K-State Holds Weekly Press Conference Prior to Hosting TCU

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and select players met with members of the media on Tuesday at the Vanier Family Football Complex prior to the Wildcats' hosting TCU on Saturday. A complete transcript of Klieman's press conference (also streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and archived here) are posted below, in addition to comments from select players.

The Wildcats and Horned Frogs kick off at 2:30 p.m., on Saturday afternoon at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in a game televised by ESPNU with Mike Couzens and Dustin Fox on the call.

CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"Good afternoon, everyone. Excited about celebrating a win with the guys yesterday. Told the guys after the game that it was a team effort and started with scout team last week. I thought our scout team was really good. We went a lot more ones versus ones or ones versus twos, or good on good o-line vs. d-line last week. I think that really helped us having our two offensive line go against our one defensive line and vice versa for a good chunk of practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think it allowed our guys to play a little bit faster and see pictures quite a bit. But, overall, I thought our scout teams did really well. Then kids watched countless amount of film and prepared really well. Not that we haven't prepared well in the past. I just think there was such a sense of urgency this week or this past week. It didn't start off well in the game, but I was pleased with the way the guys didn't panic. Especially at halftime when we went in and made some adjustments and the guys were saying all the right things. Felt like we just needed to make a play, and we talked about getting a break, making a break, making a play. Ty Zentner and Felix Anudike-Uzomah were really the two plays that sparked us. We get the big punt that we down inside the four and then Felix makes an absolutely phenomenal play, getting held and getting the safety. That kind of gave us a lift on the sideline. We were able to make a couple plays after that to have success and find a way to win. So, a big win for the program, but now we have to turn the page and get ready for a really good TCU team. That's going to be a great ball game here this Saturday like it's been the last few years."

On if TCU's struggles against West Virginia matter for this week…
"It really doesn't. I think there's so many different matchups in this league that are kind of different matchups. I look at how Texas Tech has won against West Virginia the last three years somehow. We found a way to win against Texas Tech for the last three years, and there's just different matchups like that. There's such parity in this league. I think we found that out last weekend in Lawrence. I thought KU played a phenomenal game, and you have to be ready to play every week. So, we look at TCU. As a whole, we have played them really tight ball games the last two years and found a way to come away with victories, but they could have gone either way. They're just such a well-coached, physical, athletic team that we have to have great plans."

On the TCU offense…
"Explosive plays. Doesn't matter who they're playing against. You look at the games against Texas and OU and Texas Tech. The amount of explosive plays, the 30- to 40- to 60-yard plays that they get against people, rushing the football with two phenomenal running backs and throwing the ball and getting explosive plays with a wide receiver. I'm a big Max Duggan fan. I think Max is a great competitor, really good quarterback, excellent runner, can beat you running it and throwing it. Been a fan of his since the time he played here as a true freshman and made some plays against us. I think he's a great competitor."

On if what West Virginia did against TCU relates to what K-State can do…
"Well, we have to be able to rush the football, even though we didn't have great success last week. We have to find ways to rush the football to complement us throwing the ball and to complement us on defense. They (West Virginia) got off to a poor start, missing a tackle on a kick return, but then they just methodically made some plays. They got him to turn the ball over, so they were able to get some short fields. But West Virginia had a really good game plan."

On Felix Anudike-Uzomah's play against Texas Tech…
"It's one of the best plays I've seen, and he did a great job. We called a movement where he kind of slid inside at the last second and shot a gap, but the guy kind of saw him and he kind of grabbed him and held on to him, but Felix just kept powering through. Then to be able to not only hit the kid but not have the guy go forward and then knock him to the side and knock him backward a little bit. I thought it was a phenomenal play. I know we talked about it in our team meeting yesterday. The appreciation our guys had for that play, the appreciation the guys had for Ty (Zentner) had an 81-yard punt. He kicked the ball 81 yards in the air, which is pretty remarkable. We made some plays on Saturday. I thought that was the key."

On when he knew Anudike-Uzomah could make such an impact…
"Last year learning from Wyatt (Hubert), I believe just seeing the motor and the ability to utilize his explosiveness. He's going to continue to get stronger and continue to get quicker but he's an explosive guy. He plays so hard, and that's a credit to him and a credit to Coach (Buddy) Wyatt who pushes him. I've just seen glimpses of the guy, obviously, last year. This year it's been really consistent."

On Matt Wells…
"Yeah, I don't know all the circumstances, but Matt's a class act and a good friend of mine in the profession. Sorry to hear it, and it's a bad deal for him. It's a bad deal for the profession, but I don't know all the circumstances."

On the front seven against the TCU offensive line…
"Big challenge for us because they have a really good offensive line. They're big, they're physical, they're older guys. We have to be able to hold up in the run. They're going to be able to run the football some. They're going to get some yards with the backs that they have, in the scheme that they have. We have to try to eliminate the explosive play. It's something that we've been talking about for weeks now, and we have not done a great job of that. It's going back and continuing to work on the fundamentals of block destruction. Work on the fundamentals of angles and tackles and know where you can miss because as we saw on film the week before when we were prepping for Texas Tech, I think TCU had six to eight runs that were 40-plus yards. Oftentimes there was a guy there and they couldn't make the play. We have to be able to make the play against really good running backs."

On improvement from the linebackers…
"Just the fact that we're running through leverage. I thought from the middle of the second quarter on, I thought collectively as a defense we played a lot more sound. We had good gap integrity. We were able to keep the leverage on the defense. They had the one long pass right before half. That was disappointing. But from a run game standpoint, we started to play better late in that second quarter, and then it carried over into the second half. That's the thing that I know is frustrating for guys, frustrating for us as coaches, frustrating for fans and stuff is we've got to be able to put that together for four quarters on defense. We've played in spurts really well. We shut them out in the second half, which is a dynamite performance, but we have to be able to sustain it. You have to be able to be consistent."

On if the second half against Texas Tech was the best the defense has played in a while…
"Yeah, probably. We had a couple of good performances early on whether it be a half or so, but that goes back to the same thing. We have to sustain that for four quarters. We have to start faster on defense. We haven't started very fast the last few weeks on defense. It's not like the calls are any different. We're making the same calls in the first half that we are in the second half. You can't say, 'Well, we're getting adjusted to the speed of the game.' They don't allow you to do that. It's not an exhibition season for a quarter. We have to get adjusted to the speed a lot faster. I'm hopeful going against our offense a little bit more and going some ones versus ones or ones versus twos, in getting some older, more experienced linemen and backs to go against will help us to start a little bit faster, but we played well in the second half. Hopefully that gives them some confidence."

On if there has been a turning point with the defense…
"We'll find out. We had a good day yesterday, but today's our first day in pads and we have to have physical practice. Guys are beat up. So, we have to be careful. We got to have physical practice but most importantly we have to do a great job of continuing to work the little things that are getting us, which is block destruction, of knowing how to get off a block and where I have to keep my leverage on a block and running through leverage on contact. That's going to be the biggest challenge this week against running backs that are not going to get arm tackled. They're going to run through arm tackles."

On Bronson Massie's status…
"He didn't practice yesterday. We're hopeful that it's today or tomorrow that he gets out there. I know he was doing some conditioning things. I know he was doing some individual work, but we got to see if he can punch and pop and press and get off blocks. That's what we'll find out in the next two days."

On the team's mindset after Saturday in Lubbock…
"Well, there's confidence in the fact that we found a way to win a game that for a while didn't look like we were going to pull it out. I think that's got to give the guys confidence that we were down 14 points twice and down in the fourth quarter. Just that fourth quarter, we made a nice drive. We turn the ball over. They make a drive, we get a stop, and then we drive it down the field and score to go up. Then the defense gets a big stop, and then the offense runs the clock out. I thought that was a confidence boost for the offensive linemen and the running backs to say, 'We're going to finish the game on the field.' So, energy is good. It's always better after a win, and it's been a while, when you throw the open weekend in there, it had been a while. So, we talked about having a good feeling again and it starts with our preparation Monday through Thursday."

On if wins can be contagious…
"Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think it's the confidence we talked about last week, preparation leads to confidence. I think our guys prepared really well and confidence was there. Was it shaken a little bit early on? Yeah, but the confidence didn't waver. Confidence leads to belief. When you have belief as a football player, if you have belief as a team, that becomes contagious. That's what we have to continue to work on for consistency purposes."

On the continued leadership of Skylar Thompson…
"He's been everything, and we put a lot on Skylar's plate. I grabbed him in the second half and said, 'They're doing a good job of shutting down our run game. They're doing a really good job, but we got to spin it around. We're going to get into some open sets, and we're going to throw the football, and we're going to put the game on your shoulders.' He looked at me and said, 'Let's go. Let's do it.' Not every game is going to be like that. Some games you're going to have success running the football, and then you have to complement it with the throw game. On Saturday, we had to in that second half – throw the football to be successful, and 11 guys caught passes. I think that's something that is really a critical piece for us that you're always a viable candidate in the pass game when Skylar is throwing the ball. He saw the field really well, dumped it off periodically. I thought they rushed the passer really well, and I thought our protection held up for the most part and having that many guys involved I think is going to help us moving forward."

On finding consistency in the run game and pass game together…
"A little bit of what the defense gives you. That's for starters. Are they going to load the box or they're going to have a light box? That's going to dictate some of it. But for us, it's probably the balance on early downs. I think that's what helped us in the second half this past week is we threw the ball an awful lot on first and second down. Even when it got to third down, it was a little bit more third and manageable and not being predictable or not being by the book and saying we're going to run the ball early to set up some of the play action was the thing that was much different about this game. A lot of the passing game in the second half was not built on play action. It was lining up four and five receiver sets, and I know Deuce (Vaughn) and Daniel (Imatorbhebhe) and tight ends are a part of that. But, just trying to get the ball out of our hands and see if we can make some plays after the catch and so we need balance, but in the same respect, we still controlled the clock and controlled the tempo and kept their offense on the sideline. I thought that was important. However you do that, whether it's a controlled rush game or a controlled passing game, if you can keep a really good offense on the sideline the clock is going to keep ticking."

On wide receiver Kade Warner…
"Yeah, he's been great for us. He's been a tremendous leader. He's getting more and more comfortable in the offense. He has a great rapport with Skylar (Thompson), and he's made a few impact plays. I'm hopeful that with the confidence between the two he can make more impactful plays because he's got really good hands. He creates separation, and he makes plays with a football in his hand. His dad and I went to school together. I was a little bit older than Kurt, but played with Kurt for my first two years. I was a grad assistant the next three years when Kurt was there, and Kurt had a phenomenal senior season. I think it was 1993, I was in my last year as a grad assistant there and just always maintained contact with Kurt throughout the years. He and his wife, Brenda, are local Iowans that I've known for a long time and such a tremendous family. They've done so many things across the region, country, state where they're at in Arizona, just because they give back so much."

On the fullback position…
"Yeah, they've done a nice job where we just keep rotating guys in there trying to find the right mix as well as we've had some injuries, some illnesses maybe that we haven't had somebody all the time. It's sometimes been Jax (Dineen), sometimes been (Ben) Sinnott, sometimes been (Mason) Barta, even Christian Moore has been a little bit of that, as well as you know (Nick) Lenners. There are some of the other guys that are playing some tight end and fullback. It's going to be kind of by committee. That's what we're going to continue to do as we continue to evaluate what skill set each guy has. We're trying to push Ben Sinnott a little bit more because he's a hybrid tight end and fullback, where some of these guys are true fullbacks. So, I think J-Ray (Jason Ray) is doing a great job of trying to spread those reps around."

On the penalties…
"Yeah, that was really frustrating on Saturday, once again. If you have a holding penalty or something, okay, that's going to happen in a game situation. The pre-snap penalties, being in game seven, game eight have to stop. The crowd was good, but the crowd shouldn't have been that big of a factor. I know it's something that, whether it's the rhythm of the cadence to us sitting in there, to the clap because we had to go clap a few times. We prepped it. We worked a bunch throughout the week. We just have to clean them up. We are not a unit that needs to be in first and 15 all the time. We've got to get better and clean that stuff up."

On the number of penalties…
"I like zero, but the biggest thing is you want the pre-snap penalties to be gone. The false starts, the offsides. We didn't jump offsides when they threw the pick. I mean, we didn't. You can see it on film. We didn't jump offsides, but those are the ones you have to avoid it because you're going to get an occasional holding or pass interference or something. So, we've got to eliminate the pre-snap penalties. It's part concentration and focus and it's part just the rhythm of how we run our cadence."

On Deuce Vaughn reaching 2,000 all-purpose yards already…
"It's fun to watch every week. It's fun to watch on TV, and it's fun to watch at practice because he does the same things in practice. The one catch he made on their sideline where it should have been a three-yard gain, and he split a couple guys and then another guy had an angle on him and he kind of stiff armed that guy and then everybody thought he was out of bounds, and he wasn't out of bounds, getting down to the 11-yard line. Those are the plays that you take for granted thinking it's just Deuce being Deuce, but those are phenomenal plays that he's able to make. Those are the explosive plays that we need to have him make because he is that kind of a player."

On defensive linemen moving around…
"One of our best players in the game was (Jaylen) Pickle. I thought Pick played a really, really good game. He was disruptive, put some pressure on the quarterback. I know that we're always getting good play out of Timmy (Horne) and Eli (Huggins). Tyrone Taleni had a big sack for us. Cartez (Crook-Jones) is playing a little bit there. It's going to be until we get Boom (Bronson Massie) back and more of a full-speed Boom. I don't know if that's going to be this week or next week, but we're going to have to continue to move guys around. It was a hot day down there. We needed mileage out of a lot of different bodies. The other thing that helped us was Felix (Anudike-Uzomah) wasn't having to play 55 plays. We cut his reps down a little bit, and you saw the impact of that in the fourth quarter. There was a fresh Felix in the fourth quarter. A fresh Nate (Matlack) in the fourth quarter as opposed to guys that had played 50 some snaps. They were in the 30 area, and that allowed us in the fourth quarter, I think, to really do a good job rushing the passer. We rushed four this week a lot more than we have in the past. We brought Daniel Green in there and let him rush the passer, because we thought we had an advantage against their offensive line. We wanted the four-man rush to create some one on ones and it did."

On wide receiver Chabastin Taylor…
"I know it's frustrating for him because he's a prideful guy. He's working his tail off to get his body back to where it was last year because he was really impactful and really explosive and a really quick throttle last year. You could tell he had confidence in himself and confidence in his body. Then he had the unfortunate injury in in December, and you don't have a surgery until around Christmas. Those injuries typically take a year, and sometimes you can get back at nine months to 10 months. I know he's pushing the envelope, and it was fun to see him make a catch, fun to see him get back out there. I'm hoping that gives him some confidence as well, because he's a really good football player. It's just unfortunate that he had to miss so much time, and he's just trying to play catch up."

On getting more opportunities for Joe Ervin…
"Yes. That was just a little bit different gameplan once we got to the second half of us throwing the football so much. Then we had to do it a little bit more wide receiver in some of our empty stuff, but in a normal situation absolutely. Joe's an explosive running back and is going to continue to make some plays for us. I think that's getting back to one of the questions earlier: what kind of game is it? What are they doing? Is that a light box? Is it somewhere where they're pushing everybody in the box, and how many times are we able to run the football? I've been really pleased with Joe throughout this whole season, and he's had a huge impact on our success."

On the passing accuracy of Skylar Thompson…
"He has a lot of confidence in his body. You can see over the last three weeks how that confidence has grown with his knee feeling so much better. His arm feels good. He's getting the timing with all these receivers Monday through Friday as opposed to missing the few weeks he did. It was very similar to what he was doing in fall camp, spinning it around and having a lot of confidence. The thing that's fun for me is to talk to him on the sideline or after the game about how the game has slowed down for him, and he sees things so well. He's such an accurate thrower and even out of tough platforms or under duress, he finds a way to either step up or slide out and put the ball in a position where kids can make plays. I'm excited about where he's at. I know he's excited about how he's playing, and there's going to be games like we had last Saturday where we have to put it in his hands. I don't know how that's going to play out every week, but we had another part of the game plan that we really went to last Saturday. I think he's one of the best players in the Big 12, and you have to let him be that guy and let him play."

SKYLAR THOMPSON, SENIOR QUARTERBACK
On what's clicking for him right now...
"I think just having confidence in myself and my teammates, my receivers, the o-line is doing a great job giving me the spaces to step up into and extend plays a little bit. I think we put a lot of work in our passing game this offseason, watching film and getting extra work during the summer. We've done a lot of work in the dark in that aspect and to kind of see it pay off, see it flourish a little bit is big time. I think guys just have a lot of confidence and understand their role on the team. I think I hit 11 receivers last weekend, so everybody knows they may get the ball at any point in time. I think that gives them the confidence and encouragement to run the route to win because they can get the ball thrown to them at any time. So, it's big time for us, and I think it makes us harder to defend whenever we have so many guys that can catch the football and make a play."

On coming together as an offense...
"I think it's an offense for us. It's an offense just coming together and playing complimentary football. I think there's times where the runs aren't working, so you say, 'Okay, let's go to the pass,' and you see the run game fade off a little bit. I think just playing off one another and us just executing. I thought Texas Tech did a really good job of doing a lot of twists and stunts and stuff in the box to help limit our run game and defend that. That's why in the third quarter, we opened it up a little bit more and got away from that a little bit. Sometimes you have to take what the defense has given you and execute. That's what we did last week, and it led to a win."

On what has made Phillip Brooks a better wide receiver...
"This offseason I saw Phillip (Brooks) take a big step in just being committed to being the best football player that he possibly could be. He's always out there catching punts, he's always out there working on that part of his game, but anytime I got a hold of him about catching for me or watching film or whatever the case may be, he was always there. Just taking ownership in that receiving room too, I think him, Malik Knowles, Landry Weber, and Kade Warner are guys that did a great job of taking ownership in that receivers room and demanding more out of people, along with myself, to just build confidence and build trust within our position groups, quarterbacks and receivers. In order to do that, you have to spend a lot of time together, you have to be on the same page, and that just doesn't happen overnight. Phil's done a really good job of sticking to the course and trusting in his abilities. You can tell when he runs his routes, he runs with a lot of confidence and understands how to get open, and that's big time for us."

On confidence as of right now in himself...
"Yeah, 100 percent. It's something I've been working on for a long time. I've always believed I've been able to throw the football. It's just gaining more confidence, staying in the pocket, and getting through my progressions and all that. I think that the work that I've put in behind the scenes to improve in that aspect has forced me a little bit. Just understanding where my throws are, and just understanding where the holes in the defense are going to be at. I think there's a lot of preparation that goes into doing that, and the game just feels really slow for me right now. I'm seeing things very well and understanding what defenses are trying to do and then how to attack that. Coach (Courtney) Messingham and myself and Coach (Collin) Klein have all been on the same page of how we can exploit that and be successful in helping our team win football games. It was awesome to see that take place this past weekend and lead to a win when we started out the game down 14-0 without even touching the ball. We could easily have thrown in the towel and given up, but our guys just kept believing. I kept believing. Everybody on our team never wavered and we finally settled in there and made some good plays and came back and won and it was a big, big win for us."

TY ZENTNER, SENIOR PUNTER
On the long punt...
"We were going into a tough wind. It was blowing out of that endzone that we were punting into. It wasn't a great punt, the ball kind of dropped inside and got a weird rotation on it, but it got a good bounce. Tyrone (Howell) and Randen (Plattner) followed it down to the endzone, so it was a great effort by them. Then Felix (Anudike-Uzomah) with a great safety. So, I didn't hit a good ball, but that's where it rolls sometimes."

On the long punt being the turning point in the game...
"Yeah, it always feels good to give the team energy, and sometimes that's what you need. When it comes from special teams, it can happen whenever somebody gets an opportunity to make a play."

On rising to the occasion during kickoffs...
"The second one was the biggest kickoff I've ever hit. It was because I had the wind to my back, so I felt like if I made good contact with the ball, I was going to get a nice slow rotation, and I was going to be open."

FELIX ANUDIKE-UZOMAH, SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE END
On how Saturday's momentum is carrying into this week...
"It's given us more confidence with our play. Obviously our defense was not performing that well in the last three games we lost, but that win just gave us more confidence to show that we can play with anybody in our conference."

On what conversations he's having with his teammates after Saturday's big play...
"The conversations are nice. They're telling me to stay humble and that I made a great play, which changed the game, and how we defensively need to be playmakers because that's basically what football is. They are explaining what our defense has to become because, even if the offense starts slow, the defense needs to pick it up and make stops so we can be in a good position to win the game."

On Coach Klieman's message to him after the big play...
"When I was making that play, I didn't even realize that the guy was still on my back. I literally dove at his legs because I knew where the play was going to go. We practiced that play every practice. Coach Klieman on the sidelines said, 'What the heck were you doing? What type of play was that? Did you turn into the Hulk or something?' I don't know, I just saw the play and made it."

KADE WARNER, SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER
On if his family comes to games...
"I think they've come to every single one so far. They try to make it out to as many as they can. However, I don't usually get to see them because my dad works on Sundays. He coaches my little brother on Fridays and comes here Saturday morning and flies out Saturday night. A lot of the games they'll text me, 'Hey, we love you, great to see you. See you next week.' So, I don't get to see them much, but they come to support me as much as they can."

On if the receiver unit is just now starting to scratch the level of its potential...
"100 percent. I think you saw this last week, but we had 11 guys catch the football and we rotated a lot more guys in. I think that comes with building that trust at practice. It doesn't just come with going out there on Saturdays and just running around. We have to go out there with Skylar (Thompson), Will (Howard), and Jaren (Lewis) and prove it every single day that they can throw us the ball, and we're going to be where we should be. That preparation was yesterday, continues today, tomorrow, and all the way till Saturday."

REGGIE STUBBLEFIELD, SENIOR DEFENSIVE BACK
On the second half turnaround against Texas Tech…
"I believe the difference was just cleaning up a few errors that we had. We gave up a couple of big plays and had some lack of effort, but we fixed some things and tweaked a couple of things and got the job done."

On his role throughout the season so far…
"Preparation. I know at any moment anybody can step up and make an impact in a game. I'm just keeping myself ready, being prepared and being selfless with whatever Coach and the staff need from me to help win the game. That's what I'm going to step up and do."

On the defense building on last week's performance…
"In that Texas Tech game, we gave them a lot of points. There were things we did that allowed them to put points on the board, so cleaning up some things and handling our business. I think we can definitely take our defensive play to the next level."

On playing at home…
"It's exceeded expectations. I never had the opportunity before. It's just a blessing honestly. I love it here in Manhattan. I appreciate the fans. They do a great job of filling the stadium every weekend, so it has definitely exceeded expectations for sure."

CODY FLETCHER, SENIOR LINEBACKER
On if the second half last week showed what this defense is capable of…
"I think the second half for sure. I think the first half, we still had mental errors and a lot of mistakes, but in the second half we played like we know we can play."

On the defense settling in during the second half last week…
"We're getting comfortable. We're more comfortable every week with our defense for sure. Like you said, we're getting our feet on the ground."

On what changed in the second half against Texas Tech…
"We didn't change much. We just cleaned up some of our mistakes. We cleaned up our mental errors. We were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot. When you watch film, and when we're doing stuff right, we were stopping them like we did in the second half. After the first half, we just cleaned up a few things and were good to go."

On limiting explosive plays against TCU…
"They have some explosive players, as you know. They have really good running backs, a couple good receivers and the quarterback is a playmaker. That's the big thing. You see the second half last week, we limited explosive plays. The first half, we had a couple that got loose on us. So, I think that the big thing this week is limiting the running backs, especially from getting out and making big plays."

Kansas State University Athletics

K-State Holds Weekly Press Conference Prior to Hosting TCU

Players Mentioned

Felix Anudike-Uzomah

Phillip Brooks

Daniel Green

Malik Knowles

Bronson Massie

Christian Moore

Ben Sinnott

Tyrone Taleni

Chabastin Taylor

Skylar Thompson

Deuce Vaughn

Kade Warner

Landry Weber

Ty Zentner

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