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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2015

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

Sam Houston State - 45
Texas Tech - 59

Q. Could you just give an overview of what you saw today offensively and maybe how pleased you were with that unit?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, just uneven play, a bunch of three-and-outs. The one turnover giving them the ball down on our end of the field wasn't good, and just guys not making plays, lots of drops, lots of big drops, lots of penalties that stalled drives. Not very good I didn't think. I thought Pat moved around, made some plays, protected the ball fairly well, but a lot of those young receivers, just no killer instinct. When we had a chance to put them away, didn't do it.

Q. Defense was kind of a tale of two halves?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think they had a good scheme. They hit some good stuff. We had to make some tackles, and we didn't. But I thought the second half they played tremendous there holding them scoreless for about the third quarter and it was 59-31, we had the ball, had a chance to really put it away, and just no killer instinct on offense. Very similar to last year where we just never finished games.

Q. What causes that, the lack of killer instinct?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I guess lack of success. I'm not sure. We've got to find it, though. I think Pat has some of it in him. I think some of those receivers, when that ball is there and it's in your hands, those running backs, we've got to catch it and we've got to finish the game.

Q. How disappointed were you with the defensive performance today?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Like I said, I think the first half they kind of got blitzed. The guy does a good job down there schematically. The quarterback is a good player. They didn't turn it over in the first half. He was running around making plays. The running back is a really good player, a couple receivers, so I think they kind of jumped on us there, but I thought second half to start the third quarter, they really made a good stand, gave up some yards, but got those turnovers. And offensively, when we had a chance to really put it away, we just didn't get it done.

Q. Does that say something about their mental fortitude, first half zero turnovers, second half five or six?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, I think that's good. I think that's a step in the right direction. Last year we didn't get that type of production in the second half. Hopefully we'll build off that, but we've just got to start faster on that side of the ball.

Q. You made a lot of defensive adjustments at halftime. Third quarter looked much, much better defensively. Is that what it was?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think so. Like I said, I think they -- Longo had some good schemes that we hadn't seen and then came out and really jumped on us. We gave them the ball that one time on our end which didn't help, but second half they got things under control a little bit more, and then you give those two up late, but a lot of that is on the offense. I think we went three-and-out four times in the second half, so that's on us.

Q. Did you think you were going to run more in the first half going into the game or was it just how it goes?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Just how it went. We liked our match-up in the passing game, and like I said, I thought we had a bunch of shots that we dropped big plays and then we had some big plays called back from penalties, and just things we can't let happen.

Q. You talked about the young receivers specifically didn't have killer instinct. Was there anybody in the receiving group that you thought had a good one?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: You know, Jakeem had a big kickoff return and had some nice plays, but I just thought it was pretty average for those guys as a group and didn't have that at the end of the game to finish it off.

Q. With regard to the dropped passes, is that something you've been seeing in camp at all or does this come as a surprise to you?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, it came as a surprise. I'm not sure how many -- I would assume seven or eight probably, but yeah, it comes as a surprise. Last year we had a bunch. I thought during camp we caught the ball very well, but that was not the case today.

Q. Can you talk about (inaudible)?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we had some untimely ones for sure, like a couple plays I can remember, a big screen we had down there we had a block in the back that stalled a drive and a couple others, so just things you can't have happen in those situations.

Q. Talk about Robertson not playing?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Internal team matter. Just leave it at that.

Q. He will be back?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Really taking it day by day on that. I don't have an answer for you.

Q. He possibly might not play next Saturday?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Like I said, I'm just going to leave it internal team matter.

Q. Was it injury or discipline?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Injury.

Q. (Inaudible) situation?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he tightened up during warm-ups, so we sat him out, and then Reggie had to sit out the first half, violation of team rules, so that Z was a little thin over there. Ja'Deion had some nice catches, stepped in, I thought did a pretty good job.

Q. What did you think about Giles? He got a couple catches today.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Not bad. He's coming along. Played quarterback in high school, still developing as a wide receiver, but didn't seem too big for him. He went out there and performed.

Q. You seemed pretty disappointed. Do you take anything good away from the day?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, just the killer instinct. That's something we talked about, finishing games. It's 59-31, like I said, we had the ball, you've got a chance to go score, it's in the third quarter, you've got a chance to go really put it away and you just let them linger and kind of flounder around and everybody is just okay with it, and we've got to get past that. It's not good enough.

Q. What's Micah's situation?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. He's being examined right now.

Q. How would you assess Mahomes?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, it's only his fifth game or fourth full game, so he has some throws he'd like to have back, some reads he'd like to have back, but for the most part does a good job pushing the tempo and protecting the football, which is what we ask him to do, so we'll just continue to get better there.

Q. Was he tight at all coming into the game knowing he's a full-time starter now or was he pretty even keeled?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I thought he was pretty even keeled. Like I said, a couple reads I know he'd like to have back, a couple throws that he missed that he'd like to have, but I thought he handled himself well. But the main thing we talked about the whole time was protect the football and we won the turnover battle which we haven't done here in a while, and so it was a positive.

Q. Speak to the kicking game with Symmank and Barden and what they were able to do?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, Symmank has been phenomenal and then it was good to see Barden step up in his first real live action and knock those through.

Q. It seems like it's something that would be really hard to teach. What are you going to do to work on that?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: We'll just coach them hard. Somebody has got to step up and get it done, so we will coach them very hard this week and get them ready for UTEP.

Q. Considering what Ja'Deion High did today with a redshirt and only four games last year as a special teams player, what gave you the confidence that you see in camp that he could maybe make some plays for you?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he had a good camp. He made plays every time he had an opportunity, which were limited because of those other two guys but he always caught the ball, he was always where he needed to be, and same thing went for today.

Q. Was Bethel an injury or was that also a team matter?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: An injury.

Q. Does he expect to be back next week?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: We'll see. It's kind of how he feels and how it improves over this week.

Q. Justin Murphy was working in at the right guard position. Was there anything wrong with Tony or was it just a rotation?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, just a rotation. We felt like both of them had deserved to play and had earned that time, and we needed to get Murphy some reps in live-game situations, so we just kind of had a rotation going.

Q. The kickoff that Jakeem returned for a touchdown (inaudible)?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, it was a great individual effort for sure. He just broke a tackle and with his speed, once he gets out, he's hard to catch. That was a much-needed return at that time.

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