Kansas State Wildcats College Football Pregame Quote, 10/22/2019

Good afternoon. I hope everybody is doing well. Obviously (it was) a good weekend being able to have a four-quarter battle and get a win. Obviously, it wasn’t perfect. We’re still working out a lot of issues, a lot of mistakes. The guys are still buying in, they’re believing. The biggest thing was we were able to finish the game, which was obviously so big for us being so close in the fourth quarter. We were able to get a stop and force a punt. Even though we had to start on our five (yard line), we got a big drive, converted a 4th and 1, converted a 3rd and 9, then we were able to get a score. Then, even after giving up a couple of plays, the defense was able to make a couple of plays with some hits on the quarterback to be able to stop the drive. Obviously, (I’m) pleased with how we finished the game. As we talked to the players yesterday, we still have a ton of work to do to continue to get better. Obviously, it’s a little bit better to do that when you come off of a win. So, (I’m) excited about the big challenge we have this weekend.

On Oklahoma’s ability to plug-and-play quarterbacks over the last several years:

It’s really impressive when you look where Jalen Hurts is at this year because he wasn’t in the system very long. Seeing what he’s been able to do running that offense ‚Äì and it’s a phenomenal offense as it is ‚Äì but he’s running it at a really high level. Obviously, that’s the biggest challenge is he can beat you in so many different ways.

On the status of Malik Knowles:

We’ll find out. Obviously, we just had a short practice yesterday. Today we’ll see if he’s medically cleared to have a normal day or normal week. That’s the biggest thing ‚Äì he didn’t have a normal week of practice. If he had a normal week of practice, he would’ve been able to play more. I’ll probably know more by the end of the day Wednesday.

On the offense opening up more with Malik Knowles on the field:

You know, potentially it could have. He made a big play down the seam when we had a long third-down play. Everybody has to be able to find a way to continue to contribute, but we’re hopeful to get a healthy Malik back.

On the status of running back Jordon Brown:

I think they’re going to do some testing on him on Wednesday afternoon. So, we’ll learn more on Wednesday with Jordon.

On incorporating more quarterback run game:

Yeah but you still need to be smart about how many carries. If you can keep that around eight to 12 or better. I don’t want to get it to where he’s running 15 to 18 times. Obviously, to help us out, we need him to be able to be a viable threat running the football. So, we’ll continue to look at it on a week-to-week game plan.

On the run game against TCU:

We were better with some of our inside run game than our perimeter run game. That’s where we struggled still. We didn’t have the negative plays, which was positive. We didn’t have as many of those negative plays on the edge, but if we’re going to run perimeter run, we have to block better on the perimeter, and that’s everybody. That’s tight ends, fullbacks, O-line, wide receivers. Some of the inside run, especially some of our zone stuff off of jet action, I thought was at least promising.

On the performance of Josh Rivas at left guard:

We’re trying to keep pushing Rivas. Obviously, he’s our sixth in getting time. I still think Evan (Curl) is doing a really good job. I’d like to be able to keep both of those two guys in and maybe spell a tackle and move Tyler Mitchell outside to tackle just so we can spell more guys. That’s something where the depth is where we’re continuing to try to grow and get better there. We got Kaitori (Leveston) and Christian (Duffie) that are getting better, they’re just not better than what Nick (Kaltmayer) and Scott (Frantz) are right now. We’ll continue to try to give him (Rivas) opportunities because he is playing at a high level.

On having the top scoring defense in the Big 12:

For starters, I give the players credit. They play really hard. That’s a testament to those guys’ work ethic, desire, resolve to play hard for 60 minutes. That’s cool to see. All that being said, we’re not playing where we need to be able to play, defensively, whether it’s misfits, missing a tackle, having the ball in our hands or the potential to knock it away then the receiver coming up with it. That’s the thing that we talked to the guys yesterday on defense. ‘Yeah, we’re doing some really good things ‚Äì and let’s make sure we emphasize those because we’re holding people out of the end zone ‚Äì but think of how much better we could be if we could eliminate half the missed tackles we’ve had.’ We are kind of pounding it into them until they’re blue in the face, but we have to continue to improve upon that. We’ll do some different things this week with some tackle circuits and some things just to continue to emphasize it because we have to be better there.

On Oklahoma’s defense:

I don’t know what it was in the past, but they just play really, really fast. They, I think, have simplified things just from talking to Coach (Collin) Klein and some of the guys that have been around. They’re a lot simpler in what they’re doing. They’re playing really fast. They get off blocks. You’re just not sustaining blocks on those guys, which is the sign of a great defense. I think they’re a really good tackling team, which is another sign because in this game of college football right now, it’s all about plays in space. It doesn’t matter who they’re playing. You see people get the ball in space against them, and there are no yards after contact. Well, that’s the sign of an exceptional team that understands where they fit within the defense and that is really efficient about being able to tackle people.

On the decision on who to try to take away first from the Oklahoma offense:

You pick your poison a little bit. I think we have to at least be able to slow down some of the run game, but which run game are you going to slow down? Are you going to slow down the quarterback run? Are you going to slow down the running backs, the jet action, all that stuff? I think it’s our ability to show some different looks, show base, show some pressures, be able to tackle in space and try to eliminate some of the explosive run plays. In the passing game, if you do a great job trying to stop the run, then they’re going to have time to throw the football. That’s the next scary part. For us, it has to be trying to slow down the run game first.

On playing Jonathan Alexander more on defense and his blocked punt:

We probably should’ve play him a little bit more on defense, just from Coach (Joe) Klanderman and I talking. Maybe we didn’t realize how the game flow was going, or whatever you want to say. That was huge for him to make that play. The punt before, Jonathan kind of hesitated for just a second and the punter was able to get it off. We came and talked about it on the sideline and said, ‘Jonathan, just come hard. You’re going to be the clean guy.’ He still came in and made the play. That was, obviously, a huge play for us. I’m pleased with Jonathan. We probably need to give him more snaps on defense, to be honest with you.

On if this serves as a David vs. Goliath game:

We haven’t talked about that. We probably won’t mention it. I think you can flip on the film and the guys see how talented this team is that we’re playing in all phases, offense, defense and (special) teams. I hope that lends us to believe that we’ve got to keep our focus every snap, make sure we do our job and detail our work every snap because they have potential to make a big play, whether it’s a tackle for a loss, a sack or a big play on offense at any given time. So, every play is going to matter.

On the status of defensive back Jahron McPherson:

He didn’t practice yesterday. We’re hopeful. It’s a knee injury but not a significant knee injury. So, what’s significant? There’s no surgery involved, so I think it’s going to be more of a day-to-day basis. I’m glad you brought him up because I thought Johnathan Durham played a really nice football game for a guy that is a senior that has been part of the game plan and been in the mix. Obviously, J-Mac has played more, but I thought JD stepped up in a critical time, and that’s what we need is guys that are like, ‘Hey, this is my opportunity. I’m going to go make some plays.’ I was really pleased. It made us feel more comfortable as a defense. JD has to be in the mix more.

On what has impressed him from the team at the midway point of the season:

How hard they play. Their resolve. The fact that they stay together. Our practices are really good, especially during the two-game losing streak and you throw in the open week. That they know it’s a process, that they know that they’re continuing to get better and better. We see it, even though it may not show up every Saturday, and I wish it would, just like you all wish it would show up every Saturday. I can still see us getting better. The two things that we still have to continue to work on is finding a way to be more consistent rushing the football and tackling on defense. Those are the two components that are going to be the end all for us as we move on through the season. I know we’re getting better at running the football, we’ve shown some of that, but we have to keep finding out what’s our niche. Are we going to be more of a gap-scheme team, zone-scheme team. Then, tackling is just the same thing, working on leveraging, working on fits and working on wrapping up.

On stopping TCU’s fourth-down play late in the fourth quarter:

We were fortunate there because we had some time. I can’t remember if there was a timeout or not, but it wasn’t a quick snap for them in a hurry-up situation. We were able to hold our look and then pressure off the edge with Wyatt (Hubert) to try to confuse the look. We showed a two-deep look and rolled to a single-high look, which you hope makes that quarterback hold the ball just for a split-second and say, ‘Ok, I have to go to my next read.’ When you have a guy like Wyatt that was able to dip, get the edge, beat the guy and have that extra split second to be able to get that hit on the quarterback. We were right there close. Had he got the ball off, it would have been a bang-bang play on the 4th and 11. But obviously, when he got hit on the QB, the ball came fluttering out. So just being able to make sure we hold that ball a little longer for the quarterback.

On Oklahoma’s offense:

I would say that defenses have improved across the landscape of college football, just watching what I watch in the Big 12. But what Oklahoma is doing is unbelievable. What they’re doing against everybody and the success they’re having, the efficiency with which they’re playing with and the amount of explosive plays. When you turn on the explosive-play tape, it just goes and goes and goes because they have a tremendous scheme, guys that understand the scheme, and then the number one thing, is execution. They’re executing it really, really well.

On outlining the opportunity to the team this weekend:

I don’t really believe in doing it that way. I learned a long time ago, be careful about overemphasizing one team than another because if you do that ‚Äì ‘Man, this is our Super Bowl. We have to get it done.’ Then what do you do the next week? What do you do the following week? (It’s) no different than if we were playing Nicholls State. That’s the next game on the schedule. Let’s attack this week. You guys can see the film. You can see what we’re doing, but I’m always careful about saying, ‘Boy, this is a must win,’ or ‘Look at what’s on us today. This is everything.’ So what do you do the next week? I just think you get into those 12 one-week seasons, and this is the next one on the docket.

On the running game of Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts:

Thanks for reminding us. You’re right. He’s just so patient. He makes the game look so easy. We all know the game is not easy. That’s the thing I marvel at. He’s a winner. The kid’s just a flat-out winner. He did it at the SEC level. He’s doing it at the Big 12 level. He’s going to do it at the next level on Sundays. (He’s) just an unbelievable talent that seems like, in my opinion, a really humble guy that just loves to play the game.