Pullquotes: HC Kingsbury, C Kaster & LB Eguavoen

Pretty much as expected, first question out of the chute has to deal with Wallerstedt and Kingsbury shuts that down pretty quickly. He was short and to the point, and said that that was the last he would be speaking of Wallerstedt. Cool.

Following that, there were quite a few questions regarding Mike Smith, his role, how the team has responded, his impact to the defense, etc. Full transcript here.

Q. What have you seen from Mike taking over an expanded role in the defense so far?

COACH KINGSBURY: Relative to that, I'd say he's still himself, hasn't changed. Brings a lot of energy. Very positive. Good with the players. Things won't change a lot schematically, or personnel. But every guy is going to have their different way of doing things. I think he's handled himself well. They've had good energy over there, had some good practices.

I know you probably can't read too much into this because Kingsbury is becoming quite fluent in the way of Coach Speak, but take that for what you will: Things won't change a lot schematically, or personnel.

So, I guess we can continue to look forward to Jackson Richards starting at nose guard. Yippee!

Kingsbury also addresses expectations for Smith, and it certainly sounds like he's trying to keep them in check, saying that they're just hoping for him to do the best he can, be positive and give the players a chance to be successful. Then there's this nugget:

Q. Talk about the response from the players to Mike right now? Is it a good response right now?

COACH KINGSBURY: Players are resilient. They're a lot more resilient than the coaches are. Excited about this opportunity to play Thursday night on national TV.

I don't know about you, but I don't think I know what to make of him saying the players are resilient when asked to their response to the new coordinator. Maybe I'm reading too much into this or making this out to be a bigger deal, but he didn't say they were responding well, just that they're resilient. Hmm.

And then the questions (for the most part) turn to looking ahead to Oklahoma State.

Q. What are the biggest issues that this team presents for you?

COACH KINGSBURY: They're really good. I think people thought they would drop off. They lost a bunch of good players last year. But these young players have stepped up, they haven't skipped a beat. Watching them the first couple games, they all fly around. You saw that against Florida State. It will be a big challenge. Up front, those guys gave us trouble last year. That whole group is back. We'll have to find a way to protect well and find a way to run the football.

Here's something I found interesting. Take a look at that last phrase, he said he wants to find a way to run the football. That's been working lately, for the most part. But then when asked if he would like to run the ball a little more later on, he says, no. But then why would he admit that he's done something wrong in the playcalling. He obviously likes the balance of run and throw and that falls directly on him, so why would he change that. Except that it's been working more...

Q. Oklahoma State likes to put up a lot of points. The perception is they throw it all around the yard. Is that a misperception? Do they take up more of the clock than people think?

COACH KINGSBURY: Definitely. They've done a great job incorporating the run. I think when Weeden was there, they had Blackmon, were really slinging it around. They've done a great job of bringing it back in, playing to their strengths. That's what they want to do.

Q. Does that almost make you want to take up some of that time of possession, run it a little bit more than you have?

COACH KINGSBURY: No. Just score more, I'd say. That's what we've got to do. We're not scoring enough. And we've got to protect the football.

Just score more. That would be nice. This offense feels like it is really close to figuring things out and taking the top of it. A little more consistency, hitting the big play in a timely fashion, not turning the ball over, it just feels like this offense is close to doing what they want. We know what the defense is, but we still don't really know what the offense is. We know what it CAN be, but we haven't seen the consistency one way or the other to really know.

Jared Kaster

I think right off the bat, we can see that these past couple of weeks have been difficult for the players and that they have used this bye week to move on and focus on whats still ahead of them.

Q. What has this week been like for you guys, all the changes in the bye week?

JARED KASTER: An opportunity for us to get better. Put in the game a week earlier, trying to get your head right. Past the hard couple weeks we've had. Try to get everybody's mind right and get ready for Oklahoma State.

Kaster was asked about facing the Cowboy defensive line, which has been pretty good so far this year.

Q. Defensive line seemed to give Florida State some troubles. What have you seen from the defensive line?

JARED KASTER: They're the same defensive line we saw last year. They lost one of >their D tackles. They're probably going to be the best D-line we're going to see so far. They haven't changed things up since last year. They come out and play us hard. They're a very good defensive line, probably one of the best in the Big 12. We'll come out there and play them hard and they're going to play us hard, so it's going to be fun.

I don't know about the best defensive line that they will face this year, but it is pretty good. It seems like every other team in the conference has a good defensive line besides Texas Tech.

Sam Eguavoen

Eguavoen is also asked about Mike Smith and how that has been affecting the defense.

Q. Sam, what has this last week been like for you as defensive players?

SAM EGUAVOEN: Change. We've been trying to just keep our head up. The season is going to be a marathon. A lot of us, like me, we're used to change. We're just trying to rally.

Q. New coordinator. Nothing [new] for you. What has the adjustment been like moving to Mike?

SAM EGUAVOEN: I mean, he's been making a few changes just by the way we line up. I mean, it's really just us as players, we got to tackle, we got to fake gap. I mean, with a new defensive coordinator, I hope the players don't feel like, you know, it wasn't our fault for any of these losses. It was 100% our fault. But we're going to change that.

Well, color me intrigued when he says that Smith has been changing how the guys line up. Kingsbury says that he won't be changing too much schematically or personnel-wise, but Eguavoen says this. Not that it's going to vault this defense to the top of the conference or anything, but I'm genuinely curious now.

Oh, and apparently the players mostly found out about the whole thing on Twitter. Imagine that.

And then he answers a few different questions about how the defense will be different. Pretty good stuff in here.

Q. What has been the biggest change you noticed with Mike being in charge?

SAM EGUAVOEN: He's just more laid back. I don't want to say friendly environment, but it's less stress, less screaming. I mean, he comes to you like a man, not as a child or something.

Oh man, That sounds familiar to you all, right. From that time we had a bald guy as DC that eventually ended up back in Fort Worth. You remember hearing the same kinds of things after he left, too, right? Yep, me too.

Q. Folks that will be watching the game, what do you think the casual fan will notice, will be the most different on the defense?

SAM EGUAVOEN: We'll be faster. I think it's a little less in the game plan now, so we're going to be looking less to the sideline to know what we got to do next. It's going to be more on-the-fly stuff. We're going to be ready for each play.

It seems like with every passing question, he reveals more about the changes, and they're starting to add up. And then there's this piece of gold. You don't see the question because it wasn't transcribed and you can't really tell immediately from the context of Eguavoen's answer, but there at the end, look at that.

Q. (No microphone.)

SAM EGUAVOEN: I guess you could say that. I mean, this one really don't count. This is his second year being here, whatever. I don't really consider this one a change. This is just a minor change really. I mean, it's still a 3-4 defense. We're still doing what we do. We're just making a few like position changes and personnel changes.

Boom?