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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 27, 2014Kliff KingsburyQ. Have you spoken with Davis, and do you have kind of any update on how he's doing right now? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I have not. I'll see him when he gets to practice, so we'll find kind of figure it out from there and see what he can do this week moving forward, but I would say as of now he's day‑to‑day. Q. What is the injury? I know he had a bad left ankle for a couple weeks. Is it the same thing? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I just heard an ankle injury. That's all I know at this point. Q. Do you know if he's able to put weight on it or anything like that? KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, I know he was in there rehabbing this morning and has basically been doing that for 48 straight hours. Q. Have you spoken to the trainers? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I have. I have. Q. What did they say about expectations? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Basically let's see how he responds, and we'll go day‑to‑day. Q. Is there a threshold of his ability to move around that you know already that will mean he won't play? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yes. He's got to be able to protect himself and move around and escape the rush, and if he's not able to do that, then we'll go with Patrick. Q. What was your assessment of Patrick's play on Saturday? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, not bad. It's tough when he hasn't had an entire week and the game plan is not tailored to his skill set and what he does best, but I thought he moved around on some things, kept some plays alive. There at the end, we really were trying to run the ball more than anything, get out of there, but I thought that he stepped up and made a nice play on the touchdown. I know he has one throw he'd like to have back. Q. Will you make a decision pretty early in the week so if it is Patrick he'll have as much time as possible? KLIFF KINGSBURY: We'll just try to up his reps and see. But other than that, you know, either one of those guys will be ready to go. Q. Is there any adjustment for Patrick if he does start in terms of the offensive plays? KLIFF KINGSBURY: A little bit. We'll probably bring it down, just do things that he really likes and is comfortable with. Q. There have been some frustrating games this season. As a competitive athlete who's played as quarterback, have you ever thought, gosh, I wish I could go out there and suit up myself? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, a few times, but that's part of the growing process. I went through it. Everybody goes through it, and we just as a team are going through some things right now and have to continue to work hard and clean a lot of things up. Q. Going back to Mahomes, what are his strengths? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think Pat does a good job. He's an accurate passer and does a good job extending plays with his feet. I think that's something he really excelled at in high school and has continued to do that in our system. Q. Any updates on Jakeem and Bradley and some of the guys that‑‑ KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I'd say Jakeem and Bradley, I'd put them as probable for this week. I think they got banged up a little bit, but it's the same injuries they had going in, so I think they'll be okay. Q. Did they practice Wednesday, Thursday last week? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I believe Jakeem did. Yeah, they both did. Q. Have you looked at Texas much, and can you talk to us about your concerns or the things you feel good about going into that game? KLIFF KINGSBURY: They're a talented football team. I think you turn on the BYU game and then you turn on some of these later tapes, and they've improved tremendously on both sides of the ball. I think their quarterback has grown a lot. I think last week's score is a little deceiving because they turned it over, had some drives going and kind of sputtered out.  But offensively he's been a lot better. The receivers are making plays. They're always going to be good running backs there, and then defensively it's a group who you watch the Baylor film and they've got after them up front. They had a great game plan and went stride‑for‑stride with those receivers. Very talented as always, and we'll need to play very well to compete with them. Q. If there is a situation for Mahomes to have to be the starting quarterback this week or in coming weeks, are you confident in his ability to lead the team? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I am. I am. We played with two true freshmen last year, and so he's done a good job working, and we've talked about him needing to be prepared each and every week because he was the backup from day one. I'm very happy with his progress, and I feel like he'll do a good job if he's called upon. Q. Both quarterbacks, getting them kind of out on the run and maybe absorbing one of those hits or quick draw, getting them out there, does that kind of help them get accustomed to the speed of the game and get them comfortable? KLIFF KINGSBURY: That's their safety net. Any young quarterback is getting outside of that pocket and making plays, so we'll see. He's done a good job really working his pocket presence all camp, but if he were to have to go in, kind of like you saw on Saturday, he's run around, try to extend some things and go. Q. On the other side of the coin, you're going to probably anticipate that from Swoopes, as well? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yes, he does a good job with it, and like I mentioned earlier, I've been very impressed with how far his throwing has come from week one until now. He's really improved as a thrower. Q. How satisfied are you with the secondary? Seems like those guys battled all game but Boykin just put the ball in the right spots. Talk about the secondary play. KLIFF KINGSBURY: Young, growing up. I thought TCU's receivers were really good, probably the fastest, best group overall we've played. Boykin made some great throws and let them go get it. It's been baptism by fire; it's a young group of DBs and they have to keep coming along. Q. Given the struggles this season and the struggles against Texas in the program's past, two wins since 2002, how big would a win on Sunday be for those guys? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Where we're at, any win would be good. It's just‑‑ it's been one of those years where any win is good. We're not a good enough team to look past anybody or not play well against anybody to get a win at this point. Q. What's the mood amongst the players? I heard on the conference call this morning you said they were pretty embarrassed. How difficult will it be to get them back up? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I don't think it will. I mean, having this opponent come into their house helps. You know, we've moved forward. There won't be much discussion about this past game because I just feel like the best thing right now is for us to move forward and focus on Texas. Q. DeAndre Washington made a comment that if you're not excited to be pumped up for this coming week, you're in the wrong sport. Can you talk about that a little bit? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think any time these kids get to play against an in‑state school, they're excited about it. They know these players from high school and playing them before. So I think that's what he's referring to. Q. After the season that we've seen and then of course the game on Saturday, what have you really learned about being a coach? KLIFF KINGSBURY: You know, I learn a lot each and every day. I think you learn from the wins and the losses, so we'll just continue to work hard and do the right things and stay positive. That's what we've been doing. Q. Do you expect (inaudible) to play Saturday? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. He obviously wasn't able to play this last week, but hopefully we'll get him back. We're not sure yet. We're going to get him out there and see how he feels. Q. Was he close to playing at all on Saturday? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Not this past week, no. Q. What about Reshod? KLIFF KINGSBURY: He was out with it looked like back cramps from talking to the trainers, and I think he should be back on Saturday. Q. (Inaudible.) KLIFF KINGSBURY: Not bad. I thought Baylen battled for a position that he's unaccustomed to playing. I thought he stepped in and fought, and that's what we were looking for out of him, to give the best effort he could. Q. You have Justin Murphy and a couple of those guys out there. Did you ever think about playing Murphy? KLIFF KINGSBURY: At this point in the season, we're trying to do right by those two and keep the red shirt on them, but if there are any more injuries, that may be something we have to do. Q. Have you had a chance to talk to Stidham about the his surgery this morning? KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, before the surgery, but I haven't heard how it went. Q. Just having that broken bone in the hand, how tough is that for a quarterback trying to throw the ball and throw it accurately? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, having talked to our doctors, I think it'll be a full recovery. I think that's a surgery they feel confident he'll come back and won't notice it. Q. He should be back by the start of spring practice; is that right? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yes, from what I've heard. Q. Anything different going into the game this week, facing Texas? You've got to be‑‑ anything different because it's Texas? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Just hopefully not turn the ball over. That's been our aim here recently since we've been in conference play. We've been really bad at turning the football over, and we have to improve that. Q. You look at the scoreboard, they put up 82 and a lot of times defense gets blamed for that, but do you feel like that stretch in the second quarter they played well enough to give you guys a chance to hang around and be in that game? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I thought it was going back and forth there for a little bit, and then we had those turnovers, and come out the second half and we don't handle the kickoff and then just kind of went from there. Q. Did you see anything that K‑State was able to do to kind of contain their running backs? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Having played K‑State, they have a really good defensive line and good linebackers and a good scheme, so I'd have to credit them with just the way they do things more than anything. Q. On that kickoff that you mentioned that y'all had difficulty fielding, was that a miscommunication? KLIFF KINGSBURY: It was. We just didn't attack the football, and we had some substitutions and just didn't handle it. Q. On the call for pass interference from the pass by the punter, did you ask the Big 12 or someone to look at that play? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we'll send in plays every week. I haven't got the results back from that yet. Q. Have you reached out to any of your coaching mentors or anybody outside the program this week for maybe advice on how to handle this week with the team as far as practice goes, getting the players back on the right step, and then just for yourself in general handling a tough season? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I talked to a bunch of guys, a bunch of friends in the profession, even guys on this campus throughout the year. Just kind of part of the coaching fraternity. Q. Texas has some guys with experience but also they have a lot of young guys playing. Do you sense that the programs are kind of at a similar stage in the curve of their program with just the ebbs and flows? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. I'm not that familiar with them as a program. I do know Coach Strong has made some changes down there and is really putting his impression on the program. He's been successful everywhere he's been, so I'm sure he's got them headed in the right direction. Q. From a fan standpoint, how nice is it having this game at 6:30 instead of 11:00 a.m.? KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think it's good for the fans. I think it allows some more tailgating time. Especially with Halloween the night before, I think the later kickoff will definitely have them fired up. Q. Against this program, is there kind of an extra sense of motivation for yourself going up against this Texas team? KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, I don't think so. I think, like I said, at this point with the way our season has gone, just trying to get a win any way we can is where we're at. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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