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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 5, 2015Kliff KingsburyLubbock, Texas An Interview With: COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY Q. How would you describe the emotion and attitude of your team right now? COACH KINGSBURY: I haven't been around them today, but I think they'll be good. I think they know we didn't play our best game against a top 3 team in the country, and that's what happens. You have that many penalties, that many turnovers, it's not going to be close. Q. But you still have a chance for confidence to be impact leading this three-game stretch? COACH KINGSBURY: I would hope so. Yeah, I would hope so. I mean I know speaking, if you're going to ask a lot of people outside of that building if we had a chance to be 4 and 2 with a win this week, most people would have probably not thought that possible. And so had a tough game the week before. Baylor got after us, and so now let's worry about us and try to get things going for these last seven. Q. Do you think that there was as many penalties? Is it just people trying to do too much? COACH KINGSBURY: Probably some of that. I mean that was a very good team. Probably making up -- you know, trying to keep up a little bit. And then, you know, we had one guy I think who had four or five himself and hadn't played a lot and you can't have that. You gotta be ready to go when you're asked to come in the game. So just disappointing on that end. We'd made big strides in those areas, the penalties and turnovers, so to play such a good team and then revert back to that was disappointing. Q. And are they doing I would think early on they would have to do running drills? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. We'll probably have to get back to that after that performance. Q. Where do you see your defense compared to last week? Do you think it's better, the same, worse or what? COACH KINGSBURY: I think it's a work in progress. That's a very good offense. They've done that to a lot of people, you know. Seen that side grow as far as their maturity, their leadership, and so we just have to keep getting better and try and build some confidence over the next few weeks. Q. Back on the offense line for a moment and the interior guys issues, was that maybe because of (indiscernible), just trying to be ready for him? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, possibly -- no, I think more, like I said, one guy comes in and not ready to play. If you get four or five penalties yourself, that's hard to put it on anything else. But yeah, they have a great front. I guess it could have been jitters for that, but to me it's just not being mentally prepared to play. Q. And also started the third quarter, y'all marched right down the field and didn't score. What do you think that difference was in that drive compared to some of the other ones you had? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I don't know. I mean I can look at a couple where we fumbled, you know, we were moving the ball. I can look at one where we dropped a touchdown pass. And I think you get behind to that point and people started pressing and that's what we did, started pressing and guys weren't making routine plays and we were making penalties. So just didn't handle that type of pressure well. Q. Is Patrick getting any sort of treatment on his knee or is he just sort of letting it heal itself? COACH KINGSBURY: No, he's getting treatment every day, and he told me it feels a lot better today. So hopefully by this week he can be 100 percent. Q. Can you talk about what kind of treatments he's getting? COACH KINGSBURY: I don't even know. I just know he goes in there for rehab every day. Q. Le'Raven seemed to neutralize Shawn Oakman all day. Was it something that was talked about beforehand or was it just Le'Raven just coming out and playing his game? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think just two good players going at it. I think oak man had a couple of plays. They did a good job of moving him around, moved him inside a couple of times. But just two good players going at it and I felt Le'Raven handled himself well. Q. Looking at Iowa State, can you talk about the improvement they've been showing on defense and what that poses for you and what you guys see as their weapon on offense? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I think they're a much improved team. Played Toledo, who is a top 25 team, very close in overtime and really had a great game against Kansas last week. So much better than last year. I think defensively they've done some things schematically that'll help them out. They're turning people over. And then offense, anytime you have a senior quarterback that's played a lot, that's going to give you problems. He can run well; he throws well, so it'll be a good challenge for us. Q. With all the second or backup receivers that you had to use on Saturday, after you looked at the film, which of those guys had the best all-around games? COACH KINGSBURY: I think Zach Austin really stepped up. He hadn't repped a ton with the ones and came in there and made a bunch of plays for us over and over. And Tony Brown had a couple he'd like to have back, but made some plays at the end which was good to get him going. And we'll see if Lauderdale can go this week, which will definitely help. But with our offense, the way we do things, if you're one of those young wide receivers, you gotta grow up quick because we're going to need you. Q. What did Devin do? COACH KINGSBURY: He had some sort of internal bruising, so we'll see how he does this week. Q. Internal, upper body somewhere? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. Q. Anything more specific than that? COACH KINGSBURY: No. Just somewhere on his upper body. Q. You talked about in the post-game press conference about having some of those young receivers really have to grow up a lot this week. How do you that that in practice to get them ready? COACH KINGSBURY: They have to do it themselves really I mean you put them in the positions to be successful and you get them as many reps as you can, but that's the deal mentally, they gotta come along fast and be prepared to be in the moment and make plays. Q. Do you feel confident with having them if we don't have Dylan and Ian and Devin next week? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I think so. I obviously not ideal. But the guys we brought them here for a reason and they gotta grow up and make plays. I think they're going to get a bunch of opportunities this week to learn the game plan, know what's going on. So that should help come Saturday getting a lot more reps during the week. Q. What's Murphy's status this week? COACH KINGSBURY: He'll be out this week. Q. Will Patrick start on Saturday? COACH KINGSBURY: He will. Q. Whether it was the effort against Texas Christian or the effort this week against Baylor, how do you view Pat Mahomes kind of playing through some pain, and do the fans have an idea of what he's actually playing through? COACH KINGSBURY: I don't think so. Probably not. He's a tough kid. Just talking to our trainers, they've been very surprised the way he's handled it and the fact that he was able to finish that game and then play this one the way he did. Just proud of him. I know it really shows his teammates what type of competitor he is, and that helps our entire program. Q. Is there a different mindset when you go into this game in terms of how the players approach it when everybody has already kind of checked it off as a win around town as opposed to maybe what you had to face last week? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I hope not. You try and fight against that as a coach because you know this is a good team. Coach Rhoads has had a lot of success there. It's a veteran team with a veteran quarterback and they're going to come in here expecting to win. We had a great game with them last year right down to the wire, and we know it'll be a great game this year. Q. Does that even have to be addressed with the team or do they already know that's kind of your attitude on it? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I think they know. Like I said, a lot of those guys are back from last year when it came right down to the end against them. So they know what type of team is coming in. Q. What did you think about Davis on those two drives? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, he did a great job. He's the most prepared guy on the field, you know, in my opinion every time he goes out there. So to watch him execute at a high level, threw some balls away, which was great when it wasn't there, made some great reads, made some great checks. He's always on top of his game. Q. What type of improvement are you looking for on the other side of the ball? COACH KINGSBURY: Just starts with the turnovers and penalties, more than anything. We gotta get that corrected. When you do that, you don't give yourself a chance to even compete. And we didn't. That game was over early based on the fact we were giving the ball away like we were. Q. Back on (indiscernible), you said he was out this week. And just eyeballing, it did not look good at all. Is it going to be a long-term treatment? COACH KINGSBURY: We'll see. We'll see. We're going to deal with it this week and then take it from there. Q. And once he left, what are the issues that you had (No microphone). Do you have any other options? COACH KINGSBURY: We do. We'll just create competition in that position. Rob Castaneda is a guy that comes to mind that needs to step up, Emeka Okafor. We'll have them with Tony get some reps and see who the best guy is and he'll start on Saturday. Q. You guys were in some adverse scenarios last year. You had kind of lopsided on Saturday. You looked in their eyes. Did you see give up like maybe you saw sometimes a year ago? COACH KINGSBURY: No. I thought they fought. I thought the effort was good. Once again, just didn't give ourselves a chance. If you turn it over three times in the second quarter against a top team in the country, that's what's going to happen. And they know that. We just gotta clean that aspect up. But they tried hard. They fought hard. So that was good to see. Q. The consistency, you've seen that during practice, during the week or is it just two anomalies? COACH KINGSBURY: I think more than anything was, you know, you have three of your top four out. That's going to hurt you. But we can't make excuses. Like I said, with this offense that we run, those young guys gotta step up and gotta make plays. So that's something we'll work at this week. Q. A lot of people saw Baylor last year with Patrick Mahomes and said that was a big growing up point for the team and for Patrick. But did you also see something last year on the road against Iowa State that maybe kind of matured him as well? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, to me that was a more impressive effort because we were out of bowl contention. It's cold, it's windy. It's a very tough environment and he kept bringing us back, kept bringing us back, and it's not easy to do up there. So I think that's when I really started to see some special things in him. Q. Symmank did not kick off. Was that an injury or a situation you just wanted to get somebody different in? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I just wanted to save his leg a little bit, and Clayton had been doing a good job, let him have some kicks. Q. Is Patrick's -- he had a couple of picks on Saturday. Can you attribute that at all to him maybe not being able to push off as well on that front foot? COACH KINGSBURY: No. You know, one was I think him just trying to do too much, once again feeling the pressure when you get behind like that, you're trying to throw 14-point touchdown passes and they don't exist. And the second one was a fourth down that he threw up and kind of served as a punt. Q. Can you just talk about Mike Warren a little bit and what he brings to the table for Iowa State and the problem that he poses for you guys? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. Good player. I think we gotta do a good job of knowing where he's at. You know, I think more than anything, the thing that jumps out at me this year is just they're a more veteran team. They're not making mistakes, and you know they're going to be well coached. Their defensive coordinator has been there forever, does a tremendous job. Coach Mangino took Kansas to a BCS game, tremendous coach. So both sides of the ball are going to be tremendously coached and you gotta be ready to go. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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