Watch: Oklahoma State Interim DC Clint Bowen First Press Conference

STILLWATER – Oklahoma State's new interim defensive coordinator, Clint Bowen, met with the media for the first time on Monday to talk about taking over the job.

He takes over following the firing of former defensive coordinator Todd Grantham following the 45-27 loss to Baylor.

Here’s his opening statement from meeting with the media today.

“You know, it's a unique situation, taking over somewhere where the players are embraced in a system, a scheme. They've had their coaches in line there. It does make it a little bit unique. But in doing this, I got to be me and do the things that I'm comfortable with. And with that, it really kind of starts … no matter where you're at, there's a lot of ways to say this, but my philosophy as a coach, I think will help me in this situation more than this than anything. And with that, and I've told our guys, no matter what a player does wrong, if you're a good coach, it's your fault. So if you're responsible for a defense or an individual position or anything, if a player makes a mistake and you don't embrace it, that it's your fault as a coach.

“I don't know where that really leads. For me, that carries over to this spot that when we go out there and we do something, we have to understand our job is to fix and correct mistakes. It's not the player's fault, it's our fault. We go out and ask a kid to do something that he hasn't had the experience level or the knowledge to learn, that's our fault. If we ask a player to go out there and do something that he's not physically developed enough to do, he doesn't have enough experience, that's our fault. If we go out there and haven't put them in a situation, that's our fault. 

“And I always base my coaching from that platform, that anything that happens on that field is my fault as a coach. So for me to go out there and get mad at a player for doing something wrong, it’s not where I go with things. This is us together. That philosophy and building that into our defenses has got me through a lot of years in terms of ‘this is us together, we're going to figure it out together, we're going to do it together.’ So we're going to start with that premise, and we'll work from there. 

“Mike Gundy recruited unbelievable players to this program. He built an unbelievable culture. I've been at a lot of places and coming here, I told Coach Glass and Coach Gundy that the first winter workout I watched, the first spring ball that I watched, I went to him and I said this is unbelievable. The things I've seen our guys do to help each other, to listen to coaches, to be respectful, everything, it’s the most unbelievable culture I've ever seen. And so these kids will handle it fine. And this will be good.”