Pullquotes: Kingsbury, Marquez and Nelson Talk K-State

This week, we have head coach Kliff Kingsbury and players IR Bradley Marquez and CB Justis Nelson.  Here's the transcript for those three individuals. I've also done a non-transcript for defensive coordinator Mike Smith and offensive coordinator Eric Morris.  Just to remind everyone, a non-transcript is where I sit at my computer and just type what I hear and I don't go back and rewind the tape.  These are not actual quotes, more like notes of the quotes.  One interesting thing is that Morris said that there will not be two game plans for Patrick Mahomes or Davis Webb, just one game plan.

I think the difference between what Kingsbury scripts and having two game plans are somewhat two different things and I'd love to hear Kingsbury or Morris talk about the difference between the two.  Obviously, there are certain plays that are better suited for Mahomes and some are better suited for Webb.  And Kingsbury is asked quite a bit about Mahomes. In fact, the entire final exchange is about Mahomes and his comparison . . . wait for it . . . Johnny Manziel.  I should have some more on Mahomes later this week.

Q. How do you feel about with what you said last week about Patrick and specifically coming back?
COACH KINGSBURY: He gets a ton of reps during the week, so we'll make sure we script it appropriately. But he gets plenty of reps where we can get him things that we know he's comfortable with and get him repped.

Q. Your frustration with the penalties can be diminishing. Any new ideas over the weekend?
COACH KINGSBURY: No, we'll just keep addressing them and keep trying to get better. A lot of it is technique, fundamentals. I think they're playing hard but not always smart. So we've got to keep coaching and that's on us as a staff to get that straightened out.

Q. Did you see a difference in the defense last week when looking at film?
COACH KINGSBURY: I thought they played hard, great energy. I thought we were in position to make a lot of plays. To Oklahoma State's credit, they made a lot of those plays when the ball was in the air. But I thought they came out with great energy as a defense and as a team I thought we did. It gave us a lot of chances in that first half to get some separation. I was proud of their effort, proud of their preparation, and we just keep getting better from there.

Anytime we put him in, it's not always pretty, but finds a way to move the ball down and put it in the end zone, and that's what you want at the end of the day at that position. -Kliff Kingsbury on Patrick Mahomes

Q. Any particular players that cause you the biggest concern in Kansas State?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I think Mueller is a guy from last year that had a good game against us, the D-end, No. 7 is a cornerback that really flashes on tape. As a defense, as a whole, they play together very well. You saw that against a great offense in Auburn. They don't give you anything. You have to earn it all. I think the quarterback's playing at a much higher level, and Lockett is one of the best players in the country, so lot of things to worry about. But first and foremost, we have to worry about ourselves and clean everything up.

Q. What did you think of the production of your outside receivers in general?
COACH KINGSBURY: He's done a good job, Dylan has. Anytime we get the ball close, he seems to come down with it. He's still young and working, a lot of those guys are young. But they played hard once again, lots of drops, lots of mental mistakes, and we've got to get better as a group. But the effort was improved.

Q. Can you talk about what it's like having (Indiscernible) and making his first start this weekend?
COACH KINGSBURY: We'll need all of them if he has to play significant time. I think all three have done a good job having their own roles and taking responsibility for every time they go in protecting the football and blocking schemes and things of that nature. So they've been great. We'll have to lean on them if the young quarterback has to play.

Q. Is he more a dual-threat than Davis?
COACH KINGSBURY: Yes.

Q. Is it more in the mold of a Johnny Manziel?
COACH KINGSBURY: Not to that extent. He's a little bigger, probably not as fast, moves around well, keeps his eyes down the field and really good at extending plays.

Q. Would you consider that his biggest strength?
COACH KINGSBURY: I think so. I think he just has that knack. Anytime we put him in, it's not always pretty, but finds a way to move the ball down and put it in the end zone, and that's what you want at the end of the day at that position.

Q. What are you worried about most with (Indiscernible)?
COACH KINGSBURY: Protecting the football, as you are with any of those young quarterbacks.

Some time in the very near future, we'll be talking about how we miss Bradley Marquez and how good of a spokesperson he is for Texas Tech and this football team.  Also, I thought it was interesting that the coaching staff chose Nelson to be the spokesperson for the defense considering his rough day on the field, while Branden Jackson had one of the best games that Smith could recall.

Bradley Marquez:

Q. Did you bring the group together and say this has to stop? These penalties are over the top? Have you done that?
BRADLEY MARQUEZ: Yeah, we've done that. As the rest of the captains, we've done that. Coaches have done that. But it all comes down to an individual going out there and playing his technique and not making those mistakes. As a team, there's not anything you can do special to change this. It's got to be the individual person because he's the one that has to go out there and focus with whatever, with the holding, or blocking it back, whatever it may be, it's that individual.

It's just everybody being on the same page and being able to depend on the next guy to focus even harder when things may get tough so we don't make these mistakes. We definitely want to change that. -Bradley Marquez on the team improving their penalties

It's just everybody being on the same page and being able to depend on the next guy to focus even harder when things may get tough so we don't make these mistakes. We definitely want to change that. Maybe improve on it in the future and use it as a learning lesson, but that's something that's going to be big for us the rest of the year.

Q. As a senior leader, are you going to spend any extra time this week helping him with plays or anything?
BRADLEY MARQUEZ: Yeah, yeah. Usually we do, honestly, in general from receivers and quarterbacks, we usually do at practice, and there are different guys that want to work on different things after practice to get better at. But definitely we'll take a little extra time with Patrick. Like I said, he's a great player, an athlete. We'll rally behind him, but he'll be prepared.

Q. If Patrick does start on Saturday, there's obviously got to be a bit of a dropoff from the chemistry of receivers since you've worked a lot longer with Davis. Does that make you feel like the pass attack won't be as prominent as the running game?
BRADLEY MARQUEZ: No, you've seen in the past we've had a lot of quarterbacks come through here and especially last year when we had basically used two quarterbacks and they both had a great year. So it's just one of those things where I feel like any quarterback that steps into this offense is very well-prepared.

Coach Kingsbury prepares them. He had great success with quarterbacks, so it will not be any surprise for him to go out there and execute this offense to the best of his ability. Yeah, maybe some chemistry may not be there, but there are going to be a lot of opportunities. And he's had a ton of reps since he's gotten here to be able to know this offense and know each receiver. He still gets reps in practice each week. It's not something that we're really that worried about. Whoever is going to step in there on Saturday, we'll rally behind. We have done it in the past. We'll continue to operate this offense.

Justis Nelson:

Q. What kind of lesson do you take away from that game?
JUSTIS NELSON: Just keep on working. Get better every week. Obviously, we need to finish plays, so that's something that we'll be working on this week. Being in that right position, you have to go from making a play whenever it's called upon and comes into the game, you have to be ready. So finishing is definitely something that we're going to work on this week.

Q. What did you see from Nigel in practice and in the game?
JUSTIS NELSON: Nigel's a great athlete. Once he starts getting more reps and learning where he's supposed to be at, he's going to be a great player. He's fast. He's always on top of things. So I see nothing but positive things coming from him.

Q. You thought the defense was able to contain Oklahoma State pretty well? Have you noticed any specific common denominators?
JUSTIS NELSON: Yeah, like you said, they were making plays. Whenever they started making plays, they continued to make plays. Like I said, we've just got to step up and do our part as the defense. Whenever the ball is in the air, we've got to go get it. Whenever the ball is on the ground, we've got to dive after it. So just like they made plays, we can make plays. It's just a matter of finishing.

As mentioned above, this was a very quick non-transcript.  The video is there for you to verify if yo have any questions.  I was short for time this morning so it isn't my best work.

Mike Smith:

Be easy on me.

Think it went well, they responded. The challenge all week was give me all they have. We were going to force them to throw it. The only part that was frustrating was that we were there to make plays, the only one was J.J. who was run by. The d-line probably played their best all year. We just got to continue to get better all week.

Maybe having some things in my back pocket, really tried to keep it simple this week. I go back to Rex and Pettine, we really got to get good at our base defense. Never really get good of one thing, at what we do, and third down was mix it up and keep them guessing. Have to pick your poison some days. Do we help them out a little bit? Then they get a 12 yard run. At lunch I was thinking of a story and Big McMack was at Hawaii and was playing Navy and he said he had the best option defense, we just played an over quarters every snap. and it was Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp. Going back to the game, I wish I had this pressure, I want those guys to play fast and know exactly where they fit every run. With our effort and see what they can do.

We just, Kliff stressed today, we're doing everything with up-down to worm crawl, it's not a thing of effort, they're giving you everything they've got, they're just dumb mistakes. With Pete [Robertson], he literally clears the tackle and hits him in the helmet. Have to tell Pete to bend it and be low and it is more about teaching moments and just have to be careful.

I think how I approach every game is stop what they do best, I think Lockett is their best player, and do a game plan to do those things. Try to stop the run and eliminate Lockett when we can. That quarterback is good too. That quarterback will scramble to run it. Just being smart football players.

I think that's what hurts in the Arkansas game. That's one thing we really stressed with no pads on, we did this with the Seattle Seahawks video, wrap them up and roll them. We're not doing the exact same thing with these kids, they lose focus in 5 minutes or 5 seconds with these kids.

I study their offense, they don't try to trick you, they will will let you make a mistake, can't give these guys any kind of cheat stuff, just have to be very sound.

Eric Morris:

We'll just do what we do, letting the quarterback go through his reads. We haven't had anything different for Mahomes since we've been here. Some really good and bad, he had one play that was unbelievable, and at times he was not good at all, got jammed at the line of scrimmage and just not connecting on these deep balls, and when the quarterback sees it, no one is winning out there besides Dylan. We have to find a way to get Reginald the ball in space, he graded well besides the vertical stuff. When the ball is in their hands, we're just not making any plays, OSU made plays and we didn't.

I think the game comes, the game comes naturally, our game plan, there's not two game plans, they'll both get reps, and we'll see who marches out there. Snyder is unbelievable, it is almost magical the way he gets his kids to play. It is fun to watch them play, the defense runs to the ball, they play hard. Nothing schematically, is going to trick you. That's how they win games is how we've been losing games. On 19 of the drives we have penalties, we haven't scored on 2 of them. Turnover and penalties, that has a lot to do with winning football, have to block better and tackle better, that's what football is about.