Oct. 17, 2005
Missouri Football Media Day
October 17th, 2005
Coach Gary Pinkel
Opening Statement:
"First, I want to congratulate Adam Crossett for being named Special Team's Player of the Week for the Big 12. It is certainly a great honor. We've asked him to do an awful lot for this program. He's a guy that's doing kickoff, punting and point after field goal. He's doing a good job and learning how to focus all that energy throughout a game. Hats off to him. It's a great honor for him to receive that."
"We are preparing for a very good Nebraska football game. They're defense is absolutely outstanding. They're numbers are fairly staggering. When you watch it on video, they parallel one another. They are very good at what they do. Offensively, they've got a great scheme, they formation you to death, they do a million things, but very calculated, very well-designed, and they keep getting better and better. If you look at them statistically, the last three games versus the first three games, you'll see a team that just keeps improving. That's our challenge, we're doing game-planning and such now, and we start practice tomorrow."
On Nebraska's defense:
"When you look at the numbers and you watch the video, it's pretty staggering at how good they are in rush-defense. We'll just try to game-plan and do the best we can, understanding that it's very difficult to run the ball against that defense. We'll just do the best we can."
On Chase Daniel:
"Chase is a very humble guy, very confident, and he's always been that way. He's not cocky or arrogant at all. As a player he did some good things. But the reality is that you get back to work and make yourself a better player, and that's what he's going to do."
"He's been trying to watch the things that Brad has done since Chase has gotten here. It's a very good relationship, and he has a lot of respect for Brad, and it will continue to be that way."
On changing attitudes:
"That is what gets you over the hump, no question about it. You can talk about it, which we do a lot, you can emphasize it like we have since the day we got here. We have had some come from behind wins, but not this significant in terms of how many points and how late in the game. I think you gain a lot of confidence from it and the other thing to is that players make plays, we had defensive players make plays, we had offensive players make plays and working together and players are the ones responsible for getting that done."
On getting a sack and winning...
"Yeah, it was pretty good you can only get so excited, but you have to keep your composure out there. We feel better this is our second win in a row. We are looking toward the Nebraska game."
Continuing to win...
"We just have to keep working hard; I think that if we keep working hard the winning will follow."
On passing the torch...
"Every quarterback wants an amicable relationship; the position is so much about learning, the plays and how to lead. That is just part of the game at any level; Brett Farve is going through that now. You just have to deal with it. I am just trying to concentrate on what I can do to help the team win."
Thoughts after leaving the game...
"I mean I was telling him that I want to win, I want to be out there, but I couldn't so I was not going to play. I always want to play, and they had to make that decision to keep Chase (Daniel) in the game. We had our momentum going and I was ready to go whenever they needed me."
On coming into the game...
"I was just coming in there to do my job, but after we got the third and thirteen conversion to Ek (Brad Ekwerekwu) we thought we could do this and we did march down there and score. On the second drive we were moving the offense down the field it was great to finally get that touchdown pass to (Sean) Coffey."
On getting reps...
In the past couple of weeks I have been getting reps with the ones, because I had that series in the second quarter. That is the game plan, just getting in there and doing really well in 7 on 7. Playing against our defense, I think our defense is one of the best, our DB's are pretty amazing. You get out be so much better of a practice player, because the better you are in practice the better you are in a game.