“I’m pleased with what I saw on defense. The good thing about what happened out here today is what I’ve been telling you guys is what’s happening. So you guys realize, that’s what he’s been saying. They’re playing good, sound defense. They’re in the right gaps. They got out of the gap on ROdney’s long run, then the safety missed a tackle. They gave up the big play. Other than that, they have done a good job this spring of not giving up big plays. And I feel like we’re a better tackling team. We’ll see. But I feel like at this time, we’re a better tackling team.”
Flores running for his life?
“When you split teams like this, the one area that’s going to struggle is the offensive line. Because now you’ve got guys that haven’t played and competed, and they’re not communicating with each other. Because we didn’t just take one group of guys, we split it down the middle. That’s the risk you take. In most cases, it’s difficult to play a spring game, because you don’t have enough guys, and when you split ’em up, it’s hard to function. So every position’s important. But defensive guys putting their hand on the ground, or running to the quarterback’s one thing, offensive guys knowing who to block on all these different looks is another. So that area, you saw what, five, six sacks today? That’s going to happen in a spring game in most cases, because these guys don’t work together much and they haven’t had much experience. But I will say this. It was worth playing the game, because we were able to see some guys in pressure situations, and particular quarterbacks and their ability to avoid the rush, because that’s the real world.”
On evaluating with quick whistles, stopping 90% of action:
“It’s really probably 75 because they’re not smacking each other. The one play to Hicks, he made that guy miss. I told him you do that next fall, and it won’t end up this way. But I was really pleased with what took place today because if we go as as fast as we can, as hard as we can, as physical as we can, but we also have to take into consideration getting somebody hurt. So it worked out good, but it’s not 100% fool-proof.”
Coordinators just were observers?
“One, it gives other guys experience calling plays. So in doing that, if you give two other guys that need to learn to call plays on both sides of the ball. And in my opinion, as an assistant coach, the only way to ever become a coordinator is to act like you’re a coordinator in preseason, postseason and during the season. And that allowed us to give two other guys an opportunity to call plays.”
READ MORE: Final stats from Oklahoma State spring game
