J’Mon Moore hauls in the first touchdown pass of the season. (photo/Shawn Kober)
Here’s a look back at the Tigers season opening win over the Redhawks. Watch all the scoring and key plays from the 34-3 final.
Mizzou Head Coach Gary Pinkel
Opening Statement…
“Well every win is a great win, so our players are excited. They guys are excited about it. I certainly understand there are a lot of things we need to improve on, which we knew that would be the case. We had a lot of young players on that field –inexperienced players. They got some good work today so that is very positive. I just thought overall it was a good win and we have to get back to work.”
About the injured players, Russell Hansbrough and Evan Boehm…
“Their ankles, the middle of your offense; center, quarterback, tailback. Those are the spots that are obviously so critical to success and we have a shot with two of those guys. Hopefully we will get them back, we don’t know when. Evan came in and played the first half and we got him out. But that is also the sense of urgency to get people ready to play.”
Was that precautionary to get him out?
“Evan? He played the first half sore, he was limping around a little bit. We thought it would be wise to get him out. Russell, you saw all his running. That’s a huge loss for us because I think Russell is a very high-level player. The things we have seen in practice… We are excited about getting him back and getting players ready to play.”
On how the running game performed following Hansbrough…
“It was interesting because I believe in the 6 series we had the second half I think 4 of them were in the 10-yard line, which is very limited what you’re going to do down there. Especially with how the score is and how your defense is planning to take off are things to take in to consideration. Two times we were inside the 20. So there are 6 times we were in very good field position, its kind of hard to evaluate that. At times we need to block better and times we need to run better. When Morgan (Stewart) was out there he did some really good things. Not back yet 100 percent”
MIZZOU NEWS and NOTES:
–Mizzou has now outscored SEMO 86-6 in the program’s last two meetings combined. The Tigers improved to 3-0 all-time against the Redhawks.
–Mizzou has won 14 consecutive season openers and 18-of-19 dating back to 1997. This is the program’s 11th consecutive home-opening victory.
–The Tigers improved to 15-0 all-time versus Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponents and 12-0 in 15 seasons under head coach Gary Pinkel. (570-96 combined score).
–Mizzou has 26 defensive touchdowns since 2010 after a blocked punt (Kentrell Brothers) was returned for a score (Aarion Penton) in the third quarter. That mark is tied with Florida for the fourth-most in the nation in that time span. Pinkel has 187 wins in his head coaching career. He’s the fourth-winningest active coach in the FBS.
SEMO Head Coach Tom Matukewicz
On why offense was stuck in a lot of 3rd-and-longs:
“Well, it’s just hard. We have two brand new tackles that have never blocked anyone, and they were trying to block first-rounders. We also have a brand new QB. But we are definitely going to work to get a lot better.”
On the targeting penalty:
“It was embarrassing, and it cost us. We are going to coach him up. It’s not like he made a conscious decision, but we pride ourselves on teaching our kids about a lower target zone. We put tape on our dummies at practice to make sure they get used to the lower target zone. It was a great opportunity for our team to learn.”
On his overall takeaways:
“I just want our guys to understand what it takes to win. First thing you have to learn is how to not beat yourself. Some of the things that we can control, like penalties and the blocked kick, we have to learn to control. We are a good football team, and we have to start acting like it.”
