By now, we've heard the updates that Kingsbury was offering up on IR Jakeem Grant. If you haven't, though, Kingsbury said that Grant ha sstitches under his chin, seems to be doing well and is probable for the game this weekend against TCU. Kingsbury also that this situation is an ongoing investigation and as of right now, Grant's status with the team is unchanged. Unless something comes out about Grant's involvement in this incident, I wouldn't expect his status with the team to change.
And as always, you can find the full transcript of the press conference here.
Kingsbury
Q. Can you talk about what you face this weekend with TCU offensively and defensively? What are your big areas of concern?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, offensively, you've got to start with the quarterback, I think. If you look at what he's done, his numbers, you've got to put him up there in the Heisman talk with the top three guys. He's been phenomenal. He's been as dominant a player as there is in the country when it comes to running the football and throwing it and really protecting it, only three interceptions, tons of skill.
The running backs are as good as anybody in our conference. Wideouts, they can run as fast as any wideout in the conference. I've been really impressed offensively with what they've done there -- Coach Meacham, Coach Cumbie,adapting their personnel.
Defensively, Gary is one of the best defensive minds in college football, always has been. It's the same deal. You have to earn every yard against him. They're not going to give you anything easy. They're going to be where they're supposed to be, and they're going to tackle well.
It's a great challenge. They're playing as well as anybody in the country, we know that. We have to play our best game to hang in there.
Obviously, he is very complimentary of TCU, especially Trevone Boykin. And for good reason. Boykin has completely turned the corner this year in terms of his production in the new TCU offense. He's closing in on 2,000 yards with 14 TDs and 3 interceptions. He's been efficient and has improved his QBR from an awful 41.5 last season to a very respectable 70.2 For comparison's sake, Davis Webb's QBR for this season is sitting at 66.9.
Q. And from your point of view, as a quarterback with some success, how do you stop a guy like Boykin? I know these kids are different these days, but how would you stop a kid like that?
COACH KINGSBURY: Nobody has yet. We'll see. He's tough because, like I said, a guy like that, you'd hope he'd be more loose with the football, but he's protected it so well and knows when to throw it away and knows when to take off. He's just playing at a very high level.
And then Kingsbury is asked about the player we've all seen tremendous improvement from, Pete Robertson.
Q. Talk about Pete Robertson and his performance so far, leading the Big 12 in sacks. Talk about what credit that is to your defense.
COACH KINGSBURY: That's been exciting to watch. He's grown a lot both on and off the field. He's a guy who, when he first got here, couldn't play an entire game. He's got himself in shape and now playing 80 or 90 snaps. Coach Smith, who's his position coach, has done a fine job developing him and getting him to where he's at. Very impressed with the way he's played, and we're going to need him this week.
And then I found this interesting.
Q. What did you say to them that the penalties went down so much?
COACH KINGSBURY: They're excited. We have a certain number of penalties that we either have some extracurricular after practice or we don't. So they fell under that number. I don't know if they're more excited about winning or the fact they're under that number on Saturday.
And finally, these tidbits on Davis Webb.
Q. Have you seen improvement from Webb this season, and if so, where?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I think accuracy early on in the season I didn't think was there. I think it's getting closer. We're still missing some things we can't miss. And I think it's a combination of things. I think at receiver, some positions, we have to continue to get better and continue to separate, and when we are open, we have to hit them. That group as a whole, quarterback-receiver, has to continue to grow together.
Q. Any time the quarterback struggles, obviously, he gets to be a lightning rod for criticism. How much of this season -- whether it's been missed connections, how much has it been Davis, and how much has it been maybe guys not being where they're supposed to be, not running the right routes, not being on time?
COACH KINGSBURY: It's always a combination of things. Coaching Davis, I have a very high standard for him, so I expect him to make -- when someone's open, we make the throw. At that position, we put it all on us, and he knows that, and he knows that's our approach. Any time you're not having success in the passing game, there's always a combination of things that go into it.
And in terms of injury updates, basically anybody that went down on Saturday is day-to-day, including Grant, Bradley Marquez, Jordan Davis, Dom Robertson, Sam Eguavoen and Andre Ross.
Pete Robertson
Another perspective on the team/defense following Mike Smith taking over.
Q. Overall, what's your assessment of how your defense has played, especially since you all are improving from game to game to game?
PETE ROBERTSON: We started off slow this season. We started off really slow. The last few weeks, we're stepping it up, everybody playing fast. Everybody is out there having fun. As a total defense from the D-line to the linebackers, to the safeties, we're all just out there having fun.
And I found it interesting how he answered the question about how the defense is working on containing Boykin, in that Robertson was basically used as a spy on every play.
Q. Some older guys like yourself, you've had two shots to play against Boykin on the field. Does that help you having seen him actually up close and personal those two games?
PETE ROBERTSON: Yes, definitely. Last year we game planned against him last year pretty much. He got out a little bit, but we kept him in the pocket. We threw him off his keys. Like every year it's a different year. He's a totally different quarterback, and he come with a mindset to win, which we've all seen it on TV.
So it's going to be probably about the same thing, switch some more things up, see how Coach Smith wants to go with it, and we'll just play with that.
Q. How are you going to do that in practice this week? This is a big week for you guys, bouncing back from Kansas. How do you guys do that, focus on your fundamentals throughout this week of practice?
PETE ROBERTSON: It starts today in practice. Everybody's got to be locked in. Coach Smith will talk to us today as a defense when we get in. He's going to let us know, we can't have no fly-bys by another defense. Me or Branden Jackson, everybody got to have a rush lane. You know what I'm saying? We got to be locked in. Everybody got to be prepared to play with this type of team because we know they can make plays any time during the game.
DeAndre Washington
Q. DeAndre, two weeks -- you had 29 carries a couple weeks ago, 23 last week. How are you feeling physically?
DeANDRE WASHINGTON: Feeling pretty good. Off-season, like I said, just trying to take care of my body and get myself mentally prepared, physically prepared for the season. So feeling pretty good.
Q. The last couple weeks, was there a shot where you feel like somebody got you pretty good?
DeANDRE WASHINGTON: No, I haven't. That's been the main reason why I've been able to go into games and sustain going into -- handling a lot of the load with the carries I've had just because I try not to let the defense get a square-up shot on me. I think it's helped me last longer in the long run.
That's something I just never considered until now, that Washington really hasn't missed any time or taken any real rough hits. And obviously his off-season work has allowed him to stay in the game longer and take more carries later in the game.
And then he is asked a question or two about playing on grass (probably because Robertson mentioned it passing) but apparently Washington prefers playing on grass more than turf because he said he said it has more give and allows him to make better cuts. Interesting to reflect back on, though, is that his ACL injury happened on a grass surface at Missouri, although they had arguably the worst playing surface that year.
Q. Obviously, it's good for you, but how do you feel with Tech being more balanced getting the run in. You're getting a lot of runs in there, getting more yards, and helping the offense?
DeANDRE WASHINGTON: I think it's definitely a good feeling. I mean, if you watch us over the course of this year, when we're more balanced, offensively, we're doing a better job of making plays and going downfield. So it's definitely a good feeling just to keep this balanced attack going.
And to finish up his time at the podium, he answers a few questions about having Kenny Williams back on offense that I thought were interesting.
Q. What have you said to Kenny the last week?
DeANDRE WASHINGTON: I'm just happy to have him back over. Kenny, he's our war hawk. You can put that man on D-line, O-line, safety, running back, he does it all, special teams. He's just an all around guy. I'm glad to have him back. Just another asset to our locker room.
Q. What's his role mainly on offense?
DeANDRE WASHINGTON: Similar to what it was last year. He'll do a lot of short yardage. He'll still play. We'll use him in the pass game as well. It's kind of similar to where he was last year.