Oct. 13, 2008
Head Coach Gary Pinkel
Opening statement:
"Good afternoon. Let me give you an injury update — not very many things to report, and that's good. (Sophomore WR) Jeremy Maclin has a bruised knee, he's certainly probably to play. I don't think he'll miss any practice, but we'll try to control it a little bit tomorrow. He practiced yesterday. (Senior OL) Colin Brown has a turned ankle, but we expect him to play also. For the most part, other than bumps and bruises like everybody else in the country is facing right now, we're doing okay. We're preparing for a Texas team that's probably playing as good as anybody in the country right now. If you look at all their games, offensively and defensively, execution on both sides of the football, they're not making many mistakes. They're a disciplined, well-coached football team. Without question, they are a great team. And I think that's probably because (Texas Head Coach) Mack Brown is a great coach. It's going to be a big challenge for us. And (junior QB) Colt McCoy, I've seen him over the past couple years, and certainly from a maturity standpoint, we're very impressed with his maturity as a quarterback. He's a tough competitor, you throw that in with his ability, and you've got a very good player. I was very impressed with how he played and he battled. I think it also is a great testament to Texas in that game against Oklahoma how they would get down and keep coming back, and coming back and coming back. I think that certainly shows a lot of resilience on that team. It's a great challenge. They're No. 1. We're excited about the opportunity. Hopefully we can go down there and play well."
On coming up with plays for Jeremy Maclin now that's he's gotten so much attention:
"We do a pretty good job. It's hard. People will do different things, they'll double-cover him or cover him short and deep. Those are different challenges. As you well know, in our system, we can put him wherever we want on the field… We try to just be creative in way to free him up. We do a pretty good job. Every week is certainly a challenge."
On offensive performance against Oklahoma State:
"Well, first of all, (senior QB) Chase (Daniel) threw for 350 yards and 75 percent completion, I think. That's not bad. But when you're driving in your zone and you turn the ball over three times, it's not going to be very good. We'd like to run the ball a little bit better. We did get (sophomore TB) Derrick (Washington) touches. He caught the ball eight times, I think… Just overall, we didn't execute probably as well as we wanted to. But, you take away a few errors, and it would have ended up being a pretty good game."
On senior defensive end Brian Orakpo and the Texas defense:
"He's really good. He's very impressive. He's got eight sacks already, I think they're second in the country now in sacks. They're really sound defensively. They've got good players. They're playing well. They're very well coached. I'm very impressed with that on both sides of the football. The kids seem very, very focused. Certainly, we saw them play at the highest level a week ago. We're going to have a challenge there. No question about it. He's a great player, not a good player, a great player."
On (senior TE) Chase Coffman's opening-drive catch:
"I'm not surprised, but it was absolutely remarkable. It was one of the greatest catches I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen a guy falling backwards, picking the ball out of the air with one hand. He looked like Superman. Honestly, I think it was the greatest catch I've ever seen. But it doesn't surprise me because he's a remarkable athlete with great ball skills."
On being excited to play the No. 1 team in the country:
"If you're a competitor, it does. There's been a lot of barriers and walls we've had to knock down. How you win a game is you have to play well. Everybody has to get their job done. All those other things are OK. If you're a competitor, you're excited to go play the No. 1 team in the nation. And I think we've got a lot of good competitors on our team."
On junior Texas quarterback Colt McCoy:
"I think he's matured, he's better. Everybody gets better. I think he's got tremendous protection in front of him. Most of the time, he's got time to throw the football. He's got some good players catching the ball, so it's a combination of all those things. There's no question, he was a high-level player out of high school, you knew he was going to be good. The only thing I see different is just competitiveness. I just see this guy who has taken hold of the team and offense and he's out there executing that position at a high level, also from a leadership standpoint. I'm very impressed with him."
Senior QB Chase Daniel
Opening Statement…
“How’s everyone doing today? It’s a good day. We want to flush everything that happened last week and move on. Of course we would have liked to win, but Oklahoma State is a great team, they had a great plan to come in here and stop us and they did. They beat us at our own game on our own field and we’re not very happy about it but it’s over with. We have a big task ahead. We’re facing a great Texas team. Coach Brown is going to have their guys ready to play…It’s going to be a fun game, national audience, what more can you ask for-lights, grass field, 95,000 people there, so we’re excited about the task at hand.”
On Texas Head Coach Mack Brown’s comments on senior QB Chase Daniel attending Missouri over Texas:
“My recruiting process started after my junior year of high school and went until summer before my senior year is when I committed to Missouri sometime in June or July I think. Up until that point it had always been about Texas. I think everyone growing up in the state of Texas wants to go to Texas. So, throughout that whole process of course that was it. After the fact, I made a commitment to Missouri; I knew they were going in a different direction, which was fine you know. It’s a business, I completely understand. They have to go for the best players that they think they can go for. I went my way and they went theirs and I think it’s worked out great for both of us…I’ve had the greatest experience of my life so far here at Missouri and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Everything worked out perfectly; we’re at the spot that I thought we would be this far into my career, even past it. We’re running the same exact offense we are, I’ve got a great coaching staff that’s unbelievable with play calling ability and getting the right people in the right spot at the right time. My players are amazingly gifted and athletic I think with the Texas’, the Oklahoma’s, and the USC’s, I’m in a great spot right now.”
On senior TE Chase Coffman’s catches:
“I think I can throw the ball all around the place and he’ll come up with a catch. He’s made some amazing catches for me. I think if you look back at the Nebraska game and one of the catches that got tipped. He was somehow able to contort his body in some way to catch the ball. It was only a nine-yard game…I realize that probably twenty times I’ve said that’s just unbelievable. NFL scouts have to be drilling at the bit to get to him; His athletic ability is so much under hyped. We can put him up on corners, linebackers, and safeties and he creates a mismatch no matter who he’s up against.”
On being able to take on Texas as ‘just another game’ with all the hype about his connections to Texas:
“I’ve had such a great experience here and have such a great experience left here. I mean we still have 8-10 games to play, so I’m excited about it. I don’t really think about it too much anymore because he’s having such a great season, Colt is, and we’re good friends. So, it’s just how it’s supposed to be.”
On difficulty of coming off of this loss in comparison to coming off the Oklahoma last season:
“You just go in. The last time it was a different team, and this year it’s a different team we have to find our weaknesses and find our strengths and move to what our strengths are and get better at our weaknesses.”
On Texas atmosphere compared to Oklahoma or Nebraska:
“I think just Texas seems like there’s a whole bunch more people in the stands. It’s a little bit more wide open. I know they closed it up with their new stands and stuff. But if you look at their stadium, I mean it goes straight up, it’s ridiculous how many people they can fit there, and how many seats they can fit there. It’s a great stadium, they have a great set-up and we’re looking forward to it.”
On fixing the problems exploited by Oklahoma State:
“I don’t think they were able to necessarily exploit what we did. They did a great job causing some problems with us, but I think the main thing is we didn’t follow the plan to win. We turned the ball over three times, which is a direct correlation of my play. We didn’t block well all of our plays. Coach C stood up here and told us exactly what we didn’t do. And our first down efficiency was 78%. I think that’s the highest efficiency we’ve had on first downs. We were 2-8 on third downs, which we want to get back but to have 79 plays and have 8 or 9 third downs, we’re doing some things right.”
On the experience of playing in the state of Texas:
“It’s awesome. I love having all of my family and friends there. I don’t know how many family and friends I’ll have there this time…it’ll be fun. I always like playing in Texas. Any of the guys who go back and play in Texas, it’s a special feeling and you want to put on a good show.”
On potential advantage of a young Texas defense:
“Looking at those guys I don’t know if it’s going to be an advantage for us because they fly around. They just present so many different problems for us, they’re so well coached, they know what to do on every single snap, and they don’t play like freshman at all. I know there’s a redshirt freshman back there, number 12. Gideon I think is a true freshman, which is unbelievable, he’s a coach’s son, so he knows how to play the game. I don’t think we’re going to have an advantage we just need to go out there and take completions.”
On the potential timing benefits of the loss to Oklahoma State:
“The benefits of a loss are few and far between. You don’t want to do it; it throws off your timing. I think it’ll say a lot about this team about how well we can play and how well we can go down and forget this loss and put it behind us and know if we win at Texas it’s a statement of game. I think that Texas knows it I think we know it. It’s going to be a great game. Its one for the ages they picked us for primetime ABC television so there’s going to be a big audience on the field and off the field as well.”
Freshman LT Elvis Fisher
On improving after a loss:
“I’m just trying to watch a lot more film this week. I’ve got to prepare a lot better than I did last week, and I’ve just got to focus more this week. I thought we did an OK job [versus Oklahoma State] but we’ve got to get better. Personally, I’ve got to get better, I’ve got to give Chase [Daniel] a lot more time. We’ve just got to get a lot better overall.”
On what the offensive line missed last week:
“We saw it out there on film, we knew they were going to do a lot of stunt stuff like that. But on the field, I don’t know what to say… we tried our best to get it, and just didn’t do it.”
Junior WR Danario Alexander
On recovering from a torn ACL:
“It took awhile for me to start jumping and everything again, but once I did it got stronger and stronger. I think I play more cautiously this year. Last year I was coming out of my breaks faster and just doing more things, but that will come along as time goes by. Once I’m out there, [the injury] isn’t on my mind as much but I still know and just try to be careful with it.”
On returning to his home state to play:
“You get great satisfaction out of going back there to play. UT is the biggest team to play in Texas so I just want to go out there and have a good game. I was a Longhorns fan growing up— it was my favorite team. Missouri was my first offer; they were the first school that called me so I stayed loyal to them.”
On the Longhorns:
“They’re the number one team, so there are a lot of things riding on this game. They’re a pretty solid defense. They’ve got good athletes, from the defensive backs to the line, so we’ve just got to go after this game.”
Senior DL Stryker Sulak
On finding motivation playing Texas:
“We’re just looking at it as another game. A lot of my family will be there, so that will be a plus for me, but right now we’re just looking at the opportunity that we still have. Whatever motivates somebody that will do it. If there are people on the roster from Texas that weren’t getting recruited by UT and that motivates them, then I’m all for it. The only thing motivating me is that I just want to get down there and get another win.”
Sophomore WR Jeremy Maclin
On the loss to Oklahoma State:
“There are a lot of different schemes out there—a lot of guys throwing different things at us—but that had nothing to do with Saturday. It was just lack of execution, and that’s pretty much all it comes down to.”
On facing the season after a loss:
“Any game means just as much. If you sleep on one team, they’ll come and knock you out, like what happened last week. Every game means just as much. We can’t lose another game. There are a lot of one-loss teams out there that are in the same boat that we’re in, so we’ve just got to go out there week to week and play. We’ve got another big challenge Saturday against a very good team, so we’ve got to be ready to play.”
On playing a top-ranked team:
“You always want to play against the best of the best. Luckily, we have the opportunity to play the number one team in the nation. It gives us another chance to go out there and showcase what we can do. We’ve got to bounce back. Last Saturday is in the past now, so we’ve got to go out there and play for this Saturday.”
Sophomore TB Derrick Washington
On the loss to Oklahoma State:
“They were stunting a lot up front, and our line had trouble adjusting to it. I think that was the main thing. It was completely different from the previous weeks, and we’ve got some things to work on. They were doing a lot of twisting, and I think they blitzed almost every play. We’ve just got to work on it, our scout team will give us a better look, and we’ll be fine. It’s a tough loss, and we are taking it hard, but we ended that yesterday. We’ve got to get that out of our mind and look forward to Texas.”
On finding inspiration facing a higher-ranked team:
“For the first time in a long time, we’re going to be the underdog going into a game. We’re going to be looking forward to that, and that will fire us up. Especially coming off of a loss, there is going to be a lot of emotion in this game.”
On Mizzou’s drop to #11 in the AP Poll:
“We really try not to pay too much attention to the rankings, but we all looked at it. We took that kind of hard, that we were undefeated and then had one loss and dropped right down to 11th. But if we come back with a big win this week, we should move right back up. They forget about us, but we’re going to make a statement so we don’t have to worry about anyone except ourselves.”
Senior DT Ziggy Hood
On the loss to Oklahoma State:
“One loss is not the end of the world. I consider that point probably a change in the season for us. It wakes us up. We know that we have to go out there and perform better and just win throughout the whole season. We have to just take one game and one step at a time. Anything that stops you for a minute and makes you wonder if you’ve been doing things right, or if you need to change some things, will make you better yourself. Great teams have to go through these things once in awhile. The only thing that matters is how you bounce back and come back the next week.”
On Texas quarterback Colt McCoy:
“Not only can he make plays on passes, but he can also run. He’s a pretty good-sized kid and a tough kid. Sometimes he’ll take the ball and just run you right over. When you’ve got a tough quarterback coming at you like that, it makes the game a little bit more challenging.”
