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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 26, 2017

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

Q. Coach, looking at Oklahoma State, they've got a lot of veterans on that defense, and a bunch of guys that have played a lot of football. What have you seen from that team so far?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, disruptive up front. Smart linebackers. It seems like Flowers on the back end has been there forever, makes a bunch of tackles. Richards who I thought was one of the best corners in the league last year, they moved to safety. So they're a good defense. They don't give you anything easy. Everything's earned, and you can tell they play a lot of football together.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, when they have him in the game, he flies around. He's in on sacks. He's getting his hand on the football in different ways. So you can tell, he's an impact player, very athletic, has a nose for the football.

Q. Coach, through three games, obviously three wins, without getting into specifics, has this fast start helped on the recruiting trail or not?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: You know, we'll see as we go. I think our class has been filled for quite a while, so I don't think until we get out, seeing how all this plays out into the 2019 guys will we know really what type of impact it has.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: We'll see. That was last year, and we couldn't run the football last year. So hopefully if that's the look we get, we're able to run the football better because that's what they need to do at that point. But I'm not sure. They've mixed it up pretty well this year, so we'll be prepared for both.

Q. Any new ideas on how to keep the receiving game, passing game in check?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, I don't think anybody's figured that out yet. It's one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Washington's as good as anybody in the country, so there are four or five of them that can play for anybody.

Q. What did you see that at times seemed to slow them down?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think they turned them over. You're not going to stop these guys. You've got to find a way to turn the ball over somehow, and that's what they did. Gary always has a good plan, but I felt like that was the key was getting turnovers and winning that battle.

Q. With what you guys are doing, obviously, turnover-wise, and so forth in the first few games, does it give you confidence?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I hope so. That's kind of the battle we've been fighting since I've been here is to try to get that number on the plus side when it comes to turnover margin. That's defined some of our seasons is being in the negative. So we've talked about that a bunch this off-season, we've prepared it. So far we've been fortunate to get some and protect it pretty well, and we need that to continue.

Q. Which kicker do you feel more comfortable with now, Coach, with Clayton being out?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: That's a great question. You'll have to watch on Saturday.

Q. Is Hatfield close to being back?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'll just say day-to-day, and we'll kind of go from there.

Q. Is Brooks practicing? Do you expect him to go?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: We hope he can go. He won't be practicing today. But we'll see if he comes around and hopefully he can go on Saturday. He's a guy we feel like with limited practice can still be effective for us.

Q. You played Rico quite a bit. What did you think about Rico and what he did in that game?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He's gotten better every week. He's a physical young man. Has a size, has the strength, and just the game when you go in in that situation, games are moving pretty fast. It's two-minute some type stuff. They're hurrying up. So I felt like the game was moving fast for him. But he'll get better this week. If he needs to go, he'll be ready.

Q. What kind of impact did Travis make, Travis Bruffy Saturday?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think he played okay for his first start. It allowed Madison to slide in there to guard. Those two have to get used to playing next to each other and communicating and just being around each other. But I thought he was okay. He'll get better as he continues to put weight back on. That was really his first start ever against a good defense. Not bad, but we'll have to get better as we go.

Q. Is it a confidence boost that touchdown to Desmond after he kind of fumbled?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he knows he can do it. That fumble to me was a matter of knowing the situation and don't reach the ball out like that. He's had great ball security since he got here. That was kind of a freak deal trying to do too much. So I think he's a confident player and we've got to find ways to get him the ball.

Q. You said last week about the run game, everything kind of being pared down to certain people. That didn't really get solved at all this past week. Any change to that?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, no, we'll keep rolling with the hot hand and trying to put them in situations that they do best. If one guy does something better than the other guy, we'll try to make sure we script plays for him and vice versa.

Q. With Travis and Madison, it seemed early on they had a lack of communication and seemed like they settled in late second and in the second half you kind of see that?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think so. Anytime you have guys playing next to each other on the first start on the road in a tough environment on the road, that's to be expected. I think they got more comfortable as the week went on, with Travis actually practicing the entire week, that really helped those two.

Q. Talk about your linebackers for a moment. When Jordan was out and Rico went in, was it Rico at that time versus Christian?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, they both played, but we just felt like it was a game where Rico's gotten better every week and we wanted to get him in there and get him some snaps.

Q. What has Demarcus Fields down with all the time he's missed over the past year, what's given him the start?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He's been a sure tackler. He came back after basically two years of being hurt. Since camp started he's been a great tackler for us. Athletic, learning the position there at corner, but he competes day-in and day-out and goes against good receivers. We've seen him getting better and better, and better. And we feel really comfortable letting him get in there and learn on the job.

Q. (Indiscernible) what do you see from him as a true freshman playing with all those guys already?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he's really good. We wanted him here. We felt like he fit what we do in our system. Could have been a really good inside receiver. But, yeah, it's impressive when you see a kid hop in there with the group they have to find that many reps. It says a lot about his talent and how he's going to be moving forward.

Q. Why do you think you've been able Justin Stockton running the football this year? Seems like he's back where he was a couple years ago?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, a number of things. Just last year we weren't good up front. That's the bottom line. He would stop his feet a bunch because there wasn't anywhere to run. And he's a guy that once we get him going, he's explosive and we've been able to get him going a little bit more this season and hopefully that continues.

Q. This team appears to be playing angry. Do you agree with that, and, if so, where does it come from?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I hope so. That's what you want. That's kind of the goal. I don't think it's hard to see where that comes from when you sit around for nine months being told how bad you are.

Q. What are your thoughts on Panazzolo?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He's been effective for us, no doubt. His accuracy in the punt game, placing the ball where we want it consistently has been huge for that coverage unit. He's really good at putting it inside the 10, inside the 15. He hasn't had a lot of opportunities to do that, but that's a real weapon for us when it comes to field position.

Q. Keke's been able to live up to the hype that's been surrounding him for the last year?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he's worked really hard at it, that's the thing that's impressed me the most after last year. You could tell a light clicked and he wanted it even more. And his off-season far and away the best he's been. His spring and ball camp, he practices every day, doesn't take a rip off, and he's got a real hunger, that's great and fun to work with.

Q. At the end of his career, how do you feel like jack has played? For a guy his age, it seems he's been playing beyond his years already.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, that's been a process through summer, fall camp, the spring obviously helped a ton to get him here and get him accustomed to going against college players and learning our system. But he's as advertised when it comes to the strength and the quickness and the football understanding. That's why he's one of the top recruits in the country, and you can see it.

It's just all about work ethic and how much he's willing to do moving forward. The sky is really the limit, so he'll keep working hard.

Q. The past couple games you've had those double-digit leads. Kind of let them back in and held on at the end. When they come back, has that been fatigue, lack of focus, what's been the issue?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, just not finishing teams when you have a chance. I felt like in both those games there were moments we either had the ball going in or had something happen that we could have really extended our lead and put pressure on them and we didn't get it done. That's something you have to work on. When you have a chance to put teams away, you have to put them away.

But at the same time we provided an opportunity for us to learn how to close out a game in a tight situation. So I think we gained some valuable confidence from it. But moving forward you'd like to finish teams when you have them on the ropes.

Q. When it comes to Oklahoma State, Aaron Cochran and Tyron Johnson, what was recruiting like and how disappointing was it to not get either one of those guys?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we recruited Tyron out of high school, obviously. He went to LSU. And then Aaron had a relationship with Coach Jones and we recruited him, and he chose Oklahoma State. That was their choice. I wouldn't say it was disappointing, I would just say that's how the business goes.

Q. Back to putting teams away, you had the five turnovers but only three points off of those turnovers. You can't be expected to score on every drive. How frustrating is that to not capitalize on those moments?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: That's something we've got to improve upon. When they rise up like that and give us the ball, we have to take advantage of it. We've been talking about that this week.

Q. As well as (Indiscernible) has played the first couple of weeks, what did you think of his game Saturday?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he just didn't play very well. He knows that. Had the drop early and you can't let that effect your entire game, and I felt like he did. He's a very competitive young man, works really hard and wants to be really good, and I felt like he let that affect him the rest of the game. So we talked about that, and I expect him to be back playing at a high level this week.

Q. You had some really big road wins since you've been here, but not necessarily that big signature home win. How much opportunity is it this week for this season as far as taking back the win?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I know our players appreciate anytime we get to play on that field what it means to this university and our program and the community. So we'll do our best to play hard and put on a good show. It should be an incredible atmosphere.

We're treating it like our next game. It's not a Super Bowl or anything of that nature, but anytime you get to play out there at night in front of our fans, it's a special occasion.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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