Mizzou/Miami (Ohio) Post-Game Quotes
9/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 25, 2010
Mizzou Players | Miami Coach Mike Haywood | Miami Players
Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel
On The Game:
"I thought it was a very good win for us. I just found out that Toledo beat Purdue. I've been in that league. I have coached in that league, which is obvious, but those are hard football games. (Right from the beginning) I thought we played at a real good level. I was certainly disappointed with some of the penalties and some of the kicking errors. But it's my job to fix problems. As all games are, we know the impact of turnovers. They have a huge impact, especially if you can get touchdowns and get yards that go along with it. All those are very important and hopefully we can continue to do that once we get into conference play."
On The Defensive Score To Open The Game:
"We were just very fortunate. We get the ball out and scoop and score. It's a great way to start the game. When you are playing games like this too, we call it `can you peddle downhill'... Can you keep focused and keep playing at a good level and I think for most of the day we did."
On The Running Game Being So Effective:
"A lot of people play us different ways. We were fortunate to get it going and it was working. It first starts with blocking up front and when you block well up front those guys will have spaces to run. As we look back last week we were frustrated. I think you give the offensive line credit. That's where it starts, but it's also better to be balanced, balanced as much as you can. Balance for us isn't as much as a typical team, but when we can run the football it helps our passing game and vice versa. All those backs are pretty quick and can run pretty good."
On Balancing The Running Back Load:
"What we did was rotate them in through series, just one, two, three and rotated them back in. We try to keep track of how many... by the way, Marcus (Murphy) is pretty good too, but it's a lot of competition. It's great. The greatest thing you can have is that kind of competition. That means they have got to practice well and they have to perform when they get out there, and they did that. "
On The Quarterback Sneaks To Keep From Adding To The Lead:
"Yeah, it is unusual, but I'm not doing it to humiliate anybody. I have been on the other side of the field. We didn't take a knee. We didn't kick a field goal. I just chose to do that. My coaches get a little upset with me. I can sense it on the headsets, trust me. That's something I believe in doing. Our defense went back out there in great field position. We played a lot of 2's and 3's out there also, because we had three starters that didn't play. So it was good work for them. It's just something I felt like I had to do."
Coach Pinkel | Miami Coach Mike Haywood | Miami Players
MU Player Quotes
Freshman WR T.J. Moe
On execution:
"You have to execute, it doesn't matter who you're playing against. If you're not catching everything coming at you, then you're not having a very good game. I'm always nervous, but you get rid of that after the first play. "
On this week verses last week's performance:
"We definitely played better. Every football team we've played has been a good one. It's whether or not we go out and execute it. Everybody has athletes when you're playing Division I football, so it's about execution and I think we did that this week. We didn't really do that last week."
Defensive Back Carl Gettis
On first fumble recovery for touchdown:
"I don't care to take the credit, I was just in the right place at the right time. I just had to make sure I stayed in bounds. It was really exciting to have the first score of the game. I was thinking scoop and score; that was the only thing going through my head."
On defensive adjustments:
"We didn't make adjustments we just knew guys were going to have to come in, step up and do our job. When guys are down it gives others an opportunity to step up and do their job. Those guys have to come in and do whatever the starters that are hurt were doing."
Tailback Kendial Lawrence
On MU's offensive line performance :
"The offensive line played their heart out and made their assignment easy for us to read. They blocked really well and hard all game."
On competitive nature in practice:
"It doesn't really affect you, it just motivates you to work harder. We just go out and work hard. At some points, rest can help, because if you keep fresh legs in there the defense is going to get tired. We just keep working hard and never settle for less. We don't know who's going to get that turn, but we all know our role in this game and we're going to come out prepared. It feels good to know that the younger and older guys are doing well. It motivates you to prove to them that you can do it."
Quarterback Blaine Gabbert
On MU's offensive line:
"They won the war in the trenches. Our running backs did a great job finding lanes and making plays out of them. As a whole, the entire offense played as a group. We didn't really have any mental or physical errors."
On comfort throughout the game:
"Everything's comfortable when you get up that many points. We played as a group and stayed tight to move the ball down the field. When we play together, we score a lot of points."
Coach Pinkel | Mizzou Players | Miami Players
Miami (Ohio) Head Coach Mike Haywood
Thoughts on his team's performance:
"I think Missouri did a really good job. (Offensive Coordinator David) Yost did a really nice job in staying with the run game. They say that he's a guy that likes to pass it, but he did a really nice job with his counter runs and really did a nice job running the football."
"Offensively we moved the ball, but when we got into the red zone we weren't able to score. Dave (Steckel) did a really nice job bringing blitzes and hitting the quarterback in the back and creating turnovers, and we cannot win football games when we turn the football over."
Thoughts on what his team could have improved on:
"We could have improved on stopping the run, forcing them into situations in which they had to punt. We could of done a better job of cutting routes and done a better job of protecting the quarterback."
On Missouri scoring defensively on the first play of the game:
"Well if you don't pay any attention to the clock you just go back out and start playing again. I think that we were affected because we started watching the scoreboard, instead of playing and not paying any attention to the scoreboard. It's a 60 minute contest and we have to play for 60 minutes no matter what the momentum changes are."
On Missouri not trying to score at the end of the game:
"I just look at it as Coach Pinkel didn't want to score and didn't want to run up the score. I thought it was a great thing that he did and a respectful thing in which he did and I compliment him in his efforts in not trying to run up the score."
Coach Pinkel | Mizzou Players | Miami Coach Mike Haywood
Miami (Ohio) Players
QB Zac Dysert:
On what they tried to do (game wise):
"We had to pick it up. We tried to switch it up. We just tried to execute as best as we could."
On driving, but not scoring:
"Yeah it was tough not being able to convert those downs into touchdowns. You know, that's what we need to do. We were pretty disappointed in this game."
Thoughts after half:
"We gave up some scores, I thought. We just needed to do what we've been doing all year - just score when we need to score then we'd be fine. But we just didn't take it there.
WR Armand Robinson:
On the game:
"Obviously we didn't play well. Missouri, they have a good offense."
Thoughts after half:
"We tried to get everybody motivated. It's kind of hard to get guys motivated when we're down that much. We tried to get guys motivated and Missouri they we're great on offense and kept putting up points and (taking) momentum."
On what his team did well today:
"There's not much that I think we did well, but some guys played hard to the end. We just have to keep everybody playing and (play) organized through the fourth quarter."
On what Miami did to prepare for today:
"(It was) like any other week. We had practice and fought hard and watched film and all those sorts of things."
Feel about his play:
"I didn't play well at all. I came out in the first play and fumbled. Like I said, you've got to set the tone for those things and I really didn't play well today."
RB Thomas Merriweather:
On his team's play:
"We played alright. We played to the best of our ability."
What to do after half:
"(We needed) to pick it up, play the game. As an individual I just wasn't thinking it was going so well. We needed to pick it up."
How he played:
"Horrible. I feel like I didn't come out focused enough. I didn't do my job for my position. I didn't complete my job today."
