Missouri Coach & Player Quotes on OU

Sooner Gameday Central: OU vs. Missouri | Scouting Report: Missouri Tigers | Boomer Bytes

OU & Missouri Game Notes (PDF) | OU Depth Chart | 2007 OU Football Guide

MISSOURI HEAD COACH GARY PINKEL
Injury Update & Opening Statement:
"Good afternoon, the injury updates; like any other team we are near halfway through the season, so we have our bumps and bruises, but fortunately we have been in pretty good health. Tony Temple, towards the end of the first half last weekend, twisted his ankle. It was just an ankle turn, it was X-rayed and it's no more serious than that, although [the team] has seen ankle sprains linger on. Hopefully his won't. [Temple] is questionable for [Saturday's] game and will be day-to-day. He will not practice tomorrow, but hopefully he will start practicing Wednesday or Thursday, and by Thursday we will know if he will even make the trip, so that's were we are at with Tony [Temple]. He will work hard treatment wise with our staff. Other than that we are very healthy.

Oklahoma is a really good football team. If you're looking for their weaknesses, they are very hard to find. They are an offensive team; a great running team and great throwing team. Defensively, they are good against the run and very good against the pass. They just have a very complete football team. It's no surprise that [Head Coach] Bob Stoops has done a great job there. They are very athletic, they run well. It will certainly be a challenge for us, but this is also a great opportunity and we're excited about it. We'll get going tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. with our player meetings. All eyes and focus will be on playing our best game at Oklahoma on Saturday."

Oklahoma Offensive Players & Coaches on the Missouri Game

On this week's preparation after a big win:
"Well, I think we were real consistent. You look at what we did real well and what we did real bad, and then you try to fix things to improve fundamentally as a football team, so that's never changed. We didn't do anything different after this game than we did in any other game. I think with our players, from a coaching standpoint, you understand that they are walking on campus now getting patted on the back, which is great, and that's all good. We have a meeting with the seniors [today] at 4:45, and I will talk to them about that. They really help me letting me know what's going on with the football team. When you win as a coach, and you're consistently winning, you can be tougher on kids because they're very resilient, and it's just the opposite if you're losing. You have to make sure that you're careful and help build confidence, so knowing all those things, you make sure your players are ready to play. If you look at [Oklahoma] on film, it will not take long to get their respect because they're a great football team."

On scripting plays for a game:
"We script a lot of plays, but it use to be you would script 15 to 20 plays trying to use multiple formations to see how the defense adjusts. Our offense is so multiple because we do so many things. Dave [Christiansen] and the offensive staff make sure we use the entire offense throughout the entire game, and we don't get stuck on any one area, or not go in a particular area. We, as you all know, do a lot of different things, and we want to make sure that we get those things that we had game-planned called."

On the player's opinion of the offense:
"Our players really like this offense because everybody has their part getting their signal from the sideline. As we get more experience from the offense, not only the staff will get better at what we do in design and what we do for an answer standpoint, but the players are as well. Chase [Daniel] will come off the field and say, `hey let's try this.' All the receivers [do it] too because they know the answers. They know if the defense is taking something away. So the communication is there, and I just think the players really like this offense."

On the multiple options of using Jeremy Maclin:
"Well, you can see what we do with Jeremy Maclin. We do a lot of things with him in reverses, hand the ball to him, and there are just a lot of things that you can do with him. We probably would have never done this two years ago because of all the multiple sets and personal sets, but it really has allowed us to utilize his abilities. We do the same things with Will [Franklin], the tight ends, and the more experienced players, but every week is another challenge, and we're going to get a supreme challenge with this offense. Last year, I looked at the game versus Oklahoma, and a couple times this morning. They got after us and made a lot of mistakes, but good teams take those mistakes and convert them, and they did. We made a lot of mistakes because of them. [Oklahoma] did a great job, and this will be a great challenge for us."

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QUARTERBACK CHASE DANIEL
On the schedule not getting any easier:
"It doesn't, for beating Nebraska on a national stage, you get Oklahoma in Norman. It's going to be a hectic atmosphere. We like going on the road, but we realize it's going to be tough. There's going to be a lot of distractions out there, College Gameday, stuff like that, we just have to go out there and play our best."

On his name being thrown into the Heisman mix:
"It's great recognition, but it's not even halfway through the season. I had one good game, so what? It's putting those great games and strings back-to-back. This is what we strive for here at Missouri and it's great recognition for the team. Hopefully we'll get more media out to cover this game and show that I have unbelievable skill players around me, that I have an unbelievable offensive line and an unbelievable running back."

On the media coverage:
"Everyone wants to follow you when you're winning and no one wants to follow you when you're losing. That's the way it is and we have to embrace it and we have to enjoy it. It doesn't happen too often around here but that's the reason why you play college sports."

On Oklahoma's defense:
"They're fast. That's what Oklahoma does, they base their defense off of speed. That's what they want to do, they want to disguise a lot. They're not really, really great at one thing, they're really, really great at a whole bunch of things. That's what they do, they run a whole bunch of defenses and we have our hands full this week."

On offensive coordinator Dave Christensen's play calling:
"He's on quite a roll, double reverse passes, reverses, it's unbelievable. We're not just running the same dull plays over and over again and it also gives them more to think about. It's good stuff."

On how big the game against Oklahoma is:
"It's the biggest game we've had here. It's a big game because it's the next game. As I said last week, we're not approaching it like a do-or-die, it's your life, you better win, if you don't win, you're going to be fired. It's a football game, just go out there, have fun, play hard, do what you can and move the football."

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TIGHT END MARTIN RUCKER
On looking at trends from last year:
"I hadn't even thought about that. I think it's definitely something now that I will address to the team, just to make sure everybody gets that out of their head. Nobody's thinking about that because last year has no affect on this year. We're just playing football, all we have to do is prepare like we have been and bring it on Saturday."

On whether its easier to prepare for the No. 6 team in the nation:
"For me no, because I don't look at it as the No. 6 team. All those rankings and things don't mean anything, they're just numbers until the end of the season. You appreciate that people give you recognition like that, but when you cross the line and strap it up, it doesn't matter who's ranked what."

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LINEBACKER SEAN WEATHERSPOON
On playing defense well against Nebraska:
"We got in their heads and had them rattled a little bit, we had kind of the advantage then because our confidence was boosting up from the start because of the way we were playing."

On disrupting the flow of Nebraska's offense:
"When you see teams arguing amongst themselves and getting upset like that, you know you got them. Our side of the ball was calm and collect. We knew what we were doing and we just went out there and did it.

On facing Oklahoma's big offensive line:
"Sometimes you have to encounter them, but you really want to get around those guys and beat them with your speed and quickness most of the time. If you get a 250 pound lineman on you, you have to make a decision real quick."

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LINEBACKER VAN ALEXANDER
On Oklahoma:
"They're a great all around team, they have a great offense, great defense, and are very well coached. They have a lot of talent on the field but we have to prepare as best we can and see what happens."

On not letting distractions affect their preparations:
"We're definitely not letting this high ranking or anything get to us. We're focused on Oklahoma now and we have tremendous respect for them."

On how well the defense played against Nebraska:
"It's all about doing your assignment and trusting the guy next to you. You can't have a great defense without trusting the guy next to you. I think we're kind of getting into that stage where we learn to trust everybody on the field and we're starting to come together as a unit. We've been improving every game."

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Quotes courtesy Missouri Athletics Media Relations

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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