MIZ OdomMizzou Football head coach Barry Odom met with the media on Monday to talk about last Saturday’s game at West Virginia and preview Saturday’s home opener against Eastern Michigan. Odom touched on Mizzou’s pace of play on offense, Aarion Penton’s success at the cornerback position and highlighted was that Mizzou could improve moving into week two of action.

Opening Statement…
Being a holiday, coaches have been in after last night – we had a practice last night so we started immediately on Eastern Michigan when we got back on Saturday so we’re heavy into the preparation there. We’re going to practice, I think I’ve mentioned it before, on every Sunday evening, win, lose, or draw we’re going to practice on Sunday night. It’s a short one, it’s a short practice; about an hour and 10 minutes at the most on the field. It was good for us coming off of the first week, the first game to get back out on the field and correct some mistakes and flush that one out of our system and then move onto the next opponent. Whether we win or don’t win we’ll do that every week. So, excited about the way our guys responded last night.

Walking off the field Saturday in Morgantown, I never will accept or want to come up on the wrong end of things like we did Saturday. I am disappointed in myself more than anything that I didn’t get our guys ready to go player their best. Offensively, we did not, defensively and then the kicking game, we didn’t have the advantage in any of the three areas. But, looking at that, I am also more excited today than I was beginning of the season because I really like our team. I like our locker room. I like the makeup of the guys we have. I stay away from the word potential; that doesn’t do anything for me. I do like the word opportunity on what this team has, the makeup of them and their mental mindset on being able to get the things corrected that we didn’t do well on Saturday and also their competitive spirit and their competitive nature on having an opportunity to play a home game Saturday night at 6:30. We’re excited about that opportunity. It’s so important for me to get our team ready to go. The state of Missouri needs us to play really well. Our football program needs us to go out and play our best. I can’t think of a better week for me and for our program to get going. Excited about it. I also said after the game on Saturday, you’re not ever going to get me down. I know that this place is about and I know what my coaching staff is about. I know what the team makeup is and I know where we’re going to go. Again, I don’t like losing in anything. Whatever it is, I don’t like that. You have to have it engrained in you that you are going to everything that you can to put yourself in position to not be there again. There were some positives. I think we played 25 guys who hadn’t played in a college game before. They did some good things. We had some mistakes. I had some mistakes as a head coach. We’re looking forward to getting those corrected.

On the offense playing with tremendous tempo…
I have met with the offensive staff some last night and then again this morning. We’ll play faster than that as time comes. There’s also some elements of our offense that we didn’t get to with formation shifts and trade and adjustments. We’ve got a pretty good offensive mind as a staff upstairs. Again, it’s about putting our kids in a position to do what they can do and for us, with our skillset right now, that’s going to give us an advantage. There will be times that we will play faster than that and there will be times that we need to slow down so to speak and do some different things out of the huddle.

On whether or not the pace of the offense affected the defense…
Not at all. I think defensively, we played 85 snaps. It doesn’t matter. If you play 50 or 150, let’s just line up and go play.

On whether he thought West Virginia took advantage of wide receiver/linebacker matchups last week…
We were matched up and from a game plan standpoint, that was part of it going in. There were going to be times that we were matched up. We didn’t match those correctly a couple of times. They have got a good squad on the other side defending them. I like our linebackers and I like our scheme. We have got to be better at what we are doing. There will be, as we continue to grow, that we will be some times where we play more of a five-defensive back system.

On issues with the run defense…
It was a combination of a couple of things. Gap integrity a couple of times and that’s fundamentals on playing it the right way. A couple of times we had an opportunity to make a tackle and didn’t make it. As a coaching staff, we have to get our guys in position and make the adjustments as needed. And we will. There were some things that you look and you say that’s the way it’s supposed to look and the way it’s supposed to fit. Then, two plays later, same look, same call and we didn’t do it right. We’ll be a lot better on that side.

On Aarion Penton…
He played a lot of snaps. We put him by himself a lot of times. I think he’s earned the right to do that. He’s shown us as a staff that he has the ability do that. You also want to be smart on making sure you are not putting him in a position that he has to do it play after play after play. He held up pretty well. He had one interference play in the endzone. Other than that, he played pretty solid. He tackled well too. And then some of the perimeter passing game that they had to his side, was physical against the blockers and he had a pretty solid game.

On the offensive line…
We gave up one sack. Both quarterbacks had time to throw the ball. There was a pocket there that they were able to step up into. (Offensive line coach Glen) Elarbee was not overly, well he’s never happy, but they have made great progress over fall camp and I would expect from now until Saturday that they are going to play that much better. There are some point of attack things that we need to be more aggressive with and we will. It’s playing the game – we are really young on that side, but we’ve talked about that; throw age out of it. It doesn’t matter – we need to get better. But, we gave the quarterbacks time to throw the ball. I can think of really two times that a quarterback got a shot on him – one was a sack, the other time I think we completed it. I can’t remember now. It was pretty good protection on a defense, again I said it last Monday, I think Tony Gibson’s one of the best at what he does as far as looking like you’re not bringing pressure and then bringing pressure. I think he is a pretty good coordinator.

On QB Marvin Zanders running the offense alongside Drew Lock…
He did some good things. He’s got the ability to run our offense as it is and then he has some abilities also running to help us out. As long as both of the quarterbacks are practicing the way that they are practice, we feel like they both give us the opportunity to move the football. Ultimately, we have got to get into the redone and then score points. I think both quarterbacks can do that. Moving forward, we have got to make sure that within the plan on using both guys that we do it strategically, but also if they have earned the right that they are going to go help us, which both have at this point, they are going to keep playing. And I know I pulled the guy at the wrong time and I understand that. We had some momentum going and then Marvin went in. Anyway, like I said, I’m learning too. We’ll get better.

On whether he was referencing people saying he pulled Drew Lock at the wrong time or if he thought he pulled him at the wrong time…
That was in reference to my oldest son telling me; hey what in the world are you doing in the third series. Now looking at it in the flow of the game, that position is so important, the way Drew that was playing and when Marvin was playing when he came in, I still have great trust and great comfort in both of them running our offense. I have to be smart with that. Both of them are great competitors and I like them and I like the way they compete. Both of them were in here watching video Saturday night. That’s pretty cool.