Oct. 20, 2007

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MU Players | Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach | Tech Players

Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel
Opening Statement:
 "You go into a game like this against such a good football team, you know how much damage they can do on offense in seconds. My first thought on this game: Certainly I'm very proud of my team."

"I think we're getting better as a football team; each week we're getting better, and certainly on defense we're getting better."

"For our defense to hold a team like that to 10 points with all the turnovers, it starts with the coaches and filters on down to the players. I'm very proud of those guys."
 
On Pig Brown:
"He was everywhere on that field ... He raises the level of the defense emotionally."

On the Defense:
"I have to say it was a pretty darn good performance on defense."

"It was an outstanding effort. We are improving as a defensive football team and as a football team as a whole."

On the running game:
"They clamped down on a lot of our perimeter people, but left running lanes open and we took advantage of it."

"We're trying to keep getting better as a football team."

On the Texas Tech offense:
"If you're a coach on the sideline, you're scared to death of that team. Our defensive coaches deserve a lot of credit for today. We wanted five turnovers in this game, and we got them."

Coach Pinkel | Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach | Tech Players

MU Player Quotes
Junior QB Chase Daniel
"How about that defense?"

"The offensive line played unbelievable; they set the tone. I don't know how many yards rushing we had, but they set the tone from the very first snap."

On the absence of Tony Temple:
"Tony is our catalyst, he gets things going. But [the other running backs] have stepped their game up and have picked a pretty good time to do it."

On the defense:
"The defense - they played unbelievable. I don't think words can say how well they played. If they play this well every single week, the sky's the limit."

On the state of the program:
"Beating a ranked program like this really shows us where we're at. We feel like we can play with anyone in the country."

Freshman TB Derrick Washington
On the running philosophy:
"That's the game plan every play, every rep is to get downhill. The coaches have had it in our ear all week and that's what we did."

On Tech struggling against the run:
"We watched a lot of film on them this week, and we knew we could run the ball like we did last year."

"The running lanes were there, obviously, so we just kept pounding the ball."

"The offensive line did an excellent job."

Junior TB Jimmy Jackson
On his playing time with Tony Temple out:
"I love the challenge, I love being able to contribute to the team."

"We've got a lot of confidence in our defense."

Lorenzo Williams
On the defense's preparation:
"I think preparation is playing a big key in our games this year."

On the defense's preparation:
 "Leadership is also playing a big key with us, and it's also just our guys refusing to get blocked; refusing to get stopped."

"I think it's a pretty good showing for us, but we definitely missed a lot of opportunities. We just want to keep getting better every week."

Coach Pinkel | MU Players | Tech Players

Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach
On Texas Tech's game execution:
"I didn't think we executed very well. We never really played together. We came close to some opportunities which we didn't capitalize on. I don't know how many times we stripped the ball and almost had a fumble, but we just didn't get it. There were some key points in the game where I probably should have kicked a field goal and not gone for it on fourth down. There's a period where you're sparring back and forth and we just squandered too many chances to ever get the upper hand."

On what Texas Tech needs to do after this loss:
"We just need to focus on what we need to do. The simplest way to say it is that we need to do our job and do it together. We've been doing a pretty good job of it and we've got it in us. We need to spend a week of doing that and getting a little better at it and take advantage of our preparation and have a good one next week."

Coach Pinkel | MU Players | Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach

Quarterback Graham Harrell:
On his team's ability to bounce back next week:
"The attitude in the locker room is good. We understand we just didn't execute today. We really don't have all the answers why. We understand that all the components to win every game are standing in that locker room coaches, players everyone we need is in there...and we just need to keep believing and keep playing."

On the defensive pressure from the game:
"We've probably seen the most pressure we've seen all season. They just came out and played more excited than we did in every position. It wasn't just up front or anything like that. It was just that the way the game went."

Wide Receiver Danny Amendola:
On the offense's struggle:
"We had some opportunities to run some good plays and we did. We were moving the ball sometimes. One thing would go wrong...We would fumble or throw a pick. Something bad and we'd just blow opportunities."

On who to blame for the loss:
"I guess you can't really put it on anybody. The whole team, we could have done a lot of things differently on special teams, defense, and offense. We have just got to improve for next week."

Free Saftey Darcel McBath:
On how Missouri ran the ball effectively:
"They throw it around a lot but they know how to run the ball also. It kind of caught us off guard a little bit and we didn't play our gaps and they just did a good job running the ball."

On the defense playing with a sense of urgency:
"I don't think so. I think we ran around and hit people. All we had to do was execute it. You can never play with too much urgency. Run to the ball and make plays and I think the main thing is we didn't execute. When we had turnovers we didn't capitalize."