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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2018

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

Oklahoma - 51

Texas Tech - 46

Q. What's the status of Alan?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. I've got to check that out as soon as I leave here.

Q. How would you assess your team's performance tonight?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Fought hard, fought hard. That's a really good football team they're playing. And had some opportunities, thought we came out hot, started fast like you need to against a team like that. Just didn't finish.

Q. On Alan, the TV telecast said that they got footage of him being hit in the head by a thrown ball. And then he had some trouble breathing?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah. It wasn't anything with his head.

Q. So what was it?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I don't know, I just know it wasn't his head. I don't know the exact extent of it. I've got to go check it out after this.

Q. Was it from the hit that he took there?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, yeah, near the goal line, yes, sir, I know that's when it occurred.

Q. Is he here or has he gone to the hospital?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. I broke the team down and then headed up here to talk.

Q. Were you impressed with the fight you saw from your team, just overall execution throughout the game?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: We have been fighting hard. We just got to find a way to win these games. We're not getting it done at the end of these close games. And proud of Jett's effort. I thought he came in a little bit sluggish. I didn't give him good plays early, things he was comfortable with, but that's a tough spot once again he's thrown into and he competes and gives us a chance. So I was proud of his effort but we got to find a way to finish these games.

Q. What did you think of your defense's performance tonight? I know you gave up 600 yards but there were a number of times they got them off the field?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, especially early getting those turnovers, giving us a chance to put some distance between us, and we really didn't like we could have. And they're a really, really good offense. That O line with that quarterback, I don't know who will stop them the way that quarterback can move and run and then beat you in the pocket, he's phenomenal. I don't know who is better than him in the country or who has been better than him in the last however many years. He is a special, special talent out there.

Q. How much was your defensive plan limited or compromised?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: It obviously didn't help. I've been proud of Riko and the way he's stepped up when called upon last week and this week. But you're talking about a senior veteran, very cerebral player, who gets us lined up and diagnoses things out there. And to not have him most of the game obviously didn't help our cause, but those other guys played hard, he's just a spiritual leader, a leader in a bunch of different ways.

Q. During the pregame what was your expectation for what his availability was?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He was full go, yeah, something happened in the game that I have to figure out, but he was, he practiced all week. He was full go.

Q. So the hand wasn't --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: It wasn't the hand, no. That wasn't the issue.

Q. It looked like the trainers were working on his leg --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think so. I knew it was a leg. I didn't get the extent of what they thought it was.

Q. Why do you think your team had so much success early against them? Was it disguising coverages?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think he just didn't see us a couple times looking at that time. One he sailed in the first one, it looked like a big window and Dorsey got behind some linemen and dropped into it. But you got to give him credit the way he rebounded and didn't blink and he's a special talent.

Q. Thoughts on Da'Leon's performance tonight?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: It was good to get him going again. That's what we expected all year. He had that groin injury and he hadn't come back the way we needed him to, the explosiveness in his running. But he looked like it all week in practice and he looked like it tonight that he got his explosiveness back and he could cut full speed. And so we got to keep him going. We need to continue to work on that run game. It got a little funky there trying to keep up at the end and we didn't run as much as we would have liked, but we had some big plays in the run game which gave us a chance.

Q. On the play where Alan apparently got hurt, what were his options on that play?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, run it in. He tried to go wide and we thought he would stick his foot in the ground and walk in the end zone, but he didn't and so ended up taking a shot.

Q. That was still by design?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Oh, yeah, oh yeah.

Q. What did you think about Vaughnte Dorsey and I know he went down during in the game and how is he doing?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think he's fine. I saw him after the game. He's a tough young man. I think he did something to his shoulder, but nothing drastic. And thought he played with a lot of juice, was hitting hard like he always does and had a great energy out there.

Q. You guys pretty much emptied your bucket tonight didn't you? You don't really have any regrets, do you, about how you handled things tonight in terms of some key decisions?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think the only thing was having a better plan for Jett early. I tried to do some stuff that I should have found a way to get him more comfortable at the start of that second half than I did. And so I wish I would have done that because once he got in a rhythm and he was competing and doing his deal, he played really well. So that -- from my perspective that was it. But everybody played hard and I thought special teams, once again, gave us a chance in some areas. Punted the ball well, kicked off well, Clayton hit his field goals. And so that's an area that continues to help us stay in games.

Q. When you guys were down 8 and you scored and you had the pick 2, how did the team react to that? Have you ever seen something like that?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I've seen it before. I thought they reacted well. They came back down, obviously they scored, but then they came back down and scored and that was a play we practiced a bunch and Seth, we tell him, hey give us a chance somehow throw it in the end zone. You just don't expect them to run it back. So that was just a misfortune, but it wasn't on him, it was on me for calling it.

Q. Following up on that, since it's 42-34 obviously you know if you score on that drive you're going to go for two. So you were thinking about that. That was your two-point play from the beginning?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we had three of them and we used one on Zach's and one on TJ's touchdown earlier in the game and so that was our last one left and we had repped it a ton, we liked it, they played it well. They didn't go for the bait and made a good play on it.

Q. So the early touchdown to TJ was one --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: That was one of them and the one to Zach was one of them and that was our third one, so we'll have to draw up some more this week.

Q. The discipline of your team was pretty good tonight. You didn't have a lot of penalty problems and Oklahoma was trying to bait you guys. That's a positive for your team.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Much improved. Last week that really hurt us some big plays, personal fouls and whatnot, had a ton of penalty yards last week and I felt like that really hurt us and put us in a hole. And that's if you watch OU play, they're a physical bunch, they're a tough bunch, mean bunch up front, they take it to you and I felt like we did a good job of resisting the temptation to get into that stuff and we got to carry that on. We have to eliminate penalties and free yards moving forward in these last three.

Q. How well do you feel like you -- how much did you lean more toward the big plays? How well do you feel like you defended CeeDee Lamb and Marcus Brown?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: They had some shots that they dropped and some different things, but I thought we competed hard. Both those guys are NFL players and they can really, really run. And so I felt we fought as well as we could have done against them.

Q. (No microphone.)
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think Des had a good week of practice and so they wanted to get him in there and get him some reps. And Adrian was a little bit limited this week in practice due to an ankle from the previous week and so he didn't practice as much as we would of liked.

Q. How do you slow down a guy like Murray?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: You don't. I've said this all week but I've watched him from sophomore year and high school on and nobody's ever every slowed him down. I've never seen him have a bad game. Those are the first two like back-to-back interceptions I've ever seen him have. He's phenomenal. I don't know what you do. That's why I say I think he could play at the next level the way that those NFL offenses are playing in the spread and doing stuff, I don't know. They wouldn't be able to stop him up there either.

Q. Going down that last drive, do you almost want them to score so you can get the ball back and they can't just run the clock out? How do you manage that type of situation?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: You don't want them to score. We're down what, four I think it was. So you're hoping you get it back, have a chance to go win it. But with their O line, their running back Kyler pulling it, doing stuff, it's going to be a tall task and they had a good four minute plan and scored and you got to take your hat off to them.

Q. First and goal at the two there, what happened with the false start?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I'm not sure, I have to ask Jett. I thought we had a good play call on and it looked like everybody went, so I didn't ask we just called the next play and moved on.

Q. What did you think of Zach's touchdown catch?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: It was awesome. Really proud of that kid. Sixth year senior, worked his tail off. I told him he was going to make a big play for us at some point and that was huge, the catch and having the wherewithal to stick it across the line, he's a stud football player and always has been and it's a great contribution by him.

Q. 199 yard from Antoine Wesley tonight.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He's a stud. Yeah, he's a stud. I said it every week, man, he keeps getting better and better and his focus and preparation is as good as any I've been around at that position. And so he's just got to keep coming, he's a big part of our offense.

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