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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 18, 2017

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

TCU-27, TTU-3

Q. Nic just had 17 for 33 for 137 yards. How would you assess his performance today?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Not very good. We got to hit the shots when we have them, especially against the defense when they're doing stuff like that and keeping it all in front of them, changing up coverages, when you have a chance to make plays, you got to make them. Can't fumble that ball in the red zone. So I didn't think we were very good at that position.

Q. Was there ever any opportunity you thought maybe to make a change before that last series at quarterback?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, I still thought that we had the chance once we fumbled that ball going in, I guess it was 17-3, still thought we had a chance. Made it 20-3. But drove it down and threw another interception and that was it.

Q. Did you give any consideration when it was fourth and short and decided to kick the field goal, was there a consideration foregoing for it?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, not at all. Wanted to make it 10-6. Defense was playing great. Had them backed up. Felt great about it. If we can't make that field goal we would be in trouble. So wanted to make it 10-6 and feel great about the way the game was going. Then we miss it, they get it on the 20, go down and score.

Q. How frustrated are you with this offense?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: It's frustrating. You have opportunities I think we were in the red zone four or five times, scored three points and not getting it done and I'll take the majority of the blame on that. I got to have better plays and put them in situations that they feel comfortable with and can execute at a higher level, because we're not doing it and I'm calling the plays.

Q. The last several weeks when the offense has struggled and particularly in the second half, is your thought that you would make a change at quarterback, is that a reflection that you feel like Mclane is simply not where he's supposed to be even in practice?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we have been in all those games and had a chance to win and felt like Nic had a chance to get it done and we just haven't got it done. So it wasn't a deal where I felt like Nic was playing poorly to the extent that we needed to make a change action it was just we had the ball at times and haven't finished drives, but Mclane's still coming along, obviously he doesn't have a ton of experience, but we like how much he's improved.

Q. How did you feel about the position groups on offense?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I thought that Justin being back was good, gave us a boost, ran hard. Offensive line played hard. Receiver-wise didn't get a ton of opportunities, we missed some throws and didn't finish some things we needed to, but I'll have to watch the film to see exactly how everybody played.

Q. All the short stuff, short game that y'all ran today, was that more the fact that the wind was up?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, the defense, what they're playing.

Q. Was it also trying to protect your or take some pressure off your pass protection, give yourself a chance?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we didn't want to be in too many third and longs. We ended up in quite a few, but they were keeping everything in front, playing some of that shell type coverage and those were the throws available at times. Then we had some shots that we took and weren't very accurate on some of those. Didn't take advantage of the matchups when we had them outside.

Q. Keke just had two catches on technically three targets, did you feel like you were going to have some more opens or that was more them taking it away?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, they were going to have two guys for him the entire game and did a good job of doing that and getting their hands on him. So that was more of that than anything.

Q. Are there plays that you feel comfortable with that they should be making, is it just not translating from the practice field to the game field?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I mean there's things out there that we got, I see them hit in practice and we execute in practice and we got to be able to do it on Saturday. Once again, obviously, I got to do a better job as far as scheme goes, as far as being in the red zone and executing plays and doing different things to get our playmakers to the football because we haven't done it at a high level and that's on me.

Q. How would you assess the freshman quarterback's performance TCU?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He played tough, ran the ball well, thought he handled himself well. Any time you go on the road on your first start and get a win that's an accomplishment in this league.

Q. Is that kind of the evolution of the defense against the air raid is, I know back in the era under Leach he did a lot of, he didn't allow quarterbacks to run and now we're seeing some more mobile quarterbacks in this air raid offense is that just --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, that's a big weapon against some of these coverages we're seeing, if they're going to drop everybody out of there to be able to get an extra hat in the run game and get that guy going.

Q. Red zone offense just been kind of hard for you guys all year. Why do you think there's such a drop off compared to last year?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we had a Top-10 pick that could run around and make some magic happen, he was really, really good down there. And we're just not executing when we have a chance to make plays and that's really all it comes down to.

Q. Why would you say it's so hard to execute against one of the best defensive teams in the country?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, they just did a good job against us. I felt like we moved the ball well at times, had some opportunities down there in the red zone and didn't finish. You get three points out of I think five trips you're not going to beat anybody doing that.

Q. What did you see as the pressure TCU was playing with three sacks, and he had to move around a few times just to get around from Moore, is that something that you guys were really struggling with?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I didn't think so. I thought at times they had a good pass rush, but I felt that there were times that we held up fine and we got to find a way to not take sacks down there in the red zone, that's on me as a coach. I got to understand that we can't move backwards and have to try and kick a 40 yard field goal.

Q. Would you talk about your defense a little bit and how they played today and just your thoughts on their efforts.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I thought they played really hard, kept us in the game in the first half and then throughout the second half to start got their hands on a lot of footballs, got the ball out a bunch of times, so proud of their development, proud of how far they have come. They're keeping us in games when we struggle on offense, which hasn't been the case around here and it's good to see that those guys are starting to develop an identity and a pride on that side of the football.

Q. When the defense forced that fumble and you had that recovery, did you feel like you had that momentum there and I guess talk about the field goal miss there?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, that's tough. We kind of squandered our three plays there and then you want to make it 10-6 and you have some momentum and feeling good about everything and you miss that, chip shot, and they get the ball and go down and score. That's, we have had about three games this season where that exact same scenario, we have to be able to handle that adversity.

Q. Where's your confidence or personal belief right now that you can get this thing turned around?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I mean it's as high as it's ever been. I'm always confident in what we can do offensively. Today was obviously very poor performance, but love what I'm seeing on our defensive side of the ball with those guys and how hard we're playing on that side of the ball.

Q. Do you feel like you'll get another opportunity next week --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm just looking at next week. We got a bunch of seniors, we're trying to extend their season and that is my focus, trying to get a sixth win down there in Austin.

Q. You seem to take a lot of the pressure on yourself. At what point do you play the line of you taking responsibility that you should take, but also putting some pressure on your guys to perform and execute like they need to?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, they know what they have to get done. We have a lot of conversations off camera about what we need to do to execute and how we can improve and it's frustrating, obviously, for everybody, for our fan base and the players and the coaches when we don't execute at that level, but I've seen us do it and that's the most frustrating part. I know we can do it, we just got to find a way to do it this last week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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