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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 20, 2014Kliff KingsburyQ. Can you update us on the status of Jakeem Grant for not just this Saturday, but his overall status with the team? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, he's on the team, and he's doing fine. Q. So he's expected to play? COACH KINGSBURY: I would expect him to play. That's not 100 percent, but it looks that way. Q. Did he have to get some stitches, and where was his wound? COACH KINGSBURY: As far as I know, he did receive stitches, and it appeared to be, from what I saw, under his chin area. Q. If you find out more facts, is it something that could lead to any suspensions? COACH KINGSBURY: I'm not sure right now. It's an ongoing investigation. All we saw was Jakeem. We were worried about his well‑being. He's okay, and that's where we're at with it. Q. What's your thoughts just in general on your players being at a place where there's that much involvement with the police or reports that there's shots fired? COACH KINGSBURY: It's not good. It's not safe for our team. Kids are going to go out. It's part of the college life. You would hope that that wouldn't happen somewhere that your players were at obviously. Q. To your knowledge, do you know how many of the guys were there? COACH KINGSBURY: I have no clue. Like I said, I just heard about Jakeem's situation, found out he was fine, and that's where we're at. Q. From the two injuries that he suffered on Saturday, the ankle and the shoulder, which of those is more of a problem, seems to be more of an issue right now? COACH KINGSBURY: I think they're both similar. I think they're both things we can manage. Like I said, he should be ready to go this Saturday. Q. Can you talk about what you face this weekend with TCU offensively and defensively? What are your big areas of concern? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, offensively, you've got to start with the quarterback, I think. If you look at what he's done, his numbers, you've got to put him up there in the Heisman talk with the top three guys. He's been phenomenal. He's been as dominant a player as there is in the country when it comes to running the football and throwing it and really protecting it, only three interceptions, tons of skill. The running backs are as good as anybody in our conference. Wideouts, they can run as fast as any wideout in the conference. I've been really impressed offensively with what they've done there‑‑ Coach Meacham, Coach Cumbie, adapting their personnel. Defensively, Gary is one of the best defensive minds in college football, always has been. It's the same deal. You have to earn every yard against him. They're not going to give you anything easy. They're going to be where they're supposed to be, and they're going to tackle well. It's a great challenge. They're playing as well as anybody in the country, we know that. We have to play our best game to hang in there. Q. Does the fact that Sonny's on staff cause you any concern that they're going to have inside knowledge? COACH KINGSBURY: No. Both offenses are very similar conceptually. With what they have at quarterback, they have adapted to him and put some QB run stuff in. He's done a great job of handling that. But conceptually, they're both very similar. Everybody knows that. Q. Do you think he's made the biggest jump of any quarterback in Big 12, at least this year? COACH KINGSBURY: I'd say in the country. I don't know how he's not mentioned with the top three guys. When you look at his stats. They lost one game by three on the road to a top five team, and they scored 58 points. He's dynamic. I watched every game, and he's as dominant a player as there is in our conference. Q. Where has he improved the most? COACH KINGSBURY: Just accuracy, it looks like. He's making good decisions, and he's putting the ball on the money where those guys can catch it and run, and those receivers are as talented a group as there is around. They're going up and making plays for him. Q. Last couple weeks, four‑game losing streak, you'd come in every Monday and talk about how you guys are feeling. How much better does it feel to finally have broken that streak and be coming off a win this week? COACH KINGSBURY: I feel good for the players. We haven't played as well as we can play by a long shot. So we're still searching for that. But we're excited for those ‑‑ like I mentioned on Saturday, those seniors don't have many games left. So to come out of there with a win, it's important to them, and it means a lot to those guys. Q. Do you expect Keenon to play Saturday? COACH KINGSBURY: Hopefully. We'll run him around today and see how he feels and take it from there. Q. What was the injury? COACH KINGSBURY: Some sort of head injury. I'm not exactly sure. Q. Do you plan to use DeAndre Washington? COACH KINGSBURY: Hopefully. He's done a good job the last couple of weeks. They're really good up front. They're the most disruptive front seven we'll see all year. That will be a challenge for our offensive linemen to try to move those guys and give him some space. He's been running it well and protecting it. So we like to get him going. Q. Is Marquez kind of day to day? COACH KINGSBURY: I think so. I think so. I'm not sure. Once again, he's one of those guys where we'll see how he feels today and take it from there, but he's a tough guy. Q. If he can't go, will it be Ian and Ken? COACH KINGSBURY: It looks that way. We try to fill the void with some combination of those two. Q. [No microphone.] COACH KINGSBURY: Sadler? I think he's come a long way, still adjusting to the speed of the game. From the first couple of games where we saw him in practice, he's built a lot of confidence. For a true freshman, that's exciting to see for the latter half of the year. Q. Coach, we talk about TCU and what they can do offensively, you guys have a great scheme yourself, changing up a lot of personnels. How are you going to keep that consistent against their defense? COACH KINGSBURY: We'll see. Like I said, they present challenges when it comes defensively because they don't really make mistakes. So you have to earn every yard. I think Baylor had a big game against them, but they had some really good receivers that could make some big plays and run by some people. You're going to have to earn it. You're going to have to beat them physically to make a play because schematically they're going to have you picked up. Q. And from your point of view, as a quarterback with some success, how do you stop a guy like Boykin? I know these kids are different these days, but how would you stop a kid like that? COACH KINGSBURY: Nobody has yet. We'll see. He's tough because, like I said, a guy like that, you'd hope he'd be more loose with the football, but he's protected it so well and knows when to throw it away and knows when to take off. He's just playing at a very high level. Q. Talk about Pete Robertson and his performance so far, leading the Big 12 in sacks. Talk about what credit that is to your defense. COACH KINGSBURY: That's been exciting to watch. He's grown a lot both on and off the field. He's a guy who, when he first got here, couldn't play an entire game. He's got himself in shape and now playing 80 or 90 snaps. Coach Smith, who's his position coach, has done a fine job developing him and getting him to where he's at. Very impressed with the way he's played, and we're going to need him this week. Q. Coach, you kept the penalties to four for 22 yards this last game. How important is that keeping that same thing going this next week to win a game in a very hostile environment? COACH KINGSBURY: I think that would be a big factor. We're not a good enough team to have a bunch of penalties and still overcome that. If we can limit those once again and keep that trend going, it would definitely help us on the back end of this season. Q. What did you say to them that the penalties went down so much? COACH KINGSBURY: They're excited. We have a certain number of penalties that we either have some extracurricular after practice or we don't. So they fell under that number. I don't know if they're more excited about winning or the fact they're under that number on Saturday. Q. You show the receivers and what Baylor did and how they were able to blow the top off that TCU defense with those big, long plays maybe to challenge your receivers? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, we'll watch it on film. That group from Baylor is a special group of wide receivers. We have our own group. We have to find a way to get open and make plays down the field. Like I said, that's a very talented, very fast group of wide receivers there at Baylor. Q. Do you know Sam Eguavoen's status this week? COACH KINGSBURY: I do not. He's day to day this week. We'll see how he comes along during the week. Q. Lower leg issue? COACH KINGSBURY: I know it was a lower leg issue, but I don't know the extent of it. Q. I know we mentioned it before, but your defensive line is getting‑‑ they're improving big time week by week. What credit goes to that‑‑ the defensive line? COACH KINGSBURY: I think just seeing the speed of the game. We brought in some guys who never played Division I football and asked them to play right away, and it takes a while to adjust to that. The level of competition is starting to slow down for them. They're starting to believe they belong here. I'd say, more than anything, that's why they've improved somewhat the last couple of weeks. Q. What do you think of Davis' performance on Saturday? Obviously, some pretty good numbers, but some mistakes here. What was your overall evaluation of his play? COACH KINGSBURY: Not bad. We won the game, and that's what you want at that position, but I still think he can play a lot better, and that's what we're working towards. Q. Have you seen improvement from Webb this season, and if so, where? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I think accuracy early on in the season I didn't think was there. I think it's getting closer. We're still missing some things we can't miss. And I think it's a combination of things. I think at receiver, some positions, we have to continue to get better and continue to separate, and when we are open, we have to hit them. That group as a whole, quarterback‑receiver, has to continue to grow together. Q. Any time the quarterback struggles, obviously, he gets to be a lightning rod for criticism. How much of this season‑‑ whether it's been missed connections, how much has it been Davis, and how much has it been maybe guys not being where they're supposed to be, not running the right routes, not being on time? COACH KINGSBURY: It's always a combination of things. Coaching Davis, I have a very high standard for him, so I expect him to make ‑‑ when someone's open, we make the throw. At that position, we put it all on us, and he knows that, and he knows that's our approach. Any time you're not having success in the passing game, there's always a combination of things that go into it. Q. I guess a year ago, a year or two ago, Trevone Boykin was getting a lot of criticism and was not playing that well for TCU. Do you have an example of exactly what the progress is? COACH KINGSBURY: There's a lot of examples out there. This is a guy who's come a long way. You have to give Coach Cumbie a lot of credit for his development as well. And playing to his strengths, doing things that he's comfortable with and making sure that he feels good about their system. Q. Have you and Mike talked about what you might try to do to disrupt the defense? Going to go faster on offense than you have thus far this year? COACH KINGSBURY: We'll see. I can't give away the trade secrets, but we'll see. We're going to have to do something because it will be the best defense we've played thus far, and offensively we haven't played well enough to beat a team like this yet. We'll have to step our game up. Q. Last year you guys beat TCU in a game where you only scored 20 points, which is low for you guys' standards. Do you think it will be more of an emphasis on scoring a lot more this Saturday? COACH KINGSBURY: From what I've seen of their offense, yes. I think you're going to have to score to keep up with them. Q. Coach Cumbie and Coach Meacham running the offense, what's the biggest difference between what they're doing and what you do, even schematically? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, like I said, conceptually it's very similar, what I coach my quarterback, what he coaches his quarterback is very similar. I think they've done a very good job of adjusting their personnel, and the quarterback run game has really opened some things up for them, and that kid's making great plays. I think there's some different creativity that each of us do, but I think in the heart of it conceptually we're very close. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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