Kansas Jayhawks College Football Pregame Quote, 10/21/2019

Good afternoon. Another good outing, but not exactly how we wanted to finish it. I believe that this team is coming, and I think there will be some games of significance as we go forward.

Any questions?

On what worked well with Brent Dearmon at Offensive Coordinator:

Yeah, he has kind of just a good view of the 100-yard field and kind of knows where he’s at and made some very significant calls on Saturday that put us in position to score.

On the offense:

Nine guys touched the ball. I mean, in receptions from Stanley. I think we’re doing the things that we need to do, and I think that he is facilitating that extremely well. It’s a ‚Äì when you get the ball to nine guys, those nine guys, it makes their game jump a little. I think you’ll find that there will be another and another and another what would be game with multiple receivers.

On the defense:

Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I think their quarterback is pretty good, and I think if we’d have got him a nice tackle ‚Äì if we’d have got a tackle late in the game, in the last drive, for instance, you’d be surprised how quickly the plays and the opportunities that they have to move the football dwindle. So we just couldn’t get that done. You know, again, the quarterback is pretty talented.

On what the defense did well:

I thought we tackled the ball. I thought we tackled hard. I think as an example, Mike Lee’s tackling, severing of the ball, and Bryce Torneden ‚Äì Bryce Torneden got to that ball faster than I could see how anybody could, and then once he got there, there was no chance that that ball was going to go to anybody other than him. I like those things.

On using Torry Locklin behind center:

We’ll have to see how that goes, as planned, but we’d certainly like to make that a regular piece of our business if we could.

On the team playing with an edge:

I liked the way they played, and I enjoyed how they took the field, and they obviously were in a very competitive game from the start. Participated fully, and when you take the lead in the last drive, you think that you’re going to win. Yeah, I liked it.

On Gavin Potter:

You know, Gavin Potter is a true freshman. He’s come in, has shown no problem dealing with big stadiums and stepping into spots and playing big. I think he had nine tackles all over the field. Yeah, he’s going to be something down the road. Give him a couple years, and he’ll be something else. But freshman newcomer something or other would be a great suggestion if you’d make it. I kind of like the freshman newcomer of the something-or-other. That had a nice little zip to it, didn’t it.

On Jeremiah McCullough’s status:

He won’t be with us this weekend. We’ll have to see. It’s significant.

On the game clock on Saturday:

Absolutely, we’ll turn it in. We’ll see what they say. There’s been other conferences that I’ve been involved in, and it seems that the hometown clock guy can sometimes quickly move the clock along sometimes inappropriately or sometimes hold the clock and not get it started when the play is started. So I think we’ll have a look at that, see what they say.

On discussion with Brent Dearmon over the two-point conversion:

Well, I just wanted to make sure the logistics of this – because I wanted to see what his thoughts were in terms of the rest of the game. Everybody was very positive, so I decided that that was the way we should go.

On the momentum from the Texas game:

Well, any time that you go to an opponent’s stadium, you build character in the understanding of what it takes to compete away. I think the understanding of being competitive and last drives and how important ‚Äì the offense got on the field to win it and won it, and special teams did not participate in a way that we’d like for them to participate. And then defensively should they have gotten a tackle at the end of the game, that could have made a tremendous difference.

Having those experiences build a team’s reservoir, if you will, of what it is they’re supposed to do when given opportunities, and we had a great opportunity this last Saturday.

On nine different receivers making a catch:

It’s team. And when you have that, you demonstrate it, and young guys ‚Äì first of all, it becomes a lot easier to block if you’re out there catching a ball, and it becomes ‚Äì and I think it was. I think it was truly a team effort, and I think that those nine guys plus others stepped in and made big plays based on the fact of the connective feeling of team.

On Andrew Parchment’s status:

I think Andrew is going to be fine. He had a nice game, and he’ll be fine.

On what goes into a good special teams unit:

Well, the speed under a ball, you kick a ball, you must have speed, know how to cover area, and there’s a relationship with the players. I think that’s the most important thing. If you have a very quality return man, I mean, I think that gives you a strength in the return game that other people don’t have. But you have to do the things that are basic and fundamental to teams. When you line up to kick a field goal, when you line up to kick an extra point, you have to have protection, period. If I’m Liam, I’m saying, hey, guys, there’s some leakage up here. That being said, I think we’ll be fine on special teams. Just keep going, babe.

On the blocked kicks:

They were different pieces of ‚Äì they were different people. But we can categorize them in a wide term: Protection. We’ll spend time on it, I promise you. The coaching staff spent time Sunday and this morning, so we’ll take that expression of effort and energy to the game room.

On the use of fullbacks:

Yeah. Yeah, the – one of the things that operate out of this room and probably on that wall, we are the most physical. So one of the things that allows us to be physical is to have big, barrel-chested, tough fullbacks, with the opportunity to block for others, and yet have the opportunity to do those things sparingly that they do with the ball, like run down to the goal line or run midfield.

On Carter Stanley:

It’s not a new offense. It’s a ‚Äì and then again, you can say ‚Äì that was a great question. It is a new offense, but the similarities between what we ran in the first several games and what we’re running now are significant. It’s just that the approach is different. I think Mr. Dearmon is doing a great job in pushing connectivity and team and physical play, and yet similarities between some of the things that we call ‚Äì and dissimilarities. I mean, there’s some, specific to him, additions.

On what he was seen from Texas Tech on film:

Talented, well-prepared. It’s going to be a very competitive game. We’ll look forward to hosting them, certainly.

On Malik Clark’s status:

I think Malik Clark will be fine. He had cramps, and then he had ‚Äì really a couple little nicks, but I think he’ll be fine. I would expect him to play in this game.

On Dru Prox’s status:

I don’t know, haven’t done the research on it. I promise you that that research will be done before he goes on to the field again. But we’d love to have him for another year, should that be the case.