Pullquotes: Kingsbury, Washington & Robertson

As I was reading through the transcript of this last press conference of the season, it hit me just how quickly this time of year moves. It feels like last week that Seth had all of us writers sit down and basically set the schedule of posts that would be up on the site during the season. And here we are, week 14 of the season and only a few days away from the off season. But we've got the basketball season, baseball season and spring football practice thrown in there before we get back to football full time. We've got lots to look forward to and great teams to cheer on.

Kingsbury

This was a very consistent press conference. Nothing too juicy or spicy, very calm and Kingsbury-esque. And maybe there's just not much to talk about at this point in the season.

Q. Coach, talk about the feeling coming off that game, not only for you as a coach but for your team as players?

COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, excited for our seniors to get a road win in their last real road game. It was exciting. They kept fighting. It wasn't pretty, but they kept fighting and found a way to get it done.

It was awesome to have this senior class get a hard-fought win on the road like they did. I know it's not the last game of the season, but winning towards the end of the season helps the outlook.

Q. Earlier today in the Big 12 Conference call you had said that Baylor's wide receiving corps was the best you've ever seen. Can you expand upon that?

COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, at the college level I've never seen that deep of a wide receiving corps. You look at two of the really good players. Norwood and Fuller from last year don't really play as much because they brought in Cannon and some of those younger guys that stepped up. Any of those four they start, could start for anybody in the country.

And this wouldn't really be that noteworthy, if it wasn't for our favorite troll, David Ubben, who had to interject that he would take the receiving corps from the Denver Broncos over the Baylor Bears. The quote from the conference call that was referenced in the question and what Ubben responded to was that Kingsbury said it was the best group of receivers in the country and they (and the guys on the bench) could start for anybody in the country. Obviously, Kingsbury meant on the college level, but troll went full troll and included the NFL.

Q. With that said, how big a concern is it facing them with your situation at safety right now?

COACH KINGSBURY: It's definitely a concern. We'll see which one of those guys can get back and hopefully add some depth. But, yeah, when you go against a team with this type of fire power at that position, and you're down some bodies at safety, it's going to be a match-up problem.

The pessimist in me says it won't matter who's starting at safety. Baylor is going to pound the ball until they want to stop and throw it deep behind the defense. It's just bad matchups after bad matchups across the board, and this is just what Baylor does. You've all seen it. They run to create space for the receivers deep, and throw deep to open up the run underneath. They're deadly at both and are not stuck in needing both to be working to move the ball and score 60 points.

Q. Is Mahomes starting quarterback this week?

COACH KINGSBURY: We'll see. We'll see how the week goes. He did some good things. We'll see how Davis feels and go from there and see which one looks the best.

I guess it never hurts to try to get an answer to this question every week.

Q. With Lauderdale and the way he's come off the last few weeks, how good do you feel about him going into next year now?

COACH KINGSBURY: Very excited. It was a little rough in the beginning. I think him adjusting to this level of play. But he has come on recently and really stepped up. That's kind of the play we expected from all those guys on the outside throughout the year but really hadn't got it, and he's the one that's really stepped up and started making plays. So moving forward we have two more years with him, and that's exciting.

Q. Just on the deep ball, is that something where you would consider that (No microphone)?

COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, you'd hope so. Like I mentioned earlier in here, a lot of things we're doing are manufactured getting the ball. But he's proven recently that he can win on some stuff and get over the top. So, yeah, if we can continue to get better at that, we'll start drawing up some plays for him to get open deep.

The pieces are starting to fall into place for that explosive offense. We saw Lauderdale's JUCO/newcomer curve, going from second string to undoubted first string, to making big plays and being somewhat of a reliable target. And this is from a first-year player, which you don't see very often, JUCO or otherwise.

Then there was a bit about playing in AT&T Stadium, how it would sort of feel like a bowl atmosphere, and that the team would have the chance to play spoiler to a team working on going into the inaugural playoff.

Q. Everybody following Baylor is already kind of circling the K-State game as the one they have to win to set themselves up for the playoff. Do you guys see that embracing the spoiler role or using that as a motivational tool?

COACH KINGSBURY: I would think we have to. It's our last game. For some of these seniors, it's the last game they'll ever play and for some of these juniors it's the last game they'll play for eight months. So if you're not motivated for that reason alone, you're probably in the wrong sport.

Washington

DeAndre Washington reached the 1,000 yard mark last week and was the first player to do that for Tech since Ricky Williams did it in 1998.

Q. What's that (Indiscernible) mark mean for you?

DEANDRE WASHINGTON: It's huge. I talked about it a little bit after the game. It feels good when something hasn't been done for a while but more so for the big guys up front. They were more looking forward to it than I was, so I'm glad I was able to get it done for them.

Q. They say anything to you about it after the game?

DEANDRE WASHINGTON: Yeah, we had a little celebration. We celebrated a little bit later that night. But it was a good feeling.

And there may or may not be a little extra something from Santa for the offensive line this year. But it's good to see a successful running back acknowledging his offensive line for helping create the opportunity for him to be successful. You also saw this with Samaje Perine last week when he set the single game record.

And I loved this little perspective on Washington helping Justin Stockton out in his progression as a running back.

Q. Coach said Justin needed to see the holes a little better. At what point in your career did you become more comfortable, and when did you turn the corner as far as being able to see the holes developing?

DEANDRE WASHINGTON: I think it was the year -- yeah, he's just young. I think it will come with time and come with experience. But for me personally, I think the year I sat out I kind of got a chance to watch the game from the side a lot and kind of see things a little bit different from the sidelines down the field. So it kind of gave me a better perspective. Just the game plan. He's still getting used to the game speed. He's fast, but you've got to realize sometimes you've got to get your yards in the nitty-gritty. Like I said, it will come with time and come with experience. He'll be all right.

And finally, this.

Q. I'm sure you're familiar with the term style points. I think that's what Baylor's going to be going for against you guys. Do you take that personally? Do you talk to the guys about going full board or that sort of thing?

DEANDRE WASHINGTON: At this point I don't feel much motivation is needed. Playing against a top 5 team, it's our last game, and we got the opportunity to do something that hasn't been done in a while. Since I've been here, I haven't had a chance to beat Baylor. So I take that as personal motivation. But like I said, it's our last game, so I think that's all the motivation we need is to go out there and finish it the right way.

We're talking about a redshirt junior, and all of the true seniors for that matter, not having beaten Baylor since they've been on campus. That's got to change.

Robertson

And with all of our belly aching and griping from a fan's standpoint about playing in Cowboys Stadium (AT&T Stadium, or whatever it's called these days), the players seem to really enjoy it. And at least on some level, that counts for something.

Q. Talk about that atmosphere of getting to play there and kind of getting that feeling and in that type of place? Just talk about that a little bit?

PETE ROBERTSON: Playing in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium it's amazing. Lot of people wish they could play in there. It's just a great feeling playing with that type of team, and our high-powered offense, and what a great team they have. It will be a fun experience playing in Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

I totally forgot about Eguavoen calling out Baylor at the media days. It's good to see that the team backs him up, but there's no need to give a good team any bulletin board material.

Q. In the preseason Sam said he was looking forward to shutting off Baylor. What was the reaction when you heard him say that?

PETE ROBERTSON: Anything my teammate wants to do or however they want to do it, I'm 100% behind them. If he wants to shut them down like that, we can do that. We're just going to all come out and play. This is the last game. I hate that we had that type of season like that, but if he wants to come out with a bang, we're all going to come out with a bang.

Q. With this win under your belt, do you guys think you're up to the task?

PETE ROBERTSON: Oh, yes, definitely, definitely. We've been up to the task the whole season. We just couldn't capitalize. It's been our last game once again with this type of opponent. We're going to try to come out and just play our normal routine like we did the whole season.

To come out of Arlington with a win, there is going to have be lots of CAPITALIZATION. See, I can do it. But seriously, if this team is going to win this weekend, they are going to need to not get too down on themselves when Baylor breaks off a big play (because it's going to happen), they're going to need to play technically and fundamentally sound football and CAPITALIZE on any scoring opportunity or Baylor turnover. Weirder things have happened.