HEAD COACH, Gary Pinkel
Opening statement...
"We're preparing for Florida. Like the other SEC teams, they are very consistent with being a good football team. This is the next one up for us. We're playing at a great place in `The Swamp.' This is a great thing about playing in this league, as you get to play in some of the best venues in college football. We're excited about that, and we're trying to become a better football team."
On improving the team's recent problem with turnovers...
"In any offense, you can't turn the ball over five times. I don't ever remember in my career ever doing that since I've been coaching. You can have 600 yards of offense and turn the ball over five times and you're probably not going to win the football game. Those are certainly things we have to work on. We haven't forced a turnover for three weeks in a row. It was extreme in both ways."
On how the defense has improved over the past few weeks...
"I think overall they've improved a bit. We contained them (Georgia) pretty well. You can't take away some of the good things we've done on defense and that's a positive."
On linebacker Kentrell Brothers recording consecutive standout games for Mizzou...
"I think he's doing a lot of good things. Kentrell is a very talented athlete. Michael Scherer I think is doing some good things too. It's nice having those guys do that. I think overall we're always looking to be a very physical football team up front on defense and on offense. In this league you got to be very physical. We're encouraging not only our linebackers, but also our defensive line and offensive line to be physical. He (Brothers) is in that category and he's doing a lot of good things."
On running back Marcus Murphy's impact since joining the program...
"He's a great young man. I've seen him mature over the years. He's a guy that has his degree and is working on his masters now. It's so great to see him mature. He's obviously had a huge impact in the years he has been here. Not only as a running back, but also as a kick and punt returner. He has been real important to us. He's very diverse, and has a great attitude all the time. He's a great kid."
On defensive lineman Harold Brantley's play this season...
"Harold's been doing really well. We're very pleased with his quickness, maturity and competitiveness. He's doing a lot of good things. He's a very talented player, and it's neat to see his consistency on how he's playing. He's really helping us."
On the offensive line's game plan in stopping Florida's productive defensive line...
"You have to protect (the quarterback) and we understand that. There's a lot of different things you can do, whether it's a three step drop, spread the defense out, or play action passes. There's various things you can do to help out the pass rush. They're like most teams in this league where they have good defensive players and they pass rush well. It's not like we haven't seen this before. They're very talented. Last week's guys were talented too. Welcome to the SEC."
On the skillset of Florida's quarterback duo of Jeff Driskel and Treon Harris...
"Both of those guys run the same offense from the film we have. I'd expect to see both of them in there (Saturday). As far as one running different plays than the other, from what we've seen, they run the same type of offense."
On Florida wide receiver, Demarcus Robinson's ability on the field...
"He's a big play guy. He's a guy that can turn a 10-yard gain to a 40-yard gain. He's very athletic and can go up and get the ball in traffic. He's a real good player, and we certainly have to be aware of where he's at."
On things that stood out after watching film...
“It comes back to what I said after the game, if you go back and look at the film there was no execution whatsoever. We have to put in extra time for that and we have to get our stuff back together. I know all of the receivers jumped on board real quick. They were all at my house after the game after our parents had left and we just sat there and talked for a couple hours. I mean, Last night it is 2am and we are at the indoor with the lights on and trying to get that stuff back. And that's what we're going to do and we're going to be ready to go.
On the frustration of mid-season struggles...
“It's frustrating but there's adversity and I know Coach Pinkel says the same stuff, its how you fight back. Our guys are ready to go, yeah people are upset but it's going to be a different week for us and we're going to come out fighting.
On what he talked with his receivers about...
“Just getting back on track, its not about anybody else, its about us. If we go out there and we're executing then that's what's going to get our offense going and that's what we have to do. “
On what he saw after watching film...
“It comes down to executing plays and we really did not do that. There's a lot of things that we need to correct on the film in the offensive line room and you know the good thing about it is it's all correctable stuff. We're going to go out there in this week in practice, some guys even went out there today and started that work to get better and correct the mistakes we made on Saturday so it doesn't happen again.”
On whether the O-Line problems have been consistent from week to week...
“On the offensive line it is just one guy every play, and that's what we have been noticing. If we get that one guy, if we get all five guys doing the same thing at the same time then it can be dangerous. You saw that at the end of the South Carolina game and throughout some parts of the game Georgia and some parts of the game throughout the whole season but we need to go out there and continue to do it each and every play.”
On Florida's consistent defense...
“That's fine, we're not worried about anything, we just have to make sure we work hard this week and we're not thinking about anybody coming up to us or being able to shut us out like that.”
On whether they have to limit expectations of big plays to get the short & quick passing game going...
“No, because you make the best out of every opportunity you get, when you don't you end up with a score like we had this past game. That's not taking advantage of small screens that are supposed to go maybe five or six yards, we're dropping those and making interceptions or whatever. I had a drop that game, small things all the way around, just not getting your mojo going, not getting guys motivated or enthusiasm out on the field that just isn't there.”
On last years Florida game...
“Defense played really well, offense played well. That's the perfect example of both offense and defense playing together. I remember Wilson had a good game, Michael Sam had a good game. The D-Line played well, we had a lot of turnovers, it was just a good all-around team victory.”
On last week...
“It was definitely an embarrassing game, for me in my eyes I didn't want to stand in the locker room. I didn't even shower after the game I went straight home and talked to my mom for a little bit, didn't come out for the rest of the day. It's a tough game to lose, especially at home, it was hard to recover form but once we got up here Sunday and practiced I got it all out of my system.”
On game-planning for two quarterbacks this week...
“They run the same things on film from what I have seen so I don't think it'll be too hard.”