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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 6, 2014Kliff KingsburyTHE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Kingsbury. Q. What specifically between practice and the game are you seeing that isn't connected? COACH KINGSBURY: I would say the minimal mistakes that show up in the games aren't made in practice. I guess there is nervous energy, fundamental techniques aren't transferring from the practice field to the game field. Q. Do you see that specifically between Davis and the receivers? COACH KINGSBURY: I think as a group, that entire group does things that you watch 'em out here in practice play with confidence and swag, and then they get to the games and you don't see that. Q. Any idea why? COACH KINGSBURY:  Youth, I would say, you gotta grow up. Haven't had a lot of confidence‑building moments in this season, and we need to build on positive. There haven't been a ton, to be honest. Q. Is this a "here we go again deal" when that happens? COACH KINGSBURY: Felt that way. After that interception, I felt the air come out of the sidelines, which as a coach, you try to keep from happening. You want to be resilient, but it did feel that way. Q. Coach, when you look at Davis' interceptions from this past week and maybe some of the others, are those on him or the receivers, or is there times when it's on him and times when it's on receivers? COACH KINGSBURY: It's a combination of everything, bad play calls, tough reads and not being in the right spot.  It's a combination of things. It's not on one person. Q. Seems like at times the offense can score pretty effortlessly and other times it's tough. They can't get out out of their own way. What have you seen that's the difference between the two? COACH KINGSBURY: I haven't figured that out, but that's how it looks to me as well. There is moments of greatness and then it looks like the Bad News Bears some of the times. We have to be more consistent as a group and we haven't been at all. It's puzzling to me because in practice, I see positive things and we're just not doing it in the games. Q. Is there a way you can turn that around and connect things that have been disconnected: COACH KINGSBURY: I hope so. We'll just keep working hard. Like I said, as a play caller, I have to call obviously better plays that they feel more comfortable with and connect to them on a higher level. So that's on me to put them in right situations. Q. Have you considered opening up quarterback competition this week for the West Virginia game? COACH KINGSBURY: No, I'm not. Q. When you say it's on you, it's them that's out there playing the game. What part of it do you take on, the play calling? COACH KINGSBURY: Right, I just think if I have to simplify things and they're thinking too much, things like that, that's the things that fall upon me, as the offensive coordinator, the "play caller" if you will, to get that right. I need to give them stuff they can handle and execute at a high level, and so far I haven't done that. Q. There was a lot of stuff in the preseason updates about Davis. Do you know how much has he been changing the plays? COACH KINGSBURY: I'm not sure of the percentage, but he's been doing that since day one. I don't have a percentage for you, though. Q. To go back on the quarterback question, it seemed like Webb thrived in the quarterback competition‑type atmosphere. I know it sounds crazy, but do you think about creating that atmosphere once again to light a fire under both? COACH KINGSBURY: Good question. No, Davis is still learning and growing and Pat is the same way. Pat is getting better each and every week and he gets a lot of reps. So it isn't like Davis is getting all the reps and Pat isn't getting any. We give an equal amount of reps during the practice and we will continue to rep them both. Davis is our starter. Q. What's the status of Alfredo? COACH KINGSBURY: It appears he will be out. I'm not sure exactly how long, but he will be out for this week's game. Q. (No microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: Sounds like it's a sprain, a knee sprain. Q. Coach, would you talk about the defense from Saturday? Looked like they were giving you some opportunities and they went in and did their job a number of times. I realize they scored 45 points, but you had a number of stops. COACH KINGSBURY: They did, they got some stops, a lot of energy came out, flew around. When they raised up and got a stop, offense wouldn't handle their business. And as a defense, when we would make plays, the other side of the ball wouldn't. Q. Looking at West Virginia offense, what concerns you? COACH KINGSBURY: Everything, really. They're running the ball very well, the quarterback looks like a new guy, he's playing at a tremendous level, 70% completion. Then they have one of the best receivers in the country. Pick your poison on that deal. They're playing at a very high level right now. Q. (No microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: I don't know exactly, but you just watch how much quicker he's betting rid of the ball, he knows where he's going and making stronger throws. Those receivers have stepped up and grown a lot. Protection seems to be very good in most of the film I've watched. Q. With all the switching that you guys are doing with the receivers, can you talk a little bit about that in terms of what's propagating that? Is that good for the guys, moving them from one spot to another? COACH KINGSBURY: No, I don't think so. We're creating competition, and if those guys had created plays at those positions, they wouldn't be moving. That's what it comes down to. We are trying to find the right combination of four or five guys that step up and take over. For the time being, not many of those guys are doing it, so we have to continue to push them. They have to grow up and continue to play more and get better. Q. Is that something you expect to happen, given that you have all those sophomores on the outside? COACH KINGSBURY: No, I thought we would have come along quicker as a group, just because I watched them in the spring and what they did and fall camp. I just think when we get to the games, like I said, it's got to translate from the practice field and it hasn't to the extent we need it to. Q. Of those positions, where do you feel like you're lacking the most? COACH KINGSBURY: I don't think we're lacking. We moved around a little bit last week, but just the outside guys just gotta come on and just gotta be more consistent. Q. (No microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: It was a check from Coach Chiaverini. Q. Can you talk about your run game? Early on it looked like you were getting some things and got away from that maybe because of the score. Looked like there were opportunities. Is that something you want to expand on? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, yeah, we want to, and I thought we did a good job early running it. When you touch the ball in the second half and you're down 31‑7, it's tough to run it when you're playing to win. I thought DeAndre has done a great job all year of carrying the ball and we got to find him a way to get him more touches. Q. Are you having a hard time sleeping at night, I know you're hard on yourself? COACH KINGSBURY: Win or lose, during the season I don't sleep much. It's part of the profession. Q. Davis' shoulder injury, did it impact his play at all? COACH KINGSBURY: I don't think so. He seemed good. I just think we got to clean some things up. Q. (No microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: Not that I knew of. If he did, he didn't speak of it. Q. Have you thought about replaying the Holiday Bowl for the team to try and remind them how they played? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. It's a good thought. They saw it all off season, pretty much anything they went to. It's in there, we just gotta get it out and find a way to get that type of composure, that confidence back. Q. You play two tough road games, you come back home. How good is it to be back home this week? COACH KINGSBURY: It's great. I know our players are fired up, and anytime you get to play at Jones Stadium, it's great. We have the best fans in the country, so we want to get out there. Q. What's the game plan against West Virginia? COACH KINGSBURY: Protect the football and get stops on defense. Q. (Question about seeking counsel in older coaches. ) COACH KINGSBURY: I've been around football for a long time, so it's part of the game. But I have people who reach out to me and we'll talk. Q. Do you mind sharing who? COACH KINGSBURY: I would rather not. Q. Coach, you mentioned confidence several times. Do you feel like right now that's one of the biggest issues with your team? What do you do to try to get it back? COACH KINGSBURY: You gotta have success to get it back and those first couple of games where you would like to build confidence, we really didn't. We sputtered along. So now we are at the midway point and we've got to breed success. That's the only way to find confidence. Q. Was Davis practicing all last week? COACH KINGSBURY: He was. Q. I realize that when you're losing, you're not having fun, but do you see a team that's not having any fun? How do you put that back into the game where you can have success? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, it comes with winning and being successful. I do think, like I said all along, the effort has been great, but if you're losing a Game 31‑7, you're not going to have a lot of fun out there. We gotta keep working and stay positive and find a way to get it done. A lot of the season is left. Q. Sounds like the message overall is keep plugging away and working. How hard is it to get 18, 19, 20 years old to buy into the message and see the long‑term vision? COACH KINGSBURY: I think it's harder on coaches than anything. Kids are resilient and they know that there is another game coming up. They've been great. They fought the entire time and, you know, Texas Tech hadn't beaten those two teams we lost to in conference for a few years now. We got to clean things up and play the best games, seven games we can ahead. Q. (N microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: With their offense, you've got to be able to score. I know Dana is a great offensive mind and I know they're playing a lot better, so we will need to be able to keep up. Q. It's a different team year to year, but your teams have had success against West Virginia. Does that help at all, giving you some confidence going into the game with? COACH KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. Different year, different coaches, so we will see how we show up Saturday. Q. What would you say has been the most disappointing thing so far this season? COACH KINGSBURY: The penalties, I think, just how that continues to either move the other team forward or move us back in key situations. That number is pretty astounding when you look at a season total. It's hard to win any games doing that every week. Q. (No microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: He will be out this week and we'll reevaluate him next week. Q. (No microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: He does. I'm not sure exactly what it is. I know it's in the shoulder area. Q. (No microphone.) COACH KINGSBURY: He should be back this week. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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