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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2018

Kliff Kingsbury

Lubbock, Texas

West Virginia - 42, Texas Tech - 34

Q. What do you think changed between your team in the first half and the second half?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. You know, I think you want to avoid the letdown deal, but I did a poor job of preparing us because we were awful in that first half and they were really good. Came out and dominated us, and you get behind like that against a good team, you're not going to stand a chance. So I don't have an answer, but that's on me for not having us prepared. I know that.

Q. Do you think your team showed resilience in the second half? Was that a gut-check by them or were there some adjustments?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, hopefully a little bit of both. They continued to play hard and fought back into the game, but didn't make enough plays to finish it.

Q. Is there anything in particular that you attribute the slow start to?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I don't know, but like I said, I should have had them more prepared and felt like we had a good week of practice, felt like we were focused, but we came out, gave up way too many big plays defensively, and then offensively I think we had nine or ten drops, which is the most I've ever seen. Not focused, not playing physical, just got dominated the entire first half, and you try to play catch-up with the No. 12 team in the country with that skill and that quarterback, you're not going to beat them.

Q. What did you think of Jett's performance?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He competed hard. He came in and fought. He'd like to have a couple throws back, obviously, but he's a great competitor, and he fought hard for his teammates.

Q. What's the status of Alan?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'm not sure. I've got to go check on him. But he wasn't able to return.

Q. How much do you think Duffey's ability to run really opened up your offense?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I don't think it did. Yeah, I don't think it did. I thought he made some plays, but I thought we've got to hang in there and make some other plays through their design. But he kept competing, kept fighting. We just -- the entire game we had no rhythm, couldn't catch the ball, couldn't protect as well as we would have liked, couldn't run the ball very well. Just very poor on offense.

Q. What are some other positives you want to take out of this?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: That's really it. You can't take away -- the way we played in that first half is as bad as you can play, and then I just thought they fought. They didn't give up, which was -- which you want to see, but it's not good enough.

Q. How big of a difference do you think the stadium being full in the first quarter made, as close as it was?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I'm not sure. I would have left, too, if that was that poor of a performance and effort in the first half. I don't blame anybody for leaving.

Q. How do you go into this bye week with this loss now and become a better team?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we've got to get healthy. We've got to get our starting running back going again full go, got to get T.J. Vasher back, got to see where the quarterbacks are at, and there's some things. We've got to regroup and get healthy and then just play better. I thought defensively the second half we made some adjustments, played hard, but that first half we were just giving up -- you give up 400 yards in a half and 35 points, it's not going to beat anybody. We'll keep working at it, continue to execute at a high level, higher level. That's what we've got to do.

Q. How big of a concern is it that against Ole Miss the defense gives up 24 in the first quarter, and the defense gives up 28 in the first quarter here, and that's the part of your team you're supposed to be hanging your hat on this year?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, that wasn't good enough. It was very, very poor in both those games. You can't allow them just to go up and down the field like that, uncontested throws and people running wide open and not getting any takeaways, and we know that. So it was definitely a concern. They're really good on offense. Their skill is tremendous. Their quarterback is a great player. They've got a great scheme, but we can't make it that easy.

Q. You mentioned that you wouldn't blame the fans for leaving because of the poor effort only. But what did you see internally today, particularly during the time (indiscernible)?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I saw it at halftime. I saw guys stand up and try to take control of what was going on, and they came out and fought. But that's where I saw it.

Q. What you saw from Jett today, making a lot of plays and making stuff happen, but the two interceptions were pretty -- does that kind of encapsulate what you've seen from him all along?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I'll take that on me. Today I needed to give him stuff that he was comfortable with, and obviously those two plays were concepts that he didn't have a good feel for, and I think he just kind of forced it in there, guessing where to go with the football based upon not getting enough reps at those plays. So I think that's on me.

But obviously at that position you've got to take care of the football. He made some great plays. He competed really hard. He fought for his teammates, and I commend him for that, but we've got to protect the football at our position, and we had three of those from the quarterback position, one for a pick six, one that came back to the 30, and you're not going to beat anybody doing that.

Q. Theoretically if Alan has to miss a game or however many games, did you see enough from Jett today that you feel comfortable with him, and how close is McLane to being back in the picture?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I've felt comfortable with all three guys from fall camp on, but we'll see. I've got to get back and see where everybody's health is at, McLane and Alan, and then go from there, and we'll get some good practices in over the next 12 days and make a good decision.

Q. Are Da'Leon and Trey 100 percent?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: They're getting there. I wouldn't say 100 percent, but they're getting there. I think these 12 days will give them a chance to get full go. Hopefully T.J. will get full go, and those are guys we need to lean on moving forward.

Q. How would you assess Antoine's performance?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: He had a few drops that he usually doesn't have, but he competes hard. He made some big plays, as well. With T.J. out, we really leaned on him, and the ball came his way a bunch, and I thought he made some good plays, but he had some drops that are uncharacteristic, and he'll get that straight. He'll get it fixed over the next 12 days.

Q. What happened sort of during halftime in the locker room? You guys went down, would have been fairly easy for you guys to pack it in. You come out a lot more motivated in the second half. Did people speak up?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, that's kind of an in-house deal, but I saw some internal leadership, saw some guys with some fight, and they came out and played harder in the second half, executed a little bit better. But it was really too late at that point. When you get behind a team like that, that many points, it's going to be an uphill battle.

Q. A lot of your rushing plays were no gain, negative yards, two yards. What did you think of your offensive line and West Virginia's defensive line? Was your inability to move people --
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think a little bit of both. I didn't think we had our best game up front, but they're a good defense, and he has a good scheme, and those linebackers are really talented players. They cover those guys as they come downhill, and you saw some of those pop passes were open early that we missed. But they were open. But they have a good scheme against the run, and I thought they did a good job against us.

Q. Can you talk about the pick six play a little bit and what that play was supposed to be? Was it a busted play?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: No, yeah, the read took us over to the other side, and he looked back late and just threw it to them. It was just a poor throw. He just threw it low. I think he was trying to throw to Antoine and just threw it right to them, which we can't do.

Q. Antoine looked wide open.
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, it just came out funky, and you can't do that. You can't throw it right to them for a pick six in that situation. 1st and 10, got the ball to tie the game, and got to learn from it and get better.

Q. Would you be good with playing Carter all season? Obviously Alan has shown a lot and Jett has shown a lot. What went into that decision originally and how comfortable are you?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: You know, ball security, I think some leadership, handling your business, doing things right every day, McLane really stepped up in fall camp and he earned that job, and these other guys have done some things. Alan played well, and I thought he was doing okay today, had the one interception but had some bad drops early that hurt us offensively that guys weren't helping him.

So we'll see. We'll evaluate everything, get everybody healthy and see where we're at.

Q. Was it Alan's ribs?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: I've got to get -- I've got to go see him and see exactly what's going on. I don't want to comment on it just yet.

Q. What was the process like with Alan's recruitment? How did you find him fairly early, and what was that process like?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, we'd known about Alan for a while. He had come to our camp several years, and he kept getting better and better. He played four years there at Grapevine, and the last camp session we had, I thought he'd really matured and was playing at a high level, so we offered him a scholarship.

Q. Is he in the hospital or is he here?
KLIFF KINGSBURY: Yeah, they took him to be evaluated somewhere else.

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