Gary Pinkel Quotes (29 Quotes)

I don't think you can be worried about that. I think you just have to just focus on playing your best game. Some will draw motivation from that, which is fine, but it still boils down to being focused to play your best.

I thought he played really well, really well. I'm not sure what his numbers were, but I think they were pretty good.

His first couple of years he was really hesitant to say a whole lot because I think Brad is really hesitant to push his beliefs and opinions on anybody, ... He just tries to live his life and do the right things. Certainly, you'd like to have a little more vocal leadership, and I think he's doing that this year. He feels more comfortable.

I just got a little nervous. I wanted to make sure we preserved this, and we never really came out firing on offense in the second half.

Our recruiting was almost over by the time we played our bowl game. Everything's so much faster now and it's amazing how quick things go.

I am really proud of the team. It was a great gut check and great win to end the season. Our guys kept fighting through adversity and they just started to make plays.

If I told people I thought he was going to play like that, I'd be lying. I told many people behind the scenes that this guy is a remarkably talented athlete with remarkable poise. To play like that, first game, 18 years old. I'm just glad he's on my team, and I'm glad he's a freshman. Just remarkable.

Those quarterbacks love the shovel pass. They've got a choice to shovel it and take the passing yards or pitch it and let that guy take the yards.

You can't triple-cover a guy the whole time or you leave other people open. They're smart about how they do those things. But certainly he is an impact player, to say the least.

That's Brad Smith. He's never thinking of himself. He's always thinking of everyone else. That should have been one of the happiest moments of his career, and instead he's trying to tell me about this incident.

Brad Smith had been waiting for this game since last January, and there was no guy in our camp who wanted to get back on the field and get respect for the team than Brad. ... Brad looked very calm and poised out there.

I think we'll see a combination of everything. I think they'll do what they do. They're good coaches. They're smart. I think we'll see a mixture of things. They're multiple in the attack that they present to us. So we'll certainly see some of those things.

When you have a game like that, I think obviously everyone realizes the importance of the game and where we're at, and we can't afford another loss, ... But I also think you've still got to focus on playing well.

What happens when you lose a great player, it opens the opportunity for somebody else.

They got the option going, and we were scrambling with that a little bit, then they play-action a little bit and come down with the ball. That's good play-calling and some good execution on their part.

That was a great effort by Chase. The guy's a winner.

I'm very pleased with the class. What we wanted to do was to make sure we had some balance, and I think for the most part we got that. If you look at our class, also, I think there's a lot of speed in the class. I feel very good about that.

They did some good things with the top two guys out. There's going to be a lot of competition, so let it continue when we come back in August.

He's without question one of the best receivers in the country, what you would call a national recruit. In other words, a player that pretty much can go anywhere he wanted to in the United States.

I told the guys at halftime, let's have the greatest comeback in Independence Bowl history.

Brad felt he had a lot to prove, not only about this team but about himself. I don't think there was a young man out there more excited about the start of the college football season.

The one thing we're trying to do is back him off a little more to not being too over-aggressive. You have to back them up and make sure that you keep everything in front of you to begin with. Then slowly, with the experience that you get, you allow them to choose their moments. With him (Moore), we're trying to be a little more cautious just so he's taking care of the middle of the field in terms of leveraging the football and deep footballs.

I coach my coaches, and I feel very good about my staff. I think it's really easy to sit there and change coaches. To show people that, 'Hey, he's making a change and he's doing this and that.' But I won't do that. I'll do it if it's the right thing to do. I'll do it in a heartbeat if it's the right thing to do.

I don't ever discuss the discipline things, although I'm very consistent with what I do.

He wasn't playing very good in the first quarter. He had guys open all over the field and he wasn't playing very good.

We were doing pretty good until this year and I'm very proud of what we've done to this year. This year we're not pleased with it and we expect to make it better.

You've got to be able to do things in order to get respect. You've got to be a good football player. That was first. And then he's got such great leadership qualities that that always just took care of itself.

It was not just that we were down, it was all the other stuff that just kept getting thrown in our face. In my background I'm used to getting wins like this. Maybe not that far from behind, but I'm used to being a part of that. And it's nice that they'll get a huge confidence level from that.

I feel so bad for (Coffey) because he's had such a great camp, ... You have a player that works so hard and you get an injury like that. He's been doing just a great job for us. ... Somebody's got to step up. That's the way it is.