Texas Bowl Transcripts

Team Practice Sessions

Monday, December 28, 2009

(Transcribed by Chase Cusack)

Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel

(on today’s practice) “Today was like a Wednesday practice for us. We had a good practice, and the countdown is coming. One of the keys for any team that plays in a bowl game is can you get focused well enough to play your best football game, and obviously that’s where we got to get to. We’re going to have a good time tonight, then start zeroing in and get our heads right to hopefully play our best football game.”

(on preparing for Navy) “You do the best you can. We put a couple of our best athletes at quarterback to simulate (Navy QB Ricky Dobbs). He’s a great player, and he makes that whole offense go. We’ve been working hard at it, we’ve had a lot of practices in bowl games.  We get a lot of opportunities, a lot of walk-throughs, but that being said, it’s an offense that you hardly ever see and it scares you. They’ve got a lot of answers; they’re very good at what they do. You try to take something away, they’ve got answers to go to to get it back. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”

(on Missouri’s traditional Futures Bowl) “It was good. Nobody got hurt, number one, that’s the most important thing. It’s out last pads practice and we let the players that redshirted and the walk-ons scrimmage at the end, and we call it the Futures Bowl. The players had a good time.”

(on Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs) “He’s a great thrower, and they have a lot of big plays, and that’s the problem with their offense.  That’s what they do and that’s what they’re good at. As soon as you load up on the run, they back off the line of scrimmage and hit big plays. So that’s the great challenge that we have, and that’s why they’re not only a real good defensive football team, but offensively that’s what allowed them to win nine football games.”

(on the last time he faced an offense like Navy’s) “It’s been quite awhile. It probably goes back to my days as head coach of Toledo. You just don’t see it very often. In a bowl game, you have a little bit of an advantage because you have more practices. If you play them during the season, you’d have to do some of your summer two-a-days, and teach a lot of things there. I don’t care if you’ve got 30 or 40 practices, it’s very difficult to defend, and that’s why they do it, and that’s why they’re good at it.”

(on Missouri’s Houston connections) “When we came to Missouri, we wanted to dominate the state of Missouri in recruiting.  And then we put five coaches down in Texas, two in the Houston area, because of the great football that’s down here. It’s as good of football as there is in the country in high school and the coaches do a great job. There are a lot of players in the state of Texas, and certainly in this area. If you evaluate well, you can get some great players out of here. And we’ve done that, not only in the Houston area but in the whole state. I think we’ve got 31 players on our team from Texas right now. You can win, go to bowls, get a great education, and compete for championships, and that’s at Missouri. That’s been a huge plus for us as we’ve earned respect in the Houston area.”

Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo

(on the short practice) “It’s kind of what we’ve been doing, just trying to be efficient, and if we don’t know what we’re doing by now we’re in trouble anyway. This is our 14th game; we’re just trying to be smart and efficient and just see what happens.”

(on what it will take to have success against Missouri) “We have to make sure we take care of the football. We have to make sure that we have efficient drives that take care of the ball, and that we finish drives and score, and hopefully keep their offense off the field.  They have a very good offense, and that’s easier said than done because we know they have a very good defense. Our game plan as usual is to shorten the game, limit their possessions and try to keep them off the field and hopefully we can finish those drives.”

(on the Texas Bowl helping recruiting) “This is huge. This is our third time to the state of Texas. We’ve got a lot of coaches (attending practice). This is big for us. We know in the state of Texas that football is huge, they take football seriously here and those are the kind of kids we want: hard-nosed, love the game, and passionate about the game. Hopefully we can get a few more guys from the state of Texas.”

(on the Texas Bowl gift) “It’s a great reward for our young men. I was thinking about it last night, I have to give the Texas Bowl credit. This is our seventh bowl, they are pretty ingenious on the gift that they give the kids a gift card and let them pick what they want. Not that you’re ever ungrateful for what you receive as part of your bowl gift packages, but they allowed our kids to pick whatever they want from Best Buy. I thought it was great for our young men to be able to have a reward for their hard work and all that they’ve done this year.”

(on the win over Army) “It’s a big relief off our shoulders. That’s the biggest game of the season for us. So anytime you play your rival and have a chance to beat them that’s the number one goal – to win the Commander and Chief Trophy and beat Army. We know that they were shooting for a lot, they were playing for a bowl berth.  We didn’t want them to get it at our expense, there was a lot of pregame talk, so to speak, going on, and we wanted to make sure that we could finish. I’m just proud that our kids were able to do it. It probably wasn’t the most efficient game that we’ve played, but we played well enough to win and we’re excited that we got the W.”

Navy QB Ricky Dobbs

(on what they need to do to win) “Personally, I just have to make sure that I’m composed and just go out there and do my job, and not try to do too much. Everybody has to do their job to a ‘T,’ because this type of offense is a machine, one missing piece and the whole thing breaks down. We have to make sure everybody is dialed in, and overall, have fun. The defense has to play with their heads on fire, and go out there with their eyes in the right spots, and overall, have fun.”

(on having fun in Houston) “I’ve been having a good time, not so much as far as the festivities, but the quality time we’re spending with each other and bonding. Yesterday we were able to go to House of Blues and everybody in there was listening to gospel music and praising God as a team. It was the first time we did that as a team, and it was really awesome. I had a good time out there. The times where everybody is going out on the town with each other and just making memories, that’s the most fun part of this whole experience.”

(on defeating Army) “It means a lot. I think the Army/Navy game can make or break our season no matter how good or bad we do. We went in and won that game, it’s a good season for us since we beat our arch nemesis. For us to have that confidence rolling into this game is good. I would have liked for Army to go to a bowl game, but not on our account. They were talking a lot of trash before so it added some tension to it, it made us want it more. As an offense in the first half we struggled, we were shooting ourselves in the foot. In the second half we started picking things up and using that momentum to carry it into this game, keep everything on a positive roll and finish on a good note.”