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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 4, 2019

Dalton Rigdon

Lubbock, Texas

Q. From your perspective, what have you kind of seen from West Virginia and, obviously, the close losses that they have had and kind of the resiliency that they have shown in those games?
DALTON RIGDON: Yeah, I think they're in a very similar position as we are. Had a lot of close ones that haven't necessarily gone our way there at the end. They're always a tough, a tough team every year. The last three years I've been here it's always been a competitive game with them and I am expecting the same out of this Saturday.

Q. Have you guys learned how to finish those games where you talk about it was close to them, close to you guys, is that something that you have to experience in a game or how do you really get to that point?
DALTON RIGDON: Yeah, I think a lot of it comes from experience of being in those types of situations, especially when you're dealing with having some younger guys, having to step up in certain positions, maybe haven't been in a situation like that before. But every time that you're in a position like that you have the ability to grow and learn from it and I think that we have had the pleasure of being able to have some of those guys see situations like that now.

Q. In terms of the ability for West Virginia to get to the, get into the back field with some of their nose tackles and all that, have you guys worked on just trying to get the ball out as quick as possible? Is that something that you're looking to do?
DALTON RIGDON: We're going to continue to do what we do on offense. I couldn't tell you how the O-line is planning on scheming those guys up. I know they will. They will have a great plan for them with Coach Farmer. We're going to go out and just try to execute our offense, play fast and continue to do things like we do.

Q. Going back to their defense, what challenges do they pose for y'all?
DALTON RIGDON: They play, from what I've seen, they play a lot of quarters, techniques, so it's going to take, it's going to take a lot of good technique and everything to get behind those guys in the back field. But with every defense there's holes here and there and there's ways to manipulate their coverages the way they play and coach will have a great scheme for us to go out and be successful with that.

Q. How do you think you now the H receiver spot there were three that are kind of a corps this season and you kind of made it your own a little bit. How have you done that, where have you grown the most?
DALTON RIGDON: I've just gained more confidence as the year's gone on. Confidence comes with experience for sure. Just continue to play really, really solid defense, play really good teams, just get in the stadium, be on the field more. Really, I just tried to be the same guy every day, though, never do anything out of body or -- coach says before, don't have any out-of-body experiences, I try to keep a level head, I believe that I belong here, it's what I've always thought, that's why I'm here now, that's what I just try to stay true to myself with.

Q. As a guy who has a couple more years here after this season, how difficult or easy is it to get 18, 19, 20-year-olds to play for seniors, to treat bowl eligibility with the same importance as maybe guys like Jordyn Brooks?
DALTON RIGDON: You know, I don't think it's really that difficult to try and have young men buy in for your older teammates. Because with bowl eligibility and making bowl games that's, you're winning, you have be to winning to have that and there's not a person that comes into this building that doesn't want to win or doesn't have the will to go and win every weekend. So, I mean, I think it's a really easy concept for those guys being successful as young kids so that whenever they're in my position or Jordyn and/or Donte's position they have got a set of good recruits from having great seasons all around when they were younger. They have got good players behind them that will continue to carry the torch as they progress and leave from here.

Q. Going to Morgantown this weekend still looking for your first road win. How much is that sort of on your mind that you're still trying to get that first road win?
DALTON RIGDON: Don't really look at it as we haven't got a single road win yet, we need the one. Every weekend we attack it the same, it's a college football game every Saturday, I love Morgantown, though, it's one of my absolute favorite places to go and play. So it would be a great feeling to go and get a win against those guys in their home stadium.

Q. You mentioned you love to play in Morgantown. Why?
DALTON RIGDON: I just like the atmosphere. I went up there my freshman year two years ago and that was the first time that I had really been exposed to a kind of place like West Virginia, I had never been over there, the scenery, the drive to the stadium is really cool. I think it's going to be cool for some of those younger guys to have an experience like I did. Because like I said the drive is really nice over there, it's just, it's just different than what you see in West Texas or going to Oklahoma. The fans are always really good over there, and with that being said, whenever the fans are good, when everything's going great for them there's nothing better than a silent stadium whenever things are going our way.

Q. Would you like to go there some time and jump off a mountain?
DALTON RIGDON: You know, if the opportunity, if the opportunity arrives I'll take it.

Q. From your eyes has Jett grown the most from maybe his first start this season until now?
DALTON RIGDON: Yeah, I think Jett's been playing really well. I think he's been putting us in a position to win every weekend. I think it goes back to confidence, building confidence with all the guys around. When you're not getting the start, you don't necessarily have the same amount of reps with me or McLane or TJ or RJ as you would like to. And as the year has gone on I think everybody across the board receiving-wise has grown their relationship with Jett as well, because the quarterback and receiver connection and relationship's really important. And I think as the year's gone by all those relationships have grown with Jett and will continue to grow and get better.

Q. How would you say you improved your craft this year with all the playing time you've gotten, where, what, where do you think you have improved the most?
DALTON RIGDON: Definitely improved quite a bit on route running, just the ability to manipulate defenders and their techniques. One of the big things is getting with Coach Keeton and really just learning more about how DB's think and what their mindset is as I'm going to run a route and trying to get in their head frame and how they're thinking, so that I can manipulate that and use that to my advantage.

Q. You talked about believing that you belong in the Big-12 and at Texas Tech. Is that an easy thing for you personally or is it something, or was there some times where it was harder than others?
DALTON RIGDON: No, I would say it's pretty easy. I mean, I've always, I've always believed it, I'll never stop believing it. I think that just comes with time and experience. And it's seeing things on the field that maybe not everybody outside of the facility or that's not really there gets to see all the time.

Q. (No microphone.)
DALTON RIGDON: We froze one at first so Coach Yost could scan the defense a little bit more. We had talked about running the play that we did all week. And it's something that we have brought out with certain defenses that always, that is there for us if the look comes up. Coach Yost saw it in the box, called it. I kind of laughed because after Jett threw it to me we were running back to the sideline together and I was just laughing and telling him, I knew you were going to throw it to me and I knew we were going to score off of it. Just from film study and what we had seen from those guys and how their safeties had been playing, once Jett gave me the signal I did my scan of the defense, realized it's the exact look we wanted and the rest was just going back to the quarterback/receiver relationship, Jett knowing when I'm going to break, putting the ball in a great spot and then just trusting yourself to go and make a play.

Q. When and why did you decide to adopt the QB touchdown celebration as your own?
DALTON RIGDON: I don't know. I think it really started back when I was a freshman and he was a junior, before he left for the league. I think because me, you know he would always, there's a clip from when I first got here for fall camp of Keke messing with me and coming up to me and talking to me about long jumping everything. And I'm sure y'all have seen it and talking about how he would out-jump me this and that. So we always had just a kind of a funny goofy relationship together. And I think one day I was just messing with him and telling him, well, I hope you understand that like I'm stealing it from you, just giving him a hard time and then it all of a sudden happened and I just stuck with it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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