Missouri Post-Game Quotes
9/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 7, 2002
Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel
On the play of quarterback Brad Smith:
"Brad makes one big play, then everything ignites, which is not unlike a lot of offenses. The attitude changes, everything changes."
"Things weren't going real well the first half. All of a sudden, he's not a magic man-everything he throws, everything he does is perfect, everything works. In the previous game, all of that stuff was just positive. Everything he touched was gold. The reality of the football was in the first half, and it was very interesting to see how he responded."
On Missouri's receiving corps:
"We had a zillion drops out there. We had enough that you can call them 'drive-stoppers.'"
Missouri senior wide receiver Justin Gage
On Brad Smith's touchdown run:
"We were struggling in the first half, making lots of mistakes. Brad made that big run, and it was a big boost. He made a read to run on the play, and he got outside and made some good moves, got some good blocks. He really got us moving as a team."
Missouri sophomore wide receiver Thomson Omboga
On leading the team in receiving yards:
"It's really just execution. Our coaches are calling the right plays at the right times. Other teams can double-team Justin Gage. They can cover him, but he's not going away. He'll be back, trust me. We're going to prove we have lots of good receivers on this team."
Missouri sophomore linebacker James Kinney
On Missouri's second-half turnaround:
"As a team, everybody realized we can play better. We weren't playing our 'A' game, and we knew it. It was on everybody to come out and play better. We were on defense first, and I told them we needed to get a three-and-out and get momentum going back our way, and we were able to go out and stop them."
Ball State head coach Bill Lynch
On what went wrong:
"It's very difficult to win if you have five turnovers, and you don't get them to turn it over. That's the first thing. And then the second thing when things started going bad early in the third quarter, we couldn't stop them. Even though we turned the ball over in awful field position, somehow you got to rise up and try to force a field goal or something."
On Missouri quarterback Brad Smith:
"He's a great player. He has a presence out there. What I liked about him is he played each play. He wasn't an up and down guy. There might have been a dropped pass or we'd get a stop, he never showed any emotion one way or the other; and then when he had his opportunity he sure took advantage of it. That one run he had was a great run. We chased him all over the field and never got him. He's got a great future ahead of him."
On offensively not keeping the ball in the hands of Ball State tailback Marcus Merriweather:
"It was hot out there and there was some substitutions because of some fatigue things. We knew going into the game that we were going to have to play some guys. When it's as hot as it was, and you're on the road and you only have 60 guys with you, we felt like we were going to have to play them all. We had confidence in Scott Blair playing so that was something we expected going in."
Ball State Linebacker Lorenzo Scott
On Missouri quarterback Brad Smith:
"He's a great athlete, he showed it. He didn't show us too much that we didn't expect. He had one or two big runs, and we missed tackles. I guess you've got to give him his credit though."
"I wouldn't say he's elusive, we just missed tackles. I wouldn't say he broke them so much, we just didn't do what we needed to do to get the tackles."
On Mizzou scoring in the second half:
"We weren't stunned, we just didn't get the job done in the second half and it showed. We got put in some awkward spots on defense, but that's where the defense has to step up and make the big stop. We didn't do that, and it showed on the scoreboard."
Ball State quarterback Talmadge Hill:
On his offensive mindset going into second half:
"Our mindset was that we were definitely still in the game. I think we had maybe three (points) at the half, so that's the type of situation I take upon myself. We weren't taking many shots on them. But what we were doing, rushing the ball on them and our offensive line was opening up holes, so we were just going to continue to keep with our game plan and try to minimize the turnovers. We thought we'd be ok."
On offensive turnovers:
"We gave them five and didn't get any back. Anytime you turn over the ball and they have a five plus turnover margin on us you're going to lose every single time."
"It's just a matter of us beating ourselves. They came out well though, give them credit, they played well."
