Oct. 22, 2005

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University of Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel

 

Opening Statement:

I'm real proud of my football team.  A few weeks ago I told my team that if you don't fight and win in the third and fourth quarters it's not going to happen.  I don't care what you do in the first half, and they responded with great leadership. The coaches have done a great job. How we played in that second half, I was very proud of my football team, and we'll enjoy this for 24 hours and then worry about next week.

 

On Brad Smith reacting to the fans wanting Chase Daniel:

I think that in his career he has had some adversity later on. He has found out the reality of playing quarterback. It's a little like coach and he responded well.  And the thing about him is he is a guy that battles back from adversity.  That's Brad Smith.

 

On still playing Chase Daniel to start the second quarter:

We're going to continue to do that, it is important that he plays.  He isn't perfect all the time, he struggled today, but that is something that we are going to continue to do.

 

On how the team regrouped at halftime:

It was 0-0 so, if you can't do it in the second half, you won't get it done.  You might as well sack up your pants and go home.  I think they had a lot of confidence and we made plays, the defense got some turnovers and our offense was fine. Our players made plays, we coached better and I think the leadership of our football team has been there from the very beginning.  Our kids really wanted to have a great year and they responded well.

 

On Will Franklin's production after having only two catches the last two weeks:

We substitute guys, we have a lot of good players. Sometimes the opportunities are there and sometimes they are not.  Will has worked very hard the last couple of weeks.  Will made a lot of great plays today.  I'm very proud of him because even though he wasn't catching he didn't have a bad attitude.  I'm very proud of Will, the reason he is playing better is because he is working so hard in practice.

 

On David Overstreet's day:

Well you know, we want to have players with personal record days.  That's how you win big games.  We'd like to have a bunch of players have PR days. There were lots of play today, it's hard to just pinpoint one guy.

 

On the defensive line play:

I think our players responded.  We looked for articles on the internet and everything and there were some articles written about how off our defensive line has been.  None of that was from the Nebraska players or coaches, just things that had been written. 

 

On Jason Simpson's forced fumble at the Missouri five yard line:

That to me was probably the most critical part of the game.  We'd worked so hard in practice on forcing fumbles.  The offense then went the length of the field and that was huge because they had stifled us in the second and third quarters.  We fought back and made some plays.  A lot of guys made plays, Brad, Sean Coffey and Will all made plays.

 

On the pressure on Zac Taylor:

The line responded, they are competitors. They have pride in who they are and what they do.

 

On all of Mizzou's long drives:

Well I think we made some plays.  We made some big gains on third down, we hit on a few of our big plays that we had planned.  We've got to run the ball, we've got to throw the ball and make catches.  There's nothing magic out there, its just good coaching and players making plays.

 

On getting his 100^th win as a head coach:

I'll remember this, but I'm trying to make it through tomorrow.  I've had a lot of players play for me in 15 years of coaching.  Someday I'll look back on this and remember what a great win it was, but right now I just want 101.

 

On the decision to let Brad Smith back in after he took the shot to the jaw in the fourth quarter:

He got jacked in the jaw again. He was laying down there and he's been getting pounded lately.  The official saw it and called the penalty, which was good.  When I walked out I talked to Rex and Rex said he thought he was OK.  I asked Brad if he was ready to go and he said, `yeah I'm ready to go.'  He said `my jaw hurts a little bit' and I said I don't care if you jaw hurts a little bit are you ready to go?  Then he smiled and said OK.  Then I said OK, you are in for the next play.  I wasn't worried too much about his jaw, I was worried about him having a concussion.

 

On the long play call on fourth and two:

It's a short yardage play we'd worked on, they hadn't seen it before.  We told the team we're going to attack them and go for it and try to win.  We went for it and they executed.  If they don't execute, guess what, it wasn't such a great call.

 

On having a winning streak:

The fun thing about winning is that if you keep winning the next one gets bigger and bigger.  Two weeks ago the Oklahoma State game was huge. Then all of a sudden the Iowa State game was huge.  And the Nebraska game was bigger and guess what ,Kansas is bigger than that.  And again, I'm just proud of my football team. 

 

On comparing this win and the one two years ago against Nebraska:

Were just kind of stuck in the moment.  Our team was better and we just focused.  I like winning every game, every game we win I feel good about.  The players worked hard they've been listening and competing hard and that gives you a chance to win every game.

 

On gaining respect:

Respect in this business goes week to week.  Right now we are 5-2 and we are getting a little respect.  The more you win the more confidence you get as a football team, there is no question about that.  I think we're building confidence, which is good.

 

On the end of the game:

They doused me good in the locker room.  I love that, when they douse me, things are good.

Wide Receiver Will Franklin

 On the game changing 97 yard touchdown drive

 "That's something we can do on anybody, I don't care what team it is, who it is, we can go out there whether its 97 or 100 yards. The offense and the play calling have been great. We can go out there and get one hundred yards, I trust the players around me and we can go out there and move the ball on anybody."

 

Defensive End Brian Smith

On the recent criticism of the defensive line

"They had a few papers saying our coaches can't recruit defensive linemen. You can't put stuff like that in a paper because we will take it personally. It just fueled our fire and we went out and kept that in mind, [we] played with extra heart and won the game."

 

On the game plan to pressure Nebraska quarterback Zac Taylor

"We wanted to get the pressure on him, keep them in third and long situations, when that happens you can create turnovers; fumbles and interceptions."

 

On what fueled the defensive breakthrough performance

"The media, post boards, and bad remarks. We just want to get better as a defensive line. We are tired of standing around and we just have to go out there and prove them wrong."

 

Safety David Overstreet

On his feelings after the win

"It feels great, especially at the end when we saw the zeros come up [on the scoreboard] and we knew we had a win."

 

On the defensive performance, holding Nebraska to negative two yards rushing

"This defense always rises to the occasion. They were saying earlier in the week that we couldn't stop anything and our d-line can't run. They were calling us out and we decided we're going to play."

 

On Jason Simpson's game changing forced fumble

"I thought he changed the momentum of the game, it was the biggest play of the game. If he would have scored that touchdown or they would have gotten real close to kick a field goal, the game would have gone a different way."

 

On seeing the goalposts come down

"It was great, one of them was taking so long to get [down] out there. We were standing in the locker room looking out the door and watching everyone out there, it was a great feeling that we got another win."

 

Quarterback Brad Smith

On negative comments motivating Brad's performance

"I told everyone on Monday it's hard to get motivated on that kind of stuff because it wears off, and you just have to understand how people are."

 

On his untouched 79-yard touchdown dash

"It was a called play, it was kind of a sneak because we didn't see anybody in the middle and we took advantage of that."

 

On the injury to his jaw after a helmet-to-helmet collision

"It was hurting, I got hit in the jaw kind of re-injuring it from last week, but I'm doing a lot better this week."

 

On comparing this win to other big wins in his career

"It's good, I'm enjoying it. I'm just happy we won, my teammates played well and we are coming closer as a team."