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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 6, 2018

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: The universities that they went to, I think more than anything, it's just bragging rights and the fun rivalries in-state.

Q. What about that defense do you think, that Texas defense, could really pose problems for your offense?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I mean, all of it. They are a senior-laden group. They have played a lot of football and people have a hard time running the football against them. Will Grier, it took a monster performance and he was on the money last week to do what they did and pull that victory out.

It's a really good group. Great playmakers. Coach Orlando has done a great job. They all fly to the football schematically. He keeps you on your heels doing different things and we'll have our hands full.

Q. You mentioned it's always hard to win on the road in the Big 12. What about that makes that different than everything else in the Big 12, if you had to guess?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't know if it's familiarity with each other or the kids knowing each other so well that they just roll the ball out there and go play and they go out and play in that field right there if they had to. I'm not sure why, but that's a unique circumstance that that's happened four years in a row.

Q. Given the struggles at home in the Big 12, does it add added importance to get the win on Senior Day, the last home game?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: I think more than anything, just for the seniors, you want them to have that moment, you know, that memory. Three of those guys have been here every day I've been here. We have a lot of fifth-year seniors that have been through some ups and downs and going through a lot to get to where they are at.

It's really important to us as a program that we try to send them out the right way and do everything in our power for them to have one more great memory in Jones stadium.

Q. Da'Leon Ward had a good game last week. How is he progressing?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think that was what we all expected throughout the year and after week one, when he tweaked that groin, he had not had that same first step explosiveness and that showed backup on Saturday.

He's a guy when we can get him going like that, it obviously makes our entire offense better and you saw that on Saturday night.

Q. Is Tre King in the mix physically? Will he play?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: We're going to see. He wasn't the last couple weeks with that knee, just not feeling where it needed to be, and we're going to see if we can get him going this week.

Q. With Thomas Leggett on special teams the last couple weeks, obviously you're going to be missing some safeties next year, do you think Thomas will be able to translate what he's done on special teams into playing defense?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I hope so. I felt like he was the guy who really emerged for us in the spring. We have veterans at safety so he hasn't played as much as he'd probably like or we probably would like him to. I expect him to be one of the frontrunners to take over one of those spots moving into spring football.

Q. With Dakota's uncertain status, are y'all facing a decision on Brayden Stringer about -- you have wanted to redshirt him, and I think he has one game left to play.
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think we're going to do what's best for Brayden, and if, you know, we've got to use that one game this week, then we'll find a way for him to keep his redshirt and mix in -- Christian should be back soon and Pough will have some games to use. We're going to find a way to do right by Brayden.

Q. So you're committed to that? Okay. Is Connor Killian, any chance he plays?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: I don't think he'll play this week. He's still working through that foot injury.

Q. What's the status of Mason Reed? Is he in the mix?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we're going to see if we can get Mason going a little bit. You know, he's a guy who we felt like Donte and Tyler and Connor had stepped up, but we're going to see if we can get Mason going over these last three weeks with Connor going down.

Q. So was it a physical thing with Mason previously this year?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, nothing major. Just we felt like those guys had kind of emerged a little bit.

Q. Going back to the quarterback switch play calling, how different as a play caller is it when you're calling a play for Bowman versus when you're calling one for Jett?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: You have to understand the reps that each guy gets, and Bowman, we try to get everybody a ton of reps at that position, but Bowman is going to get the majority. I just needed to call things to get him into more of a rhythm, and better communication -- what do you like, what are we doing, but it was kind of one of those things right before we kicked off, Alan is not going to go.

So I should have found a way to have better plays ready, but it changes simply because you know all week what your starter loves and wants because he's getting the majority of the reps and you really don't know to an extent what Jett loves or wants. I mean, we have him circle his plays every week, okay, what do you like but the lines of communication aren't as much as you have with your starter.

Q. Just on that note, how difficult is it as a play-caller trying to deal with three starting quarterbacks and at half-time not knowing if you're going to have someone come in?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: All those guys can operate. Like I said, I'm big on getting in those guys heads throughout the week and picking their brain and trying to get on the same page. You don't do that. You only have time to really do that with one guy and put your focus on him and when the other guy comes in, you try to find of get it going on the sideline. But that's the only difficulty is not really knowing to what extent they are comfortable with this play or that day and just trying to get him in a rhythm and trying to call things that they really do like.

Q. Going off that mental aspect of the game, is it difficult to keep your team progressing, having key players banged up right now and how do these guys take that challenge?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think they have been good. They have a real next-man-up attitude. The week before, you lose Jordyn Brooks in the first quarter, and then you lose Dakota in the first quarter and then you lose your quarterback at half-time; those are really, really good place for our football player. I'm really proud of the way our backups have stepped in and not blinked and gave us a chance to win in the Big 12, which is not easy to do.

Q. Sorry if this was already asked. What's Jett improved the most in so far?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think just the operation. You know, I want to get Jett to a point where he's so comfortable, he's playing like he played in high school, where he's free and he's making plays and running around. At times and he know this is, you know, he's too robotic in our system, one, two, three, four, five -- that's not his game.

Get back to being a feel player. If you've got it, you got it and if you don't, work your magic and I think you've seen some of that at times. If we can get him so comfortable with the season to where he's playing and not thinking so much, that's when he's going to take that next step.

Q. What would you consider his greatest strength to be?
HEAD COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY: He's a dynamic thrower. He can push the ball 75, 80 yards down the field. Very accurate, quick release, doesn't have to get from a great platform to throw and throw it a long ways. I think he has dynamic arm talent, as well.

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