Oct. 28, 2002
MISSOURI COACH GARY PINKEL
On Iowa St~ Dan has done a great job building that program. They're a very well coached football team. When you look at them, that's the one thing that I've been impressed with. Obviously, they have great players, but they are very well coached. It seems like they've played a lot of people we've played after them, so we have had a chance to see them a lot on video prior to this game. I just think their staff does a great job. Obviously Seneca Wallace is as big of impact player as there is in the country. He presents a remarkable amount of problems. He gets outside the pocket and makes a lot of big plays. He throws the ball well, and he is very smart. He's a guy that understands their system of what they're doing, and he will certainly be a challenge for us. They're a very opportunistic football team. They're very good in their turnover margin, and they take advantage of that. They win a lot of games because of that. It's a challenge as always, and we're going to work hard in preparation. Hopefully, we'll go out and play well.
On if there are any similarities between Brad Smith and Seneca Wallace~ Athletically, there are similarities, but Seneca Wallace is a proven veteran player. And, Brad Smith is still an eight game rookie. Brad's got to earn that (reputation) through time. I think that's certainly a compliment to Brad that anybody would compare him to Seneca Wallace, but you have a rookie on one side and you have a seasoned veteran on the other. Seneca's a player who's been through a lot, and Brad's got a long way to go to catch up with him.
On Iowa St.'s defense~ As I said earlier, they're very well coached. They're very sound in what they do. You rarely see a player out of position. You rarely see a mental error where a player goes in the wrong gap. They play hard. They know what they're doing. They're very impressive. I think what we'll do, like we would do with any defense, is you find out what you do on offense and you try and formation it understanding that they are very difficult. As I mentioned before, I think they've caused about 25-fumbles. I think they've gotten 19 of them. That's a pretty high number, and they do that against everybody. They rake through the ball. That's part of their defense. That's certainly who they are. They're in the top 15 in turnover margin. They don't play a lot of man coverage. Like Oklahoma, they try to keep things in front of them and reduce the number of big plays. We're just going to have to go out, execute, and play well.
On whether the team will be doing anything more drastic to win and become bowl elidgeable~ We're just looking at this game. We understand that this time is very critical now, and it's not just critical for us. It's critical for a lot of people, and it's critical for different people for different reasons. There are a lot of different things that can go down. You mentioned what our situation is from that standpoint, but we really don't talk about that. All we talk about is winning football games. I don't think we'll do anything bizarre. I think you just do what you do to try and win. I just think we're going to have to play better and coach better.
On whether Coach will look at last years close game against Iowa St. ~ No, I don't refer to last year's game because they beat us. They did what was necessary in the last few minutes what they needed to win, and we didn't get it done. You give them credit. We certainly take our blame for that. We had an opportunity to win, but bottom line, they got it done. And, we didn't. Would any players draw from that? They may. I think you have to focus on playing at a high emotional level. You have to focus in on playing good fundamental football. I still see a lot of errors on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and I just shake my head. So, I have to do a better job coaching, and we have to do a better job playing. You have to play well to win. That starts with me.