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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 3, 2016Patrick Mahomes IIIKeenon WardLubbock, Texas Stephen F. Austin - 17, Texas Tech - 69 Q. Are you satisfied with your performance tonight? PATRICK MAHOMES III: I always think I can do better but I think I did pretty well out there. Overall, the offense really clicked, throwing the ball well to a lot of different receivers, so I'll take that every day. Q. You had I think 18 guys that caught passes tonight. Anybody in particular ask you for the ball, throw it to me, throw it here -- PATRICK MAHOMES III: Everybody wants the ball all the time. But I think with the kind of brotherhood we've built on this team, everybody likes to see everyone else succeed. And so I'm excited to see that on the team, and really, just seeing so many weapons out here, it's going to really cause trouble for a lot of defenses we play. Q. What did you see on that second touchdown run? PATRICK MAHOMES III: The play kind of broke down and I kind of got out there wide and I gave them a little pump fake and he gave me the edge so I just dumped it in the end zone and it worked out. I didn't think the pump fake would work but it did. Q. Coach Kingsbury mentioned he thought there was too much street ball early. Did he say anything to you yet? PATRICK MAHOMES III: He told me while we were in the game, he just told me to kind of settle down a little bit and go through your reads. I think it was a little bit of the first-game jitters and me just trying to make big plays happen the whole time. But I feel like when I settled down, we really got clicking and we really got going. Q. You seemed to really target Devin a lot tonight from the left side. What did you see match-up wise or what did you see in general to try to get the ball to him so much tonight? PATRICK MAHOMES III: Just the camp. He had a really good fall camp and we've been really clean at making stuff go, so I tried to get the ball in his hands. He battled tonight and he came through with that touchdown at the end there, but he was really getting out there and making plays. Q. Did you get dinged up a little bit in the second quarter on a pass to Stockton? PATRICK MAHOMES III: I kind of came down awkwardly. We spatted it up. I didn't like the spat. I took it off. It wasn't really anything too serious. I'll have the trainers look at it but it shouldn't be too bad. Q. Overall what it was it like to get Dylan back into the offense? PATRICK MAHOMES III: It was awesome, you awe the big play capability he had. He made a great catch and came right back and scored a touchdown. I mean, you see those big plays happen but at the same time, a lot of people don't see the block that he does and how well he blocks people, and just having that big, physical presence really does help you out overall. Q. Did you know he was going to do a back flip midfield before the game? PATRICK MAHOMES III: I did not know that but that's something he does pretty easily. I'm sure he just did it to have some fun. Q. Will you able to tighten things up for next week? PATRICK MAHOMES III: Yeah, hopefully, I mean, getting that first game out of the way is always good. It's kind of those jitters and once you get going and rolling, you can really settle into what your mechanics and what you've trained for. So I'm excited to see myself really tighten up and really work on what I've worked this whole off-season. Q. Anything in particular that you felt like -- PATRICK MAHOMES III: Right now, the only one I could think of is the one that Dylan, the deep one. I got hit pretty hard on that play. I threw it up there and he made a great play on it. There were some throws I could have better -- I could under-threw Reginald on a deep post that could have been a touchdown. I'll go back and look at it and see what I can do to be better next week. Q. The one or two -- PATRICK MAHOMES III: Yeah, he did catch it, but I under threw the ball and he slowed him down and he was wide open. Could have been an easy touchdown if I played it just a little bit further, so I'll try to work on that for this next week. Q. You and Reg also had one early, just out of bounds. PATRICK MAHOMES III: They were in cover two. I tried to back shoulder him and he was trying to fade into the end zone because he was so close and just something where he was barely out of bounds, just barely missed it by a hair and something that we keep working on. It worked out later in the game. Q. When you came out of the middle of the third quarter, did you feel like you had a good night's work in, or would you rather have stayed out another series or two? PATRICK MAHOMES III: I mean, I always want to stay out and play. Work so hard just to have I think 12, 13 games. I mean, you really want to get out there as much as we can possibly be out there. But I was excited to see Nic Shimonek get in there and some of the other guys get some playing time and really show how hard they have been working. Q. What do you think of the defense's performance tonight? PATRICK MAHOMES III: It was awesome. I mean, I've seen it all fall camp, all off-season how hard they have been working, and for them to really get out there and shut them down and show to everyone how they have been working and they have been improving. I'm excited to see them this entire season and really to the nation that they are going to do. Q. Does it take pressure off you guys as an offense when they do what they did tonight? PATRICK MAHOMES III: I mean, it does. We, for sure, we're trying to score on the drive. But for them to shut it down, it really makes it more fun and makes it where you can really play and you don't have to worry about trying to be too tense. It's takes the pressure off when they play like that. Q. Talk about the production of the offensive line. PATRICK MAHOMES III: They played well. We had a few penalties, you expect that with their physician game but they really did play good and I'm excited for them to really settle in as the season goes on and those young guys really showed a lot today. Q. Did you surprise yourself a little bit with that pick you came down with? KEENON WARD: I wouldn't say surprised but I just took an opportunity, made a good play. I expect many more of those this year, hopefully. Q. Did you juggle it? KEENON WARD: I went up and lost it and then like kind of bobbled it a little bit, and yeah, I was able to keep control of it. Q. You played a different football than the offense -- is there any different feel to that ball? Because it looks a different color. KEENON WARD: Yeah, it was a different ball for sure. But I mean, I didn't really -- I just focused on trying to get it. Yeah, they played with a different ball for sure. Q. The receiver didn't touch it? KEENON WARD: No, he didn't touch it. Q. Your overall assessment of how you played as a unit tonight? KEENON WARD: I'm really proud of the D-line. They showed they can stop the run series in, series out. DBs got a lot better today. We played a lot of young guys and I just feel like as a whole, we got a lot better today. Q. How do you feel about the receivers -- third and about ten, receivers a couple yards short -- KEENON WARD: Yeah, I mean, any time you can make a one-on-one tackle in the open field in Division I football, I mean, that's pretty cool. I just took advantage of it. Just I've been working on it all fall, all spring, just working on my open-field tackling and it kind of showed tonight. Q. The time-outs at the end, they sure seemed like they were dragging and the defense showed -- KEENON WARD: Yeah, the game kind of took a long time. The second half was, God, like two and a half hours it felt like. Yeah, our defense stepped up at the end and got the job done. Q. In the huddle -- KEENON WARD: We were really going for a goose egg the whole game. We're like, let's keep them to three, and that's what we did for most of the game, at least the one. Like I said, I'm proud of the defense and being able to hold a good offense. Q. Coming in, what was the defense's goal in terms of the opponent? KEENON WARD: I would just a consistency, that's one thing we've struggled with the past couple years is just being consistent and I think tonight, we showed that we can keep a team however many rushing yards, I think they had like negative six in like the late second quarter or something. That's good. We just worked on trying to be consistent and I think we did that. Q. Your assessment of the freshmen? KEENON WARD: Yeah, a lot of freshmen played. Kevin Moore played, started on like four tackles. Doug Coleman played a lot at nickel, Des Smith played a lot at corner. Numerous freshmen played tonight and I'm proud of them. They really held their own. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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