mike Gundy sweat out the final minutes of his head coaching debut, but in the end Gundy’s Cowboys hung on for a 15-10 win in front of 43,857 fans.
“We would have liked to put up 35 or 40 points and held them to 10, but that’s not what happened,” Gundy said. “I’m excited with what happened, and the way it finished.”
It finished with OSU’s defense clamping down in the final quarter, and the offense running out the final 4:44 to secure the win.
Trailing 15-10, the Bobcats drove into OSU territory with five minutes remaining. But on a key 3rd down-and-10 play at the Cowboys’ 33-yard line, Darnell Smith stuffed MSU tailback Justin Domineck on a screen pass for a six-yard loss that forced the visitors to punt.
“In the second half we were in a lot of crucial situations, and the defense made big plays,” Gundy said. “Being a coach on the sidelines, you get a little more nervous and you want to go out there and make a play. I’ve always been that way.
“Our guys never looked concerned at all. I was concerned, but they weren’t.”
Following the defensive stand that forced a punt, OSU took over at its own 20 and looked to backup quarterback Bobby Reid to engineer the offense.
And the redshirt freshman, along with a pair of Cowboy tailbacks, thwarted any hopes of a MSU upset.
Reid had a pair of rushes for 46 yards on the game’s final drive, the most critical of which came on a 3rd-and-7 play with less than two minutes remaining. On that play, Reid scampered 28 yards into MSU territory and the game was all but over.
“I was proud of the way the offense controlled the ball in the last four minutes,” Gundy said.
OSU’s offense had its ups-and-downs throughout the contest. The Cowboys capped a nine-play, 55 yard drive on their first possession with an 11-yard touchdown run by Donovan Woods and took an 8-0 lead when Julius Crosslin found the end zone for a two-point conversion.
The Bobcats quickly answered, getting a 35-yard field goal by Jeff Hastings to make the score 8-3.
That score would not hold up for long as quarterback Travis Lulay marched the Bobcats down the field and a three-yard touchdown run by Michael Bass gave MSU a 10-8 advantage that coach Mike Kramer’s squad took into halftime.
Lulay, a four-year starter who Gundy considers an NFL talent, finished with 205 yards on 22-of-34 passing and kept his team’s hopes of an upset alive throughout the game.
“I was not nervous going into this game, but I was concerned about playing a quarterback that had the maturity and as many yards and has been in as many battles as (Lulay) has,” Gundy said. “(Lulay is) a field general. He lets your defense move around or get into a certain look or a blitz or a stunt or a coverage, and then he waits until there’s six or seven seconds left and changes the play and gets them in right play.
“He did a good job of trying to attack the youth in our secondary.”
Added OSU linebacker Lawrence Pinson, who recorded nine tackles and a sack, “I don’t know how (Lulay) was getting that ball off on some of them. I’m in his face and then he’s got the ball downfield. He did a great job.”
Not to be outdone was OSU’s two-headed monster at quarterback. While Woods and Reid were not exactly sharp throwing the ball — Woods was 10-of-20 for 117 yards and a score, while Reid completed one of his two pass attempts — the duo proved dangerous with their feet.
Reid led all rushers with 82 yards on just six carries, while Woods racked up 61 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.
Complementing the quarterbacks were tailbacks Mike Hamilton, who had 13 carries for 54 yards, and Julius Crosslin, who added 49 yards on 12 totes.
“I was proud of the way they ran the football,” Gundy said. “That’s what we needed. We needed those players to make plays for us if we wanted to win.”
A win —convincing or not — is exactly what OSU got. And while the Cowboys were admittedly a little unhappy with the margin of victory, they’ll take being 1-0 any day.
“You say Montana State and we all talk about I-AA or Division I,” Gundy said. “I’m not gonna stand up here and tell you those 11 guys on defense are the same as Big 12 players because you’d all get up and walk out of here.
“They played extremely hard, and they had a good plan for what they did. But I’ll say it again that when you have a quarterback as experienced as (Lulay) is, a win is a win.”