Missouri Tigers College Football Pregame Quote, 12/26/2023

DUANE LEWIS: Good afternoon. We welcome you to the 88th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. Today’s offensive breakout session is with offensive coordinator Kirby Moore along with student-athletes Luther Burden III, Brady Cook, Javon Foster, Cody Schrader, and Theo Wease Jr.

Please tell us a little bit about your student-athletes, first starting with Luther Burden III.

OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR KIRBY MOORE: Just this whole season, he has taken some huge strides and taken the next step within his game. And really his approach off the field, right? Taking care of his body. From a mental standpoint, he’s playing faster. We all know his abilities. He’s done a great job this season with the ball in his hands.

DUANE LEWIS: Brady Cook.

COACH MOORE: Work ethic is second to none. Offense starts with him. The things that we ask him to do at the line of scrimmage, taking care of the ball, and really being the starting point in terms of having command of the offense.

DUANE LEWIS: Javon Foster.

COACH MOORE: Anchor, right? He’s played a ton of football. We emphasize the outside zone, and just been a huge anchor within the offense, pass protection, locking down that side.

DUANE LEWIS: Cody Schrader.

COACH MOORE: His ability to just make guys miss, extra yards. The guy is a quarterback playing running back. I know you guys all have gotten to know him. He’s watching film on the bus. He’s watching film in the meeting room. He’s working out at the hotel. The guy is unbelievable.

DUANE LEWIS: And Theo Wease Jr.

COACH MOORE: Huge part of our jump on offense. The success he had early in his career, coming to Missouri, just taking command of that receiver room, him and Luther [Burden], Mookie [Cooper] working together, MaKyi [Lee]. He’s been a huge bright spot for us.

Q. Your name was attached to some other jobs out there in the country and stuff like that. But you decided to sign an extension. What went into that extension? What were some of the talks you had with Drink (Eli Drinkwitz) about coming back?

COACH MOORE: I think just feel very positive of where we’re at, where we’re going. I think there’s a lot of different moving parts within college football right now, and we have a lot of continuity moving forward for next season. So just excited about that.

Q. Coach Drink (Eli Drinkwitz) said last week this is the most fun he has had in near two decades coaching. Do things like that, kind of how much fun you guys are having, go into this as well?

COACH MOORE: I would agree with that statement. We’ve got a tremendous group of players, offensive staff. It’s our offense, it’s not my offense. Working with those guys on a daily basis, it’s been really enjoyable this year.

Q. You talked a little bit about Javon [Foster] there and what he was able to open up, but this offensive line as a whole and some of the stability, what exactly did that open up for you as a play caller on offense this year?

COACH MOORE: I think there’s just a sense of freedom, right, that those guys are going to consistently do their job, and the matchups in the SEC at times are difficult. And some of the teams we play, you look at the Florida drive in the two minute drive where we had some big completions. The one thing no one talks about is we didn’t get any pressure. Those guys did a tremendous job. Defense knows we are throwing the ball. Florida has a great D line, 3rd and 17, 4th and 17, huge completions, and it starts up front.

Q. What did it take to get buy-in from a guy like Javon Foster? He has been around college football so much. What does it take to get that guy fired up for this?

COACH MOORE: I think that’s pretty internal. He’s a very reserved guy. But you can tell he loves football. He loves competing. I think he just really came back to take the next step as a player.

Q. Can you talk about how you have seen Brady Cook evolve from the time you got on campus a year ago to the start of fall ball? Since he couldn’t practice in the spring, and how he has evolved over the season?

COACH MOORE: It starts last January. He had a procedure after the season, so spring ball, he was not available. But from a mental standpoint, he was glued in, right? Taking meetings, really in the meeting, you felt like he was practicing. Just the amount of detail, communication that he had. He was behind taking mental reps. In the summer, there’s more access now, so getting a feel for some of his strengths and things that he really liked and continued that through fall camp.

Early in the season, we were able to win, but we didn’t play our best, I would say, on offense. That third game against Kansas State, his confidence really grew. There were things we did offensively that he felt comfortable with. It comes back to execution and that carried over throughout the rest of the season.

Q. Last week, Eli [Drinkwitz] talked a lot about how when you first got here, how willing you were to mesh your system with what he ran. Can you talk through the process of meshing those two together? And then also, how that helped out your players by running stuff they were still familiar with?

COACH MOORE: Starts with watching every game from last year, right? Practice, individual cut ups on certain guys. And then terminology. Because you still got to feel comfortable calling it, right? And there’s certain things the big thing for me is just making sure my parents are educators, so when you’re teaching and communicating with the guys, you got to be able to tell a story and things got to be able to go together.

You think of when new guys come on campus, transfers now, those guys adapt into your system. Outside zone was something in the run game that had been done very well here, so we stayed with that. A few things in the pass game, play action game that we adjusted. But it was an open book, and just kind of went to work on that.

Q. What are you looking forward to in this next year to be able to have guys now familiar with your system from the start of the season?

COACH MOORE: Yeah, we’ll start that when we get done with this game in January. Self scout, evaluating the things still we did really well, things we can improve on. Things that other offenses are doing in college football and in the NFL that do really well that might fit us. We will explore those things throughout January and February.

Q. You talked about Theo Wease earlier and all that he was able to do. How much do you think his experience and maturity was able to help out this team, especially with young guys like Luther Burden?

COACH MOORE: Tremendous. I can’t reiterate that enough. The experience that he had and success he had early and the work that he’s put into it on a consistent basis. He really treats it like a true pro, and that carried over within our whole offense.

Q. I was just curious. I’m not sure how much experience maybe as a player or as a coach that you’ve had playing at this venue. What are some of the things that you have been emphasizing to your guys about playing in a venue like this, and also just preparing for this game?

COACH MOORE: Yeah. I’m going to be honest, I have been to a couple games. Brother (Kellen Moore) coached here a little bit. No, I think our guys have played in some very cool settings within their experience in the SEC.

Coach Drink (Eli Drinkwitz) is covering that really well. And those guys are going to get out there, and it still comes back to execution, right? It is going to come down to taking care of the ball, being explosive, establishing the run, and scoring in the red zone and executing on third downs.

Q. On your contract extension, in your first season here, what has really stood out to you about this program? And just how excited are you to be able to stay here for the future?

COACH MOORE: The players really embrace the work during spring ball, fall camp, during the season. Toughness Tuesday, Winning Wednesday, we are thorough on Thursday, Fast Friday, all those things, our guys are really students of the game and love working with them.

Q. We talked a lot about you impacting the players on and off the field. And you’re talking about their work ethic. How have the players kind of impacted you and made you a better coach?

COACH MOORE: Just the amount of, I think, options that we give them on certain things, whether that’s at the line of scrimmage, some things within the pass game that we allow our guys to do. I believe having some freedom and letting their talent and ability to see things fast and make us right instead of having to be in the perfect call.

Q. How did you get this team’s trust? It’s one thing when you’re kind of promoted as an offensive coordinator within your school you’re already working in. But when you get a job somewhere else, you kind of got to have people buy in. How did you gain their trust and say: This is how I can help you and this is how we can work together?

COACH MOORE: I don’t think that happens in one day, right? That’s over time. I don’t care what the level. I think in terms of building relationships and showing that we can take the next step as an offense, right, over time we have some success in practice and throughout fall camp, really good defense across the ball. And then that carried over.

Didn’t happen all at once though, right? It happened as the season went, and that carried over into some big games.

Q. As you look back on the season, when was the moment where you feel like this offense really hit its stride and you really felt like everything was coming together in the way you had envisioned it?

COACH MOORE: Yeah, that’s a hard there’s certain points in the K-State [game] where you felt good and then we got pretty stagnant there in the second and third quarter. Fourth quarter came back.

We are never a finished product, right? And there’s still things that, shoot, out at practice today that we’ve got to improve on and detail up.

That’s why I love our guys, though, because I don’t think they are ever satisfied and they always have got something to prove.

Q. What are some of the things that you think stand out about Ohio State’s defense as you guys prepare for them?

COACH MOORE: It starts with personnel. They got some pretty good players right up front, linebackers. 35 (Jack Sawyer) does a great job in terms of play recognition.

Secondary, you look at the point totals, I think it’s seven or eight of the games under 12 points. So give them credit for that.

There’s a variety of defense. Coach [Jim] Knowles does a really good job. But at the same time, with that variety of defense, they are really sound. And so that’s really good coaching and teaching. Their guys are out there executing really, really well.

Q. Earlier Ohio State D.C. Jim Knowles said something like, Bowl practice is kind of like spring ball practice. You kind of get to see some guys who maybe not play as much get to participate. Was there anybody today in particular as far as for next year that you saw that impressed you?

COACH MOORE: I would say that was more back in Columbia, right? We had some good on good younger guys. I think you guys know some of the younger receivers have been out there at different times. Those guys are taking the next step, Jamal Roberts. Quarterbacks are getting better. We will keep working at that as we get into spring ball.