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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: MISSOURI v AUBURNDecember 1, 2013Gary PinkelATLANTA, GEORGIA CHUCK DUNLAP: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to SEC Championship game week. We'll start with Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel. Congratulations on winning the SEC East and advancing to Atlanta. Before we begin with questions, can you talk about the season and your team as it prepares to play for the SEC Championship. COACH PINKEL: Certainly we're honored to represent the East in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta. Certainly was a goal, like it is for every team in the SEC. I thought we'd have a good football team going into the season. I think one thing's been key for us, we've just really improved. We're a lot different team than we were in the first of September, and October we were a lot better, and even November we were a lot better. This team improved a lot. A prerequisite for improvement is staying healthy so you can practice a lot. We lost our starting quarterback for a third of the season. That's been instrumental to maintain consistency. But we've improved a lot as a football team. I think the best teams I've always coached have done that. Certainly we have players that stand out and have had great years. That goes along with being 11‑1. Very proud of our team and understand that we have a great challenge this week against Auburn, playing a great football game. But we're very excited about getting there and competing. CHUCK DUNLAP: Questions for Coach Pinkel. Q. The difference in the first half and second half in terms of your team's attitude, how you thought you played last night. COACH PINKEL: I think offensively we were out of sync a little bit the first half. I give them credit. I thought they did a lot of good things. I think we just settled down a little bit, number one. Number two, we made a few adjustments in terms of things that we were doing. I thought that really helped us. Came out, had two scoring drives right away for touchdowns in the third quarter. Certainly was a momentum builder for us. 21 points in the second half, had 7 in the first. I think defensively we held that defense to 7 points in the second half and really just an outstanding defensive performance against a great offensive football team, and one of the greatest quarterbacks I've ever seen play college football. Really, really pleased with our efforts. Q. Discuss the job E.J. Gaines did. COACH PINKEL: We tried to roll him into Mike a lot. Mike is such a great player, you don't get a good feel for us until you see the stats after the game. E.J. a couple years ago was an all‑conference player his sophomore year in the Big 12. Last year was hurt a little bit, but has been healthy this year. Certainly he's a high‑level corner going against a great receiver. Fortunately E.J. did a great job of controlling, the best he could, in terms of production, a great player. So very proud of E.J. for that. Q. When you go back to game five and six, playing well at Vanderbilt, Georgia. James goes down. Maty does well in a fill‑in role. When you talk about improvement, what specifically do you like about your team? COACH PINKEL: Well, I just think we really improved. We kept getting better. I think obviously you get a lot more confidence the more you win. This team was ready to play every game. One of the things we talked about with this team was to make sure that we do the things necessary to prepare. So when you wake up Saturday morning, are you ready to play and give the best to your team. That was real important to us. These guys did that. They did it with leadership. Our kids, they played hard every single game at a high level. Been around a lot of good football teams, but rarely do you get around teams like that, on that consistent basis, playing at the level they did. Also, we got Maty Mauk. It's very unusual. I think everybody knows at this level, the NFL level, when you lose a starting quarterback who is having a great year, then all of a sudden you have to put a redshirt freshman in there who hasn't played very much. For him to play a third of the season, played four games, started, finished up against Georgia, then played four games himself, he did a phenomenal job. Very fortunate to have a player play at that level. Q. Your defensive ends, how do you think they will play against this type of offense? Setting the edge is going to be a big deal in this game with what they like to do running the ball. How key will that be? COACH PINKEL: Well, we're studying the Auburn film now. They're a great running football team with a great quarterback and a great scheme that causes every defense nightmares. We're athletic at the defensive end position. The guys can run, they're physical. Great production out of all of them. Actually we play four. It's going to be about discipline. It's going to be physical. But it's going to be assignment football also. Hopefully we can get our scheme down and give our best efforts. Q. How much more difficult is it to prepare for a team that's as run‑heavy as Auburn has been when you face teams that are more pass‑oriented over the past couple weeks? COACH PINKEL: I think it's a challenge. It's a challenge in a few days to get the game plan down, then you get it so you can execute it, not be thinking on the field, just reacting. I think that's going to be a challenge for us, there's no question about that. We're going to have to draw from some experience of other running teams, some of the running philosophies that they have that maybe some other teams had that didn't run the ball as much, be able to apply those lessons to this. Nick Marshall is such a great player, he puts so much pressure on the defense. We're going to be challenged. Q. You and Auburn are both teams that were towards the bottom of the standings last year, picked to be towards the bottom this year. Now you're in the championship game. What do you think that says? COACH PINKEL: Well, I think you have to look at that, and it's interesting. People can look at it, analyze it, flip it, spin it. There's a lot of ways of looking at it. It's just part of the being in the SEC. There's a lot of great teams. The competition is at its highest level. Again, I thought we were going to have a good football team. You can have a good football team and not be sitting here 11‑1 either. I get that. We're excited being in it. It was one of our goals, getting to Atlanta. We're going to work real hard to play our best game. Q. Could you talk about your offensive and defensive fronts, what kind of factor they've been in winning 11 games this year. COACH PINKEL: We've been very healthy, number one. Our offensive line has been attacked. Last year we lost five of our ten offensive linemen. Only one player started every game last year, and he was a true freshman out of high school. This year has been drastically different. Our offensive line has been healthy. Our defensive line has been very, very healthy. We play a lot of players on the defensive side. That's been important. When I came into this league a year ago, I knew enough obviously, have been in this business a long time, and you know one thing about the SEC, it's a line‑of‑scrimmage league, meaning if you're not good up front, it's very difficult to win at a high level. Our defensive line got better and better. Michael Sam had just a phenomenal year. Kony Ealy. I can go through a bunch of players up front. Randomly play eight players in the game. The consistency of play there has been important. That's been hugely important. Obviously, the offensive line being able to play in week in, week out, not having red pullovers to physically make it to the next practice, or you're not getting any better in practice, you're just trying to get your assignments down. No, we were healthy, could get better at communication, all those things. That's been real, real important to our success this year. Q. I think you were picked sixth in the East at the pre‑season Media Days, Auburn was fifth. When you were assessing your team as you guys got ready to open pre‑season practice, were you around the coach's table thinking, We got a chance, we got everything we need here? The media was looking at what happened last season. COACH PINKEL: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, last year was our first losing season in the last nine years. It was all of a sudden we're not going to be very good. There's certainly reasons why. I take responsibility for last year. All you had to do was win one more game, could have got us into a bowl. I didn't get that done. But this is the fourth time in the last seven years we've won 10 or more games, so we've had some consistency in our program. Obviously, coming off of spring football, I thought we were going to be good. I thought it was important to stay healthy. Made quite a few changes, little changes, to try to keep our guys fresh. Probably the only changes we made in our program. I thought we were going to be a good football team. Obviously James Franklin, your starting quarterback, if you want to play at a high level, your quarterback has to play at a high level. I certainly thought he was capable after coming off the most injuries I've ever had a quarterback have the year before. And he did. His numbers were as good as anybody's in the country. We improved, got better and better. Honestly, I had no idea what we were ranked coming out. I think the players did. I kind of thank everybody for that because I think that motivates them. I really didn't look at it. Didn't really matter to me. To them it did. Certainly, they're competitive, and they have a lot of pride. Q. A season like you have, you always have those fortuitous games, good bounces. James Franklin goes down in the Georgia game. Looking precarious. Maty Mauk comes in. You throw that incredible double pass. Was that one of those hurdle games when you look back on it? Were there some others? COACH PINKEL: Well, I think that game in itself, we were really rolling pretty good. We were playing Georgia at their place, a very difficult place to play. It's a two‑point game, in our favor, when James got hurt. The story there is Maty comes in, throws the double pass. We get the ball back right after that. He guides us down for another touchdown, hits Dorial Green‑Beckham for about 30 yards, we score on the next play. Honestly, for him to be able to come in and play at that level, to keep our team going, our offense playing at a consistently high level, not a great level, but a high level, I think that was critical for us. We didn't have our starting quarterback in the SEC for one‑third of the season. I think for him to go in and play, to maintain some degree of consistency, was really, really important for us. We lost to South Carolina. Had a 17‑point lead going into the fourth quarter. Instead of that demoralizing us, setting us back, we chose to look at it as something we could learn from, apply it, do a better job of finishing games. I think that helped us as we went through the rest of the season. Q. Coach, did you ever meet Gus Malzahn, come down and recruit any of his guys? COACH PINKEL: No. I know coach. I met him before, but not in that way at all. Q. Eight years ago Gus is coaching in a northwest Arkansas high school. Now he's coaching Auburn. What do you think about his career? Obviously not the normal path guys take to a situation like this. COACH PINKEL: I'd say it's pretty darn good. Are you kidding me? I've been head coach 23 years. I went through kind of the traditional way, always coaching in college, Washington for 12 years, 10 years head coach at Toledo. He's done a phenomenal job obviously. Obviously he's very good at the X's and O's, techniques, fundamentals. Scheme‑wise they do a great job. Obviously he can unite people, get players to play as a team, not as individuals. You can see that the way they play. He's done a phenomenal job. Q. Based on what you do know about Gus, what you've seen from Auburn, what impresses you about the job he's done? COACH PINKEL: They play hard. Again, not being an expert at it, I haven't paid a lot of attention to Auburn. Had no idea we'd be in the situation. Their teams are very, very well‑coached. They're disciplined. They're playing good defense also.  But they play a little bit like us. They play reckless, they play hard. They battle. When you have a team like that, doesn't mean you're going to win all your games, but certainly you're going to have an opportunity to. I think they obviously gained confidence coming off the year they had before. The more they won, the more confidence they gained. Really it was very impressive. Q. You said last night you learned after your game that Auburn had won and how they won. Now that you've seen the play, what was your reaction? COACH PINKEL: Well, we have this thing, our field goal team has, we call it Chicago. The Chicago play we got from the Chicago Bears. When someone has a 55‑yard field goal, right before they get ready to kick, we back one of our safeties up and put them in that exact same spot. We work on that. That has never happened to us, but we work on that. When we started working on that, we were much more cautious about that, if it would ever happen to us. We try to get a little more work on that. That's just a very unusual play. I mean, it is such an unusual play to happen. Obviously it was remarkable execution. You have linemen as athletic as other players, coverage teams. It presents a real mismatch. It was great, great execution on their part. They deserve a lot of credit for it. You know, Nick Saban might be one of the best coaches to ever coach college football. Nick has done a phenomenal job with the consistency of winning, on the road, championships. The consistency of his teams are absolutely remarkable. He's known for obviously being extremely well‑coached. Some things like this just happen. It was a strange, strange play. I've never seen it happen, and I've been coaching 35 years. You know what, Auburn made the play when they had to make the play to win it. Hats off to them. They did a great job. Q. I saw Michael Sam was voted your team MVP. Reflect on that. COACH PINKEL: Well, he's just taken his game, he was a good player a year ago, he went from a good to a great player. He did that through remarkable determination and effort, relentless competitiveness play after play after play. So proud of him. Obviously he's a very good athlete. He can run. He's strong. He's physical. But you do the disruptions he's done in the backfield, when you do it to the level he's done it, it's because you play competitively at a different level than the people you're playing against play in, play out. That's what Michael Sam has done. Very, very proud of him and his accomplishments. Q. In the amount of time you've had to look at Auburn, what impresses you runningback Tre Mason? COACH PINKEL: I think obviously he's a good athlete. He can run. I've seen a little film on him. Saw a little bit of film this morning. We just got done with our banquet. We had our final home game here. Works well because the families are here. We got done with our banquet. Just saw a game or two this morning. He's a real talented player, physical, game‑breaker, quick.  He's a guy that's obviously a great challenge. Q. In a game‑winning touchdown last night, what did it mean to you last night to see Henry Josey score and what did it mean to him? COACH PINKEL: I don't know if anybody can really, really understand what he's went through. First team all‑conference Big 12 his sophomore year two years ago. When he had that knee injury, it was not an athletic injury, it was a car wreck injury. He had three surgeries. Dr. Pat Smith, we're so fortunate here in Columbia, Missouri. Does a phenomenal job. No one can even describe the amount of time and effort he put in with our trainers to put back and play. It was remarkable to see him train behind the scenes constantly. A lot of people said, medical people said, there's no way he would get to play where he did. When he broke out and ran that touchdown, they were trying to stop third‑and‑one, line of scrimmage, he got a crease, he's back. He's fast. I've never seen anybody catch him. It's neat to see that. Just I think we're so proud of him here. Just such a great example of a young man with great ability who overcame all the odds, all the things that you have to do in order to get back to play your best. So he goes to hospitals and speaks to different people that are in there and is encouraging to them. Just a wonderful, wonderful guy. What a great way to end that game and win the SEC East championship. Q. I know last night you weren't willing to do it, but now are you of the mind to sort of state the case for a one‑loss Missouri team if it wins, the SEC Championship game, why it would deserve to get in the BCS championship game? COACH PINKEL: Well, I think any one‑loss team in the SEC, strength of schedule, hopefully that will be taken into consideration for it. That's one thing. I've been in the Big 12, now I'm in the SEC. It didn't take me to be in the league to appreciate and understand the league. I understand the league. I think people should look at that and they should take strong consideration because of strength of schedule. Q. Do you wish the playoffs were starting this year instead of next year? COACH PINKEL: Yeah, if we could do that, that would be great (laughter). No, it's going to start. It's going to be good when it happens. I was a proponent of that for years, plus‑one theory, the four‑team playoff. That will be great. But we'll see what happens. Bottom line is we're playing a great football team. We'll see where it goes. Q. I don't know if it's safe to assume that you'd say the 2007 team was your best Mizzou team prior to this year. If that's true, how does this one stack up with that one? COACH PINKEL: It's probably very close. Actually 2008 was probably our best team. We got almost that whole team back. I didn't coach well enough. We lost a couple games I thought we were capable of winning. But that 2007 team was obviously a high‑level team that competed at the highest level. I don't like to compare teams, but I know our team kind of looks at that team as the bar of excellence, which puts you in a position for greatness. I think our guys certainly look at themselves a little bit. But I think it's close in some ways. Q. Are you a little better built now roster‑wise, depth, up front on the lines? Is there a key difference in that regard? COACH PINKEL: I don't know. There might be in some respects. That's really hard to say. The perimeter side of our offense, we had a lot of NFL players, future NFL players there. But you have consistency of play up front, it's really hard to compare that. It's not really fair. I have to look at all those 2007 players in the eye. I'm going to see them. I love those guys. I really try not to compare, except in a positive way, that that was a team that won 12 games. We're much like that in terms of success. Q. Auburn has kind of earned this tag of a team of destiny. I was wondering if you were going to try to use that to motivate your team or what you thought about that. COACH PINKEL: Good teams find ways to win games. That's what they're doing. It's great. They deserve all the accolades they're getting. We're going to focus on Missouri. Our whole theme this year with our football team, started with the seniors and myself, we met, talked about the season, was it's not about who we play or where we play, it's about how we play. Never have emphasized that more than this year with our team. It was much more about how we prepare and how we play together as a team. This game's going to be no different than any others. Great respect for your opponent, which we have. Bottom line, it's about making plays, being disciplined, competing at a very high level play in, play out. Hopefully we can do that. Q. Obviously Auburn is pretty close to Atlanta, probably have a lot of alums that live in Atlanta. What do you think the atmosphere will be like? Do you think it will a true neutral site or more like a road game for you guys? COACH PINKEL: Oh, I don't know. It doesn't matter. We're just glad we're there. We have no control over that. I would be disappointed if we didn't get 20,000 Mizzou fans down there. I know it's a big stadium. We'll get more than that. We already sold out 16,000 already. We'll have our Mizzou fans there. We'll have a good group. But it's like anything else, you know, whether it be on the road or at home, it's how you can play. Hopefully we can play our best game. Doesn't mean we'll win. If we play our best game, we'll have a chance to win. Q. You must be the only coach to lead teams to a championship game in two BCS conferences. What do you think about that? How much does that Big 12 experience help you for a game like this? COACH PINKEL: Well, we've been there before a little bit, 2007, 2008. 2010 we tied with Nebraska, they beat us, they went instead of us. We've been there a little bit before. I think it's still about being able to focus. It's still about being able to get rid of all the stuff, play your best game. With the heightened publicity, the excitement of playing in such a big game, can you still get rid of all that and play your best. That's still what it's ultimately about. I don't care who's in the stands, who's not in the stands. I think it's about being mature enough to play at a high level, and hopefully we can do that. Q. You have a lot of GAs in recruiting and quality control. What is your history with that and what benefit is that for you? COACH PINKEL: Getting in this league, we're trying to get our personnel. Only being here a year and a half, we still got a ways to go with getting our personnel in position in terms of recruiting, as far as coaching, things like that. But certainly from a recruiting standpoint, that's really kind of why that personnel is the way it is. Hopefully it will continue to grow and improve. Q. Are they looking a lot to personnel in the southeast, would you say? COACH PINKEL: Southeast, we're into Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, all surrounding areas there. Texas has been very good to us out of state. We are still strong in Texas. Have a lot of players, some great players, that have come out of Texas. We'll continue to do that. But there's a lot of great players in the SEC states, so we're actively recruiting there, too, now. It takes a little bit of time to earn trust. But hopefully a season like this will help us and earn some respect, which you have to earn. Hopefully we'll be able to do that. Q. What are one or two positives having that extra staff on with you? COACH PINKEL: I think it's anybody. I don't think it's any different than anybody else. I think if you look at the full‑time staff, some people, when you look at GAs, might have full‑time staff in. In this league, we're understaffed. Q. It was different when you were in the Big 12? COACH PINKEL: Yeah, it was just different. When Nick Saban, ex‑teammate of mine, does a phenomenal job, put in a recruiting department by itself, has done it in an awesome way, very well‑organized, detailed. There's reasons why they recruit well. I don't know the details of it, but certainly everybody is looking at how he's done it. Kind of my opinion, I haven't talked to Nick about this, he took the NFL recruiting departments, brought it into college football at a different level than everybody has ever seen before and he's done a phenomenal job. CHUCK DUNLAP: Coach, thank you for your time. We'll see you on Friday. COACH PINKEL: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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