Missouri-Colorado Quotes
November 03, 2007 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Dan Hawkins
General
“(QB Chase Daniel) is pretty darn good. They have a good team, good personnel, and a good scheme. They really know how to run it. It's very efficient. You really have to dot your I's and cross your T's to have a chance against a team like this.”
On What Went Against
“It's a lot of mojo things. You get a penalty or a bad play that makes you sputter a little bit. You just have to deal with that. It was some chemistry things that went wrong. (
On
“These guys have been through a lot. We try to address these things week-to-week in a stable manner. That's just life; you have to learn to deal with it.”
On Losing by 45 Points
“You never expect to go down like that. A number of things come together to cause this. You really need someone to stick their thumb in the dike and try to slow down the tide.”
On Coming Out After the Half
“It's a long game, even at half time we thought we could get a few things together. You just have to take it play by play and see what you can do.”
On This Year's Rollercoaster of Emotions
“There's always a newness to every season and every game. It's just part of the process.”
On Positives Taken From This Game
“We just have to make sure that the young guys can take this pain and manifest it into future success. You just wonder if guys can put it in the right context and use it positively. That's life, that's football.”
On
“You have to have respect for them. They run a bit of a unique system. They have a lot of talent and good players and they run it well.”
On
“It's a lot of things, it could be a fast guy, a good throw, sometimes it's just a vision thing. Sometimes it's just an alignment thing and most of those plays (
On Expecting a Blowout
“Certainly in the first quarter I didn't, but as things erode they become cumulative. We have a really young team. I thought in the first quarter we did a good job.”
Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel
General
“Certainly I am real proud of our team and our coaches.
On fighting through the adversity
“This was a very complete game. We have had a few like that this year, but being in this environment and not winning here in like 150 years, our kids are very different. We have got great leadership, and I have said that throughout the year. We have players that are very committed to preparing the right way, and we fought through the adversity. They were jumping on everything, and we turned the ball over right away and they scored a touchdown. We had a lot of little things that went wrong in the first quarter. The defense played really well; they got a lot of three-and-outs for us, and when they do that we are a very tough team to beat”
“Starting off, give them [
On QB Chase Daniel
“Chase Daniel started this when he was I high school. This guy won state championships; he is a winner and a tenacious competitor. He is a battlefield commander. He was upset with the interception, and I did not have to say anything to him. It happened so let's move on, and obviously it showed a lot of his character.”
On Chase Daniels' Improvement
“I think that he is more in charge of everything that is going on. I think that he has a lot more suggestions now. He sees more of the field. On Mondays when we are game planning, he is spending a lot of time sitting there game planning with all the coaches. Sometimes with his opinions we will make fun of him, but most of the time he gives opinions that are good. He is a student of the game, and obviously a bright guy.”
On defensive effort
“We got some points on the board and got some three-and-outs, and that is discouraging for an offensive football team. We were fortunate to do that. To do this to a team like
On Dan Hawkins
“He has done a great job with this team. He has done a remarkable job of coaching. Trust me he is a remarkable football coach.”
On loss of S Cornelius Brown
“We miss Pig. He was on the sidelines leading the team. We needed some guys to step up and they did. We got [S Justin] Garret which was really important, and he played well. I think that this says something about our depth, and a little about the guys around him who were encouraging him.”
On preparation after win
“I am glad we won, and tomorrow morning I am going to do the same thing I have done for the last seven or eight years and go to bed, and wake up Monday morning and do the same thing. When you want to make a run at this thing, you have to play at a high level every week. You cannot play you're A game one week and then your C game the next week because if you do that your not going to have a chance. We have one game in November, so now let's see what happens.”
Colorado
GENERAL?“They run a tricky offense and they run it very well. We didn't tackle well and we missed some assignments. We were not ourselves tonight. We are not that bad of a team. We didn't get dominated physically. They just had a lot of big plays. We have a good team, but there's just a small margin of error and
ON
ON THE REST OF THE SEASON? “This was only one week. You can't let your season be defined by one win or one loss. We just have to show up and work hard for next week.”
ON
ON
ON QB CHASE DANIEL?“I kind of think he's the best of the three (Kansas QB Todd Reesing, Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell) that we've played these last few weeks. He's like Reesing but he's a shorter guy and he can scramble but he has a much stronger arm. He made some great throws and that really hurt us. What we need to do is just stay level and not get too upset just like we try not to get too high after a win and just keep going forward.”
ON MISSOURI OFFENSE?“There definitely weren't any surprises, we just didn't tackle well tonight. Normally we are a very strong tackling team, we just weren't tonight. Daniel did a good job of getting the ball to the right guy at the right time. Once he did that, they did a good job of breaking tackles and making plays; now we just have to move on and get ready to play
GENERAL?“Tonight we knew coming in that they were a big-play offense. We really focused in practice on limiting big plays, we just didn't do a good job of executing tonight.”
GENERAL?“You can definitely say we were out of sync. There were a lot of penalties and missed opportunities. As an offense, we need to focus on doing things right and doing things good on first downs. We need to get better at that. At this level, we all know it's a game of momentum. The key is to just keep going. We were excited to get going early, but it's a 60-minute game and we didn't play all 60 minutes. You have to tip your hat to
ON WHAT HE TAKES FROM THIS GAME?“I know that a win is better than a loss. We have a lot to take into next week. We just have to take this in stride. Learn from it and go forward.”
ON RECOVERING?“Many players are perfectionists and they have a hard time putting things away. You have to know that you're going to have good times and bad times. Us old guys who have been around need to show these young guys how to do that.”
GENERAL?“We definitely didn't have any rhythm tonight and a lot of that is on the offense. We have to do a good job of putting some drives together and giving the defense some time to rest. Now we just have to come back tomorrow, fix some mistakes and continue to get better.”
ON MISSOURI DEFENSE?“They didn't do anything different than we expected, we knew coming in that they did a variety of things and they did a good job executing that today. I just tip my hat to them, they played really well.”
ON GAME PREPARATION?“We had a good week of practice. When you put yourself out there against good teams like we do, sometimes you're going to get bit. We have to come back tomorrow and continue to get better, get after it all week and prepare to play a good team in
ON
OT Ryan Miller
GENERAL?“ We kind of struggled with communication on the offensive line but really, it's (the Missouri game) all over right now and we have to work towards next week and continue to get better.”
QB Cody Hawkins
GENERAL?“We started out really well, we had the momentum in the beginning of the game but after that, we couldn't get into a rhythm. We struggled in all areas. When one area of your team struggles or isn't working, your whole team struggles. We have to come back and get better, we're a young team and sometimes you have growing pains.”
ON MISSOURI?“They did an awesome job getting prepared for this week, their defense came out and executed their game plan very well and really limited us offensively. I saw on ESPN that they are a dark horse for the national championship game. Their only loss of the season came at
ON
ON TEAM CONFIDENCE?“Our confidence is still good and actually, I think it makes us more confident and believe in ourselves more. I'm really looking forward to getting back here tomorrow, looking at the film and fixing our mistakes and getting ready for
LB Jordon Dizon
ON QB CHASE DANIEL?“He's a good quarterback, he makes plays with his arm and makes plays with his feet. He's a two dimensional quarterback, and that's tough to defend. If you cover the pass, he runs the ball and if you defend against his scrambling abilities he'll beat you with a pass. He did what he had to do, and I take my hat off to him, he played well.”
ON DEFENSE?“Defensively we were definitely inconsistent and that's due in part to us being such a young team but that falls on the shoulders of our leaders. It's up to our leaders, myself included, to get our team going when we start to struggle. Now we just have to keep improving and get ready for
ON DEEP PASSES?“I didn't expect them to go after T-Wheat (CB Terrence Wheatley). His elbow is like a melon right now, if you could see it right now it's disgusting. I know he hurt his ankle but he's a really tough guy and I take my hat off to him for playing as well as he did with his injuries and toughing it out.”
ON HIS INJURY?“I don't have a concussion, I just got my bell rung a little bit. I had a bit of a headache but that's all. If you took out every football player that got a headache during a game you'd probably be short on players.”
ON TEAM CONFIDENCE?“The loss doesn't affect our confidence at all. We weren't the same team out there today as we normally are. Our defense struggled and our offense struggled. You have to be able to get up for every game and being a young team, a lot of this guys don't play this many games in a season in high school so it's up to us as leaders to get everybody up for every game.”
ON DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE?“We stuck to our game plan, it was really just the deep ball that got us in trouble. They got a couple big plays on us in the first quarter and that carried on for the rest of the game.”
ON CHASE DANIEL'S MOBILITY?“It definitely played a factor in their offensive success. I remember one touchdown specifically to No. 45 (TE Chase Coffman). We had them in the backfield and were chasing them and the linebackers went to contain him, that left open some spots in the defense and he hit No.45 for a touchdown.”
ON MISSOURI OFFENSE?“Nothing caught me off guard, we knew they would attack us deep, that's what happens when you play as much man coverage as we do. You can't get beat deep like we did today and expect to win the game.”
GENERAL?“You just have to wake up every morning and do your job; we have to learn our lesson from today and keep going forward. We can't get too high and we can't get too low, you just have to sit even keel and that goes for life as well as football.”
ON HIS BLOCKED PUNT?“We just executed it like we do in practice, you push hard up the middle and then I went underneath and was able to block the kick.”
ON MISSOURI OFFENSE?“They didn't do anything at all that we didn't expect. We just didn't execute our defense and we didn't stop their big plays.”
ON QB CHASE DANIEL'S MOBILITY?“I didn't think it affected us that much, it was more his passing that beat us today. We did a good job keeping him in the pocket. He just beat us with some deep passes and that really hurt us tonight.”
Missouri
LB Van Alexander
OVERALL ? “I think guys stepped up today. I think we have a lot pf people who don't get a lot of attention on the team and today everybody had a great day and everybody stepped up.”
ON THE OFFENSE ? “I think we finally fired on all cylinders today. The offense put together a complete package both running the ball and throwing the ball. Actually putting the whole thing together feels good.”
ON PREPARING FOR THE
ON FINISHING THE SEASON STRONG ? “Last year, we played the non-conference schedule really well but then struggled down the stretch. This year, I think the chemistry is good and everything has fallen in place for us to make a run, and possibly win the Big 12 North. It's a great feeling.
WR Jeremy Maclin
ON MAKING A STATEMENT TO THE COUNTRY ? “Our goal wasn't to make a statement to the country. We took this game like every other game, and the fact that we won in the way that we did was an added bonus.”
ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE OFFENSE ? “It was a lot of fun spreading the ball around, especially because everybody had a good day and I think everybody stepped up and played to their best ability.”
ON KEEPING STRIDE WITH
TE Chase Coffman
GENERAL---“We have a lot of great players on offense, Chase (Daniel) does a great job of spreading the ball around and letting us make plays. Our receivers did a great job of getting pass their cornerbacks, they were pressing us the whole game and Chase (Daniel) did a great job getting the receivers the ball.”
ON TOUCHDOWN CATCH WHERE HE HURDLED A COLORADO DEFENDER---“I always do that, where I try to jump over a defender. I get tired of people going at my knees so I jump over them and today it worked. I didn't run track in high school or anything. My dad used to play and I have seen videos of him doing that so I thought I would give it a try.”
ON LOOKING AHEAD---“We always have room for improvement; that is what we practice for. We just need to keep our heads on straight and not worry about things, take it one day at a time. We can't afford to get distracted so we just need to stay focused.”
ON
ON SETTING MISSOURI RECORD FOR CAREER TOUCHDOWN RECEPTIONS---“That's neat, I'm happy about it. I have another year so I just need to keep working hard and keep making plays.”
ON REBOUNDING AFTER FIRST DRIVE---“When we have tough times like that, the defense needs to step up. We got to step up on offense, everybody just had a great attitude about it, and we had pretty much the whole game left. We just came back out and did what we could.
WR Jared Perry
ON
ON WINNING IN BOULDER--“You just need to go one game at a time. We had to get a win today. It's time to make a statement.
S William Moore
ON THE ABSENSE OF S CORNELIUS BROWN ? “Before I went out there, I said, ?I have to step [up with] the loss of Pig Brown,' I knew I had to take on more of a leadership role. (Cornelius) stood up before the game and told the defense that we could play without him. He got a little emotional and we all got a little emotional.”
ON DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE ? “All the three and outs we held them to, that is definitely a goal of ours. We shoot for holding them to three and out 33% of the time or less. We accomplished that today.”
ON PLAYING WITH THE LEAD--“The coaches kept telling us not to look up at the scoreboard and to just keep doing our assignments and making plays.”
S Cornelius Brown
ON ROLE ON THE SIDELINES?“I'm ?Coach Brown' now.”
ON THE 8-1 START?“This is a different team?this is the '07 team. We're just going to take it one game at a time and try to keep this thing going at Texas A&M next week.
DL Lorenzo Williams
GENERAL?“We made a lot of mistakes. We can always get better. We're definitely not satisfied with this. We're ready to go get Texas A&M.
ON BIG LEAD?“We don't really think about that.”
ON THE MISSOURI DEFENSE?“Coach Brown (Cornelius Brown) did it all. He was on the sidelines hooting and hollering all game. So, we had to give him something.”
QB Chase Daniel
GENERAL?“We feel good about our guys and they made some plays too. We only completed about 50-percent of our passes. They made some plays. It was good to go out there and stretch the field. To go out there and play well special teams-wise, defensively, offensively and to put it all together in one game, which I don't think we have really done except for
ON PASSING GAME?“They bailed me out on some pretty bad balls. We played well today. Even before we started the game plan, we wanted to get the ball down the field more. It's been almost non-existent. It was good to come out here and get the ball down field. That's what I like to do, that's what our receivers like to do?it keeps them more involved and it keeps them excited about the offense.”
ON DEFENSE?“Our defense played unbelievable. We put them in two bad spots and those were the only points they got. They played unbelievable for us today. If the defense keeps playing like that and the offense keeps playing like that?we're going to do some good things.”
