Oklahoma-Kansas QuoteBook: The Best From OU's Conference Win

Here's what the coaches and players had to say following Oklahoma's 52-42 win over Kansas on Saturday.

The Oklahoma Sooners finally got back on track Saturday. Brent Venables notched his first conference win as OU’s head coach, beating No. 19 Kansas 52-42 in Norman.

After three straight losses, the Sooners desperately needed a win to boost confidence. Now, Oklahoma can take momentum into the bye week and try to make a second half run at a solid bowl game.

Here are a few of the best quotes from Saturday’s postgame press conference:

"Today was important going into our bye week, getting a victory against a good disciplined Kansas team that’s been playing very well. They’ve shown tremendous improvement from the Kansas I saw before. They’re doing a great job there. Winning is hard against anyone.

"Our fans were great. From the Walk of Champions to helping us win today. It was cool to see that. I know there’s sacrifice for everybody and it’s hard. When the rubber meets the road, you want everyone to stay loyal and passionate about your team even when we’re not exactly where we all want us to be. I loved seeing that coming to stadium. Just before kickoff, to see the place packed and loud really made a difference today."

— Head coach Brent Venables

"We can't control what happened three weeks ago or the past three weeks. But we can control the now and trying to respond the right way. I'm proud of our guys because it ain't easy. You know what I mean? Nobody plans it out losing three weeks in a row and taking that to the chin three weeks in a row is not easy. But how we've responded. Continue to see the guys just grind every single day. That's how you respond the right way and that's how we could control."

— Quarterback Dillon Gabriel

“It feels great, just to be back in the win column. The last two weeks have been rough, that first one give or take a couple plays against Kansas State could’ve decided the game. The past week and a half’s been a rough one. I feel like we’re back. I feel like we got our stride back. We’re just playing good football and out there having fun. That’s what we’ve stressed all week, especially in the receiver room — just go out there and have fun. We’ve been playing this game since we were kids, for most of us.”

— Wide receiver Marvin Mims

"I think it was pretty important. It's one of those things like we've been really committed to just kind of getting out of the mud. And we always felt like as soon as we got it back on track like we would be able to kind of continually build from that.

"And so I think that everyone's on the same page. Everyone's really excited about the win today. But I think everyone's kind of on the same page of this is just step one. We've got to get back. We know what type of team that we can be. And so we're kind of all committed to that." 

— Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby

“Just having the awareness to feed off each other, play complementary football and find ways to take advantage of certain situations. We were able to do that. Again, the mishap right before half, not scoring, and then the turnovers — outside of those four plays, I thought we played pretty good.”

— Linebacker DaShaun White

"We've been lacking in getting sacks the past few weeks. Just being able to keep pressure on the quarterback all day, whether it was a sack or not, we had him pressured pretty much the whole game. Being able to get that sack showed the guys we can live in their backfield. That was a big deal for us."

— Linebacker David Ugwoegbu

“Feels good. A win feels good. And I'll never take that for granted. But like I said it's good for our team and something that we needed because of how…you see it week to week how hard everyone works and when you don't reap the benefits, sometimes it's tough.

"You got to continue to trust the process and continue to work just as hard and know that at some point when you keep digging the gold will come. So just continue to trust that and I'm proud of our guys.”

— Gabriel

“It’s quite a difference. 8 being back and doing what he did, his leadership, toughness and experience is special and it’s unique and it’s matched by production. There’s a lot of faith in those guys going out and playing really, really well. They did that. Ton of stuff to clean up, but proud of them.”

— Lebby

"Our guys have shown great humility. I made a challenge and you guys heard where I said if anybody wants to leave, it wasn’t like there all these things happening. I wanted to make it clear what it’s gonna take. It’s gonna be really hard to finish the year. It always is hard.

"If you’re really successful then you’re fighting complacency and noise that goes with it. If you’re one of those undefeated team then you usually have some really good players that a lot of people are trying to get their hands on or when you’re dealing with young people they start taking two hands off the wheel. Handling success can be even more difficult. Both are important and we need to handle both of them."

— Venables

"To get started fast I mean it was a big deal. And we still didn't get started as fast as we'd like to. Still kind of some small things that we've definitely gotta clean up. But I think that just as far as a team today and playing team ball we started really fast. But no it's important. That momentum is no joke. I think we kind of the last few weeks we had the worst of it. But today we kind of got the best of it." 

— White