COACH BARNETT?S PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
BOULDER ? The University of Colorado held its weekly press conference Tuesday at the Dal Ward Athletic Center, as head coach Gary Barnett addressed the media about last week’s game at Texas Tech and this week's matchup with No. 22 Missouri (12:30 p.m. MST). The following contains quotes from the afternoon press session.
ON THE TEXAS TECH GAME?"Defensively we had a lot of energy that game. Just stepping in the huddle with the players every time they would come off, they were having so much fun; they were so into that game and so into our defense. It was like Vince (Okruch) and I could barely get a word in. They knew just what to say and how to get each other going. It was fun to see that. It was the second week in a row that they have had that kind of energy and played like that. It’s unfortunate that we took that performance and couldn’t find some way to win it. We certainly had an opportunity " probably the same position that we were in for three other games, but we were able to pull those out."
"We didn’t have the same energy on offense for whatever reason. We have to find a way to get the same kind of energy in our offense."
"On special teams we had a big breakdown that has been more of a constant, unfortunately, than the exception. That (punt return for TD) was the difference in the game. We had a number of guys play well on defense and Marcus Moore played particularly well on special teams. He’s really been doing a good job for us in that regard."
ON MISSOURI?"We are playing a totally different team this week. It’s back to a more physical part of the Big 12. Missouri, who’s always been a physical team, comes in here as the most physical team that we’ve played so far. We now have to tune into that mentality on both sides of the ball."
"The biggest challenge for us is to find some way to run the football because we didn’t run the ball very well last week against a team that statistically wasn’t very good. Now we’ve got to find a way to run it against a team that statistically is pretty good and much more physical than the team we just played."
"One good thing about it is that we’re running identical defenses. We’ve both changed to where we’re more zone. We’re keeping the ball in front of us, we’re running to the ball better and that’s been the difference in their defense. Their defense has changed midway through the year and its turned into an asset for them. They’re seeing the ball thrown, they’re running to the ball, their linebackers are good and we’re doing the same thing. Their defense is really a challenge for us right now. We know most of the ins and outs of this defense, and we know how difficult it is to run on it in theory, and they’ve been doing a real good job. They did a good job with Oklahoma and Nebraska in stopping the run. Since the Kansas game they have been a completely different team. We’ve got a lot of work trying to get our offense back on track."
"Defensively, we have the challenge of probably the best running quarterback in the country (Brad Smith). He’s tremendously talented and he’s gifted. When he runs it looks like he’s just barely moving his legs; he just glides. He’s very patient when he runs the ball. Obviously you have to contain him. He makes his big plays in the pass game usually on the run as he breaks contain, gets out of the rush and finds somebody open. Third downs are critical for us in this game. There is going to be times where we get them into third and five or third and seven, and we can’t let him convert those. Last year we contained him for three quarters and then in the fourth quarter he got loose and all of a sudden they are back in it."
"I picked them to be the surprise team in the conference and I think I was pretty much right on. They have a very veteran offensive line " five of the six starters on the line, including the tight end, are fifth-year seniors. Their center (A.J. Ricker) is the best center we’ve played against " he’s a pro; he’ll be an All-American. They’re just a veteran group that knows how to handle all situations. The quarterback is hitting on all cylinders and they’re starting to get a receiving game going. They lost (Justin) Gage last year and he was a go-to guy, but they are starting to spread it out now. (Zack) Abron has been a hard guy for us to handle for the last two years."
"The four years that I’ve been here, we’ve been in two overtimes with Missouri. There is nothing that says we’re not going to have that same kind of game, and we need to expect that same kind of game (this year). In order for us to make it that same kind of game, we have to play better than we did last week on offense and special teams."
"We have to stop the run this game, we really have to stop the run. If you find a way to slow Smith down and contain Abron, then you have a good chance."
"If you look through the years, this has always been a classic battle. When I was at Missouri, Colorado was always the hardest team for us to play. Missouri gets up to play Colorado and Colorado has struggled with Missouri. What we’ve tried to do is be as physical as Missouri is, and that’s sort of been our way to match up with them. This year will be the biggest test for us because we’ve been able to have an edge in the last four years. This year we are not as physical as we’ve been and they’re probably a little more physical. We’ve got to make some space up this week."
ON THE HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE FOR THIS GAME?"It’s one of the plusses that we have in this game " where we’re playing. We need to take advantage of that " not the altitude issue, but them playing away from home and us playing at home We need to take advantage of crowd and playing it here. If there’s an advantage we have in this game, that’s what it is."
ON MU QB BRAD SMITH?"If you had to say pick your poison, I’d say make him beat us throwing. I think that Brad Smith, if not the best quarterback in the country, maybe one of the Top 5 quarterbacks in the country. He’s what everybody is looking for. I don’t think they knew that they had that (in his freshman year), because he put on 25 pounds and grew three inches. They knew that they had a good athlete, and they weren’t sure that they would play him and quarterback, but as he developed they realized they had something there. When you look at a lot of the great players around the country, that’s just how it happens."
"He makes a lot of big plays and most of those are in the scrambles. He probably had a more go-to guy in Gage last year than he does this year. He depended a lot on Gage last year. They move him all the time; they don’t drop him back very often. Most of it is bootlegs, nakeds, sprint outs, those sort of things."
"He’s got a presence about him as I watch him. He’s got great acceleration, but he just glides. He just seems to control time and space as he’s out there and the great athletes slow everything down and move they way they want them. He seems to be that way; he doesn’t look like he’s moving very fast and pretty soon he’s outrunning everybody. He’s just a real natural athlete."
ON THE MISSOURI DEFENSE?"The two inside tackles are really good; they gave us all sorts of fits last year. Both linebackers (James Kinney, Brandon Barnes) have really been involved. Both rovers are really good players; one of them was a kid we tried to recruit real heavily and he’s a great athlete (Dedrick Harrington). So, this is a pretty young defense that is just starting to get the feel of playing together. They are really protecting their corners; they are not having them play man-to-man anymore, which is what they were playing a year ago and we were able to take advantage of it. So they’ve gotten out of that and are playing a lot of zone with them. They are a much better secondary when they play zone than when they play man " as most of us are."
ON THE MISSOURI FOOTBALL PROGRAM?"I used to sit in the staff room here with the coaches and say that I thought Missouri was one of the Top 15 jobs in the country, and I got laughed out of the room. That was in the 1980s and everybody thought that I was crazy. They have tremendous loyalty in the state. You just grow up wanting to go to school there. They have two major cities to recruit from. They have tremendous facilities. They have a school that offers every major that you could want. The minute they hired Gary (Pinkel), I thought he was the right guy for the job. He’s a no-nonsense, tough-minded guy. He’s maybe not what the media wants, but he’s the right guy for that job and he’s done a good job. They’ve gotten better every year and he’s got them playing hard and tough. They’ve spent more money on recruiting than any school in the country. They’ve done a good job of putting their emphasis and their work in the right places."
ON THE ZONE DEFENSE?"What the zone does is it keeps the ball in front of you and usually prevents the big plays from going on. You get a lot more turnovers in zone; you probably don’t get as many sacks, but last week we got two sacks in straight zone pressure with four guys. If you get the right guys up front, you can get the right pressure. Everybody runs zone blitzes now, and zone blitzes mean that you play zone, but you bring five guys instead of four and you have one more guy to pressure on and you don’t know where it’s coming from. It causes you to have to throw the ball sooner than you want to. You have to really game plan in order to get it protected. Normally, most people end up having to throw short, quick stuff because of the pressure and not for sure being in a safe protection " and they find different ways to do it each week. Zone allows everybody to see the ball thrown and handed off, it gives everybody a chance to get to the ball and it usually keeps the ball in front of you so you can get more turnovers."
ON CU QB JOEL KLATT?"Joel has great faith and he’s a competitor. He’s gone through failures that you suffer in sports as a high school player, as a high school coach and as a professional athlete. If anybody knows and can deal with this, Joel can. Steve (Willard) wanted to hold him out of practice yesterday because he had a mild foot strain, but there wasn’t any way that we were going to keep Joel out of practice, so he practiced yesterday. That’s probably a good indication of where he is."
"His biggest challenge (vs. Missouri) is going to be to get the ball out quick when they bring pressure, and to understand what times that we have it protected and when we don’t."
"Joel is our guy on offense right now. If he doesn’t go, we don’t have a chance. We just need to help him more. We need to help him more on the offensive line, particularly, and we need to help him in the run game. It’s coming down to him throwing the ball right now and he isn’t necessarily that kind of quarterback. He can throw it, and has thrown it, 55 times a game, but we don’t want to necessarily be that kind of offense. We’re not prepared to be that kind of offense pass protection-wise."
ON TEAM MORALE?"Our players have been great. They are having fun, have great attitudes, they’re into this game and they’re into practice. We don’t have a negative thing flying around; it’s been fun. Going to practice is fun and they are practicing hard. I’ve been really pleased with the way they’ve been taking it. Right now they are saying, ?If we can win three, then we’re 6-6 and who knows?’ That’s they way they’re been approaching it, and they’ve been really good about it."