Head coach Mike Stoops:

“”We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We knew we wanted to take the game into the fourth quarter — that was our plan — with a chance to win, and that’s what we did. We did what we had to do to give ourselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter.””

Senior safety Cam Nelson:

“”A lot of people doubted us. When we were in L.A. (for Pacific 10 Conference media day before the season), they didn’t even expect to us to go back to a bowl. They thought we were a one-hit wonder, so it feels good to prove the critics wrong and take some more pressure off of coach Stoops.””

Outside receivers coach Dave Nichol on the team’s resolve:

“”We kind of do good when it’s easy and then sometimes the pressure kind of gets to us. This time it was the opposite. … I think hopefully this could put us over the hump mentally about going and making it at money time when you’ve got to and that’s what we did.””

Wide receiver Bug Wright on what was going through his head during the game-winning score:

“”Oh, I already knew (Juron Criner) was coming down with it. Juron, he’s a big guy. He can jump, and anytime the quarterback throws his way, he usually comes down with it, so I had a lot of faith in him and knew he was going to come down with it.””

Offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes:

“”Coming to The Coliseum and winning, not many people do that, and I’m just really proud of our team. Our guys played really, really hard, hung in there and just kept fighting. That’s one thing we talked to them about all week, is we thought it was going to be a really hard-fought, difficult game and just hang in there, hang in there, hang in there and somebody make a play in the fourth quarter, and that’s exactly what happened.””