Nov. 10, 2009

Head Coach Art Briles

Opening statement:
"I guess just to clean up last week, obviously it was a much needed win, not only for our football team and staff and administration but for our university, and that's the gratifying part of it. Soon it needs to be where it's not unexpected but it's expected and that's the point that we've got to get to as a program. So that's our job as coaches to get our program up to that level but where we are right now it's a very gratifying win and a much needed win."

On Texas receiver Jordan Shipley:
"I've known Jordan a long time through his dad and the coaching world. He's just a good football player. He's fast, he's tough, he's smart, he's tenacious, he's got great hands and he plays with a lot of confidence. Throw all of those qualities together and the next thing you know you've got a good player and that's what he is. He's very dependable, also."

On the team coming together for the win in Missouri:
"The win can be attributed to our players in general just believing, persevering and continuing to improve as a team. I think those are the main factors, and then throwing in some subtitles of some individuals that played up to their potential on both sides of the ball. From that standpoint it truly was a team win, it truly was. We played well in all three phases."

On what the win on the road means for the program:
"What it means is that we need to keep playing that well. You can't just be up and down, you have to form some type of consistency as a program and as a player. The last six quarters of football we played pretty well. What we've got to do is keep playing at that level and keep expecting good outcomes and then what you develop into is a program that is not just trying to earn respect, but we're also trying to earn opportunities to win. That's kind of what we talked about last week prior to the game. We'd like to think that we're past the earn respect stage and now we have to fighter even harder for wins and not just respect."

On Texas quarterback Colt McCoy:
"He's real good. He's a good player and a guy that can hurt you with his feet or his arm. Wisely they don't ask him to do a whole lot of running by design. If that was the scheme that coach (Mack) Brown or coach (Greg) Davis wanted to use, he could be more of a threat running the football. He's such an accurate passer, he gets the ball out of his hands fast and makes such good decisions that he can make it happen that way."

Senior Linebacker Joe Pawelek

On the win in Missouri and what it means for the team:
"Anytime that you're coming off a conference victory it's definitely good for a team's moral, especially after we've been struggling the last three or four weeks. To go out and play well enough to leave Columbia with that win was huge for us."

On what the offense taking care of the ball means for the defense:
"That was huge for us, especially early in the game when we were having trouble stopping them. Whenever you see your offense coming right back with answers and big drives and points, that does nothing but give your defense confidence. The way that they played Saturday was the reason we were able to leave there with a win."

On Saturday being his last game at Floyd Casey Stadium:
"This is my fifth year here and to think this is my last game at Floyd Casey, you just sit back and think `wow this goes by fast'. I definitely had a lot of great memories there, and one of the best was the homecoming comeback win against Kansas. More than anything it's not necessarily a certain game or a certain play, but just being with all the guys and all the relationships you've built over the last four or five years has been awesome."

Freshman Quarterback Nick Florence

On being Big 12 Player of the week:
"I didn't even find out until somebody texted me and told me. It definitely doesn't just reflect me, it reflects the team. You can't do it without the team and the offense and the defense doing their part. It's definitely a team award."

On gaining more confidence:
"The center starts with the ball and I start with the ball, so if I don't have the confidence then no one else is going to have confidence. As I gain more confidence and get more comfortable with the receivers and the running backs, everything just starts to mesh and gel together."

On getting the ball to multiple receivers:
"I think it's huge. If you lock on one receiver the whole game, the defense can just start game planning. All of them have different skills and different things that they are good at. So you get the ball to them and the defense doesn't know what to do because they don't know who's going to get the ball next . You just take what the defense gives you and roll with it."

Senior Free Safety Jordan Lake

On how to defend Jordan Shipley:
"(You have to) Practice getting your coverage right. He does a lot of things based off of how you play your coverage and how you play him. He runs a lot of option type of routes that are hard to game plan for, but at the same time if your whole defense is playing on the same page you have a good chance of containing him."

On teammate Kendall Wright:
"He is an amazing athlete, just freakishly fast. His start to stop is faster than I have ever played against or ever seen. He has great hands and is a small guy, but he's fearless over the middle. He just has rubber legs, it's not even fair."