Missouri-Colorado Quotes
11/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 9, 2002
Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes
MISSOURI HEAD COACH GARY PINKEL
on Colorado's performance:
"Congratulations goes out to Colorado. They did things in the overtime, obviously, to win. It was a very difficult game. I thought we certainly had our chances and opportunities. We just fell short again. Winning is tough. It's a tough business. I knew that. My football team knows that. We're just going to keep grinding and try to improve as a football team."
on Colorado running backs Chris Brown and Bobby Purify:
"They certainly got on a roll. It was getting warm out there and then you get to those 3rd downs. If you don't get off the field on those 3rd downs, after awhile, they start pounding you. That's what they did, and they're very good at it. We're disappointed in that, but that's my job. And, I'll take the blame for it. I'm responsible for everything that happens."
on the state of his program:
"I feel awesome about our program and what' happening internally, but that doesn't help this. When you get faced with adversity, there are two things you can do. You either say, 'this keeps happening again and again and again coach,' or you let this test you as a competitor. It tests your heart. It tests what you're all about. It test how much pride you have. That's we're at. There's nothing magic about this. Someday we'll look back at this, and we'll remind ourselves we got a lot tougher as we persisted through it."
on Brad Smith's performance:
"I thought Brad made some plays. He was able to drive us down at the end of the 4th. He hadn't been able to do that in the past. We've been there in several situations. With five minutes left in the game, he drove the football team down the field. That was huge for him. That's huge for a quarterback's confidence. He had a chance to do it last week at Iowa St., and guess what? It didn't happen. He had a chance to do it against Oklahoma, and guess what? It didn't happen. But, it happened today. You talk about a huge confidence builder for a very young guy. It's unbelievable. That was certainly positive."
DEFENSIVE TACKLE RUSS BELL
On the team's attitude:
"We have two more games. We need to win them both to go to a bowl and it's going to be something special. We'll go nuts."
On the defense's play:
"We couldn't stop them on third down. They just broke our back on third down."
DEFENSIVE TACKLE KEITH WRIGHT
On Chris Brown's performance (35 att. 211 yds.)
"Brown's a strong runner - the kind that when he feels pressure, he doesn't go down. He kept going all day and he keeps his feet high."
On Colorado's offense:
"I was surprised in the first half when they started passing, going to the air instead of running. But they mixed it up pretty well."
WIDE RECEIVER JUSTIN GAGE
His advice to Darius Outlaw after fumbling an overtime first down reception to end the game:
"I just told him to keep his head up. He was out there all playing hard making big plays. Don't look at that last play because if he hadn't made the plays he did before that, we would have been off the field sooner."
WIDE RECEIVER DARIUS OUTLAW
On getting over the "hump":
"You can see us progressing every week. That's why these last few weeks have been so hard on us."
On fumbling to lose the game:
"I hate that I didn't make it."
COLORADO HEAD COACH GARY BARNETT
On the game:
"If you didn't enjoy watching that game, then you can't be a football fan."
On the third-down conversion pass to Jon Donahoe:
"Ironically, that's right where the fifth down play started, the 15-yard line going that way."
On going to overtime:
"That's the first time we had to come from behind, the first time we've been in that situation. You know you're in the 10th game of the year, and you've got a veteran offensive line. You play 10 games, and you've got two great tailbacks. You just put it on them, and you say, 'this is it.'"
COLORADO SENIOR STRONG SAFETY KORY MOSSONI
"They just played hard. It doesn't matter what's on the scoreboard; they have players that make plays. They're not going to quit no matter what's on the scoreboard. They have to look up because they have a squad over there."
On recovering the fumble at the end of the game:
"I was going in to hit him, and it popped up past me. I was on my hands and knees scrambling to get that ball. ... That's the fastest I've ever crawled."
COLORADO SENIOR QUARTERBACK ROBERT HODGE
On the game:
"We knew they were a good team, and we knew it coming down to the end of the game. I wasn't sure that we knew it was going to be overtime, but we got away with the win. We finished our game, and that's what we were trying to work on all week."
On coming from behind:
"We knew that it was going to happen during the season. It was good to get that under our belts, a win where we came from behind, a close game. It's a fight, and we know that coming in, and to pull off a win under those circumstances is really big."
COLORADO SENIOR DEFENSIVE BACK RODERICK SNEED
On defending Missouri senior wide receiver Justin Gage:
"They have a great game plan. They just went out there and tried to get him the ball. It was fun covering him. ... He's just tall, that's pretty much the thing. He's just a good, tall receiver playing basketball ways out there."
COLORADO SENIOR RUNNING BACK CHRIS BROWN
On playing overtime:
"We knew we had to score. That was our goal; we knew we had to put it in the end zone."
On the win:
"It was a good win because it keeps us on top of the Big 12 North, and we need another one."
