Missouri Tigers College Football Pregame Quote, 10/15/2024

(Ref.: Opening Statement)

“Great to be here today. Excited for homecoming week. Awesome to be a part of such an awesome tradition that started in 1911 with Coach [Chester] Brewer and what has now become homecoming, which is celebrated across high schools and colleges everywhere in the United States. So really fortunate for us to be a part of this game and have the opportunity to experience all of those great traditions this week. You know, to recap last week’s game, really proud of our team and the response that they had, I thought that they came out and started fast on both sides of the ball, showed their commitment to each other and playing for each other and not playing for external factors, whether that was crowd size, stadium size, or anything like that. Those guys came out, started fast. Defense, 3-and-out. Offense scored touchdowns on the first three drives, and then they responded throughout the game. After the fake punt, with Corey Flagg Jr.’s interception and turning what would be, you know, offensive points for them into offensive points for us. And then really proud of the young guys who got the opportunity to play for the way that they came in and contributed a lot of firsts for a lot of those guys. So again, proud of our football team.

“Got a very difficult challenge this week. I think Auburn is a very dangerous football team. When you look at the statistics that they have on both sides of the ball, there’s really only one glaring weakness that they’ve had, and it shows up in all their losses, which is turnovers. Other than that, they’ve played well enough to win football games, and I think they were very talented on both sides of the ball. You know, offensively, they got elite wideouts, they’ve got an elite running back, they’ve got talented tight ends. On the defensive side of the ball, they got elite defensive linemen, linebackers. You know, Eugene Asante stands out as probably the best linebacker we played so far this year. I think he’s an elite player. And so it’s really going to be a challenge for us this week. You know, I’ve challenged our team. It’s really about our consistency and preparation, our urgency, our daily progress in trying to improve our fundamentals, our ability to play fast and aggressive in the face of uncertainty of what they’re going to do. And so, you know, it’s really about us, which was our focus last week, in trying to carry that over in and really try to be consistent in how we approach this week’s preparation. We have had some adversity, and we’ll face some adversity this week. We’ve lost Joe Moore for the season due to injury. He will be out the rest of the year, and then Khalil Jacobs suffered a season-ending injury during the UMass game. We’re certainly going to miss those guys and their contributions to our football team and our brotherhood. They’re still part of who we are this season, but we will not be able to utilize them on the field.”

(Ref.: on Nicholas Rodriguez’s performance on Saturday against UMass and if he’ll see more action now with Khalil Jacobs out)
“I think Nick did a really nice job of responding to the opportunity. Obviously, Triston [Newson] was out. We should get Tristan back this week and plan to have him back. But, you know, Nick came in prepared well all week, was named our defensive player of the week for his performance, so I thought he did a really nice job. You know, we’ve been utilizing him on special teams to try to prepare him for this opportunity. I think there’s several young guys that we’ve felt like we needed to get them going, and he’s certainly one of them, and he’s done a nice job.”

(Ref.: On how important it was to get some confidence back after the Texas A&M loss)
“Yeah, I think anytime you lose, the number one thing that’s shaking is your confidence. And so the only way you get your confidence back is through your preparation and execution. I think our guys can rely on the way that we prepared last week and then how we went out and performed. From an execution standpoint, I think it was one of our cleanest games from an ‘MA’ assignment standpoint, and so now we’ve got to carry over to a whole new challenge.  Very difficult schemes on both sides of the ball. Coach [Hugh] Freeze’s RPO game is really good. Coach [D.J.] Durkin’s multiplicity in the back end, three safety defense, odd structure, four down structure, multiple pressures is extremely challenging for our team, and so for us, we got to go back to ‘okay, this is how we prepare so that we can execute'”

(Ref.: On what he’s seen from Cayden Green and Mitchell Walters this season)
“I think we’re going to see more of Mitch Walters throughout. You know, we just feel like from an offensive line standpoint, we got to create competition to get the best. I mean, Cayden [Green] rotated and ended up grading the highest and was named our offensive lineman of the game, so he responded well to the challenge. But, you know, Mitch can really play three positions for us. He can play right guard and rotates with Cam [Cam’Ron Johnson]. He can play left guard, and he can play right tackle. And so, you know, he provides a lot of position flexibility. He’s a big body who’s played a ton of football in this league. He gets great movement at the line of scrimmage. You know, we’ve used him quite a bit in our 12 personnel sets as an extra offensive lineman. So, he’s somebody that we definitely could see rotating in the game.”

(Ref.: On if he plans to use two tight end sets moving forward)
“It just, it depends on matchups. And we just felt like there were some things that we saw in preparation that depicted some better run game for us. You know, it’s the first time, really, both Jordon [Harris], and Brett [Norfleet] and Tyler [Stephens] have all been healthy at the same time, and so we felt like that room’s always been a weapon for us, but it just hasn’t been healthy the way we wanted it to. And so that’s a part of the game that we can get into if we need to create matchups.”

(Ref.: On his thoughts seeing Brady Cook connect with the tight ends more in this offense)
“Yeah, absolutely. I think you know, really the last — well, if you want to get into it, you know, going into that drive where Josh Manning scored, I got on the headsets and told the offensive staff that we weren’t going to run the ball again. I wanted to see us develop some chemistry and continuity within the pass game. I didn’t anticipate we’d score in the first play, which was great, but also disappointing, because we were wanting to really just kind of continue to work out the kinks, you know? And so that next drive was, actually the next drive was a punt, and then the next drive, we were able to get some throws, and you know, whether it was Brett [Norfleet] or whoever it was, a concept design that I think they end up playing cover two, and we took the middle of the field. So, it was just great that the players and the quarterback were on the same page and connected on it.”

(Ref.: On if Joshua Manning will see more playing time)
“I think he’s played a lot. The Texas A&M game, on that morning, he felt like his hamstring was really tight and couldn’t give us what we needed. He was actually supposed to start as the kick returner in that game and because of a tight hamstring, wasn’t able to go. I think he ended up only playing five snaps, so that was an injury issue, but I think he’s played a lot. We rotate a lot of wide receivers. I mean, we get criticized for playing too many wide receivers because Luther’s not on the field now, we’re wanting other guys to get more. So, you know, I can’t make everybody happy on that, but I would say Josh has earned what he’s gotten, and he’s done a great job with his opportunity. And I think the only people concerned with that stuff are outside the building. I think inside the building, our guys really were fired up for both Brett [Norfleet] and Josh and their opportunities, and they all know that they got plays within the game plan that they’re designed for and take advantage when they get them.”

(Ref.: On if the performances in the secondary allowed him to bring pressure in the front)
“Well, not the way we want to in the game. Obviously there were a couple of third downs that they converted where we were bringing pressure and we weren’t able, you know, we got a time up where we get the pressure there and the coverage is tight. Or, you know, there was one on the field goal drive where we brought pressure and we were trying to punch out, and gave up a boundary glance, which is probably the staple of Coach [Hugh] Freeze’s offense. So that was really concerning. So no, the timing of those things are not where we want them to be, but we’ll go back to work.”

(Ref.: On what he’s seen from Luther Burden III as a player and a leader)
“I would say the first thing I’ve appreciated about Luther is that he does whatever we need him to do in order to win the football game. And he’s contributed in every game significantly. Although the game against A&M, the play gets wiped out for 75 yards because of a penalty, I think he was effective in what his role was. You look at the statistical part of the game, at the end of the day, there’s been three games where, three of the six games where he has played minus six quarters, so a game and a half. So, I think there’s a lot of people being, you know, whatever, it is what it is, but he hasn’t played in six quarters, maybe even seven of those football games, which is going to leave a little bit to be desired from a stat standpoint. But when he’s played in the games and been consistent, we’ve been consistently targeting him and trying to get him to affect the game.”

(Ref.: On what he saw from Marcus Carroll after Nate Noel was sidelined due to injury)
“Yeah, tough blow. You know, part of the deal with traveling sometimes, especially with football players, you just don’t, you never know what those awkward positions do. So, you know, tough to have that injury. He tried really hard to go. But yeah, I thought Marcus did a really nice job. Obviously, having three touchdowns. Jamal Roberts had some nice carries in there. I thought it was great to see T-Man (Tavorus Jones) in there at the end of the game. Kewan [Lacy] got valuable reps. So, I thought that running back room did a nice job.”

(Ref.: On what he thinks about Auburn’s running back Jarquez Hunter and wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith)
“Yeah. Jarquez Hunter is as good a running back as we’ve gone against. I remember playing against him several years ago down there. I think he’s dynamic, got good speed. He’s hard to bring down in the hole. Several players, whether it’s Georgia or Oklahoma, you know, I think you know the linebacker from Oklahoma, the really good one, had trouble in the hole with him too. So, I think he’s proven he’s a really, really good player with really good vision, really good quickness, really good speed. We’re going to have to bring our feet with our tackling, and we have to challenge ourselves to tackle better. KeAndre Lambert-Smith, the transfer from Penn State. Talented player, really excels in the jump ball. Excels in the back shoulder, which has been areas that we’ve struggled with at the DB position, so that’s a point of emphasis for us. And obviously he’s a guy that the quarterback, Payton Thorne, really feels confident in and throwing the trust throws to and so you know that will be a challenge for us to defend.”

(Ref.: On what he learned about establishing a winning program while he was on staff at Auburn)
“Yeah, obviously, when I went there, I thought coaching college football was easy. I mean, we went 14-0 and, you just get the two best players in college football and you put them on your team and you win. You know, that’s what Cam Newton and Nick Fairley did for us. But you know, outside of those two there was a really strong team spirit, you know. And I thought Cam Newton was one of the best, is one of the best leaders that I’ve ever seen in a locker room and of holding the team together. We faced a lot of adversity. He faced a lot of personal adversity, whether it was criticism of play in his first couple of games or even with the other stuff that occurred throughout the year. But he stayed steady. Performance kept improving, and I thought he did a really nice job of making sure everybody enjoyed playing with him. And you know, as far as building a team, I thought Coach [Gene] Chizik, Coach [Ted] Roof, Coach [Gus] Malzahn, as coordinators really did a nice job working together. Low ego, high output approach and a lot of the foundational stuff that we do in our program now I learned from Coach Chizik and Coach Malzahn, and that was a great season.”

(Ref.: On what he’s seen on film of other players that are similar to Auburn’s linebacker Eugene Asante and how he can use that to maintain him Saturday)
“It’s a great question. Yeah, you know, obviously, I think where both of those guys had a lot of strength in their blitzing. They do a really nice job of using [Eugene] Asante in their blitz packages, which Buffalo did, too. And so, you know, we’re going to have to figure out if we want to use five-man protection to try to get the fifth guy out and make them cover, or do we, you know, keep him in the backfield and match him up on the linebackers. And so there’ll be a little bit of cat and mouse game just because of the odd front structure that Coach [D.J.]  Durkin uses. It allows us more to identify the stand-up players and utilize offensive linemen picking them up, whereas in a four-down structure, you know, you can get some matchups on a running back. So, I think there’ll be a little bit of cat and mouse to see, you know, who adjusts first, and kind of what each other’s plan is to mitigate, you know, nine’s rushing ability. I think the game within the game, though, is really going to be Jalen McLeod versus Nate Noel, former roommates at App State. It’s pretty interesting, you know, I know App State’s not where they want to be this year as far as their football program, but two of their best players are playing in the SEC right now and that’s one of the struggles of the transfer portal. And so that to me is the game within the game, Nate versus Jalen. Both guys committed to me when I was at App. There you go. And now they’re at Auburn and Mizzou. We couldn’t get Jalen to come on a visit. We were recruiting him in the portal, and Hugh [Freeze] got him down there, and they got him locked up before he would come on a visit with us. Guess that commitment to me didn’t mean much. That’s probably what he said when I left App so.”

(Ref.: On the importance of winning the Homecoming game)
“I mean, I’ll be honest. In college football, every game is important to win. I mean, there’s nobody that gives you rest either way. So, whether it’s homecoming or the spring game, or the spring scrimmage or fall scrimmage, there’s always, you know, emphasis to win, otherwise, there’s going to be a lot of noise and criticism to it. So, you know, it’s an important game in our season. It’s the most important game I’ve coached in, because it’s the next game, you know, and it’s an opportunity for our team to get ourselves back going in the right direction within the SEC. So, it’s going to be a very difficult game. We’re going to need the fans to provide a home-field advantage, to create that 12th man on the field, you know because they’re a really talented football team. And we need to force them into some uncomfortable situations, which I think the crowd can help us there. But it’s a big game for us and a very difficult challenge for us.”