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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 30, 2013Kliff KingsburyQ. Coach, did you determine the starting quarterback yet for Saturday? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, Baker Mayfield is our starter. Q. How do you feel like you guys took advantage of the off week? Do you like the results you got from this last week in practice? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I thought it was good. It's always a little tough getting them to up to practice in a bye week. But I thought the seniors stepped it up, had good leadership out there and got things accomplished. Q. Kliff, you mentioned after the last game that the offense was going to have to catch up to the defense. What specifically did you work on this off week that you feel good that they're making progress? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, just continue to get more and more reps in our system. We've obviously had too many turnovers and trying to get some more yards per dairy any time we do run the ball would help. But mainly doing what we do and trying to clean up some of the mistakes. Q. What do you remember about Charlie Weis and how much of an impact, if any, did he have on your career? COACH KINGSBURY: The first thing that jumps out is his work ethic. He'd spend the night up at the office and was up there at all hours. Obviously, a great quarterback mentor having worked with Tom Brady, always had great game plans. I thought he was one of the best game planners I've ever been around on a week‑to‑week basis. Learned a lot of X's and O's, and it was a really positive experience up there. Q. Against Kansas, playing two tough games against them, are there any extra challenges as a coach to get your team ready to go so early in the morning? COACH KINGSBURY: I don't think so. I like it. You get there, you don't have to sit around the hotel, and you get going. I'm excited about it, and I hope our team feels the same way. Q. Could you talk a little about what you've learned from your team in this past week in the bye week situation? COACH KINGSBURY: Like I said, I was just glad to see some of the senior leaders step up and say we need to get some good work done because it's not easy to get those guys rolling in a bye week when there is not a game coming that weekend. So I thought our older guys did a good job saying, hey, we've got to get better this week and we used it to our advantage. Q. Playing in the red zone against Louisiana Tech, how do you prepare for that? COACH KINGSBURY: They've been opportunistic, got some takeaways down there. We haven't been as good in the red zone as I'd like. We've kicked a bunch of field goals. It will be a challenge. They've improved a lot on defense and bring a lot of different looks this year. So we've got to be ready for anything down there. Q. What is your biggest concern? COACH KINGSBURY: You know, everything, really. I mean, with this team, especially offensively with young guys playing, you've got to be ready for everything. I think they're a lot more multiple on defense this year than they were last year. They've been holding people to a lot less points. So they're a much improved team than they were a year ago. Q. Coach, you guys improved mentally for this opening game? COACH KINGSBURY: Mentally? I mean, yeah. We need to have some success to improve mentally, so we'll see. But I think getting Beau back should help somewhat. He's a guy that's played a lot here, and we're expecting him to be a big factor for our offense. Q. How's Michael doing? COACH KINGSBURY: He's good. He's good. He's not officially cleared yet, but we're going to start working him back into some drills and see how it goes. Q. (No microphone) do you think they'll be able to do something in the field this week? COACH KINGSBURY: Yes, sir. Q. There have been, I guess, for a couple weeks now your fans have been talking about the potential for your team to start 7‑0 before you go to Oklahoma because you play teams that aren't perceived to be contenders. How much urgency is there to take advantage of this portion of the schedule? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, we attack each and every week. We're not good enough to look ahead like that. I think you saw with Oklahoma State what can happen with this conference each and every week. So we're just trying to get better each week. Offensively we haven't played very well the last couple weeks, and we know that. That is kind of my main issue as the offensive coordinator, and defense has to keep improving and doing what they're doing. Q. Did you have a chance to catch Oklahoma State against Virginia yesterday? COACH KINGSBURY: Parts of it. Parts of it. That's how this conference goes. It's been like that the last couple years, so it doesn't surprise me. Q. Will you talk about the decision to go with Baker Mayfield, please? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, we're 4‑0 with him as a starter, and that's really where we're at. So we'll let him cut it loose and see. I think he's healthy for the first time in about three weeks, completely healthy, and has looked really sharp in practice. So we're excited to see him play. Q. Going back to Texas State, big kid like Jace Amaro, how does that affect your team? COACH KINGSBURY: It's a little dicey these days because of the ejection rule. You hold your breath any time you see one of those. But any time we're playing that physical, it always excites our entire team. Q. Is it kind of if it ain't broke, down fix it type of thing? Go with Baker, and if Davis needs to come in it will earn it for you guys? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, Baker earned the starting spot with what he did in camp, and played a really good TTU defense. The last week he wasn't very healthy, and I think it showed. So I'm excited to see him healthy again, and we'll see what he can do. Q. (No microphone)? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, they're basically day‑to‑day. We'll see how that come as long during the week. But we'll try to get them out there and get them some reps and see. But I wouldn't say any of those guys are starting yet. Q. Any comment about your move up four spots in the poll? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, we need more bye weeks. To get top 10 in three weeks without playing, I don't know how that works, but, hey, it's part of the deal, I guess. Q. What do you remember about playing against (No microphone)? COACH KINGSBURY: I mean, we always had good games. Traditionally it's been a good game versus Texas State. You look at last year going into overtime. So a very spirited team. It's always tough there to play. You look at their track record at home and it will be a very good challenge for our team. Q. Saying that, you were part of the only Tech team that lost to them. Is that something that you could use for these guys, you know, hey, it may be a team perceived to be the worst in the conference, but do you think like that? COACH KINGSBURY: I appreciate you bringing that up. Yeah, like I said, all you have to do is watch what happened last weekend. Our guys know. They have a chip on their shoulder. They picked us 8th and 9th all year. So there isn't a game after this. So we'll go in there and do our best. Q. Offensively will you continue to try to get Eric the ball in the first quarter? COACH KINGSBURY: We'll continue to get him the ball anyway we can. He's a good player, and we have to target Eric. We did a better job of that last week, but we have a bunch of great play makers. You look at Marquez what he's doing, Jakeem what he's doing, look at Jace, it's a good problem to have, but we're trying to get all those guys the ball. Q. In that kind of atmosphere, do you have to maybe create some energy with your team to get it going? COACH KINGSBURY: I mean, any time you go on the road you have to create your own energy. That is part of playing on the road. But, no, if you're not excited to play eight Big 12 games, then you're in the wrong business, I guess. I don't know why you would have to bring anymore extra motivation. Q. (No microphone) off of Baker. Does he have routes that he likes to throw (No microphone)? COACH KINGSBURY: That's something we're still figuring out. I don't know if Baker knows that yet. He hasn't been in our offense very long. We're kind of all growing as a unit and we'll go. He's targeted those other guys more at times, but you look at the first game, he threw it to them 13 whatever times. So I don't think that has too much to do with it. Q. (Indiscernible) is your leading rusher. Any chance he sees time? COACH KINGSBURY: We'll see. He's going to do what he's been doing, but those other guys are really good. Q. Real quick talk about your defense and the expectations you have going into Kansas? COACH KINGSBURY: Hopefully they continue to get better. Been proud of their effort so far. Coach Weis does a good job with game planning. If Charlie has an extra week, he's going to have something special for them. So he will be ready to go and it will be a great challenge for him. Q. What did you think about last week against EA Sports and the players being able (No microphone)? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, all I saw was they're cancelling the game for 2014, so our players were in mourning. But I haven't followed it close enough to even comment intelligently on it. I just saw they're not going to have it in 20 is 14. Q. What do you think, do you take players more on scholarship or something in addition to scholarship? COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think obviously I'm pro player on this. But I like to help them out as much as we can without making it a professional type level, if that makes sense. If you added more meals or paid for other things that are more living expenses, but as far as giving them straight cash, I think you could end up being in the same problems as we are right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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