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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 22, 2016

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

Oklahoma - 66, Texas Tech - 59

Q. A week ago you said you were embarrassed by your team and I realize there's no moral victories, but tonight the effort and heart and play was certainly there for your team?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I thought we were into it a lot more passionate at least. As I said, last week was a complete embarrassment. I thought at least we had good energy. And we didn't make plays we needed to make, but at least we were into the game.

Q. Can you talk about Patrick Mahome's performance tonight? Obviously had a strategy to throw the ball like crazy. (Indiscernible) passing record, came close for attempts, broke both pass records?
COACH KINGSBURY: I mean, that's what we had. We knew going in it would be tough sledding. Inside they have some big guys. We felt like we could get them tired if we played fast and threw it all over the yard and that was the plan going in.

I didn't know we would throw it that much, but he got hot, missed a couple of throws we'd like to have back, but hung in there, banged up and I thought played a really tough game.

Q. (Indiscernible) records on defense tonight. What were they doing, especially Joe Dixon?
COACH KINGSBURY: He was phenomenal. He was better than anybody we had on the field. He's a better receiver.

We couldn't cover him and tackle him. And Baker was on and made a bunch of great throws. Dede Westbrook was faster than anybody we had. We couldn't stop him, so it made for a bad combination when you don't turn them over at all. It's been a common thing -- we couldn't get any turnovers and we turned I thought over twice.

Q. Why do you think the defense hasn't been able to force any turnovers?
COACH KINGSBURY: When people are running that wide open it's hard to get any. And that was the problem. They'd create great separation with everybody, and so we weren't close to many balls.

Q. 59 points enough to win against Oklahoma you feel?
COACH KINGSBURY: Not that team. They're really good offensively. When they get hot like that and don't turn the ball over. If you look at their season they've scored a lot of points and we didn't turn them over and that's the result.

Q. Can you speak to both PT and Jonathan -- the performance those guys had tonight?
COACH KINGSBURY: They've gotten better each week. I thought last week, like I said, probably didn't do a good enough job getting the ball, and they probably didn't do good enough job being physical and being tough, when those guys were getting their hands on them.

Made a bunch of plays, kept fighting until the end. That was encouraging. Hopefully we'll take a step inside with those guys, hopefully, maybe they'll grow up a little more this week.

Q. Same thing on Da'Leon. He played a lot more running back than anybody else. Can you talk about how he played when he was in there?
COACH KINGSBURY: He's just a tough kid. Loves football. Has a great energy about him and that's really why we wanted to go with him. A little bigger body. He fell forward on some third downs that we'd been stuffed on earlier in the season. That's really why he was getting those reps.

Q. When they're that wide open defensively, is that strategy? Is that just they're that much better or is that just a combination of a lot of things?
COACH KINGSBURY: I'll have to watch the film to figure out the strategy portion of it. But No. 11 is really good. No. 25 is really good. Tight end's really good. What I saw was them creating separation by being better players than us.

Q. Your thoughts on your offensive line in general tonight?
COACH KINGSBURY: I thought they hung in there the first half. And then Murphy came in and really solidified it. I thought there was a lot less pressure in the second half.

But they fought. Anytime you throw it 88 times, I don't know how many sacks we gave up. Not many. And a lot of that was Pat moving around and escaping. But I thought they fought and conditioning looked a lot better than it did the previous week.

Q. Seemed like all game was, like, second half you were within six, seven, they would score -- can you talk just, were you hoping for that one stop maybe?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, just I think the law of averages we could get one but we didn't. They scored on every drive except the one they took a knee on at the end.

So that's that. And really didn't even get them in third down, I don't think, in the second half. So they did a tremendous job on first and second down, making big plays.

Q. Can you kind of go over Mahomes tonight, how you feel like he played?
COACH KINGSBURY: I thought he battled. Definitely throws in the first we'd like to have back. He's still banged up. You could tell a couple of those throws he couldn't get all the way into but made some big ones late. And when the pressure was on I thought he kept going toe for toe knowing we couldn't not score. He's a tough kid. I appreciate his fight, but we've just got to get better.

Q. You talked about some of the penalties on the offensive line, especially when QT's long touchdown pass got called back, and had some other first down plays called back because of penalties. Still working on that.
COACH KINGSBURY: I think so. That's just -- most of those were effort. We had the one high-low on the young running back. That's a learning experience for a true freshman running back. And those guys are fighting against some quality "D" line men and I'll have to watch the tape.

But offensively I thought we overcame most of them but you still can't have that many penalties on offense to be really successful in this league.

Q. You've got five games left, and you're with TCU next weekend. Your thoughts as you hit the long stretch here?
COACH KINGSBURY: We've got to get better. That's all can say. It's not good enough. Hasn't been good enough. Gotta find ways to win these games. That's the bottom line.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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