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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 16, 2018David BeatyLawrence, Kansas DAVID BEATY: Just to start real quick, we had a great week last week. We had productive practices, deliberative nature in terms of what we were looking to get accomplished in the off-week. I thought our guys handled it really, really well. We focused on recovery of their bodies and making sure everybody is good for the home stretch. Remarkably in pretty good shape after coming off six games without a bye, so that's a little longer that we have had in the past, which I was pleased to see that. I think a lot of that credit goes to Coach Woodfin and Coach Stanley and those guys have done a great job taking care of our guys, and our guys. They are a lot more mature group that we've had here in the past, because they've been here longer. They take care of their bodies better, trying to become more proish and pro-like. That's been good. Yesterday's practice coming in after a couple days off, lots of times that is not the greatest but there was definitely a hop in their step yesterday, which I was glad to see. I thought they really did a good job getting back. I think they're excited getting back on that Big 12 play field, getting ready to go again. Just a couple of notes. A couple of guys that will for sure be available this week: Miles Kendrick will be available, Kyle Mayberry was available last week; he was more of an emergency guy but we think he's completely available now. I think he's going to be okay. Then Mike Lee is back with us, which is good. So having him back will definitely help in that back end. I think he's going to be okay, as well. Just some areas as we looked at if going into that self-scout time that we've got to be better at, we've got to be more consistent in all three areas. We've said it before, playing complementary football makes a big difference, and we've got to be better there. We've got to be better on third downs. This is a team we're playing that's really good on third down on defense, so that makes it even a more tall task, but in general that's the money down in football. So we've got to do a great job of improving efficiency on both sides of the ball there. Being a smarter team. We're right around the middle of the pack in the Big 12 right now, and we need to be in the top three if not better than that. That's self-inflicted things we can control. We gotta get those things taken car of. Then offensive point production, we've got to be better in that area. That's something that's obvious. We've got to do a better job of getting more first downs. Stringing first downs together gets us more plays, gets us more calls, and that will lead to point production. And maintaining production in an area we've been good at the first half of the season which is turnover margin. We've got maintain that pace. We've done a really nice job of taking care of the football, not putting it in jeopardy. We've got to continue to do that, because that can flip seasons in a hurry. This opponent coming in, obviously one of the most explosive offense opponents you can ever play. Kliff and those guys do a terrific job every year. They are in the top five again, among the top in the Big 12 in just about every statistically category. They're leading the Big 12 in time of possessions. That's a new one. I haven't seen that one with him before, but that's certainly a credit to him. They always get a bunch of first downs, which gets him a lot of plays. Going into last week they had played 100 plus plays on almost every occasion. Last week they didn't play quite that many plays. I think we have to do a good job of limiting that amount of plays with those guys, there is no doubt about it. They've got some guys that stick out to me. They're receivers are all good. All of them can go. The Wesley kid is the leading receiver right now, but I think all of them can do it. He's got five touchdowns. He's obviously a target that all the guys like. I think Dakota Allen is one of the better players in our conference. He is just a hard playing -- I love watching him except for when he's playing against me. He is a hard-playing cat, makes a lot of plays for them. Another guy that's not talked about enough is the Broderick Washington kid that plays D-end for him. He's a problem. He's a really good player. David Gibbs does a great job on the defensive side over there as well. They take the ball away really well. They're third in the conference. They've done that for two straight years now. They do a good job, a really good job. We've got to take care of the football against these guys, and we're going to have to take the ball away and steal possessions against them. It's going to be a great challenge going down there, but I know our guys are excited to go down there. We feel good about the game plan and the things we can do to take advantage of, so we're looking forward to going down there and bringing back a victory. Q. Texas Tech has had three quarterbacks start games this season. What are they each capable of? DAVID BEATY: They all three are good, and that's not something that's out of the ordinary with Kliff. The next man up. They step in and they know what to do in that offense. I think the one thing that's a little different is -- with the exception of Johnny, I mean, a real runner, this guy Duffey can really run. He can run. I've known about him for a long time, watched him in high school. Terrific feet, wheels, he can move. Throws it better than you want him to, but you knew that if Kliff took him he's go be to be quality. The Bowman kid, could be one of the best ones I've seen am coming out of there in a long time, very talented. I fully expect him to play. That was a vicious hit that he took a few weeks ago. I hope he's okay. Man, it's a better game with him in it, there is no doubt about it, because he's a good player, but that was as bad of a hit as I've seen in a long time. We fully expect him to be back. We heard he's recovering well, which is good for him. He's a guy that finds the end zone, does a great job leading them, he knows where to go with the ball. For a young guy he's got command of that offense like I haven't seen the young ones have. He's got terrific talent. He knows what to do and the McLane kid has been around for a long time. I think he got hurt early in the game last week. He is a guy that can do a lot of things that Kliff wants to do offensively, so they're a very, very talented group, doesn't matter who is playing. Makes it hard because you don't know who the guy is and that kind of changes the plan a little bit. Q. How much room is there for a tight end in what you want to do and when (No microphone.) DAVID BEATY: You know, there is always going to be room for an offense in what we do. That's not going to be new this week. That will be something that we'll continue to do. Mavin has been a guy that has suffered through some injuries. He came here with a few, and he's had to suffer through a couple things, but him getting himself back healthy and getting back on the field was good to see. He certainly helped us the other day. We need him to continue to come along, because he's got what it takes in terms of the body, but he also has some play-making abilities. Trying to get him involved is something we certainly are focusing on as we move forward for sure. Q. Did you know what you had in Jace Sternberger and are you surprised at how well he's come along? DAVID BEATY: Man, I'll tell you this. We absolutely knew he was talented. We knew he could run. We knew that he was going to be a playmaker, because when he caught the ball on tape in high school, he scored. He was hard to tackle. He did the same thing for us in practice. I think he was younger when he was here. It was good to see him mature and step up, but he's turned into one of the best playmakers in the country. I'm happy for him. I've reached out to him a couple of times to tell him how proud we are of him, same thing with Ryan Willis. Those guys are going out and doing good things, so I'm happy for them. Q. Why do you think he left? What reason? DAVID BEATY: I think just a new start for him. I think all guys go through things in their own career, and they feel they might know what is best for them at the time, and at that point, I think he felt like it was better for him to get a fresh start, and it's worked out good for him. I know where he's at, and it's a good place, and they're using him really well. He is a tight end that really plays like a wide out. He can run, really run. Q. You said last week coordinating the offense would be a team effort. How will that look during the week and how will that look on game day? DAVID BEATY: It's no different than really it's always been. During the week it really won't change just a whole lot. I'm in all meetings, and I have meeting with regard to our offense, defense, and special teams. I always talk about it like it's a rainy day. If something were to happen and one of those guys went down, and something happened and I didn't have them here, we gotta make sure we have somebody there that can call it, right? So that's been in place from the very beginning. In terms of our responsibilities, who is really bringing to the table the studies on this particular situation, that particular situation, all pretty much the same. Our communication up top, very rarely I haven't seen it on a staff where guys don't communicate with people about what they're seeing, so that won't be any different from that standpoint. It will all go right through me, but it will be all of us doing it together. I will be getting pertinent information from up top as well as on the sidelines. Q. Did you learn anything two years ago that you think will help you this time around? DAVID BEATY: I think you always learn something, you know? I really do. I think one of the things that really sticks out to me is knowing that we have more mature guys here. We got a lot of the same players, which is good. Having those guys here and being able to understand maybe a little bit more their strengths and weaknesses, I think that will be helpful. Q. The TV cameras caught you when your headset didn't work, looked like you borrowed a headset, and you looked as fired up as TV has ever caught you. And they had you on the other end that tirade. Does that have anything to do with -- DAVID BEATY: We're all connected on the headphone. I can't believe that might be the only time you've ever caught that because it's usually intense. You could make money off watching sidelines, I bet you, for sure. That may be something you want to look into. We took a timeout, and I'm not into burning timeouts for no reason. We've got to do a better job of getting the play in, being more efficient with our play calling. That helps our quarterbacks by being able to slow the game down, and go to school on their information, as opposed to the ball being snapped just as we get the play called. We can't burn fruitless timeouts. That just can't happen. I've addressed that on several occasions, but on that particular one, I guess, that you're talking about, my headset went out. In certain areas it blinks out on you, so I grabbed Justin Johnson's and I wanted to make sure everybody was clear on what I expected from that point going forward. Q. (No microphone.) DAVID BEATY: I did not. Of course, I took the headset right off, and my other one wasn't working for a few minutes. Q. When you give away play calling duties is there any part of the game day thing that you have to give back, or does that work in with all of your other game day responsibilities? DAVID BEATY: Well, obviously when you're calling it, it's going to put an addition on to what you're doing, right? Obviously the game management part of it is something that will be more shared now. We've had that plan before. We've got means by which to be able to manage that as well, but to be efficient over there, it's not one of the those situations where you can do it all by yourself. That's why they allow you to hire people, right? Q. You mentioned you have to get better on all three sides of the ball, but it does seem like special teams is quite a bit better than it has been in recent years. How is Kenny Perry doing in that role, and other than the punter who is nationally ranked, who else is standing out on special teams? DAVID BEATY: I think a lot of the credit does go to Coach Perry. I think the thing that sticks out to me about Coach and what he's brought to us is not what we're doing but how we're doing it. The detail in which we're teaching the technique has been phenomenal, and it carries over to offense and defense, which is good, and that's how he teaches it. Our punter has been terrific. I'm really pleased with Liam. He's done a nice job for us as of late. He started off a little rough, but he has settled in and really become exactly what we needed him to be in terms of -- kick placement is so big in college football, so big. He's done a really nice job of that as of late. It helps our coverage in so many ways. He made a tackle the other day, and I could have swore the ball came out. I know it came out. I don't know if the knee was down. They ruled that it was. The play stood, which means is wasn't overturnable. They didn't have clear -- but we saw the ball out, but that was a kicker doing that. It was good to see him doing that. I think our return game has benefited. I think Pooka being back there, some of the things Ryan Schadler does that you don't see have been really, really beneficial to us, as the off returner, and him being able to be a key returner if they choose to kick it to him. He is probably the second or third fastest guy on this team. Now I'll get debate from our guys over that but he is a fast player. Him being there has been very, very helpful for us. Then, you know, I was very pleased with our punt return units, in terms of what we were doing our decisions we were making. We just made an unfortunate mistake the other day that was at a critical time, and it had not shown up this year and it was a critical time against West Virginia. The good thing is we knew better. We had to learn that mistake and Kwamie has done a really good job other than that one, so I know he will learn from that. Q. What do you hope to accomplish offensively that you haven't been able to do and led to that replacement? DAVID BEATY: Probably same things that you would think. More production. The bottom line is more production. But then how do you produce? Being able to string first downs together, managing your time efficiently, being able to allow your guys to be in positions where they can something to school on the information a little bit better than they have. Making sure that we're more streamlined with our game plan, staying kind of in the slot of what we actually are doing, right? Not straying away from that and creating maybe new things because the system can handle it. Stay in the system and believe in that system. I think the last week I can tell our quarterbacks feel so comfortable right now knowing that they know the answers to what teams are doing to them and understanding defenses better and utilizing the information we're gaining on who they are, more, to help us. That's how the game is played. The game is not played on hey, this dude is better than them, just go do that, it's difficult to do that nowadays. If that was the case, there wouldn't be high-paid guys out there that are really, really smart. Right? These dudes are really smart. They know how to move the pieces around, how to hide the fitters. You must know certain things and certain pieces of information. If you don't, you're behind the eight ball. You have got to be able to take advantage of weaknesses that are being presented on a down-to-down basis by what defense guys show up in, and that will lead to more production, it will lead to more production faster. Q. Your history with Coach Kingsbury. You know what makes him tick. DAVID BEATY: The best way I can describe him is competitor. I mean, that dude is a -- he is a competitor. I think I said this before, I remember being in the room next to him when we played Alabama that first time. We were at Alabama and we beat 'em. I don't know, it's like 5:15 in the morning, and I hear somebody yelling, "Let's go!" And it's him. He's in the room next to me. He is just a competitive guy. That's really what sticks out to me. You can see him on the sideline with him being involved and inside the emotion in the game. It's really kind of how he played the game, too. Q. (No microphone.) DAVID BEATY: He's injured. Well, he's not available, so he's injured. We've still got a few guys. Let's see. I had a couple of guys I meant to mention that are not quite there. Kyle is back. We had a couple more dudes that I thought I had it written down here, somewhere. But we've got a few other guys that are still not -- Quan is not quite there yet, and we'll see. It will be kind of a game time situation with him, hopefully, because we need both of those guys back. Unfortunately they're not there yet. We're not going to put 'em in jeopardy. They're working hard at it. Q. (No microphone.) DAVID BEATY: Yeah, yeah, I announced that last night. He will start for us. Have a good one. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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