Mizzou-New Mexico Post-Game Quotes
9/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 10, 2005
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Head Coach Gary Pinkel
Opening Statement
"Congratulations to
On the play of UNM receiver Hank Baskett...
"Well he played great and you've got to hand it to him, he made some plays. We struggled with the option a little bit and they did some things different going in. First quarter, we tried to make some adjustments on those things and they also got some big plays from their receivers. So it was a combination of both of those things. He certainly played a great game."
On putting the ball in Brad's hands a little more starting in the second quarter...
"Well, what I think you've got to do is see what they give you and take advantage of that. We just tried to move the ball and I think we only punted three times in the game. Obviously, we had two very critical errors, but we're going to do whatever it takes to move the ball. And I don't think doing that is such a bad idea."
On UNM''s rushing opening the opportunity to pass...
"Well they move the ball well, this offense spreads the field out and they were in the position to do that."
On the ability to overcome a non-conference loss...
"It's a very serious loss, its at home. The one thing you do is correct mistakes, and I think there's a lot of things that we can do correctly. It's only the second game of the year; obviously it's a very devastating loss."
On Brad Smith's reviewed fumble...
"He just said that the ball slipped out of the middle of his hand. They said it reviewed. Obviously, I thought it was a pass. I was stunned, I thought that they were going to call intentional grounding, and then no one blew a whistle. Obviously, it was a huge play for them."
On being where they were last year:
"This time the team actually stuck in there and did a good job playing the whole game. Nobody gave up at all. I think we just made more mistakes then them on both sides of the ball."
On the game going back and forth:
"We knew it was going to come down to the end of the game probably the last couple of minutes. They just had a good break at the end and that's the difference in the ball game."
On Brad Smith throwing so many passes:
"That is what this offense is designed for. It is designed to balance it out between running and passing. Brad did a good job of doing both."
On coming back next week:
"We have to play
On Brad Smith trying to make things happen:
"That's what Brad's good that. He is good at making things happen. The rest of the team did our best to do our jobs as well. Our job is to run and they were just stopping us a little bit. They were stopping the running from the tailbacks. We didn't quit. We kept blocking for him (Smith) for the passing game."
Xzavie Jackson
On stopping the run:
"Today they came out with a couple of new things and we took a little bit of too much time to adjust. They broke a lot of big runs on us. Coach had a good plan in the second half. We need to go back to practice and work a little harder on stopping the run and putting more people in the box."
On the run opening up the passing game:
"We had our assignments down it was just that we were so focused on one person we didn't think that he (Hank Baskett) was that great. He is a great player and you have to give him credit."
Brad Smith
On breaking the records:
"Its cool, but it (the loss) takes away a little bit. Well a lot. All I ever wanted to do is win and that is why I play. All the other stuff doesn't matter. But I am glad it happened but it could have been better."
On missing Sean Coffey:
"I think we missed him a lot. He brings another dimension down the field the vertical. Guys have to respect him and safeties have to play on top of him which opens it up for other guys. We missed him a lot but guys stepped up a lot today."
On the last interception:
"A little miscommunication. The corner sat in his hole and I expected him to run out of his route. He made a good play. I had another option that I could have taken, but after the fact it is easier to see. I made a mistake and I have to live with it."
On the win:
"This is a big win for us, the offense really played well, the defense didn't play very well. I've never seen a defense have to play over a hundred plays in a game. They(MU) have a great quarterback, but the defense scored a touchdown and had two interceptions and stopped them at the end of the game. So the defense gave up a bunch of yards, but they made enough plays with the offense doing so well that we won the game."
On the offense bouncing back after the first quarter:
"I thought our whole team played really hard, especially with the weather and some of the things that went against us. There was a couple of times we thought we had Smith sacked and all of a sudden he's still running and scoring a touchdown after we had three or four guys on top of him. I was really proud of how the offense moved the ball. They scored every time they got a chance and then I was really proud of how the defense kept them out of the end zone and made a couple of key interceptions at key times."
On Baskett's career game:
"Baskett's a great player, the only problem is he plays for us and nobody in the country knows, but he'll be a top draft choice and he's as good as any wide receiver in the Big 12. You all just don't know who he is."
On Kole McKamey's game
"I thought Kole really played well. I think he got us in the right plays. I think he ran the option real well. There was a couple times he turned up on the option and made big gains where a lot of guys can't do that and he can. I thought Dontrell looked like his old self. I thought maybe he didn't quite look like his old self last week and he did today."
On Brad Smith's performance:
"We didn't tackle him any better than we did Van Pelt three years ago. Our offense scored enough points and we made enough plays to win the game. We didn't stop him, he had an all-time night - the only thing he did wrong was throw that interception at the end of the game - that's the only thing I saw him do wrong. Thank God he did that wrong."
On the importance of non-conference games:
"We use non-conference games to prepare our team for the season more so than worry about winning the game, so I decided well before the game started that Chris Nelson was going to get at least a series in the game. The first half we were going to put him in late in the half and we didn't get a chance to do so, so we put in him the first time we thought it was okay in the third quarter."
On Hank Baskett
"He has great concentration, he's got really good hands and he's a 7'2" high jumper. Everybody keeps telling me he's not fast, but I keep seeing him behind people all the time so I guess he has good speed."
On his two interceptions today:
"It felt pretty good to come in here; there were a lot of people that downed us, and saying that we couldn't win this game. Some of our own people didn't believe in us. They didn't think we were going to win. It feels really good; it's not the best feeling, when we get that conference championship, that'll be the best feeling."
On Brad Smith's performance
"He's nice, I was asking people what kind of 40 he ran, and he's faster than they said. He's really nice, there were numerous times when we thought we had him and boom, he just shook you off and made a play. That's one of the best quarterbacks I've ever played against; truthfully he's one of the best. It was real hard stopping him."
On the confidence from the victory:
"It does a lot because we came into this game knowing it would be this type of game; we knew
On his career day:
"It just felt great, I guess that connection everyone talks about with us (QB Kole McKamey) he just knew were to put the ball and he was putting it perfectly every time. I couldn't ask for any better balls, it was right over the shoulder and in my hands."
On realizing he could get open at will:
"I don't ever get greedy, but there were times in the game when I told Kole to just throw me the ball because I felt good tonight, everything was just going perfectly. It starts with the offensive line, they gave him time and you can't do it without them."
On the confidence from today's victory
"It gives us more confidence than ever. They said tonight was the first time we've ever beaten a BCS team on the road and that's what we've been doing the past couple of years, we break a couple records at a time and that's what we're trying to do this year, work our way toward breaking some more."
On Hank Baskett's performance today
"It felt great, but it's no surprise because he's been doing it since I've been throwing him balls. He did it all camp and last week, he's a great receiver. The thing about Hank is he's a playmaker."
On realizing the connection was there with Hank:
"I think it was sometime in the third quarter, when we were both down on the bench on the sideline and he said to me, 'I'm getting open every time, just throw me the ball.' I've got all the confidence in the world in Hank so when he tells me something like that I'm going to do it."
On the confidence from today's victory
"I guess it's good for us. It's the first time in
