|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 2, 2013Kliff KingsburyQ. Kliff, first of all, congratulations on Friday night. COACH KINGSBURY: Thank you. Q. Couple questions about Baker. Did you look at him in recruiting, and after that, can you talk about how it all came about? Did you talk to his parents? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I had recruited him at the University of Houston, and got to NM, and we had another kid committed. Got here, and we had another kid committed. Coach Morris had a relationship with him, and he recruited him hard at Washington State. That's really where it all kind of went. He had some offers early. Didn't work out for him. People filled up with scholarships and coach Morris talked to him, and he wanted to come walk on here. That's really how he ended up here. Q. Did he call you? COACH KINGSBURY: He was very interested, I think, in our system and what we run. He obviously knows some Lake Travis kids on our team and felt comfortable here. Q. Did you have competition to get him as a walk on once he was established? (Indiscernible)? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I'm not sure. I know he's a really good baseball player, so I think he was kind of thinking that route a little bit. But I didn't know if any of that were really in the hunt as far as asking him to play football. Q. Were you impressed with his poise? COACH KINGSBURY: Yes, that is the main thing. You turn the tape on and there is lots of room for improvement, but the way he just held steady. There were some plays that weren't great and times it wasn't going very well, but he never blinked. He just kept pushing forward and got better as the game went on. Q. So we'll see him Saturday? COACH KINGSBURY: You will see him Saturday. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH KINGSBURY: We'll see, yeah. We'll see. Q. What's Beau Carpenter's status? COACH KINGSBURY: Beau had an ankle sprain, and he's pretty much day‑to‑day. He's going to be reevaluated today. So hopefully we'll get him back out there pretty quickly. Q. Coach, I know you've been here for nine months and finally got Friday under your belt and everything. Were your duties leading up to that or after the game, being the OC and head coach, did any of that kind of like, wow or (Indiscernible) your duties? COACH KINGSBURY: A little bit. In the past I would just speak strictly to the offense and deal with that and talk to the quarterbacks. Now you just have to pay more attention in the entire game. That was really the main difference I saw. Going in, I was a little apprehensive with how that would go, but it worked well. Q. What did you say to your team pre‑game and post‑game? COACH KINGSBURY: I just said I was proud of their effort so far. They deserved to have a good showing, so let's go do it. As I said all along, a coaching change isn't easy. The way those kids have embraced us, and the work ethic has been great. Q. When you were looking at tape of the quarterbacks, what coaching points did you see that could be better? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, he was reckless with the ball. The ball touched the ground a bunch and had some balls that could have been picked off and he stared things in, and foot work is a constant battle with the young kids. When they get in the game, it kind of reverts back to what they've always done, so the foot work that fits our system. There is lots of room for improvement. But when big plays were there, he made them. That was exciting to see. Q. What do you feel about the rushing game? COACH KINGSBURY: They've traditionally been really good at stopping the run. I think last year SMU was a Top 10 defense in run defense, and we've always kind of struggled with it. That's their deal. They're going to make you earn it through the air.  That being said, we have some third and shorts we've got to be able to get, and we've got to have better push‑ups. With the type of running backs we have, we have got to be able to create the lanes and get them on the second level. Q. What did you see from the offensive line? COACH KINGSBURY: They played hard. They played hard. We've got to get better. We've got to get a lot better. There are some young guys playing that haven't played a lot. They just have to keep coming. Q. In the first half, more of the passes were going east and west, and hopefully get to north and south. In the second half, it looked like you were going down field a little bit more. Is that something you talked about at halftime? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, it was more, I think Baker's confidence growing. I think he got some completions early and started feeling more comfortable and taking some shots down field. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH KINGSBURY: He did a great job bringing energy. He caught a couple balls early in that drive. Any time he's in the defense is paying attention. He's a special player. I was really proud of Jordan. He had the drop early but bounced back and made some good plays late. It was good to see he didn't get his head down and kept playing hard. Q. How much did Baker check the line on Friday? COACH KINGSBURY: I saw him make a few checks, but not a ton. I think as he gets more familiar with our offense and seeing it, and playing it at a fast tempo, that will increase. But the one to Jakeem late was a really good check that he made at the line. Q. Do you think that Mayfield has a chip on his shoulder Friday night because he was overlooked a little bit out of high school? Or is this something that's been with him? COACH KINGSBURY: No, I think he's just always kind of been the underdog. Just getting to know him a little bit and being around him, he approaches it that way. He's going to go prove people wrong every time he steps on the field, whether it's practice or in the games.  That's fun to coach. It's good to see that look in his eye. Q. Was the effort good or bad? COACH KINGSBURY: I think the effort was great. But the penalties once again showed back up. We've got to clean those up. We can't have those penalties. That's going to be an ongoing battle. Protecting the football, and didn't take it away and had too many penalties which are things that hurt them last year, so we've got to get those corrected. Q. Looking forward to this week with seven FBS opponents (Indiscernible)? COACH KINGSBURY: I better not have to. It's our first home game, and we treat every opponent the same. We treat them with respect and play hard and really focus on us and how much better we have to get. So I would assume we'll be ready to play. Q. What is your take on the perceived or real faking of injuries? COACH KINGSBURY: I've had a lot of discussions with officials on that. There is nothing they can do. You'll see coaches yelling at the refs, but it does no good. So I've tried to stay away from that. Q. How do you comment on that with your program? COACH KINGSBURY: We just say don't get caught up in it. We take a lot of pride in our conditioning, and in the fourth quarter when guys are laying on the ground and faking injuries and doing all that, we don't get caught up in it. We just keep playing our game. Q. I think there are seven or eight (Indiscernible). What do you attribute that to? COACH KINGSBURY: I think the spread offense is a great equalizer. If you get some really good skill, you can go in there and surprise people. I think that's part of it. High school programs are doing such a great job with these seven on sevens and things of that nature that are a ton of great skill all over the country. There are just not enough Division 1 slots for those guys. Sometimes they'll slide through the cracks and end up at at FBS schools. When you turn on Stephen F. Austin, they have great skill. They can play anywhere. Q. What are your concerns about them coming in? Have you looked at film? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, they run a spread offense similar to ours. Last week, the quarterback threw 450 yards and all sorts of touchdowns and scored 40 points. Really explosive offense with great skill. And defensively they're an attacking group, had a bunch of turnovers last week. So you've got to come in and handle your business. Q. Obviously, you didn't get what you want out of the running game Friday night. When you've looked at it, did you think there is more on the offensive line? COACH KINGSBURY: I think, like I said, I think the main thing was their schemes do a good job taking away some running game. But that being said, we have the short yardage situations where you've just got to find a way to make it. I know our backs run tough and our O‑line just has to continue to get better, which they have. From spring until now it looks like a completely different group. And hopefully we can show that much improvement by the end of the year. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I would have hoped it would have been 50‑50. But I've said it all along, if we can't run it, we're going to throw it. If we can run it, we're going to run it, and we just cut Baker loose. Q. We noticed early on you had a discussion or two with the officials. They seemed to be slowing the game down and not letting him keep the tempo up. Kind of what did they tell you? COACH KINGSBURY: We were doing some things personnel‑wise where it looked like we were in two backs and then we go into ten personnel, and they were just confused. We weren't subbing, and it appeared to them we were. So they kept holding it, and I had to explain to them we're not subbing personnel, you can't hold the ball. We got it straightened out by the second half. Q. What did you like from the defense? COACH KINGSBURY: The energy. You'd like to have some more turnovers, but the ball was on the ground a few times and took some bad bounces and we didn't get it. Obviously, lots of sacks, could have had a lot more. But really the energy. They're excited for each other, making plays. It's a good group of seniors that have played a lot, and it was good to see them have success. Q. This week are you going to try to put more into the game plan running the ball next week? COACH KINGSBURY: No, however we can score the most points is what we're going to do, and that's what we do. I said, I would have liked to have been able to run it more and get it to those backs, but if it's not working, we're going to bang our heads against the wall. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, Beau is pretty much day‑to‑day, an ankle sprain. But same with Jordan and a little hamstring. And Trey is fine. He was just tired. Q. (Indiscernible)? COACH KINGSBURY: Tony is out. Yep, he's still out. Q. Can you talk about Eric Ward? I think he was a little bit slow coming out of the locker room with the trainers? COACH KINGSBURY: Just getting rehydrated. That was the most humidity, obviously, we've been around as a team. Some of those guys got wiped out early. I mean, even pregame warm‑ups was about a hundred degrees. So I think with the nerves and everything, some of them just got overheated, but he was fine. Q. Can you talk about Reginald Davis playing. Pretty nice day? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, that was good to see. He had dropped one in the series of four, so to watch him come back and make up for the play like that, I don't think we blocked one person. He did it all on his own. He's excited. He's that type of talent. He's still figuring out who he really is. The sky's the limit if he'll just buy in and work every day. Q. (Indiscernible) how impressed were you with Eric's performance? COACH KINGSBURY: Very impressed. He came back for a reason. So I was excited to see him have that type of success. He's one of the best practice players I've been around as far as his work ethic. For those young guys to see that on a daily basis over and over, it's great for our program. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|