Transcribed by Bill Seals
Opening comments:
“Let me credit our fans. It’s powerful when you go on the road and you have a fanbase like ours that’s willing to stay the course with us. They’ve been a huge factor all year. It was really neat in the third quarter and fourth quarter of the football game. I thought they were incredible.”
“I have a lot of respect for Coach (David) Beaty and his program. From our standpoint, I thought some areas really improved today. Were we perfect? No, but it’s really fun to continue to watch our kids get better. Still a lot of work to do.”
On the synergy between Hakeem Butler and Brock Purdy early in the game:
“I think those two and give credit to Hakeem…he has been a guy when we’ve needed him the most this season has stepped up and made big plays. He’s really straining to be the most consistent player he can be. I see him really attacking that. Some of those throws from Brock were pretty impressive. I think both those guys, we’re going to need them down the stretch to be consistent and continue to step up and make big plays. I think they’re both doing a really good job.”
On if anyone can guard Butler:
“The reality of it is, he’s a big target. Sometimes it takes two to be able to cover him in different situations and match-ups. Give credit to him. He’s really worked on that early in the season. It was more 50/50 and he’s made it more 70/30, which is really impressive.”
On how proud he was of the defense keeping Kansas from scoring a touchdown:
“As great as that stat is, there’s still some times that it was kind of the tale of two halves for both sides of the ball. The first half, there were missed tackles that we haven’t done. Yet in the second half it was great to see the leadership of our football team on that side of the ball step up in critical moments and make big plays. That’s a credit to Coach (Heacock) and the leadership in the locker room.
“You flip it over to the second half and it was a tale of two halves for the offense. We were really impressive in the first half and then we just kind of migrated through the second half. A lot of good on both sides. Special teams were much improved from last week. There are areas we still need to work on, but a great accomplishment for our defense.”
On holding the Jayhawks out of the end zone on two separate occasions:
“There’s a lot of confidence there. Great teams have the ability to win both sides of the ball down in the red zone. The ability to stop the run was powerful down there. We were able to do that and force passing situations and when you do that those are tight quarters to pass the football. We’re continuing to gain confidence in who we are and what we need to do.”
On what went into the Purdy pass to Matthew Eaton on the goal line:
“There’s been some red zone, goal-line things that we’ve had and continue to use our resources. Matt is such a big target and has great hands. Especially when that coverage is going to different people, we’re fortunate to have a lot of guys to create space with and get open.”
On if this was the team’s most complete effort of 2018:
“At least since this season. There’s a lot of new specialists in different situations in Tarique (Milton) and Corey (Dunn). It’s growing. That (special teams) group has to be its best too if we want to make strides as a football team. That sense of urgency was high this week and it was great to watch the response. You saw a huge step forward and we’ll need to continue to grow.”
On the key forced fumble by Brian Peavy and return by Jamahl Johnson:
“At that moment, that was a huge play. Jamahl keeps saying he played tailback in high school and you saw a little bit of it. We’ll have to figure out how to get him the ball on the offensive side.”
On how much he harped on Kansas’ turnover margin with the team:
“No. Not that I did or didn’t, other than the fact that pointing out in the games they’ve won it’s those takeaways that won the football game. Not that we weren’t naïve enough to say that was a big stat, but the difference between winning and losing was taking care of the football.”
On how hard it is to keep team focused with the end prize at hand:
“This is a team that’s stayed in the moment all year. Everybody thought it was really hard to keep focus when you’re 1-and-3 and now everybody will say it’s hard to keep focus at 5-and-3. The only way we have any shot, and our margin for error is still really small, we’re going to have to continue to get better. There’s enough over the last two football games that you’d say if we don’t improve in some of these small value systems that we’re going to get ourselves beat. The only people we’ll have to look at is ourselves.”
On what he thought of Purdy’s game:
“Especially in the first three quarters, the poise of seeing the field when things break down he’s got the ability to use his legs to make really positive things happen. He had really great accuracy early in the football game of getting the ball where it needed to. Early in the fourth, it got cloudy a little bit. They started to do a couple different things and our ability to adjust as coaches and players needs to continue to get better. But his performance again continues to really be impressive for a young guy.”
On the injury to Datrone Young and his outlook:
“It was a shoulder injury. What the extent of it is and where it’s at, I don’t know. He’s been playing really good football for us. If it is an extended injury, it would certainly be a loss. Somebody else would have to step in and be ready to roll.”
On if it was a concerted effort to limit David Montgomery’s touches today:
“I think it’s also the belief of we’ve got some really good football players and I thought Kene (Nwangwu) ran the ball really well. Johnny (Lang) had a couple really nice runs, which was great to see. It was nice to see Sheldon (Croney) back at it. For us, I think continuing to use those guys is huge because we’ll need them as this stretch run continues.”
On the play of Matt Leo stepping into a starting role this week:
“In general, Matt played a really good football game. Here’s a guy that had to step in and be the starter now and his job status elevated a little bit. It was huge for him to go in and continue to have success. He played 62 snaps last week and I’m not sure what it was this week. We felt as the season started he was a starting-caliber football player. Now that opportunity is coming and he’s taking advantage of that. Whether they were testing him or running at him, I thought he stood in there and played a really good football game for us.”
Opening comments:
“Let me credit our fans. It’s powerful when you go on the road and you have a fanbase like ours that’s willing to stay the course with us. They’ve been a huge factor all year. It was really neat in the third quarter and fourth quarter of the football game. I thought they were incredible.”
“I have a lot of respect for Coach (David) Beaty and his program. From our standpoint, I thought some areas really improved today. Were we perfect? No, but it’s really fun to continue to watch our kids get better. Still a lot of work to do.”
On the synergy between Hakeem Butler and Brock Purdy early in the game:
“I think those two and give credit to Hakeem…he has been a guy when we’ve needed him the most this season has stepped up and made big plays. He’s really straining to be the most consistent player he can be. I see him really attacking that. Some of those throws from Brock were pretty impressive. I think both those guys, we’re going to need them down the stretch to be consistent and continue to step up and make big plays. I think they’re both doing a really good job.”
On if anyone can guard Butler:
“The reality of it is, he’s a big target. Sometimes it takes two to be able to cover him in different situations and match-ups. Give credit to him. He’s really worked on that early in the season. It was more 50/50 and he’s made it more 70/30, which is really impressive.”
On how proud he was of the defense keeping Kansas from scoring a touchdown:
“As great as that stat is, there’s still some times that it was kind of the tale of two halves for both sides of the ball. The first half, there were missed tackles that we haven’t done. Yet in the second half it was great to see the leadership of our football team on that side of the ball step up in critical moments and make big plays. That’s a credit to Coach (Heacock) and the leadership in the locker room.
“You flip it over to the second half and it was a tale of two halves for the offense. We were really impressive in the first half and then we just kind of migrated through the second half. A lot of good on both sides. Special teams were much improved from last week. There are areas we still need to work on, but a great accomplishment for our defense.”
On holding the Jayhawks out of the end zone on two separate occasions:
“There’s a lot of confidence there. Great teams have the ability to win both sides of the ball down in the red zone. The ability to stop the run was powerful down there. We were able to do that and force passing situations and when you do that those are tight quarters to pass the football. We’re continuing to gain confidence in who we are and what we need to do.”
On what went into the Purdy pass to Matthew Eaton on the goal line:
“There’s been some red zone, goal-line things that we’ve had and continue to use our resources. Matt is such a big target and has great hands. Especially when that coverage is going to different people, we’re fortunate to have a lot of guys to create space with and get open.”
On if this was the team’s most complete effort of 2018:
“At least since this season. There’s a lot of new specialists in different situations in Tarique (Milton) and Corey (Dunn). It’s growing. That (special teams) group has to be its best too if we want to make strides as a football team. That sense of urgency was high this week and it was great to watch the response. You saw a huge step forward and we’ll need to continue to grow.”
On the key forced fumble by Brian Peavy and return by Jamahl Johnson:
“At that moment, that was a huge play. Jamahl keeps saying he played tailback in high school and you saw a little bit of it. We’ll have to figure out how to get him the ball on the offensive side.”
On how much he harped on Kansas’ turnover margin with the team:
“No. Not that I did or didn’t, other than the fact that pointing out in the games they’ve won it’s those takeaways that won the football game. Not that we weren’t naïve enough to say that was a big stat, but the difference between winning and losing was taking care of the football.”
On how hard it is to keep team focused with the end prize at hand:
“This is a team that’s stayed in the moment all year. Everybody thought it was really hard to keep focus when you’re 1-and-3 and now everybody will say it’s hard to keep focus at 5-and-3. The only way we have any shot, and our margin for error is still really small, we’re going to have to continue to get better. There’s enough over the last two football games that you’d say if we don’t improve in some of these small value systems that we’re going to get ourselves beat. The only people we’ll have to look at is ourselves.”
On what he thought of Purdy’s game:
“Especially in the first three quarters, the poise of seeing the field when things break down he’s got the ability to use his legs to make really positive things happen. He had really great accuracy early in the football game of getting the ball where it needed to. Early in the fourth, it got cloudy a little bit. They started to do a couple different things and our ability to adjust as coaches and players needs to continue to get better. But his performance again continues to really be impressive for a young guy.”
On the injury to Datrone Young and his outlook:
“It was a shoulder injury. What the extent of it is and where it’s at, I don’t know. He’s been playing really good football for us. If it is an extended injury, it would certainly be a loss. Somebody else would have to step in and be ready to roll.”
On if it was a concerted effort to limit David Montgomery’s touches today:
“I think it’s also the belief of we’ve got some really good football players and I thought Kene (Nwangwu) ran the ball really well. Johnny (Lang) had a couple really nice runs, which was great to see. It was nice to see Sheldon (Croney) back at it. For us, I think continuing to use those guys is huge because we’ll need them as this stretch run continues.”
On the play of Matt Leo stepping into a starting role this week:
“In general, Matt played a really good football game. Here’s a guy that had to step in and be the starter now and his job status elevated a little bit. It was huge for him to go in and continue to have success. He played 62 snaps last week and I’m not sure what it was this week. We felt as the season started he was a starting-caliber football player. Now that opportunity is coming and he’s taking advantage of that. Whether they were testing him or running at him, I thought he stood in there and played a really good football game for us.”
