Mizzou Head Coach Barry Odom
Opening Statement:
“I hurt for my guys, you know we didn’t make enough plays to win it and I didn’t put them in a position to get it done. I’m frustrated. They played extremely hard and give credit to Georgia and Kirby (Smart) did a good job.”
On Mizzou’s turnovers:
“It’s tough. When you don’t win the turnover margin it’s going to be hard to win. I think we had five and we got one so that’s difficult. But you’ve got to respond, you’ve got to go make plays and I’ve got to do a better job getting the guys in position to go do it.”
On the loss:
“I know what I’ve got in my locker room. I really like my guys. They’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do since I got the job and I just wanted to win this one for them. They put a lot of work into it and we came up short. We’ll regroup and have a great day tomorrow.”
On moving on to next week’s game:
“Life’s hard. Anything worth having is going to be difficult to go get. We’ll stick together, we’ll work hard this week, we’ll rebound and put together a put together a game plan. We’ll be better next week than we were this week.”
Mizzou Senior CB Aarion Penton
On the mood in the locker room:
“Everyone is upset. We played hard. We fought hard. We just don’t want the loss to bring our chemistry down. We still need to come together and get some tough wins. It hurt, because we lost when we played our hardest.”
On playing for Barry Odom:
“It makes you want to play a little bit harder. He’s been in our shoes. He knows exactly what it’s like and he still has that same feeling, like he’s still putting on a uniform. It’s hard when you give it your all and you can’t come away with a win for coach.”
Mizzou Sophomore QB Drew Lock
On how we felt at halftime:
“I felt good at halftime. We should have come out and made some more plays in the second half.
On the feeling in the locker room after the game:
“Well, it wasn’t good. It was just upsetting.”
On the difference in first and second half play:
“It was on us. Just some little things we need to fix.”
On the play of J’Mon Moore:
“I thought he played awesome. Obviously, he is going to feel bad about that fumble and (he’ll) think that it’s on him. But, there was a lot of things we could have done different today. He played really well.”
Mizzou Junior TE Jason Reese
On how the tight ends have progressed as a unit:
“It’s all about executing the game plan. Coach Heupel does a great job every week of laying the plan out. There are playmakers all over the field and it’s just one of those things where when we’re gelling we’re jelling.”
On the first drive of the game:
“Tempo. It panned out just the way we planed it. Every week we practice the first drives on Thursdays. We usually finish with the play that we ended up scoring on. So yeah, it worked out perfectly.”
Mizzou Sophomore S Cam Hilton
On his interception:
“I was just reading the quarterback. I was the free man. I was just eyeing the left side of the field and made the perfect break to get to the ball.”
Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart
On the way the team fought:
“They never stop fighting, they never stop believing, and I’m proud of that. I mean I am proud of the way they work everyday. You know it’s 95 degrees down there and we are out there practicing for two straight hours, but those kids push through it. I appreciate that and we’re tough on them, we are tough on these kids everyday so they respond to it and they did tonight.”
On turnovers:
“The biggest one was the last one and we preach it, everyone preaches it, whoever gets the big turnovers makes the difference. We were very fortunate tonight to get those turnovers. Their quarterback threw us a few and our quarterback didn’t, well he threw one. It is just making decisions, you know, and we need to learn to capitalize on those. We need to find a way to run the ball. It is frustrating to feel like you can’t run the ball with the backs that we have.”
On practice this week:
“You know I don’t think we had a great week of practice, we had a good week of practice. We have to have a great week of practice to play the teams we have to play. We can’t have days where we don’t have good practices, but our kids are battlers. They are fighters, they believe in each other, they love each other, and it makes me proud that I am able to coach a group like that.”
On what a game like this does for a team:
“Confidence. I am a firm believer in situational football and we put them in a lot of situations, we do situations all the time and they responded to the situation. We had to get the ball back, so we got it back. Then the offense had to score and they did. I was proud of the way they battled.”
On developing a young quarterback:
“We need to get him looking in the right places. There are a lot of times where he is throwing the ball to the wrong place. Even that last drive a couple times, Isaiah was tired or winded and we have to get him out of there, and he kept throwing fade balls to him. We just need to do a better job of helping the receivers out by playing more guys, but the other guys need to earn it by what they do in practice.”
Georgia WR Isaiah McKenzie
On the outcome of the game:
“I still can’t believe it happened. I still can’t believe that it’s over and we won. But it feels good to help the team out and come out on top.”
On the last play:
“I saw that the linebackers were down the middle. I had to get the corner to the middle of the field and once they called hike I said ‘I got to get to the middle before he does. Before he beats me there.’ That’s what I did. He threw a good pass I had to adjust and come down with it and secure it. That put us on top.”
Georgia CB Juwuan Briscoe
On the UGA chants at the end of the game:
“It felt good. All this felt great. Getting the W. Coming back and fighting. It’s a great feeling.”
On UGA fans traveling to Columbia:
“Hats off to them, because this is a long way from Athens. I appreciate them coming out here and supporting.”
On pushing past the past plays and moving forward:
“It’s frustrating but my teammates and my coaches they believe in me so I have to keep fighting for them.”
On the game tonight:
“I would describe it as a heavyweight fight. Going back and forth, back and forth. We got the last blow at the end.”
