SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — This season OzarksFirst will sit down with Bobby Petrino to recap the week and look ahead to the next game.
Here is the conversation following the win against Western Illinois and looking ahead to the road trip at South Dakota.
Dan Lindblad: Back here on campus with Bears head coach Bobby Petrino and coach a 64-14 win. Offense was scoring points, defense creating turnovers, really a complete game for y’all this weekend.
Bobby Petrino: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It’s fun to watch our guys go out there and play hard and play with a lot of energy and excitement, a lot of smiles on the sideline. And we got a lot of guys in the game and they all made plays. So I really enjoyed it.
Dan Lindblad: And a lot of guys had a lot to cheer for, but take us into the locker room afterward. Obviously getting that losing streak off everybody’s shoulders. What was the mood like in the locker room?
Bobby Petrino: Yeah, that was I mean, we were fired up. Guys are happy about it. And we talked all week long about playing with confidence and playing with energy and passion. And I really thought we did that. I thought we played fast and played with confidence and made a lot of plays.
Dan Lindblad: You talk about, and you mentioned it in post-game, talking about the life lessons that you guys can learn from the streak. What do you think the guys can learn from that as you look toward what’s down the road the rest of the season?
Bobby Petrino: Yeah, the way we’re prepared, you know how serious we were when we went out to practice, how focused we were, how hard we practiced defense, running full speed to the ball, working on stripping and getting turnovers, and that paid off a lot and we worked extremely hard on turnovers. They turned into touchdowns. Ad running the ball physically, on offense, I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage and were able to do that and then that led to more plays down the field. Our receivers did a great job of running after the catch. We had a lot of yards after the catch.
Dan Lindblad: Still an opportunity to finish the season above 500, so plenty to play for. What do you tell your guys about keeping focus down the stretch as you start closing out? As we get into November.
Bobby Petrino: I feel like we’ll be focused. I think I feel like, you know, we finally got this heavy weight of the losing streak off our backs. We understand what it takes to win. We’ve got a good opponent this week. We’ve got to go on the road, get a win in the dome. So we’ve got to work hard and get prepared and go play with fun, go play with excitement and go play with a lot of energy.
Dan Lindblad:
And the ‘Yote dome is no joke. What was it about that place that makes it so difficult?
Bobby Petrino: Yeah. Last time we were there, there was nobody there, so it was a little bit weird, you know, it was the COVID spring season, so that’s about all I know about it.
Dan Lindblad: What’s your favorite Halloween candy? With it being Halloween today?
Bobby Petrino: My Halloween candy? I’m not big on candy right now. I’m probably at a Hershey’s bar.
Dan Lindblad: But big on wins. And the Bears are looking for another win at South Dakota. Kick off at 1:00. Coach, appreciate it as always and good luck.
Bobby Petrino: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
