Missouri Football Team Hosts Media Day
Oct. 26, 2009 Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel Opening Statement… “We’re preparing for Colorado now. They are a great football team. They just had a great win against Kansas. They have a new quarterback. He’s a guy who can run and is very athletic. We’re trying to get better as a football team.”
On preparing for two quarterbacks… “I think they will play both. We have to prepare for that. We have to be ready for any situation.”
On Blaine Gabbert’s injury… “He’s okay. We decided to pull him out for precautionary reasons. He wanted to keep playing. He will be practicing tomorrow. He tweaked his ankle a little bit, but it keeps getting better, so hopefully it won’t be a season-long problem.”
On the Texas game… “I think we had a pretty good plan. We challenged our offensive line and running backs. Hopefully we can learn from it.”
On emotional stability… “If you lose control, you are of no value to our football program. We use the term emotional stability, and we use that to get the guys back to understanding that they are under control and are focused on the task at hand. Sometimes you have to go through a lot of adversities to get to that. You train athletes tough. We were playing on national TV against one of the best teams in the nation, so maybe we should have done a better job of that.”
On game preparations… “We will not change what we do and how we prepare. I make that very clear to our players. We do what we do. I’m not saying we aren’t going to tweak our offense or defense, but our plan works when executed. We prepare our weeks how we do it, our 48 hours how we do it, our pre-game how we do it, that’s the way we do it and it works. So we will not change.”
On the team’s current position… “I think that the past three years we’ve been up there in the rankings in the middle of the season. They all understand the big picture and it’s my job to explain that. Although, if we don’t take care of each week from here out, the big picture changes dramatically. It’s my job to communicate that. There is a sense of urgency. Nobody wants to lose three games in a row. I’ve been there before.”
On Aldon Smith… “He’s quite a player. When he gets really good, it is going to be exciting. He’s just really athletic. That’s why we grade our defensive players. We give them points for production. Bottom line, if you grade 75 players and you have two players both at 85 percent and one has 11 tackles and one has three, those guys are the playmakers. That’s why you use that on defense. I couldn’t be more pleased with his effort. He has a lot of ability, and he’s one of those guys that puts himself in a position to make plays.”
On Missouri’s defense against Texas… “We had a lot of missed tackles. We had a few missed assignments, communication errors and we lost leverage. All those things are how you play good defense. Why it happened I don’t know. “
On rules to protect the quarterback… “I think you always want to protect the quarterback. That’s obviously very important. Jacquies (Smith) hit their quarterback, helmet to helmet and I think that’s a good rule to have. He didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t want to do it. That’s a good rule to have to protect them (the quarterbacks). We just need to train our players to keep there eyes on the shoulder area, to avoid that.”
On the importance of leadership after three losses… “We have a small senior class. I think they are doing a good job. They’re frustrated. We had two losses last year, so I think they’ve experienced a little bit of that. Certainly, we need leadership. If people are struggling we don’t want to beat them up. We need to be encouraging.”
On Colorado… “They have a few quarterbacks. They are a fairly young football team. Offensively they get things going.”
On altitude effects… “If you lose, it’s an issue. If you win, it’s not. That’s a myth, in my opinion.”
On the Big 12 North… “It’s wide open. Kansas State and Iowa State are doing a good job. Hats off to them.”
On defensive signals: "[The signals] come in the same way on defense (as they do on offense). But, at the same time, the defensive line is kind of trying to see where the ball will be spotted. Then they have to figure out which side they might have to go to, so if we just do better at that, then we're going to be fine. Everybody's not going to see the signal, so we just have to make sure that everyone's talking to one another."
On other Big 12 North team's records: "It's really just all about us, it's not about the other teams [in the Big 12 North]. If we can just take care of what we need to take care of, then we'll be fine. We know what's going on [in the conference]. It's pretty obvious. We get to watch some games before we play, so we've seen the records and everything, but it's really all about us. We can't worry about that. We're playing for a championship."
On what went wrong against Texas: "It was just frustration. When things went wrong, we didn't respond the way we should have. Nothing's going to change around here--we're going to keep doing the same things, because the program works. Guys have just got to get it together, and that's pretty much it. We didn't go out there and execute the game plan."
On preparing for Colorado's two quarterbacks: "I'm expecting No.9 [Tyler Hansen] to start. He's been doing a pretty good job. He kind of gets out of the pocket a lot and tries to make plays with his legs. Once he starts running around he gets to open receivers. He can make the downfield throws. No.7 [Cody Hawkins] is the coaches' son, so we're pretty sure he knows the playbook inside and out. He'll be a pretty good fit for their offense too. It's our responsibility to prepare the right way, focus on film, and repair the things that we've been slacking at."
On senior leadership: "It's very important. We've got to make sure everyone stays motivated. With what's going on in the North [Division] right now, that motivates everybody. We know that there's a lot still out there. We've got five games left, and we've just got to take care of business one day at a time."
Danario Alexander, Wide Receiver On team confidence: "I think we have a great deal of confidence on our team. We just know that we've got things to do. We've got to take care of the ball more, and we've got to score more points on offense. We've got things that we can work on, and I'm sure we're going to get that done."
On Mizzou's running game: "Texas has the best run defense in the Big 12, so for us to get it going and have over 100 yards between the running backs was good. We had a good running game."
Blaine Gabbert, Quarterback On the team's focus: "What we're focusing on is winning each of our games. This week we have Colorado, so that's all we're focusing on right now. The Big 12 is really competitive, and anything can change any week. Other teams have lost. We've lost, and things are still wide open. What our team really has to look at is that we've just got to win out from here. We still have all the confidence in the world in ourselves and in our coaching staff."
On Colorado's defense: "They just do a lot of different stuff. They have some basic coverages, but other than that they kind of change it up."
On his injured ankle: "It's getting better day-in and day-out. It's a week-to-week recovery process, but it's getting better. I can still make the same plays, and our line is doing a great job. It was just dinged up again, but other than that I'm fine. It was precautionary for me to come out of the game, and that's why I have this [cast] on."
On the running game stepping up against Texas: "Really it just shows that our running game has been there all year. Texas has the No.1 rush defense in the country, I believe, and we were able to run the ball against them. We've just got to execute. That's what it boils down to on our offense is execution."
On how to win the Big 12 North: "We have to take care of our business and win out. We'll go out, play every game like it's our last, and focus on every play of each game. If we do that, we'll be just fine."
On why they can be the first 0-3 team to ever win the Big 12 North: "In this program we know what we're capable of doing. Whether we've done it so far or not is another issue, but we're capable of doing great things. We all know we're a great thing, and we're going to do our best to get these things done."
|
|
