Sept. 9, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
Missouri Head Coach Pinkel Quotes
Opening Statement:
"I want to say that I'm real proud of my football team. I thought we played with a lot of energy today. Certainly there's a lot of things that we need to improve on but that's really what I'm looking for with this team in how they prepare and the energy level of how they play. If they can do it on a highly consistent basis. We also did some good things in the kicking game, obviously there were a couple of backfires, but I think there were some strides in the kicking game today. I thought our defense played outstanding most of the time and they didn't respond real well on that sudden change but I think other than that at the end of the second quarter our number one defense did a lot of good things. Our offense certainly did some good things too."
On the potential of the defensive line:
"We ran pretty good on defense and I think that we're playing hard. We're playing with a lot of energy. I use that term because we rotate a lot of guys in there and that keeps it really fresh so we don't get tired in the fourth quarter. For the most part, I thought that we had different challenges but certainly that's where it all starts. It starts with the offensive and defensive line. I think both of them played really well."
On Chase Daniel:
"We knew we were going to utilize him run-wise. He ran, I think, 250 plus times his senior year of high school and he's not going to be Brad Smith. He is not going to turn 30 and 40 yard gains, but he is quick enough and he's athletic enough where he can put some pressure on the defense."
On team balance:
"We've not played consistent at a high level on both sides of the football and I think that's a little bit of us building the program. To think everything would be perfect after the first two years, it just doesn't work that way. I think we'll evaluate that as the season goes on, but I think maybe that's a pretty good observation."
Missouri Player Quotes
Xzavie Jackson
On what was expected from Ole Miss…
"BenJarvus Green-Ellis, he is a hard runner; he ran hard today. (Brent) Schaeffer knows how to manage this football team. They came out here and tried to put it on us, and I think we had a little more intensity than they had. They played hard all game, but I think we just had a little more than them."
On coming back from suspension…
"No…I've been ready for this since the last game of the year last season. I served my suspension, and had fun doing it helping my team. Now, I am glad to be back helping win ballgames."
Brad Ekwerekwu
On the feeling after the second win…
"It felt great; similar to last week getting out there and rolling, but it just felt real good."
On being the go-to guy today…
"Oh, I embrace that role. No, I'm just blessed; just blessed to be able to have that opportunity. Lots of guys made plays and just not myself. Like I said, we're out there rolling."
On beating a competitive SEC team…
"Oh it's great; it's a great confidence boost. We know we can pass, run, and execute the offense, and we went out there and showed it. It only helps us."
Cornelius "Pig" Brown
On the overall performance of the defense today…
"We went out there today focusing on one play at a time and that was about it. As a team, we backed each other up all day. Our defensive line got great pressure, the defensive backs broke up runs and broke up passes, linebackers making good tackles, so as a whole, we backed it up all day and that was pretty much the key today."
On having the touchdown called back…
"You know what? When I score, every time I score on a punt return, I look back to see if there's any yellow things on the field. When I looked back, I didn't see any flags. It was so far back! But when I got to the sideline, I saw the offense walking on the field, and I'm wondering what's going on. I got bamboozled! They bamboozled me out there today!"
Martin Rucker
On looking down the road optimistically…
"There's two parts to the season: there's the non-conference and the conference. You got to go into the conference with a full head of steam."
On breaking the recent second game curse…
"I just knew we had to win this. In the past, in non-conference games we haven't been able to pull it out, and then the season just kind of went down hill. We knew we had to get this one and we have."
On Chase Daniel's quick feet…
"Well, I figured in college it wouldn't work as well as it did in high school, but he showed me some stuff today"
On whether the offense or the defense is more dominating…
"I don't know, you guys decide, I guess."
Ole Miss Head Coach Ed Orgeron
Opening Statement
"We wanted to play well and we didn't. We struggled on defense. We got ourselves in the hole. I'm disappointed that we couldn't run the ball on offense. We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of turnovers. We've got a lot of work to do."
On playing on the road
"I think it's a little bit of a road shock, a little bit of last week. I thought that some parts went pretty good, we didn't play well today. We need to remain hungry. We need to pay attention to the little things on defense."
On Missouri's performance
"Well I thought they were pretty good coming in, especially offensively. I thought that we really had our work cut out for us, but I thought that the defense would play well today. They out-hit us; they were well prepared for today."
On Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel
"He's good. His throws were on target, he operated well and made a lot of adjustments at the line of scrimmage. One time during the one of the key plays of the game we rushed Patrick [Willis] and he got out of the backfield and he made a first down. So he did a good job today."
Ole Miss Players
Running Back Benjarvus Green-Ellis
On the Missouri Defense
"They came out and executed there plan, we just got to do a better job executing ours."
On Ole Miss Offense
"I never had a bad thought about our offensive, we just never quite got it going."
"We just got to execute our plan; we gotta to bounce back next week."
Linebacker Patrick Willis
On Missouri quarter back Chase Daniel
"We knew he was a running quarterback, He got the better of us today."
On the Ole Miss experience
"We didn't play the kind of ball we wanted to. It's a team game, in some areas we had some inexperience, in other areas we had some more experience. All together we didn't play as a whole, if we can't do that we cants win a ballgame."
Quarterback Brent Schaeffer
On the Flow of the Game
"Things didn't go our way today, everything that could have gone wrong today probably did. Things went downhill, and we could never get it going back uphill."
On the Missouri Defense
"They came with a good team. They played a good game."