Bowling Green State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes from BGSU vs. Missouri
September 14, 2002 | Football
Sept. 14, 2002
Bowling Green, Ohio -
Bowling Green Coach Urban Meyer Quotes
I think that the number-one thing that I told the players was to start developing trust. Since day one we have talked about trust and the way that you develop it between the players and coaches. When you try and figure out what happened in a game, you try and evaluate what just happened on the field. You try and evaluate what the difference was in the game. I felt on Wednesday that we had a great practice, and it was probably as good as I have ever been around. I saw that on Wednesday that the guys started to believe and I really saw something special in everyone's eyes.
At the beginning of the game I had every intention of deferring the toss like you are normally supposed to do. We were going to play field position ball, and then our Quarterback and Offensive Line convinced me to take the ball. When you start to develop that kind of trust with your players, and the players know that the coaches are going to give everything they can, I feel as though it is a very special thing.
I think the game-plan was excellent and to do this against that type of football team is something special. It was a great effort from the offense, defense, kicking, and the group of assistant coaches.
BGSU Player Quotes
On the win...
Josh Harris: We came out for the opening drive and set the tone. I think everyone had a great game.
On beating a possible Top-25 team...
Joe Alls: Watching them on film they looked tremendous. Their offense and defense were both making great plays. Coach says every week that winning is fragile, but it's not by accident. Tonight we went out with the mindset that we were about to play a good Big XII team, and we just executed like we did all week in practice.
Josh Harris: It's no surprise, and it was fun. We have been off for 16 days, and we were the most prepared we have ever been. My stomach was not knotted up. I knew something special was about to happen.
How the offense helped the defense...
Mitch Hewitt: It definitely makes it easier to play defense when you have an offense that scores as many points as we do.
Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel Quotes
Bowling Green offense...
They run a good offense. I said that during the week. Harris is a good player, and Robert Redd. They were clicking. And they were clicking on everything. We didn't put ourselves out of position too often, they just made plays. They made great throws. You just have to give them credit, which you have to do when you have someone executing it that well. That's probably the best execution I've seen in a long, long time.
BGSU 3rd-and-long conversions...
You've got to make some plays. You've got to get out of a third and ten. They had a couple of third and tens that they converted. You've got to change the momentum. We could not change the momentum.
Did the BGSU Offense Throw Any Wrinkles...
It was all the same stuff we worked on. There's no excuses. They just executed very well.
Falcon big plays...
Every big play they tried, not everyone, but certainly most, they hit on every single one of them. Momentum-wise, we didn't do anything to stop them.
Interception by defensive back Michael Harden.....
That's unfortunate. The guy's dying to make a play, he makes one and you want him to knock the ball down. We were dying to have a football play out there and he made it and we lost about 40 yards on it. That's the way things went today.
