	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2015

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

An Interview With:

COACH KLIFF KINGSBURY

Q. How similar is TCU's offense compared to Baylor's offense?
COACH KINGSBURY: Different. Baylor does what they do. Nobody in the country does what they do with the spacing, the way they space you out, run the ball very well, play up tempo and find ways to get those receivers to the ball in space.

Q. Have your players been able to bounce back from a heartbreaking loss?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I mean last year we lost, you know, by 100, so they are a resilient group, and you get an opportunity to play in an NFL stadium, against a Top 5 team. It's a bowl atmosphere with a split down the middle. If you can't get fired up for this, I said it on Saturday, you got issues. So they'll be ready to go. They have a great mindset and they know we gotta get better this week.

Q. Do you have an update on Ian Sadler?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I mentioned it earlier, just day to day. Just day to day. I'm not sure if he'll be able to go or not. But we're going to try to get him moving today and see how he feels.

Q. The tenacity that they showed on Saturday just hanging in there the whole time, that's gotta be a good thing to look at, carry over. Can you tell us how you see that?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. Just effort, the effort was outstanding. It's just we didn't play as clean as I thought we did the previous two weeks. We missed a few things here and there on offense. And then defensively you had some big third and longs, third and 11, third and 23 that should have got up the field and didn't and they ended up scoring points on those drives. So you just have to keep that same effort and clean up the execution.

Q. Coach, what do you think was the biggest hiccup on that second to last offensive drive? Just you guys gone three and out. What do you think is the biggest hiccup to get going there?
COACH KINGSBURY: I don't know. Like I said, they made a good play. I mean they're a good defense. We ran it twice, like we had the entire second half early in drives and then threw it on third down and didn't make it happen.

Q. That was just kind of the formula you felt like?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, that's what we'd done the whole second half was run first and second and then when we needed to throw, throw on third. So did that again.

Q. Looking back do you think you could have been more aggressive at all is it just execution standpoint more?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I should have called better plays. Definitely.

Q. What's been the biggest turn around you've seen with the penalty situation?
COACH KINGSBURY: Just maturity. Yeah, just the group being older and growing up some and hopefully that continues.

Q. As a coaching staff, at the conclusion of the game, what's one thing that you guys have come together that you're going to build off of from the TCU game?
COACH KINGSBURY: Just the effort. Just the effort. Guys kept playing, kept fighting. So that's something you can work with.

Q. Is Hatfield going to be your kicker going forward?
COACH KINGSBURY: It's going to stay open. We like the competition. He stepped in there and made a big kick for us, but it's going to stay open.

Q. Just philosophically, can you walk us through maybe at the end of the game where if a team has a chance to score would you ever consider letting the team score so you could get the ball back or would you like to take your chances with your defense?
COACH KINGSBURY: I mean I think every situation is different. We felt like we had a chance to stop them. We got them to fourth down, and they made a great play.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think so. I think if there was a different situation, different time. Timeouts, all that comes into play and you may think differently.

Q. What have you seen from Russell since the end of last year, quarterback for Baylor now and getting more reps this spring?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, he looks great. Slid right in there and they haven't missed a beat. Actually production has gone up. So that's a credit to him and their offensive coaching staff. And he's very athletic, can run and a great thrower.

Q. Last week, I guess Tuesday you struggled (No microphone). What's the key to (inaudible)?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I don't know. We didn't do a good job of it last week, so we'll have to get better at it this week. But they got really three big-time guys that jump out at you. You talk about Lee and Cady as well. You can't just concentrate on one, unfortunately, because they got three that can really fly and make big plays.

Q. Was it sort of a dÃ©jÃ vu seeing TCU sort of kick itself in the foot with all those penalties? Did you take notice of how inopportune those happened to them and think back, oh, gosh, that was us a year ago?
COACH KINGSBURY: No, not really. I know they had some that did come at inopportune times, but I was just proud of our guys in an intense game like that to stay focused and for the most part play a clean game.

Q. (No microphone).
COACH KINGSBURY: Knee injuries.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yes, sir.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH KINGSBURY: There is not. They're still dealing with their issues.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. We gotta work through it this way.

Q. Coach, you had a huge (indiscernible) so far, just finishing the game throughout the season. With the effort that you saw last week, what becomes your new message this week to the team?
COACH KINGSBURY: I mean, the same. You know, once again, had the ball, had a chance to win the game and didn't close it out and then had a chance to get a stop on defense, didn't do it. So just continue to fight, give that great effort, clean some things up and then when you get a chance you gotta finish it.

Q. How surprising was it to you with as many plays as both teams ran on Saturday that there wasn't a turn over?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. That's incredible. We had the one safety that really could have ended up being the difference in the deal. But for them to run 103 snaps, that's a credit to that quarterback. As many times as he has the ball in his hands, to not turn it over, that's phenomenal.

Q. Did you feel limited in your play calling at all just based on Pat's injury?
COACH KINGSBURY: A little bit, but you know, I felt more for him because I knew he couldn't do what he normally does on some of those things. But as I said Saturday, I was just very proud of the way he battled and hung in there. He was very good for not being 100 percent.

Q. Did he show you something maybe that you don't always see in practice, just the moxy that he had to gut it out?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I've never seen him injured like that. And he didn't want to talk about it, didn't want the trainers to look at it, one of those deals, kind of stood off by himself and just hung in there and kept making throws and gave us a chance at the end.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH KINGSBURY: I think a lot. You know, if he can go out there and limp around and drag his leg around and still complete passes and lead us on scoring drives. He ran for a couple of first downs kind of limping around, that shows his teammates what he's all about, and it fires him up.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297