K-State Previews Big 12 Opener at This Week’s Press Conference
Sep 20, 2022 | Football
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and select players met with members of the media on Tuesday inside the Vanier Family Football Complex to preview the Wildcats' Big 12 opener Saturday night at No. 6 Oklahoma. Links to video and audio of Klieman's press conference – which was streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ – are above in addition to an audio link of player breakout interviews. A transcript of Klieman's opening statement is below.
CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"Good afternoon. Kind of going back to Saturday, reviewing the film, I really thought we had a good week of preparation and talking to the leaders and the captains yesterday they thought that as well. Obviously, there's always a few things that you wish you can do a little bit better Monday through Friday, but the bottom line was we didn't execute well enough really in all three phases. Starting with the defense, we played really good at times on defense. In that game we needed to play great. You're going to get into low scoring games, you're going to get into high scoring games, you've got to find a way to stop hem at a critical time. They beat us on explosive plays, and unfortunately for us, some of their explosive plays were on their scoring drives. A little bit of that was probably our inability to tackle a few times and lose the cup as well as their quarterback makes some big-time plays and give him credit. Offensively, it's pretty simple – we didn't execute on third and fourth down. We had plays there, and whether it was a miss block or whether it was a misread, just not seeing whatever it was, the field, not seeing where the defenders were, what the pre-snap look was and also that changed post-snap. We didn't execute and you're not going to win any games doing what we did on third and fourth down. Then probably the area that we need to excel the most in his special teams. I think we've got really good punt and kick returners, and we didn't give them an opportunity. So, part of that is them doing a good job of kicking it out of the endzone and us doing a better job of winning at the line of scrimmage on punt return to give Phillip (Brooks) a chance, and we didn't do those things. So, that phase we have to win. I appreciate our guys yesterday. If you'd ask our key special teams guys, they would have said, 'Coach we lost that phase because we typically win that phase. So, an even matchup is a loss for us.' So, those are the things that we need to shore up this week. It is not panic time because we're only three games into it, but we know it's a time for us that we have to improve in all areas. So, I'm excited to see how the guys respond to adversity. We talked about the adversity that we're facing and have faced it before, and these guys need to attack it. We've got the right leadership, the right guys in the locker room to get it done. We've just got to get better and continue to improve."
CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
"Good afternoon. Kind of going back to Saturday, reviewing the film, I really thought we had a good week of preparation and talking to the leaders and the captains yesterday they thought that as well. Obviously, there's always a few things that you wish you can do a little bit better Monday through Friday, but the bottom line was we didn't execute well enough really in all three phases. Starting with the defense, we played really good at times on defense. In that game we needed to play great. You're going to get into low scoring games, you're going to get into high scoring games, you've got to find a way to stop hem at a critical time. They beat us on explosive plays, and unfortunately for us, some of their explosive plays were on their scoring drives. A little bit of that was probably our inability to tackle a few times and lose the cup as well as their quarterback makes some big-time plays and give him credit. Offensively, it's pretty simple – we didn't execute on third and fourth down. We had plays there, and whether it was a miss block or whether it was a misread, just not seeing whatever it was, the field, not seeing where the defenders were, what the pre-snap look was and also that changed post-snap. We didn't execute and you're not going to win any games doing what we did on third and fourth down. Then probably the area that we need to excel the most in his special teams. I think we've got really good punt and kick returners, and we didn't give them an opportunity. So, part of that is them doing a good job of kicking it out of the endzone and us doing a better job of winning at the line of scrimmage on punt return to give Phillip (Brooks) a chance, and we didn't do those things. So, that phase we have to win. I appreciate our guys yesterday. If you'd ask our key special teams guys, they would have said, 'Coach we lost that phase because we typically win that phase. So, an even matchup is a loss for us.' So, those are the things that we need to shore up this week. It is not panic time because we're only three games into it, but we know it's a time for us that we have to improve in all areas. So, I'm excited to see how the guys respond to adversity. We talked about the adversity that we're facing and have faced it before, and these guys need to attack it. We've got the right leadership, the right guys in the locker room to get it done. We've just got to get better and continue to improve."
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