	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2018

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

Q. Coach, first question, what's McLane Carter's status, and has he practiced the last two days?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He did some light stuff today, but we'll see. It'll be a game-time decision. He knows the offense well enough that if he has limited practice, we'd feel good about playing him, but we're going to be smart in the same hand.

Q. So I guess with Duffey and Bowman, is that just 50/50 with them right now?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we're going see how practice goes and kind of go from there. Luckily both guys have got a ton of reps through spring ball, through camp. They've split reps throughout camp. McLane had taken the majority of the ones starting about two weeks ago, and then those two guys had split the reps, so they both know it. We'll see who performs better and go from there.

Q. Is it kind of useful for you to have an experienced offensive line and a running game to where you maybe don't have to put everything on those two?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, you'd like to. I think last week we got behind from the beginning and were chasing, and so we threw up more than we wanted to. But to Alan's credit, he protected the football and kept us in there. But we'd like to establish more of a run game and not get behind 24-7 in the first quarter and stay on schedule.

Q. With your decision to play Bowman instead of Duffey, was Duffey available, or was it something where Bowman earned those snaps, or was Duffey unavailable?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He was available, yeah, he was available. We just felt, like I said, the comfort level with how the game was going and what I felt like we needed to do, went with Bowman on Saturday.

Q. How do you feel like he played overall?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: In that spot, not getting a ton of reps throughout the week, I thought he handled himself well. I told him protect the football and make good decisions, make quick decisions. He really didn't take any sacks. He got the ball out of his hand. He threw the ball away some, and we were in position to score a few more times than we didn't. So I thought for his first outing, the poise and the leadership all showed up, and so he's just going to get better and better. But he did some nice things, some things we'd like to get better at, but that's why you keep practicing.

Q. What do you think his ceiling is as a player?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I mean, we'll see. He's very smart. He's had a comfort level in our system since he got here because of what he played in in high school. He started four years, started as a freshman in a 5A school. You get that many reps, you've been the guy for that long, there's some carryover into college, I think, so his preparedness, the way he studies, the way he practices, it's going to give him a chance to be a pretty good player pretty quickly.

Q. How would you assess Da'Leon Ward's performance from Saturday, and if there's anything else that you think he needs to work on, as well.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, everything. You know, some nice runs, some runs we'd like to have back, but he's a guy who hasn't played a ton of football. Sat out last year so there's some rust. He's got to get his body in shape to carry the football more times. But he likes to play. He has some explosiveness that we need, and so he's just got to keep getting better each week.

Q. From what you've seen so far, what are your early thoughts on Lamar?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, you know, they had a great game last week, scored 70 points, dominated the entire way. So they'll be playing with a lot of confidence, disruptive on defense, kind of do it all on offense, so you have to have a great plan and know what you're doing.

Q. Is there anything you're focusing on this week to really get rid of those big plays? Is there something specific that can help with those big plays you gave up last week?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I hope so. I mean, playing better and doing your job and not trying to do too much. The penalties jumped out to me. A couple of them were bang-bang where the quarterback is sliding, I get that, but there were a couple that were just bad plays on our part, undisciplined football. So we talked about doing the little things right this week, getting back to the basics and playing a much cleaner game. You play a quality opponent like Ole Miss and you make that many mistakes and get behind that early, you're not going to win those games, and our guys understand that.

Q. I've got a long-winded question so bear with me here --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: There's a shocker. (Laughter.)

Q. Following up on Duffey and a lot of people have asked, and we've seen of course he was away from the program for an extended period of time and then missed the week again in the spring, and when we saw spring scrimmages, he committed some pretty big ball security errors that would have been costly in games. Are there additional facets that he needs to work on, or what would you say it is that he needs to do better to put himself in a position where he was the guy going in on Saturday instead of Alan?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, that's a very good question. I think the ball security is something that he's got to get better at. He's got a very strong arm. He's very talented, and so he'll take some risks. But he's got to know when to fold 'em, know when to throw it away, and just an overall understanding of our system. Installing a game plan, studying it, preparing to be the starter each and every week, I think those are things as a young player he's got to continue to develop on. Now, do we feel comfortable with him going in a game? Yeah, he can make plays, he can do some stuff. But at that point with the way the game was going, like I said, I made a call to go with Bowman.

Q. How has Lonzell progressed with the off-season surgeries kind of holding him back?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we've been working him back in slowly, and this week I'd expect to see more of him hopefully. He's really rehabbed hard. He's gained a lot of weight, gotten bigger, stronger, faster, and now it's just getting back to playing football, the conditioning aspect of it, the mental aspect of it, so I would expect his workload to pick up over the next couple weeks.

Q. Kind of the same thing with Jah'Shawn; how has practice been for him?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, no doubt. He did some good stuff in practice today, 7-on-7, some other things where we're getting him going. I've said all along, we want to do right by him and be smart with him and make sure when he goes in, he's full of speed and playing at his best. I'm not sure if it'll be this week, next week, but he's close.

Q. A follow-up question on Alan: How did you feel like he did at the things that maybe we don't see or notice such as getting the team in the right play and just operation before, pre-snap and before you actually throw the ball?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: To me that was pretty well done in that situation to hop in there -- we were able to play at a fast tempo when he was in, which kind of shows his understanding of what we're trying to accomplish. He made good, quick decisions, didn't take sacks, didn't turn the ball over. So I thought the operation standpoint, decision making for the most part was good. He faded from some throws that we should have hit, didn't step into it, played timid at times, but that's what you're going to get from a young guy kind of making his first action, and we're going to get those corrected this week.

Q. After looking at the film, how did you feel the wide receiving corps, especially the guys that didn't have many reps a year ago, did out there?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think they're a group that's going to play hard, do what they're supposed to do. T.J., the sky's the limit when he can be consistent and make those routine plays over and over and over, those big plays are going to come. I thought Antoine, De'Quan, having Zach back, having Ja High back, it was good to see. They all waited a long time to play. That group that just graduated I think are all on NFL rosters, which kind of shows you what they're behind, but I thought they held their own and will just get better and better.

Q. When can you take from film watching Lamar last week against obviously -- they were so much more superior than Kentucky Christian.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think you take it for what it's worth. You know they're going to come in feeling better about themselves, and they are better than they were last year, there's no question, but I'm not sure what exactly you gain from that. It was a tough match-up for Kentucky Christian.

Q. A moment ago you talked about fixing errors; how do you toe the line between especially on the defensive side of the ball, those guys being aggressive but also being disciplined at the same time?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I mean, you've just got to talk about it, show film from around the country of other instances, and make it known, hey, this is the call. If it's a bang-bang play, quarterback sliding and you were sliding at the same time, they're going to throw that flag, and we've got to avoid that. We've got to avoid the helmet-to-helmet, which was called a ton throughout the country this weekend, and just becoming aware of it and taking it out of our game. That's the only answer.

Q. How do you mentally prepare your guys to put Saturday behind them, get ready for this upcoming Saturday? It's the home opener here at the Jones versus Lamar.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think it's easy with this group. I've said it after the game, they're embarrassed and frustrated with the effort we put out there, and it wasn't from effort but from mental mistakes and errors and getting behind that quickly. That's not who we think we are or want to be, and so I think this was a good week for us to -- you experience that game 1, you get exposed on some things, you can get back to business really quickly and moving forward know what you have to correct, and they've done that. Had a really good day today, had a good day Sunday, a focused practice, deciding to play more disciplined and eliminate a bunch of those errors.

Q. From a punting standpoint, you had some struggles on Saturday; are you considering making any adjustments there or any changes there?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we'll see. Didn't like -- you can't have an 11-yard punt. You've got a chance to pin those guys. Don't like how that's become basically a deal that shows up way more often than it should. We'll see this week. We're going to get both guys reps and kind of see who does better. But we can't have that type of inconsistency on a weekly basis there punting.

Q. How do you feel about the new kickoff rule about being able to fair catch it inside the 20 and then it gets brought out to the 25?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think it hasn't shown up too much for us yet, but if it's something that's for player safety, then I'm all for it. But I think people will see throughout the season it's going to be more status quo when it comes to kickoff returns.

Q. Any thoughts on the targeting and how you might make adjustments with your coaching and talking to the guys about that?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think just making aware that if it's anywhere close, they're going to call it, so you want to try to tackle in different places, target different places. There's certain instances when a player is coming down and you're going down, it's just hard to avoid if an offensive player ducks his head. But you know it's out there, you know they're calling it, so we as coaches have to coach it a different way and make that adjustment, as well.

Q. After a couple days have passed, you've seen the film, talked with your other coaches, there were a lot of mental mistakes from a veteran team. Why do you think that happened?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think to start the game, we didn't handle that adversity really well, and I think it got us out of our game. When you have that kickoff return, you lose your starting quarterback and then you lose your starting corner in a game where you need those corners, I think our guys didn't handle that very well, and that's something -- I thought they fought, continued to play hard, but didn't handle the adversity as far as mentally, and that's something we've got to get better at and can't let those things change the way we play, the way we think, the way we operate, and I felt like we let that kind of creep into our mindset a little bit.

Q. You talked about Kevin Johns before the season started as like a nice calm voice for your offense. Now fall camp has wrapped up; you already had a game with him. How did he perform on that first week, and what did he bring to the table?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I thought really well. Same situation; you get your starting quarterback done in the second drive, calmness needs to set in, and you need to figure out what you're going to do and have a good plan and put that next guy in a position to be successful, and I felt like he really helped me with that and helped calm me down and make sure we were giving Alan the pertinent information and getting him in the right place for the most part.

Q. I wanted to follow up on the targeting call, the one specifically against Des Smith. You had a situation where the receiver is fairly open, and granted, the ball just goes off his hands or just past him or whatever and Des is hustling back to make a play; what is he supposed to do in that situation? Do you feel frustrated sometimes on the player's behalf --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, no question, because it is an effort play. He's going -- the guy's open. All he sees is the guy open. He doesn't know where the ball is at, and he's running to go tackle the guy. And for that one to not throw a flag on the field and then have it stopped and reviewed, that's even more frustrating. So all we can do is make him aware of it. You don't want to take away their aggressiveness or their hustle or their effort, but you've got to teach that, hey, if you're anywhere near their head, get ready to get ejected.

Q. And with Thomas Leggett in the starting lineup, I know y'all have talked highly of him throughout the spring and summer, but it looked like he started in front of Vaughnte or Vaughnte didn't start after starting all of last year. What does that say about that competition?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think with Vaughnte and then say Jah'Shawn back in the mix and Leggett, that's what we wanted to create, competition back there, and all those guys are going to play a lot of snaps, but Leggett has come a long way, had some missed tackles that we'd like to get fixed moving forward, but I think he's progressed nicely, and it'll be great competition at that safety position the entire season.

Q. What's the status of Xavier Martin? How has he progressed throughout camp up to this point?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he's getting better, still developing as a wide receiver, and that's what we want him to focus on this entire year, give this entire year everything you've got, become a better wide receiver. He's got speed. He's a smart player. He's just got to work on the nuances of that position.

Q. Does T.J. amaze you with what he did Saturday with some of those catches? The first one got all the attention, but he had another one in the third quarter where he had to go up high on the sideline, too.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, he did. We see those pretty regularly. He's got tremendous upside. Like I've said all along, you just want him to continue to get bigger, stronger, and faster and then make the routine play and work on his consistency as a route runner and do all the little things you've got to do to be great because those flash plays are going to show up, and if he practices the right way and works at his game and continues to work at it, I said it last year, the sky's the limit for his potential.

Q. You mentioned earlier how you thought the team struggled a little with the adversity in this first game. How does the team get better with that throughout the season? Can you practice that or do you have to go through that game by game?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think just going through that. Like I said, they fought down 24-7, didn't cash it in, but we continued to make bonehead mistakes which you can't make against a good football team. So the effort was there. They played hard, they played physical, just way too many mental errors, and I think we did let that initial kind of onslaught of adversity get us down, and we've got to handle that better, and I think just going through it. You can't simulate that type of adversity in a game situation, in that type of environment, so just going through it, talking about it, addressing it, and moving forward.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297