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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 12, 2015

Kliff Kingsbury

Texas Tech - 69
UTEP - 20

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.

Q. Was this more of what you were looking for today from the team's performance overall?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yes, just finishing. We talked about that all week. When we have a chance to put a team away, put them away. I was glad to see we improved on that from week one to week two.

Q. What was your overall assessment of the defense?
COACH KINGSBURY: Better. Gave up that big run early. That's a dynamic back. He's one of the better players we'll play against all year.
But got the adjustments made at halftime. Really flew around. I thought Pete brought a lot of energy. Gary Moore brought a lot of energy. It was good to see them really rally in the second half.

Q. Last week you talked about that killer instinct. Is this the killer instinct you were looking for?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yes. When you have a chance to put a team away, we knew if we got them out of that ball control running they like to do, they would have a hard time keeping up with our offense. We felt the momentum turning. The guys kept going and got it done this week.

Q. What do you think about Breiden?
COACH KINGSBURY: That first game had some jitters, went away from some of his technique and assignment at times. But came back. I thought was disruptive for most of the day.

Q. How much difference does it make having (indiscernible) defenses?
COACH KINGSBURY: It made a lot based on his energy, toughness. He brings some intangibles to the field that are hard to replace.

Q. (Question regarding DeAndre.)
COACH KINGSBURY: It was great. He does a great job. They were loading the box once again. We forced him in there. He made some guys miss, broke some tackles like he always does. Did a great job of carrying the rock and protecting it.

Q. How much confidence is it for this team to have a blow‑out win?
COACH KINGSBURY: I think it should help, definitely. Like we talked about, just finishing the game. That's something we never did last year. We didn't do it last week. So it was good to see us take that step this week.
Obviously our competition steps up tremendously next week on the road with a great SEC team. So we'll have to get better this week.

Q. Jakeem really set the tone early.
COACH KINGSBURY: He's been doing that all through camp. I talked about that this week, about his maturity on and off the field that I've seen, the leadership. The way he's practiced, the way he's worked, like a different guy than the first couple years we were here. Hopefully that continues and that will help us.

Q. Do you feel confident saying last week was probably an anomaly, a fluke?
COACH KINGSBURY: I don't know. I mean, that was a good offense, a good team. They did some great things schematically that they took advantage of. It's 59‑31. You're in the third quarter and you don't close out the deal, kind of hang around, let them score two late touchdowns.
I was just glad to see the improvement from week one to week two that we did.

Q. What did you see from your receivers? A couple good catches.
COACH KINGSBURY: We've been trying to get them going. Tony Brown has the ability. Just has to get used to the tempo of the game. Same with Jonathan Giles, Keke. All these guys are tremendous athletes. That's why we are not redshirting them. They can all play. They just have to believe they can play and continue to understand our system.

Q. (Question about turnovers.)
COACH KINGSBURY: That's it. That's been the key. I've said it. Y'all get tired of me saying it. That's been the key the first two years why we lost a bunch of games, where we lost those battles, penalties and turnovers. If we can continue to win that battle, we'll give ourselves a chance.

Q. In the fourth quarter, you were able to hold them to a field goal. Was that a defining moment for the game for the defense?
COACH KINGSBURY: I just think they fought so hard at that point, I just wanted them to finish the deal, finish that second half.
They did. They stood up, held them to 3. It was a big momentum deal for us.

Q. Early in the game, Pat got hit several times. The screen, was that on the script or because they were rushing? Talk about the execution of it.
COACH KINGSBURY: They were bringing a lot of pressure, they were twisting. You could tell, they were selling out to get to him. We thought it was a good time to call the screen. It just timed up. Guys blocking downfield did a tremendous job Justin did a great job, when he gets in open space, nobody's catching him.

Q. Justin played an awful lot today. I guess his development is coming along pretty good.
COACH KINGSBURY: He is. A lot of his was mental. Keeping composure, understanding what we're trying to accomplish offensively. He's a big bruising type guy. He loves physicality. Mentally we have to keep bringing him along.

Q. How do you feel about your team's preparedness?
COACH KINGSBURY: I feel like we've gotten better from week one to week two. That's really all you can ask for at this point. So we need to make that next stride from week two to week three.
Those are three tremendous teams and we'll prepare for Arkansas, see if we can continue to improve.

Q. How much do you make of the defensive performance in the second half given that Adayran Jones wasn't out there?
COACH KINGSBURY: I don't really look into it like that. He is a tremendous player. I felt awful that he got hurt. I felt our effort throughout the second half, even when we started rotating in some backups, those guys kept playing hard and kept swarming to the football.
He's a tremendous player. Like I said, I hate to see those young people that have careers like that moving forward have something like that happen. I just told him to keep his head up, things like that.

Q. You talk about this big jump from week one to week two. What specifically did you see this week improve and what are you looking to improve next week?
COACH KINGSBURY: The biggest deal was just finishing the game. Offensively we limited our penalties. I thought last week too many times we were putting ourselves in second and 15, second and 20 type situations. Protected the football and just closed the deal. That was kind of the mantra all week, was when you have an opportunity to close the deal, close the deal.

Q. For next week?
COACH KINGSBURY: I'll worry about that tomorrow (smiling).

Q. What did you think of your kickoff coverage?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, Coach Chiav challenged those guys and that unit that we were going to kick to them. They flew down there. I think average starting position looked like it was inside the 25 for most of the day, which is pretty good. Taylor with the wind was putting it through the end zone, and a couple times with the wind put it into the end zone. So he's doing a tremendous job on kickoffs.

Q. By and large, you're pleased with Pat's performance today?
COACH KINGSBURY: Not bad. A couple throws he missed when he was kind of freestyling when it was there to stand in there and be strong and be a quarterback. When it's there, stand in there and make the throw. When you got to get out and do that stuff, then get out and do it. That just comes with more and more reps.

Q. (Question regarding Davis Webb.)
COACH KINGSBURY: Oh, no doubt. I can't say enough about him. Every week he gets limited reps on some of the more complicated plays, some of the game plan plays. We go out there Thursday. When the ones are done, the twos go. He executes it like he did it all week. He goes out here, and he was 100% on his reads, did everything exactly right. That's just a credit to him, the way he prepares, the type of player he is.
Thank you all.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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