Colorado-Missouri Quotes
November 05, 2005 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Gary Barnett
General
“Just like the last time we met in here (Folsom Field), I told you that before we took the field, I knew that we were not ready to play
On the play of V-back
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On possibly the best game of the season
“I think this is probably as good as we've played. We played pretty well against A&M, but we let a couple of scores when our twos were in, but I think this is as good of a game as we have played.”
On lack of penalties
“It was refreshing. I called a timeout instead of taking a delay of game because I didn't want another penalty on our record. I felt like we probably cleaned it up over last weekend. This week was even better. We paid a lot of attention in practice to it this week and that's how this game goes.
On absence of Hugh Charles
“He tweaked (his ankle) in warm-ups and we played him in one play and he tweaked it again. So we just kept him out of the game. We felt like with Lawrence and Ellis in the game that we didn't have to use him.”
On Buffaloes passing game
“We weren't going to force any issues. We run a lot of run/pass options. At the line of scrimmage, Joel makes the decision based on what they are going to do. We had a good plan for it and were able to execute it. You always have a plan, but being able to execute it is another. If we could get to the play, we had a chance. And we were able to do that.”
“That was huge, especially after the head coach called an onside kick. I appreciate those guys saving my butt.”
Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel
General
“Certainly Colorado played very well. We made a lot of mistakes. Our football team prepared very well this week and we expected to play a lot better. Against a good football team like this, if we make mistakes, they're going to take advantage of every one. I think they did, and I'm certainly disappointed that we didn't play well.
“I think our team had a couple of things (mistakes). My football team, they're suffering right now. They expected to play better and we were just making a lot of mistakes and I'm responsible for that.
“In November you want to have a chance to get in the run for your division and we were sitting in that position and obviously they executed a heck of a lot better than us.”
On Running Game
“I thought it did pretty good early and I think we got out of it. When you're playing catch-up and you're right back where you started, that's not very easy to run after that.”
On Tony Temple's Fumble
“He's a young player, things happen like that. He's going to be back and work hard to get back to it. There were a lot of mistakes out there and that was just one of them. That didn't change the game. There were a million mistakes out there and that's part of the problem.”
On Playing Chase Daniels
“We want him to come in and we want him to play a couple series or so. We're just going to continue to do that and hopefully he'll play well when he gets in.”
On Preparedness of Team
“They're working their tails off. Their focus was good, everything. You know, maybe that's just a lot of pressure to be on my kids and that's me that needs to take it off of them.”
On Improvement
“I thought at times that we did good things. Obviously we have to score more points than that, and it's not a magical (Colorado) defense. You're going to have to mix your runs and throw the ball well if you want to do well and there's nothing more to it than that.”
On Pressure on Missouri coming into the game
“Pressure; I'm putting that on me maybe. They practiced hard and they prepared hard. They're really suffering right now, but that's okay.”
Colorado Buffalo Players
QB Joel Klatt
ON KNOWING THE OFFENSE -- “I should know the offense inside and out because I've been here long enough. Coach (Barnett) has done a really great job teaching us the offense. Everyone on the field from the offense and defense is responsible for what's going on out there, and if we do a good job preparing it gives us an advantage. I think it's one of the keys for us.”
ON IOWA STATE GAME -- “No one comes to Colorado to just be competitive in the Big 12. We're always preparing to win championships. In the division, we're going to be going for the fourth championship in five years and that is exactly why we are here to play. I think next week you'll see a team even more jacked up to play, because that's why we are here.”
ON BREAKING CU PASSING RECORDS -- “Coach (Darian) Hagan is always giving me a hard time about the records, but I always tell him his records were broken last year because he didn't throw the ball very much. In all seriousness, I'm just happy to be here, it's absolutely just icing on the cake for a walk-on happy to be on the team.”
ON FOUR TD'S -- “It's all because of a week of great planning and the coaches telling us all week that we were going to run the ball and Missouri was saying that we couldn't. I'm a veteran, I know the protections and I knew I had to step up because Hugh (Charles) wasn't feeling healthy. It really wasn't me though. It was the O-line telling the coaches to keep pounding the ball. And of course, anytime Mr. Versatile gets to do his thing, it's all good. All around it was a good day.”
ON PLAYING TAILBACK -- “Sometimes Mr. Versatile has to step up to the challenge. I'll fill any role. I'll run, I'll block, but will always keep them on their toes.”
GENERAL -- “Just give credit to Coach Hankwitz. He kept the game plan real simple this week so that we could just play hard and play fast, and that scheme turned out to be successful.”
ON RUN DEFENSE -- “When it comes to the linebackers making tackles, it's all because of the work of the defensive line. They're doing a great job of keeping their blockers off of us so that we can fill the gaps and make plays. Today that's what happened and it was because of the defensive line's ability to do their job that made the team successful.”
ON IOWA STATE GAME -- “I'm sure that it will be a great game. They played us close last year and they're a great team that fights until the end. It will be a great challenge and hopefully we will play well and execute.”
CB Gerett Burl
ON INTERCEPTION -- “We were in a zone coverage and in film studies we saw plays like that all week. I saw Brad Smith look at it and I just needed to make the play from there. It was just a matter of reading the QB and having him tell us where he was going to go.”
ON BRAD SMITH -- “He's really a very talented player. We knew we had to come out real hard and we knew that if we didn't, he would just dissect us. Fortunately, the linebackers did a good job and everyone was giving pressure on their backfield, so everyone could make plays.”
ON INCREASED WR ROLE -- “We thought that we could get some plays with those quick outs and work with separation that they were giving us. Coach Cabral always challenges us to make the first guy miss and that's all I was trying to do today.”
ON INCREASED CONFIDENCE -- “I've always been really nervous before games and now I'm doing some visualizations with Coach Barnett before the games and now I know how to relax and just play. The coaches also tell me that I wouldn't be out there if they didn't believe in my abilities, and that helps me relax, too.”
LB Akarika Dawn
ON CONTAINING BRAD SMITH -- “Everything kind of worked out for us today because we were able to keep him in front of us and eliminate the big plays. We knew they were going to do some dunks and dinks, but we weren't going to allow them to beat us deep or scramble on us and make big plays. We wanted to keep guys in his face to force bad throws, and it worked today.”
ON HOLDING MISSOURI'S RUN OFFENSE TO A MINIMUM -- “We definitely pride ourselves on trying to do the best running defense in the country, and tonight it looked like it was paying off. “
ON CLOSING IN ON THE BIG 12 NORTH -- “Our motto has kind of been ?take care of the North and win the games in November' and that's our only focus right now.”
Missouri Tiger Players
DE Xzavie Jackson
GENERAL ? “We've got to go out there and work hard. Yes, we lost big, but we have to come out Tuesday and work our way back into a bowl game. We've got to watch film and execute better on both sides of the ball. We got beat all over the field today. It's hard to bounce back after a game like this. We've prepared all week for this game and came into it feeling like we were the team to beat. But, that's what facing adversity is.”
ON PLAY OF DEFENSE ? “We have to come out as a defense and fix the small things. We have to fill our gaps, and collapse the offensive line and not allow players like (Lawrence) Vickers to run all over us. We let their O-line and Vickers control the second half.”
TB Marcus Woods
ON THE PENALTIES ? “After watching the roughing the kicker penalty, I thought the referee threw an illegitimate flag. I think today the refs through a lot of questionable flags. Although it's not obvious, it's these kind of things that take a lot of momentum away from a team.
ON GAME ? “I'm not a loser. I hate losing, and I will never get used to it. That's why I said this game was embarrassing. They did things better on both sides of the ball today. We're a lot better team than what decided to show up for this game. We're going to work hard this week and whether we end up second or even third in the Big 12 North, I'm not going to give up.”
LB Derrick Ming
ON TEAM'S EXECUTION ? “Our defense and offense didn't execute well today. Our coaches game planned very well this week and Colorado didn't throw anything unexpected at us. That just means there can't be any finger pointing at other people. We've got to point the fingers at ourselves, come out next week and put the bad points of this game behind us, but still learn from it, fix it and become a better football team.”
ON VICKERS ? “Basically Vickers ran as well as any back we've seen this year. In the second half, he hit the gaps very well and their O-line executed perfectly. In a big game like this, you can't let yourself get down after small mistakes or penalties, but that's what I feel happened today, especially after that roughing the kicker, I feel the wind was blown out of our sails. To be a good football team, you have to execute and make plays.”
RB Tony Temple
GENERAL ? “We needed to come out playing and we didn't. Things started to snow ball and the coaches tried to keep us going, but we just didn't execute. If you don't execute, you don't win. We knew we could play with them, if we came out and played hard, we just didn't execute.”
ON FUMBLE ? “They didn't touch the ball, I just dropped it. It was mental, they didn't even try to strip it. When you lose the ball and they score, it's going to affect the game. I tried to do too much, and I dropped the ball. I tried to make it work and make plays, unfortunately it hurt the team.”
ON MU OFFENSE ? “We have to have all 11 guys do the right thing. Execute, and have confidence. We know what we can do, we just didn't execute today.”
