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NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY BOWL: ARIZONA STATE v TEXAS TECHDecember 30, 2013Jace AmaroKerry HyderKliff KingsburyWill SmithDavis WebbSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Texas Tech: 37 THE MODERATOR: Opening statement? KLIFF KINGSBURY: Excited for the win. Happy for our seniors. Q. Coach, there was a lot of attention given to you and your program when you took the job. You haven't played there and all that. Now that you've gotten through all that and through the season and got yourself a bowl win what's the next step for Texas Tech to become an elite program the in the country? KLIFF KINGSBURY: To continue to improve. We wanted the seniors to have a moment this year and thrilled to death they got to have this moment and boost us into 2014 and that's what we talked about as a program. Leaving your mark and how are you going to help this program and those seniors stepped up and did a great job helping us to get a win. Q. Kliff, how major is this that you guys get to recruiting that you beat a Pac 12 team? KLIFF KINGSBURY: It's always great to end on a win especially in a big‑time bowl game like this, the Holiday Bowl, so it will definitely help our cause. Q. The idea of having a young coach because the ASU guys talked about not having energy today and it seemed like you guys came out excited and energetic and it seemed to me like it started with the coaching staff getting you guys hyped up to play. JACE AMARO: Yeah, Coach has had us hyped up on energy, through the spring and summer workouts, to be the most energetic team regardless of what we're playing and he has done a great job of that throughout the whole season and helped us when we felt like we didn't have energy just to keep pushing and goin' and throughout the bowl practices we felt like we practiced our best throughout this whole month of preparation and we brought a lot of energy today and that was our ultimate goal to be the most energetic team out there. Q. Coach you guys talked about thriving when people were picking against you and things of that nature. Talk about how leading up to this game a lot of people were picking Arizona State. KLIFF KINGSBURY: Everybody was picking them, they were one of the top 15 teams in the country, we knew that sentiment going in and our kids responded well. They felt it all week, it was a celebration of Arizona State, and it should have been but we wanted them to know that we were here, to too. Q. Davis, what did you want to say about your plays? DAVIS WEBB: All three phases finally came together for four quarters and that's exciting. KLIFF KINGSBURY: He's a coaches son so you're not going to get more out of him. Q. I saw you on the field you're more energetic than you are in here. What does it mean about your program? KLIFF KINGSBURY: It's about the seniors. I wanted them to have their moment because I can't tell you the way they bought in and believed in us, when they didn't have to. A lot of those guys signed up to play with Coach Leach and they ended up with me. So what they have given us as a staff, that's what it was all about for me tonight. Q. Can you tell us what you thought of Davis' performance and also it looked like one key was y'all completed a bunch of passes when you were in second and 20 and third and 11 and those things to keep drives going early. KLIFF KINGSBURY: He stepped up big on third downs, and Jason ran fearless, making plays, just proud of Davis' mental toughness, he continued to work and never blinked an eye and when he had his moment he made the most of it. Q. Jas, there is a report that you are turning pro. Do you have any comment on that? DAVIS WEBB: On behalf of Texas Tech and all the fans and Coach and all the players, my family, all my friends from back home, I'm going to forego my senior season and decided to play in the NFL next season. I felt like it was the best decision for me personal and it took a lot of time and if it was about money or anything else, I wouldn't have been debating it for so long and it was a hard decision because I love these guys and they mean the world to me and of course, I want to come back but, yeah, at the same time it's too big of an opportunity to pass up. I feel like I did a great job this year and I know what I can do next year. I can improve on a lot of things but for my sake I feel like it's my time to go and thank you for everything Texas Tech has done for me and my family and it's hard to imagine that I'll never play at the Jones again and running out of that tunnel. Right now I can't believe it's all over for me. I thank God for every single moment I've had. I've been through a lot these past three years and I went through almost everything you can imagine through injuries, outside of football stuff and I felt like I've grown up and I'm ready to go. Q. Davis, did Arizona State do anything on film that allowed you to routinely take those shots? I thought as a young guy you played with confidence and through the ball down field a lot. Were they doing anything that dictated you could get through that? DAVIS WEBB: I think I pride myself on being prepared every day and I watched a lot of film and I knew what they were going to give me before they did anything. With that preparation I knew who to get the ball to. ) (Will Smith and Marques? Q. Davis, how great is it that you have somebody like Jace to throw the ball to? DAVIS WEBB: He's my roommate, too, so guess I have to find a new roommate. He's going to have a heck of a career in the NFL, all summer he would run routes, do extra stuff. He's a great person, I'm going to Ms. Him like crazy. Q. Davis what was the season like for you getting the starting job and sitting on the bench and now get this gone huge start? DAVIS WEBB: To be a great quarterback I think you have to go through adversity, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning went through adversity and if you overcome it you never know what's going to happen. You have to keep your head down and keep working. I pride myself on my work ethic, from my dad teaching me to be the hardest worker on the team and keep my head down and keep moving. Q. If seemed in the first half you guys completely shut their passing game down. What was it that you felt you could do defensively to put the pressure on the corners and take away the throwing lanes? KERRY HYDER: It was all in the preoperation. The defense was gonna let me control the line of scrimmage. Felt like we could play well up front, the front seven and make the quarterback uncomfortable. It easy on the back end show showed up tonight. Q. Jas, can you follow up what it means personally to you to have played your last bowl with your teammates and to have won in this way? JACE AMARO: It means everything to me going through the stretch with the five‑game losing streak and we always felt like we were a great team. We had some unlucky breaks and things that didn't go our way and we felt like we didn't play our best game throughout the season. Going out, being a top‑15 team as your last game when everyone had you losing by 20 points initially is something to be proud of. We knew we were a great team this whole year. We knew how great we could be and I think we proved it tonight on national television. Q. Will Smith, how cool is it you get to come back home, get defensive player of the game, how cool is this? WILL SMITH: It's real cool, a humbling experience. Great line in front of me and great play calling and it allowed me to run around and make plays today. Q. Davis, as Jace was saying your team came in with little fanfare and big underdog. How gratifying is it that you and your team played as well as you did and put out an extra performance tonight? DAVIS WEBB: Everybody was not high on us on in the beginning of the year, we won 7 games, everybody was on our shoulders and we lose five in a row and everybody disappeared. Everybody in that locker room believed that we could beat Arizona State and we did that. Q. Will, what does the future hold for Will Smith? Are you going to hire an agent and start looking toward the combine? What's in your future? WILL SMITH: That's been a dream of mine. I'm taking a look at a few guys and hopefully get to pursue my NFL career if I'm blessed to play. Q. Kerry can you give me your thoughts on wrapping up a victory with the doubts that everybody has had coming into this game? KERRY HYDER: It's been amazing, to top it off with a holiday bowl win it's the biggest game I've ever played in, so this big of a win is big for me and big for the team and I get to end my career on a high note. Big for everyone involved, Texas Tech and the community, it's great to end it like this. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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