K-State Holds Weekly Press Conference Prior to Regular-Season Finale
Nov 22, 2021 | Football
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman, along with running back Deuce Vaughn and defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah, met with members of the media on Monday at the Vanier Family Football Complex as the Wildcats prepare to travel to face Texas on Friday. 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 Longhorns kick off at 11 a.m., on Friday inside DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in a game televised by FOX with Aaron Goldsmith and Mark Helfrich on the call.
CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"Good afternoon, everyone. Quick turnaround in a short week. We actually had kind of a walk through last night over in the indoor, watched the film of the Baylor game. Then turned the page quickly and did a walk through for about an hour on Texas, and then worked a little bit later last night. We'll have our first real practice today. Excited about the opportunity, excited about the challenge. When you watch Texas on film, they are a really talented football team. I don't know what is going on. I don't know why they're struggling other than this league is really tough and it's a grind to win football games. Watching them on film, they're a really talented crew, so we've got to rally our force. Obviously, we're banged up quite a bit just like a lot of teams are, so there was a physical game on Saturday night. We've got to do a great job of working to get our players back physically as well as mentally and stuff without banging them a ton this week, but getting our work done so that we can field the best outfit we can for Friday morning at 11 o'clock."
On the quarterback situation...
"Well, there's an outside shot, actually, of Skylar (Thompson), so that's the positive side. I don't think he'll do anything today and Tuesday would be iffy, but the kid wants to play. We're going to see where he's at. I don't think that will be determined until later in the week. If he can't go both guys, with Will (Howard) and Jaren (Lewis), and Will would be the guy that we would start."
On Will Howard's role the last several weeks...
"Taken a lion's share of the reps and has taken as many reps with the twos, probably more than Jaren (Lewis). We've split those up. Sometimes we'll put him in with the ones, so he's taken a lot of repetitions. I met with Will yesterday afternoon for a while, and he's excited for the opportunity because he just feels like he's grown so much from watching Sky (Skylar Thompson) for the last whatever seven, eight weeks in his preparation and in visiting with him, whether it's in-game and weekly stuff, as well as Jaren. I know that Jaren would be ready to do it as well, because I think those three guys are really close and they spent a lot of time together."
On how Will Howard has responded to the situation...
"Very positive because he knows this is a great opportunity for him to play and solidify himself, as well as he's played a lot of football to still be a freshman. I've seen enough situations in my time of coaching where you're healthy and you have an opportunity to play. Typically, kids want to play because you can't forecast the future. What happens next August, if something happens, and, knock on wood nothing like that does, but the conversation that we had yesterday, he's excited to play."
On preparing for multiple Texas quarterbacks...
"Really challenging because we don't know who's going to play quarterback, but they don't know who's going to play quarterback for us. It's one of three, as well, but I think the offense will stay the offense. You play this many games and maybe somebody does something a little bit better than others. We can't make wholesale changes no matter who plays quarterback for us on a three-day prep, in essence, having Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then getting on a flight on Thursday, and I would think they'd be the same way. They're very versatile and they do so many things on offense that I think they could fit whatever quarterback is healthy or whatever quarterback that can play for them."
On the defensive performance against Baylor...
"I thought we played really physical, and I thought we played really hard. It was fun watching those guys for us on defense, laid it on the line and played really fast and physical for four quarters into play in a mid-November game at home that really had a bunch of meaning. I was proud of the way the guys flew around. That's a good Baylor team. I think everybody knows that that's a really good team and they had a really good plan, but I was very pleased overall with how we played."
On the mentality of the team following the Baylor game...
"That's the game of football too. You can be stopped on any given day. You can struggle to stop people, whatever it may be. Yesterday was, I thought, an important day for us as far as I thought our intentional focus and us detailing our work. We walked through for an hour and showed all these different things offensively and defensively, and I thought it was really sharp and crisp, and it kind of lets me know of the maturity factor of our guys that we didn't play our best football at times, but we've got to move on and we have a great opportunity. We keep talking about having a special season. It's still there for us and it's going to be a really tough task to go to Texas on a short week, but I know our guys are excited about it."
On playing at Texas...
"We were there in 2019 and most of our guys were there in 2019, so anticipating a good crowd. It's a fun environment. It's fun to play the Van Malone, Texas Longhorns."
On the strengths of this Texas team...
"Well, on defense the ability just to disrupt the passer, the ability to get up field and cause havoc because they have such a tremendous front seven. Their back end is really good as well, but I think their front seven is really good. Then offensively, they're probably the biggest team we've played up front on the offensive line. I know they don't have the (Bijan) Robinson kid at running back, but the other guys are really capable and really good. Running backs are rushing for 200 yards a game, and then they have special, special talent at wide receiver that can hit the home run at any time."
On how this season has been for him...
"Yeah, it always goes quick. Seems like we played on Labor Day weekend 100 years ago. Once you play that game, next thing you know it's going to be close to Halloween and then we get close to Halloween and we were struggling around that time. We got one or two wins back and the next thing you know it's going to be Thanksgiving. It's a grind for everybody, for the players, for the coaches, for the support staff, for you guys. It's a long season. I'm excited for our whole football team, and in particular the seniors, that there's an opportunity after this game to make sure that we're playing postseason."
On facing some injuries late in the season...
"Yeah, absolutely. We had, I thought, some pretty good depth until Saturday, and now we've been knocked down again. There are probably a lot of schools like that too. So, you hope all those young guy practices that you've done in sessions with players that maybe haven't played quite as much that they're going to have an opportunity to even play a little bit more and it's going to probably be one of those weeks where we're going to have to have all hands on deck. We are going to use our exemption to take more players to this game. You get one exemption a year, and so we're going to utilize that for this week to try to take a good 10 to 15 more guys to give us some more depth on special teams."
On Skylar Thompson dealing with so many injuries...
"I think he anticipates that this is going to be a struggle. He takes care of his body really well, gets lots of treatment, a lot of recovery. If you look at any of those super seniors. I look at Fletch (Cody Fletcher) and J-Mac (Jahron McPherson) and those guys, they're all beat up, but they don't know how much football they have left. All of them have aspirations of playing at the next level, and I hope they'll get the opportunity. I look at Noah Johnson. If he could play every week for the next year, Noah would play every week. He just loves football and loves the competition and loves the practice and loves the grind of this, and that kind of embodies our senior class. They love this time of year, and it's fun when you're playing well. I know we lost on Saturday, but we're playing good football late in the season. That's got to be a lot of fun for those seniors."
On getting to eight wins…
"Sure does, and it doesn't matter how you get there. It really doesn't. Whether you started off slow or started off fast or where they come at. Wins, we all know, are really hard to come by and you cherish every one you have and those locker rooms are a lot of fun. So, this will be a tough challenge but would be a fun one to get."
On Jahron McPherson's status...
"He'll be a game time decision. I don't know if J-Mac will be able to play, but he's going to try like heck because he wants it. He's only got a few more games left that he knows he's going to play. We got better news on J-Mac yesterday. We didn't think the news was going to be good, but it came back much, much better. So, we're going to try to work him in and see what he can do this week. J-Mac's a guy that, even if he doesn't practice a whole lot, he knows it inside and out and would provide us, whether it's 20 plays or 60 plays, he's in good enough shape. I don't think it's going to be 80 degrees down there that if he can play, he'll play."
On being ready for a defensive front similar to Baylor's...
"We have to. Baylor's really talented and Texas is no different. They've got really good front players, and I think we broke down a couple times in protection. We did a good job on first down. We had some good plays. We got in a lot of second and shorts and second and mediums, and then we'd have some issues and get back to third and long and needed to just continue to pound the football. At the time didn't realize it'd be that close of a game the whole way through that we needed to just keep giving the ball inside to Deuce (Vaughn) and keep moving the chains. Whether it's a little bit of play action here and there, try to do some of that and not let them lay their ears back on third and long like they did."
On running the football more...
"You'd like to get Deuce (Vaughn) more than 11 carries. We only had 51 plays. Part of that was our inability on offense to sustain drives but our inability on defense to get off the field enough. Baylor does a lot of what we want to do, control the time of possession and control the plays, and they did a great job of that. I knew they were going to go for it on fourth down a bunch. That's what they've done all year. We stopped them a few times, but they were able to get a couple fourth-down conversions that gave them another eight or nine plays and three or four minutes off the clock."
On other injuries from the Baylor game...
"Yeah, Skylar (Thompson), J-Mac (Jahron McPherson) that came out of the game that we'll learn more about later in the week. Joe Ervin came out of the game. We'll learn more about him. We hope to get Spencer Trussell back. That's the positive side because we need Spence back. He ran yesterday, so that could give us a little bit of a lift getting another defensive lineman. But our offensive line and our defensive line came through healthy. Linebackers, running backs, so everybody came through healthy there with the exception of Joe (Ervin)."
On the offensive line's performance against Baylor...
"I think they can play better without question, but I think everybody on offense could probably play a little bit better. I think we could call it a little bit better. I think we could design some plans. I mean, Mess (Courtney Messingham) knows. We didn't have a great plan on third down for some of the things that they did, and they did a great job when we got in man coverage of gluing us down. In zone coverage, they did a great job of passing some things off, and then they're relentless rushing the passer. I don't care if they're rushing four or rushing five. I thought they did a great job of taking the first look away from Sky (Skylar Thompson) and then continuing to stay after it. Sky wasn't getting out of the pocket. He was trying to stay in the pocket, which has been a great thing for us over the last four weeks, and they're so long and athletic in there. We could have played better up front, but give those guys credit. They're really talented, they're good up front."
On getting more out of returns...
"Well, there's a couple things on that. It's harder and harder to return punts. It's harder to block punts. We were fortunate we got a block a couple of weeks ago, but people are getting so much better at kicking it into corners and if nobody's coming, hold it for a couple counts, as well as getting three and four wide receivers in the game and covering punts. Did I think we would be better in the punt return game this year? Absolutely with a guy like Phillip (Brooks) back there, but it is just kind of the nature of what's going on in college football right now. I thought we'd have an opportunity to return a kick, and their kid kicked it out every time, so we didn't get any chances there. Kick returns have been a big weapon for us. It's been a great offensive play for us to start off a lot of games or to score, and we didn't get that chance. We had the muffed punt. We had a chance on another one. It's a 50/50 call. Maybe that flips the field and we get a score there. But special teams need to be good. I didn't think we were very good on Saturday. We've got to be better this next Saturday."
On Reggie Stubblefield's emotions on Senior Night...
"Reggie didn't know he was going to be able to come here. We had him committed here, and then something happened and he wasn't going to work. So, we had to go through an appeal process with Reggie. He was sitting home, and I think he thought he was done with college football. He was home for a few weeks if I recall, I may be off on the timing, whether it was two weeks or four weeks or whatever. Then we appealed, and we were able to win the appeal. So, we called him back and said, 'Hey, we won the appeal. You're coming to Kansas State.' Just the reaction on the phone of that kid whenever that was – it was in July I believe, could have been late June – but sometime either late June or July, how excited he was that he got a chance. I knew we were going to get a kid that had energy. I didn't know this kind of energy. He's been a guy that's played really well for us. He had a broken thumb or hand. He was in a cast for a while, but that was a special moment because he realized a couple things. One – how fortunate he was to be playing football for starters. Two – how fortunate he was to be at Kansas State, because he realized in a short period of time how great the fan base is, how great the university is, and how cool it is to say I played football at K-State."
On welcoming more transfers this year…
"Yeah, they fit in really well. That's the hard thing, especially because none of those kids visited. They couldn't visit, so they all came sight unseen. We hit home runs with the quality of kids as well as the quality of players they are. We know that this is kind of what college football is becoming a little bit. So, you have to embrace it, but they have to be able to fit our culture and fit our locker room."
On if there were more opportunities in the pass game against Baylor…
"Yeah, absolutely. There were, but I think we were flushed so quickly or people were at our feet or hands up that we just weren't able to get back to our second read."
On the process of selecting the right kind of transfers…
"Well in those cases, it was zooming with those kids and zooming with their families an awful lot, not just having a phone call but making sure that I can see eye to eye with Coach Malone or Coach Klanderman, Coach Messingham or whatever. Coaches seeing eye to eye and having lengthy, lengthy conversations with them. Not just a handful, but a bunch of them. Look at Russ Yeast and Julius Brents and recruited those guys for what seems like an awful long time, may have been a month, but it seemed like an awful long time and trying to get to know him, trying to get to see where they would fit in as a player but fit into our team as a person and fit in and tell them how we're going to challenge them but love them as well. We vetted our guys really well to make sure that they would be adding something, not just on the football field, but more importantly off the football field. That's what I'm excited about for those guys we did get."
On Felix Anudike-Uzomah…
"Felix has had a phenomenal season, and I think all of us knew he was going to have a really good season. He's exceeded a lot of peoples' expectations. Probably not Felix's because he's a prideful kid. Once again, I keep going back to watching him learn from Wyatt Hubert about how you play this game relentlessly and Coach (Buddy) Wyatt is always riding him to play harder and play faster. He's a guy that has been relentless to the quarterback. He makes a great play, and it bounces right back to the kid from Baylor. That was one of the breaks that for four weeks we were getting. We got a strip sack and bounces right back up the kid for a completion. But, he's had a great season and I'm excited. He's still really a young player."
On Deuce Vaughn…
"He's an explosive play waiting to happen all the time. He bursted through and got us back in the game on a big run. That's what he does, and he loves playing this game. That's the thing. We always ask guys in the recruiting process, how much do you love playing football? High school football it's, 'I love it.' You have to love college football. You have to love next level football, and that's one kid that absolutely loved every part of this game from the grind of a fall camp to strength and conditioning to the recovery part of it to the games to the camaraderie in the locker room. He's had a great season like I thought he would."
On if he has met Steve Sarkisian…
"Never have, so it will be my first time meeting Sark. I think Tui (Mike Tuiasosopo) knows him a little bit. Ben Newman knows him because Ben had worked with Alabama as well. I know he's an unbelievably bright, bright, offensive mind. Some of the creativity that those guys are doing offensively is pretty unique."
DEUCE VAUGHN, SOPHOMORE RUNNING BACK
On what it means to embrace the grind...
"That's what it's all about. Whenever we talk with coaches they say, 'The way you do one thing is the way you do everything'. So, if you're taking care of your business off the field, it's going to reflect on the field as well. You don't want to leave anything out that you don't want to leave that pain of regret throughout the week. 'Man, if I would have been more disciplined in this sense. If I would have watched this amount of film or if I would just watch one more play instead of turning on the video game. If I had just done this one assignment. If I would have just gone up to the facility for five more minutes and in the cold tub and the hot tub to make sure my body was ready on Saturday.' It's one of those things where if you had that discipline throughout the week, no matter what happens on Saturday, you're going to be content and you're going to be happy because you did everything you could throughout that week to give yourself a chance to be successful."
On the confidence level in Will Howard if he starts this week...
"That's my guy. We have seen it all year, the way that he prepares behind Skylar (Thompson). He's had Skylar in his corner all year, and even dating back to when we got back last season. The progress that he has made because of Sky, and just the way that he's seen the looks, and he's been in the weight room. He's been running with us. He looks even better. It's one of those things where if he has to go Friday, we're ready to roll, we're going to go out there. We're going to play, we're going to rise up with him in the sense we're going to go there and play. We're going to have to execute as a team and as an offense, and that's something we have to pride ourselves on. Even if Skylar plays, we're going to have to rise up as a team."
On if it has sunk in that he's a 1,000-yard rusher...
"Just a little bit. It's crazy because of course you want to celebrate. It's an amazing accomplishment, one I can't take credit for, and I always say that. There's so much work to be done especially this season, the last game against Texas and then we have the bowl game as well. So, it's not really the time to celebrate because you still have work to do. There's so much out there to go and get as a football team and just taking it, like I said, day by day and making sure that I'm not being seduced by the success. I'm very fortunate to have this season because we have a lot more work to do."
FELIX ANUDIKE-UZOMAH, SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE END
On what the season has been like for him...
"Pretty good honestly. It's been up and down like with this last loss. We had a couple good wins like Texas Tech and a couple other ones that just made our team better. But, overall, the season has been alright."
On what he thinks of his body of work this season...
"Basically everything that I learned in fall camp. I just use it day by day every time I play and my technique wise. That is what I harp on most every time. Every time I go to work, every practice and what I do every game."
On meeting or exceeding his expectations...
"I haven't met my expectations yet. There's still a lot of stuff I wish I could have done better. Like when I look back on film, there's a lot of plays I could have made. There's more sacks I could have made. There's a lot of sacks that I missed that I could have had. Even in the last game, I think I missed like three sacks that I could've had. It is just frustrating. I feel like I could have done better this season."
The Wildcats and Longhorns kick off at 11 a.m., on Friday inside DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in a game televised by FOX with Aaron Goldsmith and Mark Helfrich on the call.
CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"Good afternoon, everyone. Quick turnaround in a short week. We actually had kind of a walk through last night over in the indoor, watched the film of the Baylor game. Then turned the page quickly and did a walk through for about an hour on Texas, and then worked a little bit later last night. We'll have our first real practice today. Excited about the opportunity, excited about the challenge. When you watch Texas on film, they are a really talented football team. I don't know what is going on. I don't know why they're struggling other than this league is really tough and it's a grind to win football games. Watching them on film, they're a really talented crew, so we've got to rally our force. Obviously, we're banged up quite a bit just like a lot of teams are, so there was a physical game on Saturday night. We've got to do a great job of working to get our players back physically as well as mentally and stuff without banging them a ton this week, but getting our work done so that we can field the best outfit we can for Friday morning at 11 o'clock."
On the quarterback situation...
"Well, there's an outside shot, actually, of Skylar (Thompson), so that's the positive side. I don't think he'll do anything today and Tuesday would be iffy, but the kid wants to play. We're going to see where he's at. I don't think that will be determined until later in the week. If he can't go both guys, with Will (Howard) and Jaren (Lewis), and Will would be the guy that we would start."
On Will Howard's role the last several weeks...
"Taken a lion's share of the reps and has taken as many reps with the twos, probably more than Jaren (Lewis). We've split those up. Sometimes we'll put him in with the ones, so he's taken a lot of repetitions. I met with Will yesterday afternoon for a while, and he's excited for the opportunity because he just feels like he's grown so much from watching Sky (Skylar Thompson) for the last whatever seven, eight weeks in his preparation and in visiting with him, whether it's in-game and weekly stuff, as well as Jaren. I know that Jaren would be ready to do it as well, because I think those three guys are really close and they spent a lot of time together."
On how Will Howard has responded to the situation...
"Very positive because he knows this is a great opportunity for him to play and solidify himself, as well as he's played a lot of football to still be a freshman. I've seen enough situations in my time of coaching where you're healthy and you have an opportunity to play. Typically, kids want to play because you can't forecast the future. What happens next August, if something happens, and, knock on wood nothing like that does, but the conversation that we had yesterday, he's excited to play."
On preparing for multiple Texas quarterbacks...
"Really challenging because we don't know who's going to play quarterback, but they don't know who's going to play quarterback for us. It's one of three, as well, but I think the offense will stay the offense. You play this many games and maybe somebody does something a little bit better than others. We can't make wholesale changes no matter who plays quarterback for us on a three-day prep, in essence, having Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then getting on a flight on Thursday, and I would think they'd be the same way. They're very versatile and they do so many things on offense that I think they could fit whatever quarterback is healthy or whatever quarterback that can play for them."
On the defensive performance against Baylor...
"I thought we played really physical, and I thought we played really hard. It was fun watching those guys for us on defense, laid it on the line and played really fast and physical for four quarters into play in a mid-November game at home that really had a bunch of meaning. I was proud of the way the guys flew around. That's a good Baylor team. I think everybody knows that that's a really good team and they had a really good plan, but I was very pleased overall with how we played."
On the mentality of the team following the Baylor game...
"That's the game of football too. You can be stopped on any given day. You can struggle to stop people, whatever it may be. Yesterday was, I thought, an important day for us as far as I thought our intentional focus and us detailing our work. We walked through for an hour and showed all these different things offensively and defensively, and I thought it was really sharp and crisp, and it kind of lets me know of the maturity factor of our guys that we didn't play our best football at times, but we've got to move on and we have a great opportunity. We keep talking about having a special season. It's still there for us and it's going to be a really tough task to go to Texas on a short week, but I know our guys are excited about it."
On playing at Texas...
"We were there in 2019 and most of our guys were there in 2019, so anticipating a good crowd. It's a fun environment. It's fun to play the Van Malone, Texas Longhorns."
On the strengths of this Texas team...
"Well, on defense the ability just to disrupt the passer, the ability to get up field and cause havoc because they have such a tremendous front seven. Their back end is really good as well, but I think their front seven is really good. Then offensively, they're probably the biggest team we've played up front on the offensive line. I know they don't have the (Bijan) Robinson kid at running back, but the other guys are really capable and really good. Running backs are rushing for 200 yards a game, and then they have special, special talent at wide receiver that can hit the home run at any time."
On how this season has been for him...
"Yeah, it always goes quick. Seems like we played on Labor Day weekend 100 years ago. Once you play that game, next thing you know it's going to be close to Halloween and then we get close to Halloween and we were struggling around that time. We got one or two wins back and the next thing you know it's going to be Thanksgiving. It's a grind for everybody, for the players, for the coaches, for the support staff, for you guys. It's a long season. I'm excited for our whole football team, and in particular the seniors, that there's an opportunity after this game to make sure that we're playing postseason."
On facing some injuries late in the season...
"Yeah, absolutely. We had, I thought, some pretty good depth until Saturday, and now we've been knocked down again. There are probably a lot of schools like that too. So, you hope all those young guy practices that you've done in sessions with players that maybe haven't played quite as much that they're going to have an opportunity to even play a little bit more and it's going to probably be one of those weeks where we're going to have to have all hands on deck. We are going to use our exemption to take more players to this game. You get one exemption a year, and so we're going to utilize that for this week to try to take a good 10 to 15 more guys to give us some more depth on special teams."
On Skylar Thompson dealing with so many injuries...
"I think he anticipates that this is going to be a struggle. He takes care of his body really well, gets lots of treatment, a lot of recovery. If you look at any of those super seniors. I look at Fletch (Cody Fletcher) and J-Mac (Jahron McPherson) and those guys, they're all beat up, but they don't know how much football they have left. All of them have aspirations of playing at the next level, and I hope they'll get the opportunity. I look at Noah Johnson. If he could play every week for the next year, Noah would play every week. He just loves football and loves the competition and loves the practice and loves the grind of this, and that kind of embodies our senior class. They love this time of year, and it's fun when you're playing well. I know we lost on Saturday, but we're playing good football late in the season. That's got to be a lot of fun for those seniors."
On getting to eight wins…
"Sure does, and it doesn't matter how you get there. It really doesn't. Whether you started off slow or started off fast or where they come at. Wins, we all know, are really hard to come by and you cherish every one you have and those locker rooms are a lot of fun. So, this will be a tough challenge but would be a fun one to get."
On Jahron McPherson's status...
"He'll be a game time decision. I don't know if J-Mac will be able to play, but he's going to try like heck because he wants it. He's only got a few more games left that he knows he's going to play. We got better news on J-Mac yesterday. We didn't think the news was going to be good, but it came back much, much better. So, we're going to try to work him in and see what he can do this week. J-Mac's a guy that, even if he doesn't practice a whole lot, he knows it inside and out and would provide us, whether it's 20 plays or 60 plays, he's in good enough shape. I don't think it's going to be 80 degrees down there that if he can play, he'll play."
On being ready for a defensive front similar to Baylor's...
"We have to. Baylor's really talented and Texas is no different. They've got really good front players, and I think we broke down a couple times in protection. We did a good job on first down. We had some good plays. We got in a lot of second and shorts and second and mediums, and then we'd have some issues and get back to third and long and needed to just continue to pound the football. At the time didn't realize it'd be that close of a game the whole way through that we needed to just keep giving the ball inside to Deuce (Vaughn) and keep moving the chains. Whether it's a little bit of play action here and there, try to do some of that and not let them lay their ears back on third and long like they did."
On running the football more...
"You'd like to get Deuce (Vaughn) more than 11 carries. We only had 51 plays. Part of that was our inability on offense to sustain drives but our inability on defense to get off the field enough. Baylor does a lot of what we want to do, control the time of possession and control the plays, and they did a great job of that. I knew they were going to go for it on fourth down a bunch. That's what they've done all year. We stopped them a few times, but they were able to get a couple fourth-down conversions that gave them another eight or nine plays and three or four minutes off the clock."
On other injuries from the Baylor game...
"Yeah, Skylar (Thompson), J-Mac (Jahron McPherson) that came out of the game that we'll learn more about later in the week. Joe Ervin came out of the game. We'll learn more about him. We hope to get Spencer Trussell back. That's the positive side because we need Spence back. He ran yesterday, so that could give us a little bit of a lift getting another defensive lineman. But our offensive line and our defensive line came through healthy. Linebackers, running backs, so everybody came through healthy there with the exception of Joe (Ervin)."
On the offensive line's performance against Baylor...
"I think they can play better without question, but I think everybody on offense could probably play a little bit better. I think we could call it a little bit better. I think we could design some plans. I mean, Mess (Courtney Messingham) knows. We didn't have a great plan on third down for some of the things that they did, and they did a great job when we got in man coverage of gluing us down. In zone coverage, they did a great job of passing some things off, and then they're relentless rushing the passer. I don't care if they're rushing four or rushing five. I thought they did a great job of taking the first look away from Sky (Skylar Thompson) and then continuing to stay after it. Sky wasn't getting out of the pocket. He was trying to stay in the pocket, which has been a great thing for us over the last four weeks, and they're so long and athletic in there. We could have played better up front, but give those guys credit. They're really talented, they're good up front."
On getting more out of returns...
"Well, there's a couple things on that. It's harder and harder to return punts. It's harder to block punts. We were fortunate we got a block a couple of weeks ago, but people are getting so much better at kicking it into corners and if nobody's coming, hold it for a couple counts, as well as getting three and four wide receivers in the game and covering punts. Did I think we would be better in the punt return game this year? Absolutely with a guy like Phillip (Brooks) back there, but it is just kind of the nature of what's going on in college football right now. I thought we'd have an opportunity to return a kick, and their kid kicked it out every time, so we didn't get any chances there. Kick returns have been a big weapon for us. It's been a great offensive play for us to start off a lot of games or to score, and we didn't get that chance. We had the muffed punt. We had a chance on another one. It's a 50/50 call. Maybe that flips the field and we get a score there. But special teams need to be good. I didn't think we were very good on Saturday. We've got to be better this next Saturday."
On Reggie Stubblefield's emotions on Senior Night...
"Reggie didn't know he was going to be able to come here. We had him committed here, and then something happened and he wasn't going to work. So, we had to go through an appeal process with Reggie. He was sitting home, and I think he thought he was done with college football. He was home for a few weeks if I recall, I may be off on the timing, whether it was two weeks or four weeks or whatever. Then we appealed, and we were able to win the appeal. So, we called him back and said, 'Hey, we won the appeal. You're coming to Kansas State.' Just the reaction on the phone of that kid whenever that was – it was in July I believe, could have been late June – but sometime either late June or July, how excited he was that he got a chance. I knew we were going to get a kid that had energy. I didn't know this kind of energy. He's been a guy that's played really well for us. He had a broken thumb or hand. He was in a cast for a while, but that was a special moment because he realized a couple things. One – how fortunate he was to be playing football for starters. Two – how fortunate he was to be at Kansas State, because he realized in a short period of time how great the fan base is, how great the university is, and how cool it is to say I played football at K-State."
On welcoming more transfers this year…
"Yeah, they fit in really well. That's the hard thing, especially because none of those kids visited. They couldn't visit, so they all came sight unseen. We hit home runs with the quality of kids as well as the quality of players they are. We know that this is kind of what college football is becoming a little bit. So, you have to embrace it, but they have to be able to fit our culture and fit our locker room."
On if there were more opportunities in the pass game against Baylor…
"Yeah, absolutely. There were, but I think we were flushed so quickly or people were at our feet or hands up that we just weren't able to get back to our second read."
On the process of selecting the right kind of transfers…
"Well in those cases, it was zooming with those kids and zooming with their families an awful lot, not just having a phone call but making sure that I can see eye to eye with Coach Malone or Coach Klanderman, Coach Messingham or whatever. Coaches seeing eye to eye and having lengthy, lengthy conversations with them. Not just a handful, but a bunch of them. Look at Russ Yeast and Julius Brents and recruited those guys for what seems like an awful long time, may have been a month, but it seemed like an awful long time and trying to get to know him, trying to get to see where they would fit in as a player but fit into our team as a person and fit in and tell them how we're going to challenge them but love them as well. We vetted our guys really well to make sure that they would be adding something, not just on the football field, but more importantly off the football field. That's what I'm excited about for those guys we did get."
On Felix Anudike-Uzomah…
"Felix has had a phenomenal season, and I think all of us knew he was going to have a really good season. He's exceeded a lot of peoples' expectations. Probably not Felix's because he's a prideful kid. Once again, I keep going back to watching him learn from Wyatt Hubert about how you play this game relentlessly and Coach (Buddy) Wyatt is always riding him to play harder and play faster. He's a guy that has been relentless to the quarterback. He makes a great play, and it bounces right back to the kid from Baylor. That was one of the breaks that for four weeks we were getting. We got a strip sack and bounces right back up the kid for a completion. But, he's had a great season and I'm excited. He's still really a young player."
On Deuce Vaughn…
"He's an explosive play waiting to happen all the time. He bursted through and got us back in the game on a big run. That's what he does, and he loves playing this game. That's the thing. We always ask guys in the recruiting process, how much do you love playing football? High school football it's, 'I love it.' You have to love college football. You have to love next level football, and that's one kid that absolutely loved every part of this game from the grind of a fall camp to strength and conditioning to the recovery part of it to the games to the camaraderie in the locker room. He's had a great season like I thought he would."
On if he has met Steve Sarkisian…
"Never have, so it will be my first time meeting Sark. I think Tui (Mike Tuiasosopo) knows him a little bit. Ben Newman knows him because Ben had worked with Alabama as well. I know he's an unbelievably bright, bright, offensive mind. Some of the creativity that those guys are doing offensively is pretty unique."
DEUCE VAUGHN, SOPHOMORE RUNNING BACK
On what it means to embrace the grind...
"That's what it's all about. Whenever we talk with coaches they say, 'The way you do one thing is the way you do everything'. So, if you're taking care of your business off the field, it's going to reflect on the field as well. You don't want to leave anything out that you don't want to leave that pain of regret throughout the week. 'Man, if I would have been more disciplined in this sense. If I would have watched this amount of film or if I would just watch one more play instead of turning on the video game. If I had just done this one assignment. If I would have just gone up to the facility for five more minutes and in the cold tub and the hot tub to make sure my body was ready on Saturday.' It's one of those things where if you had that discipline throughout the week, no matter what happens on Saturday, you're going to be content and you're going to be happy because you did everything you could throughout that week to give yourself a chance to be successful."
On the confidence level in Will Howard if he starts this week...
"That's my guy. We have seen it all year, the way that he prepares behind Skylar (Thompson). He's had Skylar in his corner all year, and even dating back to when we got back last season. The progress that he has made because of Sky, and just the way that he's seen the looks, and he's been in the weight room. He's been running with us. He looks even better. It's one of those things where if he has to go Friday, we're ready to roll, we're going to go out there. We're going to play, we're going to rise up with him in the sense we're going to go there and play. We're going to have to execute as a team and as an offense, and that's something we have to pride ourselves on. Even if Skylar plays, we're going to have to rise up as a team."
On if it has sunk in that he's a 1,000-yard rusher...
"Just a little bit. It's crazy because of course you want to celebrate. It's an amazing accomplishment, one I can't take credit for, and I always say that. There's so much work to be done especially this season, the last game against Texas and then we have the bowl game as well. So, it's not really the time to celebrate because you still have work to do. There's so much out there to go and get as a football team and just taking it, like I said, day by day and making sure that I'm not being seduced by the success. I'm very fortunate to have this season because we have a lot more work to do."
FELIX ANUDIKE-UZOMAH, SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE END
On what the season has been like for him...
"Pretty good honestly. It's been up and down like with this last loss. We had a couple good wins like Texas Tech and a couple other ones that just made our team better. But, overall, the season has been alright."
On what he thinks of his body of work this season...
"Basically everything that I learned in fall camp. I just use it day by day every time I play and my technique wise. That is what I harp on most every time. Every time I go to work, every practice and what I do every game."
On meeting or exceeding his expectations...
"I haven't met my expectations yet. There's still a lot of stuff I wish I could have done better. Like when I look back on film, there's a lot of plays I could have made. There's more sacks I could have made. There's a lot of sacks that I missed that I could have had. Even in the last game, I think I missed like three sacks that I could've had. It is just frustrating. I feel like I could have done better this season."
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/ FootballK-State FB | Welcome back Collin Klein
Monday, December 08
K-State FB | Head Coach Collin Klein Radio Interview
Friday, December 05
K-State FB | Head Coach Collin Klein Official Introductory Event
Friday, December 05
K-State FB | Thank You Coach Klieman
Wednesday, December 03
