Mizzou Football Media Day Quotes - Nov. 10
11/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
HEAD COACH, Gary Pinkel
Opening statement...
"We just came off of our bye week. Our goal with a bye week this late was to get a rest from the grind of preparation, get caught up with academics and get a jump on preparation for Texas A&M. I thought we had a real good week and we're excited about getting going again. We're playing a very good Texas A&M team at Kyle Field. It's a great place to play at. That's the great thing about the SEC. There's so many great places to play at. They're 7-3 and head coach Kevin Sumlin is doing a great job of building that program. Our team has worked back in to game week mode. We certainly have some great challenges ahead of us."
On continuing to build on recent momentum from the offense...
"It's about execution and game planning. We had a couple practices (during the bye week) and I thought we got a lot of work done. It's about the consistency of playing and practicing. I think that carries over and you gain confidence then in the game. We're working on everything all the time. We're trying to become a better running team and passing team. Hopefully we can execute well and we have to against this football team (Texas A&M)."
On offensive lineman's Mitch Morse improvement this season...
"He played real well last year as a junior. Going from right to left tackle is significant, but he had a lot of time to do it. I think he's really doing well. It's a different position for him, but he's playing well. This is a physical league and both of our tackles and our whole offensive line has some challenges this week since they (A&M) have some great pass rushers."
On cornerback Kenya Dennis' improvement since joining Mizzou...
"He has shown a lot of improvement. He's a great kid. He had a really good game two weeks ago (vs. Kentucky). He's one of those guys that came from junior college and dove into the program. Sometimes that's a really big adjustment for junior college players but he just jumped right in and gravitated to it. It was neat to see him embrace it. He's got a great attitude and works hard. I'm real pleased with his progress. He's a lot better player right now then he was six or seven weeks ago."
On defensive end Shane Ray breaking Mizzou's single-season sacks record...
"Shane is such a great competitor. He's one of the great competitors I've ever been around. I'd put him in my Top-5 since I've been coaching. He's got great ability, he's matured and has become a lot better football player with his work ethic. When he goes out there he plays at a different competitive level. He's an example of a guy last year who did a lot of good things, but he has now taken his game as a senior to a whole different level. It's really neat to see that."
On Texas A&M's wide receiver core...
"They're very talented. They've had some really talented players that can make plays, great catches and yards after the catch. They're going to be a challenge for us without question."
On preparing for Texas A&M's offensive scheme...
"They're very unique. They have a lot of different things that they do. It's a very good system no matter who the quarterback is that runs their plays. I think both of these guys (quarterbacks Kyle Allen & Kenny Hill) are very talented players. What we try to do as a defensive staff and defensive coordinator Dave Steckel is try to find out if they do certain things with one (quarterback) that they don't do with another. They have their system that they run and they've been very successful in it."
On the familiarity of playing at Texas A&M and Kyle Field over the past years...
"I think our players really like the environment there. It's a great environment to play college football. One of the great things about playing in this league is that there's a lot of great venues. This is another one."
Jr. OFFENSIVE LINEMAN, Connor McGovern
On the steady progression of the Mizzou offensive line this season...
"I think we've started to play better. Especially in the run game. I know that has been a point of emphasis for us because that sets up our passing game. I think we've also been doing better in the passing game lately."
On what the offensive line has specifically done to improve...
"It's just working together and communicating. We as a line got switched around a little bit so the communication wasn't quite there. We had to get that fixed. Once that was fixed we started to get a lot better."
So. LINEBACKER, Michael Scherer
On what he has seen from Texas A&M's offense...
"They scored 48 points (at Auburn) pretty easily I'd say. They got a great offense and they can move the ball down the field and hit big plays. It's going to be a tall task for us."
On A&M's wide receiving unit...
"They got a lot of playmakers. They can really throw it to any one of their wide receivers and they can go the distance. They've just got a lot of athletes out there."
