K-State's AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl Teleconference Quotes
Dec 04, 2016 | Football
Head Coach Bill Snyder
Opening Statement…
“We’re honored to be in the (AdvoCare V100) Texas Bowl. Kansas State has played there one previous time, and it’s my understanding that there are a lot of wonderful people there. We always enjoy these opportunities. Texas A&M is an extremely talented football team. I don’t know a great deal about them at this particular point in time, but I do have great respect for Kevin (Sumlin) and Texas A&M in general. I’ve always had a great deal of respect for them.”
On the second half of the season…
“In all reality, we just got better and became a good football team collectively across the board. That’s been the mantra of our program over the years. That’s the value of daily improvement, and we’re not alone in that – most teams across the country are dedicated to that, and we certainly are. Our players believe in that, and, consequently, have made the effort and commitment to do so. At the end of the day, we just became a little bit better, with some ups and downs.”
On K-State’s running game over the second half of the season…
“First and foremost, that’s what we had the opportunity to do. Secondly, I am very proud of our offensive line and the progress they have made throughout the course of the year. That’s one of those groups that have made very genuine and consistent improvement throughout the course of the year. You can’t run the ball well if your offensive line doesn’t execute as you hope that it would. Obviously, Jesse (Ertz) has had a big role in that, and certainly the running backs have done a nice job. In the last three ballgames or so our running backs have really run explosively, and that has an impact on the running game as well. So it’s a combination of those four or five things.”
On what a win over an SEC team would mean…
“It would be a very positive thing. These are two great conferences with a lot of extremely talented football teams. I’ve always said the Big 12 Conference, from top to bottom and in my eyes, is right in the top echelon in top conferences in the country. If you go back and look at the Big 12 Conference, you see so many teams that so many might consider not an upper-echelon program and you see the winning games against the best in the conference, or play them extremely close. I have a very strong feeling about the competitive nature of the Big 12 Conference from top to bottom. The SEC and the success they’ve had goes without saying.”
On what getting a ninth win would mean…
“It would be a positive thing considering the fact that we didn’t start off as well as we would have liked. Next year is next year, but surely it could (be a stepping stone to next year). Hopefully that would be the case. As I’ve said every year, each year has totally different dynamics than previous years. It’s one step at a time. More often than not, the previous year and how things play out is not necessarily a good indicator of where the next team is going to go.”
On the improvement of quarterback Jesse Ertz…
“I think he, as so many others have, improved their game immensely. He has gotten himself better and better, and probably more opportunities have presented themselves to him. He’s taken advantage of it. He is very mentally and physically tough, young guy. He’s a good leader in his own way with players in the program. They have great respect for him and what he has been able to do and the toughness he has shown. When you put it all together, he is an experience quarterback because he was not due to the injury he endured at the beginning of last year.”
