Sept. 2, 2002
On what a win over Illinois means~ There's only one way to gain confidence...and that's winning. You gain confidence by playing the good teams close, but you have to win. So, I think we got a little respect back after Saturday. But, it was one football game. You want the players to know that their preparation has a direct affect on how they play. As a head football coach, that is what I want them to get out of that Illinois game. When you prepare well and play hard, you increase you chances for success.
On redshirt freshman quarterback phenom, Brad Smith~ Fundamentally, Brad can certainly get better. Obviously, he's a player that played well his first game. He's really a student of the game. He was watching video today getting ready for the next game. But, it is just one game. I can't stress that enough. It was just one football game. You don't build monuments after one game. You build them for however many games you win as a quarterback, how you perform through adversity throughout the season, and a lot of things. We are very pleased with his performance, but we also know that one game does not make a season.
On things MU needs to improve on~ There are a lot of things we need to work on. We missed a 4th and 1. That is awful. That is just not very good. If you are going to be a good football team, you can't do that. We gave up too many big plays on defense, and sometimes our tackling wasn't very good. Our offensive line, at times, was not as physical as we would have liked them to be sometimes. I think the PAT field goal part of our kicking game was embarrassing. I've been doing this for a long time, and we have to get that sorted out. When you have a young kicker and all of a sudden you have a lot of people flying through, it really doesn't help his confidence, and the environment for our first game was very difficult for Alex. Most of those things were not his fault. Our kick off return was okay, and that is being polite. Our kick off coverage was average, and you have no idea how much time we put into it. A lot of those players that made those mistakes were redshirt freshman in their first game, and some of them were hot and cold. You just can't be a good football team with an average kicking game. And, we work so very hard on it, but guess what? We have to keep working.
On how beating Illinois in St. Louis affects recruiting~ I think it is very positive. When you opened up the St. Louis Post Dispatch on Sunday, there was huge Missouri all over. That's what you get from a positive marketing standpoint. All the high school kids and all the high school coaches and all the places where we are trying to build trust see that. That's the positives you get out of it, but still ultimately, a young man is going to pick a school based on the program that fits him.
On upcoming opponent Ball State~ Ball State is very balanced. They have a thousand yard rusher and their quarterback threw for two thousand yards and 15 touchdowns. They haven't played a game yet this year, so we are going to have to reduce the amount of game planning that we do. They could come in and make a lot of changes from last year. Defensively, they are not real complicated. They play hard, they play well, and they know what they are doing, and they hardly ever make a mistake. But, one of my biggest concerns is just Missouri. We have to be a better football team on Saturday night then what we are right now.