In Their Own Words | Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury and Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt

I haven't had time to really put down my thoughts about yesterday's press conference, but I wanted to go ahead and get a post up with some of my favorite quotes. I am sure there are others and this is where you can find the entire transcript (PDF).

Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt

Red Raider Nation, we ride together. Since Wednesday, the pride and the excitement has been unlike anything I've ever seen before. And as the Matador song says, "We, indeed, bear our banners far and wide." This is our time. This is our time to rise up higher than ever before. It's our time to show this country how proud we are, and how special it is to be at Texas Tech. Our future is bright.

Just this morning, our board of regents celebrated and honored Cody Davis for being an Academic All American. Just this morning, our board of regents celebrated our women's soccer team for having their best season in program history and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. And just this morning, our board of regents recognized and celebrate Kennedy Kithuka, our great cross country runner for winning the national championship.

Very simply, our goal is to be the best intercollegiate athletics program in the country. And working together, working together we are going to get there. Just as President Horn said in 1925, "Everything that is done on these West Texas plains ought to be on a big scale. Let our thoughts be big thoughts and broad thoughts, and let our thinking be in worldwide terms."

Head Football Coach Kliff Kingsbury

These last two days, the support, the outpouring of support has been incredible. It's made me feel at home. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that from the fans. Every former player that I've played against, when I meet them, the first thing they want to talk about is the fans at Texas Tech and how they hated playing there. And that's a credit to Texas Tech nation, the Red Raider Nation.

I'm going to bring in a young, energetic staff. There will be some former Red Raiders joining me. Some guys that care about this place and love this place like I do. And we can't wait to hit the ground running and get this thing rolling again. We're going to recruit hard. I'm a guy that's always believed it's about players, not plays, and we have to hit the state hard, and we're going to do that. That's a big part of my mission here is to get that recruiting going and get some of the best players of the state out to the Texas plains.

We're going to believe in developing young men. That's why I got into this. I was fortunate to go on and play for a few years. Football has been great to me, and I love giving back to this game. I love recruiting good people, good student-athletes, and people that y'all will be proud of after they're done playing and going on to be productive members of society. That's my main goal being here. Thank you.

As far as the football goes, I'm more of a walking-type guy, not a talking-type guy. So I'll let you all see that in the fall. But it's going to be an exciting brand of football. We'll be attacking on both sides of the ball, we'll play with confidence. The kids are going to have fun. They're going to have swagger, and you'll enjoy this next year's team. I promise you.

One last request I have with Kirby, I was going to see if there's anyway possible we can get Cincinnati on the schedule next year?