K-State Coordinators Meet with Media Leading Up to TCU Contest
Oct 28, 2021 | Football
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham and defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman met with members of the media on Thursday at the Vanier Family Football Complex, as the Wildcats are in their final preparations before hosting TCU. Links to video of both press conferences are above, and a complete transcript is below.
COURTNEY MESSINGHAM, OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On if K-State stays with the passing game due to its recent efficiency...
"To a certain extent because we've talked about as a program, the more explosive plays you can get, the better opportunity you have. That being said, I still think we got to have good balance, but he is throwing it extremely well. He's been, two and three games now, getting more and more accurate, getting more and more comfortable, especially with his lower body. That obviously helps him throw it."
On Texas Tech changing things against K-State to stop the run…
"They did more of a better job saying, 'We're not going to allow Deuce (Vaughn) and Joe Ervin and some of those guys just hit some inside zone.' So, I did feel like they were slanting an angling and a little bit more and in some run pressures. When that happens, obviously, we got to take advantage of throwing football, because not all Skylar's (Thompson) balls were down the field. A lot of them were shorter to intermediate stuff that then people were able to get something more out of."
On what West Virginia did last week against TCU's defense...
"Well, they did a couple things. They have some extremely explosive receivers that, a couple times, they just dumped a little hitch screen out there to them and a guy went and took it down to the one-yard line. The other thing they did, they got a little bit of quarterback run. Had a huge play coming out at like the minus seven or so and ran a power-read type play and the quarterback slid out the backdoor for about 60 (yards). They did a good job of mixing it up. Their quarterback, I thought, played well, but they ran the ball well. They got good running back – a couple of them, really – but No. 4, No. 24, are both really good running backs. They've got a lot of different weapons that we've got to try to do the same thing, meaning use your tight ends, use your wide outs, use your tailbacks because they used all three of them. Then, their quarterback used his feet a little bit. It was actually not what I consider their starter that the big run, but their backup."
On eliminating turnovers...
"We keep talking about the fundamentals over and over again. Like I said before, I'm not going to harp on turnovers as much as every Monday when we get together as an offensive unit, we talk about, 'Guys, we have to take care of the ball if we're going to play complimentary football.' No, unfortunately, we haven't yet, and we need to. As we keep going and we want to keep winning football games, we've got to win the explosives and we got to win the turnover battle."
On what issues he sees in TCU's defense...
"I think they've had some big plays hit against them, but when you watch them series-in and series-out, they still really understand how they fit. They are very, very, very sound from their front to their linebackers to their DBs of where they're supposed to be in both the passing game and in the run game. I would think, in general, they would say we need to limit explosives, and they've had too many explosives against them."
On the last time he had a game where 10 or more receivers had a catch...
"Oh, yeah. I don't know. It's something that we actually really, really want to have happen, but it's not something that you push to have happen. What I'm getting at is, I want as many guys engaged, as many guys feeling like their skill set is getting used, and I want all of the wideouts to believe Skylar (Thompson) is going to go through his progression and get the ball to who's supposed to get it, not be out there thinking, 'Ok, how do I find Phil (Phillip Brooks)?' or, 'How do I find Malik (Knowles)?' or, 'How do I find whomever?' We want him to use the offense and spread the ball around. So, that was a great deal."
On wide receiver Tyrone Howell earning more playing time...
"Yeah, definitely. Definitely, and it's continued on. We talked a little bit a couple weeks ago about how much he had improvement through the bye week, and it's continued. He obviously had a very, very good catch for about 30 (yards). He's been getting more and more plays. Obviously, we threw it more. It just happened to be where he had the two or three or four catches. I think Landry (Weber) maybe had three catches this week and Phil (Phillip Brooks) maybe five. But, we've got to keep getting him the ball because he's got very good skill set as far as hands and ability to make something happen after he catches it."
On how early in last week's game he identified the play for the game-winning touchdown pass…
"Well, we had it called about three times. Unfortunately, one of them we checked it, and one of them we had an illegal procedure. Then, the third one we got it called and it worked. We felt like they would struggle with covering him (Deuce Vaughn) out with the fake to him, the linebacker trying to fit, and then you can see No. 6 trying to turn the run and find him. So, we felt like we could get it called, get it on the correct hash also helps because of the bootleg aspect of it and Skylar's (Thompson) ability to step back up. When you run it the other way, it's a lot harder for him to step back up and throw a good ball."
On running a lot of empty sets against Texas Tech...
"A little bit twofold. One, yes, we have felt that, knock on wood, the last three weeks or so we've done a nice job protecting. The other thing it does is when you take the running back out of the backfield, often it allows the quarterback to better identify where he may be getting pressure. Skylar (Thompson) has done a good job from a protection standpoint getting it what we'd call turned the correct way."
On the determination of Skylar Thompson to rebound from injury for a second-straight year...
"A couple things really come to mind with that. Skylar has done a phenomenal job over two different, what people may consider to be, 'Boy, that's a pretty big injury to have happen,' or anytime where it's like, 'Oh wow, well he's out and he's not going to play for whatever amount of time,' having the right mindset. To his credit, he's never had a day, outwardly anyway, where you feel like, 'Man, that guy's dauber's down.' He's a positive guy that believes things happen for a reason, has faith in there's a reason why things are happening. He's been very good at it. We've had a number of guys in our program that have had season-ending injuries that their mindset and how they attack things has been very, very good. I think part of it is because Skylar sets a great example."
On TCU replacing linebacker Garrett Wallow...
"I don't know. I think that, structurally, they're so good at what they do. You got to really dive into a little bit of the minutiae to decide what their problem. I know one thing, from our standpoint, their program has got a great defense and their kids are going to fly around, play fast and play hard. We've got to be ready for the guys that are there."
JOE KLANDERMAN, DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On TCU's running backs...
"The real deal, skill wise. These guys are as good as anybody in the league. I know I say that a lot. Maybe I get caught up in it. But you're not going to find a better tandem. Those guys are sensational. They've got people they can throw to on the outside, a bunch of them, and they've got a quarterback that can make things happen and orchestrate things. So, it's going to be a challenge."
On what changed for the defense in the second half…
"Nothing, we just executed better. We gave up a few bonehead things, I would say, in the first half. If you look at some of those things that happened on the first series, it wasn't anything that anybody was doing. We just weren't finishing the plays. We had five guys around that first one that scored and lost our leverage out there. That can't happen when you're playing good defense. In the second half, we just didn't make those technique errors. We didn't do anything drastically different schematically. There was no big Rocky Balboa speech. It was just the guys just started to do what they do, what they can do."
On if he knew how special Felix Anudike-Uzomah's safety was right away or on film…
"No, I realized how good of a play that was. That's something that we've been trying to get out of him a little bit is just knowing when you can take your shots. I think sometimes he plays it a little bit too conservatively for how good of a playmaker he is. That's just being a young guy and trying to be right all the time. That was one of the messages, it's one thing to be right and hope everybody else is right. It's another thing to take matters in your own hands once in a while and take shots, make plays and play fast. That was kind of the message last week. When we started to roll a little bit, that's what guys were doing."
On TCU quarterback Max Duggan…
"He used to be just a really good athlete that played quarterback. Now, I think he's a complete quarterback that has command of his offense. I've seen him throw field-side outs. I don't recall that being in his arsenal in the past. I don't see him making bad reads or mistakes with the football that he may have done in the past few years. I see, when things break down, it used to just be, option A, I'm taking off running. Now I see him continuing to keep his eyes down the field. He's gotten better every time we face him, unfortunately."
On the big-play capability of the TCU offense…
"Extremely. As I mentioned, I don't know if there's another team that has as many threats at every position as they do. Those tailbacks, even if you get hats to the deal, getting them to the ground is an issue and same thing with the receivers. You might have a hitch that gets caught in front of you. That should be a routine play, it's not going to be just that easy. We're still going to have to get those guys on the ground and run through our leverage."
On rotating less at defensive back against Texas Tech…
"No, I think guys were rolling. I didn't think we played that many snaps. We were banged up a little bit too, that was a part of it also. On the other end of that, we rotated probably better on the d-line than we had in previous weeks. That may have led to some of Felix's (Anudike-Uzomah) plays that he made because he didn't have to play so many snaps. He was a little bit more fresh at the end of the game. That's something we constantly have to monitor as a staff. Who fits what we're doing and how many guys can we play? We'd love to get as many people involved as we can."
On the linebackers settling into the defensive scheme…
"Tremendous. I think Deuce (Daniel Green) and Cody (Fletcher) are very comfortable and confident in what they're doing. We're trying to put a little bit more on those guys, actually, as of late, and they're handling it very well. That's another spot where we need to rotate more and do a better job of that, so that we can get those guys a few reps. We're going to try some different names in there a little bit and just see how that helps us."
On any younger cornerbacks that might step up…
"As far as youth goes, we haven't seen that much of Tee (Denson) in the last couple of weeks. He's a little bit banged up. Youth wise, Omar Daniels is a guy that's going to be a really good player here. He's injured right now, so you're not seeing that much of him. So, that's a spot where we don't have a ton of depth right now."
On Bronson Massie's playing status…
"I'm hoping. I don't know. We'll see where he's at today. It's just one of those kinds of tolerance things, I think. I think he is getting closer every day. We'll see how it looks on Saturday. I'm not sure right now."
On Justin Gardner's playing status…
"I think he's getting healthier and healthier. He's been practicing, so he's going to be in a similar situation as Bronson (Massie). We'll just see where he's at on Saturday."
On the importance of the second-half shutout for the defense's confidence…
"I didn't really even think about it until after. Honestly, I don't know how players, on an individual basis, how they felt about it. But, yeah, that's something that over the previous three weeks, just confidence-wise – say what you want to – it gets fractured a little bit when you lose games, whether you play good or don't play good. I think you feel that way. To be able to kind of take matters into our own hands in that second half, I agree with you. I think that that did wonders for those guys."
On Russ Yeast's interception and defending free plays…
"Yeah, it's a very common thing. He just played the technique that he would have played had nothing happened. He was doing what he was coached to do. That's a common thing in the league. As many teams that are getting to the line and clapping or getting cadence and trying to get to people to jump, then, if they do jump, the centers are taught to just snap that thing and everybody go vertical and you take your shots. I don't know if that's exactly how it went down. Maybe, because not everybody went vertical. They just ran their concept that, I think, they were going to run. He just played the thing. But, absolutely, that's something to talk about. You bet."
COURTNEY MESSINGHAM, OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On if K-State stays with the passing game due to its recent efficiency...
"To a certain extent because we've talked about as a program, the more explosive plays you can get, the better opportunity you have. That being said, I still think we got to have good balance, but he is throwing it extremely well. He's been, two and three games now, getting more and more accurate, getting more and more comfortable, especially with his lower body. That obviously helps him throw it."
On Texas Tech changing things against K-State to stop the run…
"They did more of a better job saying, 'We're not going to allow Deuce (Vaughn) and Joe Ervin and some of those guys just hit some inside zone.' So, I did feel like they were slanting an angling and a little bit more and in some run pressures. When that happens, obviously, we got to take advantage of throwing football, because not all Skylar's (Thompson) balls were down the field. A lot of them were shorter to intermediate stuff that then people were able to get something more out of."
On what West Virginia did last week against TCU's defense...
"Well, they did a couple things. They have some extremely explosive receivers that, a couple times, they just dumped a little hitch screen out there to them and a guy went and took it down to the one-yard line. The other thing they did, they got a little bit of quarterback run. Had a huge play coming out at like the minus seven or so and ran a power-read type play and the quarterback slid out the backdoor for about 60 (yards). They did a good job of mixing it up. Their quarterback, I thought, played well, but they ran the ball well. They got good running back – a couple of them, really – but No. 4, No. 24, are both really good running backs. They've got a lot of different weapons that we've got to try to do the same thing, meaning use your tight ends, use your wide outs, use your tailbacks because they used all three of them. Then, their quarterback used his feet a little bit. It was actually not what I consider their starter that the big run, but their backup."
On eliminating turnovers...
"We keep talking about the fundamentals over and over again. Like I said before, I'm not going to harp on turnovers as much as every Monday when we get together as an offensive unit, we talk about, 'Guys, we have to take care of the ball if we're going to play complimentary football.' No, unfortunately, we haven't yet, and we need to. As we keep going and we want to keep winning football games, we've got to win the explosives and we got to win the turnover battle."
On what issues he sees in TCU's defense...
"I think they've had some big plays hit against them, but when you watch them series-in and series-out, they still really understand how they fit. They are very, very, very sound from their front to their linebackers to their DBs of where they're supposed to be in both the passing game and in the run game. I would think, in general, they would say we need to limit explosives, and they've had too many explosives against them."
On the last time he had a game where 10 or more receivers had a catch...
"Oh, yeah. I don't know. It's something that we actually really, really want to have happen, but it's not something that you push to have happen. What I'm getting at is, I want as many guys engaged, as many guys feeling like their skill set is getting used, and I want all of the wideouts to believe Skylar (Thompson) is going to go through his progression and get the ball to who's supposed to get it, not be out there thinking, 'Ok, how do I find Phil (Phillip Brooks)?' or, 'How do I find Malik (Knowles)?' or, 'How do I find whomever?' We want him to use the offense and spread the ball around. So, that was a great deal."
On wide receiver Tyrone Howell earning more playing time...
"Yeah, definitely. Definitely, and it's continued on. We talked a little bit a couple weeks ago about how much he had improvement through the bye week, and it's continued. He obviously had a very, very good catch for about 30 (yards). He's been getting more and more plays. Obviously, we threw it more. It just happened to be where he had the two or three or four catches. I think Landry (Weber) maybe had three catches this week and Phil (Phillip Brooks) maybe five. But, we've got to keep getting him the ball because he's got very good skill set as far as hands and ability to make something happen after he catches it."
On how early in last week's game he identified the play for the game-winning touchdown pass…
"Well, we had it called about three times. Unfortunately, one of them we checked it, and one of them we had an illegal procedure. Then, the third one we got it called and it worked. We felt like they would struggle with covering him (Deuce Vaughn) out with the fake to him, the linebacker trying to fit, and then you can see No. 6 trying to turn the run and find him. So, we felt like we could get it called, get it on the correct hash also helps because of the bootleg aspect of it and Skylar's (Thompson) ability to step back up. When you run it the other way, it's a lot harder for him to step back up and throw a good ball."
On running a lot of empty sets against Texas Tech...
"A little bit twofold. One, yes, we have felt that, knock on wood, the last three weeks or so we've done a nice job protecting. The other thing it does is when you take the running back out of the backfield, often it allows the quarterback to better identify where he may be getting pressure. Skylar (Thompson) has done a good job from a protection standpoint getting it what we'd call turned the correct way."
On the determination of Skylar Thompson to rebound from injury for a second-straight year...
"A couple things really come to mind with that. Skylar has done a phenomenal job over two different, what people may consider to be, 'Boy, that's a pretty big injury to have happen,' or anytime where it's like, 'Oh wow, well he's out and he's not going to play for whatever amount of time,' having the right mindset. To his credit, he's never had a day, outwardly anyway, where you feel like, 'Man, that guy's dauber's down.' He's a positive guy that believes things happen for a reason, has faith in there's a reason why things are happening. He's been very good at it. We've had a number of guys in our program that have had season-ending injuries that their mindset and how they attack things has been very, very good. I think part of it is because Skylar sets a great example."
On TCU replacing linebacker Garrett Wallow...
"I don't know. I think that, structurally, they're so good at what they do. You got to really dive into a little bit of the minutiae to decide what their problem. I know one thing, from our standpoint, their program has got a great defense and their kids are going to fly around, play fast and play hard. We've got to be ready for the guys that are there."
JOE KLANDERMAN, DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On TCU's running backs...
"The real deal, skill wise. These guys are as good as anybody in the league. I know I say that a lot. Maybe I get caught up in it. But you're not going to find a better tandem. Those guys are sensational. They've got people they can throw to on the outside, a bunch of them, and they've got a quarterback that can make things happen and orchestrate things. So, it's going to be a challenge."
On what changed for the defense in the second half…
"Nothing, we just executed better. We gave up a few bonehead things, I would say, in the first half. If you look at some of those things that happened on the first series, it wasn't anything that anybody was doing. We just weren't finishing the plays. We had five guys around that first one that scored and lost our leverage out there. That can't happen when you're playing good defense. In the second half, we just didn't make those technique errors. We didn't do anything drastically different schematically. There was no big Rocky Balboa speech. It was just the guys just started to do what they do, what they can do."
On if he knew how special Felix Anudike-Uzomah's safety was right away or on film…
"No, I realized how good of a play that was. That's something that we've been trying to get out of him a little bit is just knowing when you can take your shots. I think sometimes he plays it a little bit too conservatively for how good of a playmaker he is. That's just being a young guy and trying to be right all the time. That was one of the messages, it's one thing to be right and hope everybody else is right. It's another thing to take matters in your own hands once in a while and take shots, make plays and play fast. That was kind of the message last week. When we started to roll a little bit, that's what guys were doing."
On TCU quarterback Max Duggan…
"He used to be just a really good athlete that played quarterback. Now, I think he's a complete quarterback that has command of his offense. I've seen him throw field-side outs. I don't recall that being in his arsenal in the past. I don't see him making bad reads or mistakes with the football that he may have done in the past few years. I see, when things break down, it used to just be, option A, I'm taking off running. Now I see him continuing to keep his eyes down the field. He's gotten better every time we face him, unfortunately."
On the big-play capability of the TCU offense…
"Extremely. As I mentioned, I don't know if there's another team that has as many threats at every position as they do. Those tailbacks, even if you get hats to the deal, getting them to the ground is an issue and same thing with the receivers. You might have a hitch that gets caught in front of you. That should be a routine play, it's not going to be just that easy. We're still going to have to get those guys on the ground and run through our leverage."
On rotating less at defensive back against Texas Tech…
"No, I think guys were rolling. I didn't think we played that many snaps. We were banged up a little bit too, that was a part of it also. On the other end of that, we rotated probably better on the d-line than we had in previous weeks. That may have led to some of Felix's (Anudike-Uzomah) plays that he made because he didn't have to play so many snaps. He was a little bit more fresh at the end of the game. That's something we constantly have to monitor as a staff. Who fits what we're doing and how many guys can we play? We'd love to get as many people involved as we can."
On the linebackers settling into the defensive scheme…
"Tremendous. I think Deuce (Daniel Green) and Cody (Fletcher) are very comfortable and confident in what they're doing. We're trying to put a little bit more on those guys, actually, as of late, and they're handling it very well. That's another spot where we need to rotate more and do a better job of that, so that we can get those guys a few reps. We're going to try some different names in there a little bit and just see how that helps us."
On any younger cornerbacks that might step up…
"As far as youth goes, we haven't seen that much of Tee (Denson) in the last couple of weeks. He's a little bit banged up. Youth wise, Omar Daniels is a guy that's going to be a really good player here. He's injured right now, so you're not seeing that much of him. So, that's a spot where we don't have a ton of depth right now."
On Bronson Massie's playing status…
"I'm hoping. I don't know. We'll see where he's at today. It's just one of those kinds of tolerance things, I think. I think he is getting closer every day. We'll see how it looks on Saturday. I'm not sure right now."
On Justin Gardner's playing status…
"I think he's getting healthier and healthier. He's been practicing, so he's going to be in a similar situation as Bronson (Massie). We'll just see where he's at on Saturday."
On the importance of the second-half shutout for the defense's confidence…
"I didn't really even think about it until after. Honestly, I don't know how players, on an individual basis, how they felt about it. But, yeah, that's something that over the previous three weeks, just confidence-wise – say what you want to – it gets fractured a little bit when you lose games, whether you play good or don't play good. I think you feel that way. To be able to kind of take matters into our own hands in that second half, I agree with you. I think that that did wonders for those guys."
On Russ Yeast's interception and defending free plays…
"Yeah, it's a very common thing. He just played the technique that he would have played had nothing happened. He was doing what he was coached to do. That's a common thing in the league. As many teams that are getting to the line and clapping or getting cadence and trying to get to people to jump, then, if they do jump, the centers are taught to just snap that thing and everybody go vertical and you take your shots. I don't know if that's exactly how it went down. Maybe, because not everybody went vertical. They just ran their concept that, I think, they were going to run. He just played the thing. But, absolutely, that's something to talk about. You bet."
Players Mentioned
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