Transcribed by Bill Seals
On the progress being made in secondary by Anthony Johnson and Arnold Azunna:
“There’s been a lot of talk about Brock and Mike Rose, but the freshman year Anthony Johnson has had is pretty remarkable. He’s made plays on special team in clutch moments. He’s had a good command of playing time, both due to injury and how well he’s practiced and played. He’s pretty special. He has some tools and talent that are beyond what we’ve ever been able to coach at that position. I’m really excited about his future and what he brings to the table. He has length, athleticism and leadership traits.
“Arnold has been trying to find his way in our program. He’s certainly shown flashes of physicality and athleticism. You go back to the bowl game last year when he was forced to step in. Those last few drives of the bowl game, he steps up and played great coverage and made some great plays. It’s kind of the same way this year, in that he’s trying to find his niche and role. You saw Saturday night, physically he comes into the football game and he matches and plays with those guys. He played at the level we need him to play to be successful. It will be interesting to see what he can continue to do when some positive things happen to him. He’s trying to find that consistency to say he deserves to be on the field consistently.”
On the resiliency this senior class has showed:
“That’s their story…so many of these guys didn’t quit when things got really hard. Some of these guys had tough times and tough situations. They’ve had ups and downs, yet these guys persevered and stayed the course. They just kept pounding away. That’s their niche. I think that’s why we have had the resiliency this team has had and embodied since January of just keep going and take it one day at a time. It’s kind of like that no-name senior class in a lot of ways. This group has never quit on their teammates. Five years from now, nobody is going to really remember. You may remember a score here or there, or a moment here or there, but the character you leave and legacy you leave is profound. That stays with you for life. This senior class defines it. The task that they had in this program may be a lot harder than what last year’s senior class had. Sometimes it’s easy to turn the tide, but it’s really hard to consistently say that we belong. This class has done a phenomenal job in a lot of ways. My hope for them and our entire program is we do everything in our power to let this senior class tell their story.”
On how Kansas State is always peaking at the end of the season:
“The one thing that they do is they know who they are and their foundation. When you’re running your schemes of the offense, defense and special teams…they haven’t changed as long as coach has been back. When that happens, even though you may play some young guys early in the season, by the midway point of the season and on you’re really comfortable in your role. You know what your responsibilities are and have done the same things over and over again with great repetition. The mother of all learning is repetition. The ability to do the same thing over and over again, they get that down to a T. Sometimes you get to this time of the year and teams are still trying to find themselves. They get to this time of year and they certainly know who they are and know what success looks like and feels like.”
On how the helmet sticker program got started and what goes into it:
“Those are kind of based off of different prerequisites that we set up before the season, offensively, defensively and special teams. Do they like them? I certainly think it’s a competitive situation for sure. We probably do it because we did it at Mount Union when I played and I liked it. Guys love the opportunity to be rewarded for positivity. When guys do things really well and when sides of the ball gain certain measurables that give us the opportunity to have success, we try to reward our guys.”
On what the team has planned for Thanksgiving holiday this week:
“That’s the one thing about sports that gets lost of a little bit: this time of year, you get so engrained in your process of doing it. We try to do everything in our power to not get out of our routine. We had our Thanksgiving meal as a team last night, so before we got hot and heavy into our routine. My daughter came home and said she wanted a turkey for Thanksgiving and neither my wife or I know how to make one of those, so that will be an interesting challenge on Thursday for the Campbell family.”
On if the team had goals for winning a certain amount of games in 2018:
“To me, if that’s our motivation then what the heck have we been doing the whole season? I’m such a firm believer that we judge the whole product at the end of the season and not judge it where we are in week 10, 11 and 12. Obviously, we want to be playing meaningful games and keep improving and winning is important. To me, so valuable is to get through the season and then say if we reached our full potential and did we become what we had the ability to become. I think this team does get it and really understands those things. There’s great things to play for and there are meaningful games to play. We’ll let the chips fall where they may to tell our story at the end of the season.”
On if he watched the Rams/Chiefs game Monday night and what he thought:
“It was on a little bit as I was leaving and I saw a couple plays. I have certainly watched a lot of Kansas City with some of our ties to some of the guys down there. We’ll try to see those guys as the season goes on. What’s fascinating about pro football today…I remember watching three or four years ago and you hated watching games because they were boring. Now all of a sudden, the pro game has adapted to where the college game is in a lot of ways. You see spread offenses, tempo and now defenses trying to adapt like college defenses have over the past four or five years. It’s cyclical, because they’re taking the guys from this game and putting them in their game. The quarterbacks know this style of offense. It’s fascinating to watch that occur in both college athletics and what it’s transitioning to in pro athletics. Fifty points in a pro football game was almost unheard of and now you see teams regularly doing that. I do like to watch it, because those are some of the best minds in terms of schematics of how they’re doing things. Those are usually offseason projects for us.”
On the progress being made in secondary by Anthony Johnson and Arnold Azunna:
“There’s been a lot of talk about Brock and Mike Rose, but the freshman year Anthony Johnson has had is pretty remarkable. He’s made plays on special team in clutch moments. He’s had a good command of playing time, both due to injury and how well he’s practiced and played. He’s pretty special. He has some tools and talent that are beyond what we’ve ever been able to coach at that position. I’m really excited about his future and what he brings to the table. He has length, athleticism and leadership traits.
“Arnold has been trying to find his way in our program. He’s certainly shown flashes of physicality and athleticism. You go back to the bowl game last year when he was forced to step in. Those last few drives of the bowl game, he steps up and played great coverage and made some great plays. It’s kind of the same way this year, in that he’s trying to find his niche and role. You saw Saturday night, physically he comes into the football game and he matches and plays with those guys. He played at the level we need him to play to be successful. It will be interesting to see what he can continue to do when some positive things happen to him. He’s trying to find that consistency to say he deserves to be on the field consistently.”
On the resiliency this senior class has showed:
“That’s their story…so many of these guys didn’t quit when things got really hard. Some of these guys had tough times and tough situations. They’ve had ups and downs, yet these guys persevered and stayed the course. They just kept pounding away. That’s their niche. I think that’s why we have had the resiliency this team has had and embodied since January of just keep going and take it one day at a time. It’s kind of like that no-name senior class in a lot of ways. This group has never quit on their teammates. Five years from now, nobody is going to really remember. You may remember a score here or there, or a moment here or there, but the character you leave and legacy you leave is profound. That stays with you for life. This senior class defines it. The task that they had in this program may be a lot harder than what last year’s senior class had. Sometimes it’s easy to turn the tide, but it’s really hard to consistently say that we belong. This class has done a phenomenal job in a lot of ways. My hope for them and our entire program is we do everything in our power to let this senior class tell their story.”
On how Kansas State is always peaking at the end of the season:
“The one thing that they do is they know who they are and their foundation. When you’re running your schemes of the offense, defense and special teams…they haven’t changed as long as coach has been back. When that happens, even though you may play some young guys early in the season, by the midway point of the season and on you’re really comfortable in your role. You know what your responsibilities are and have done the same things over and over again with great repetition. The mother of all learning is repetition. The ability to do the same thing over and over again, they get that down to a T. Sometimes you get to this time of the year and teams are still trying to find themselves. They get to this time of year and they certainly know who they are and know what success looks like and feels like.”
On how the helmet sticker program got started and what goes into it:
“Those are kind of based off of different prerequisites that we set up before the season, offensively, defensively and special teams. Do they like them? I certainly think it’s a competitive situation for sure. We probably do it because we did it at Mount Union when I played and I liked it. Guys love the opportunity to be rewarded for positivity. When guys do things really well and when sides of the ball gain certain measurables that give us the opportunity to have success, we try to reward our guys.”
On what the team has planned for Thanksgiving holiday this week:
“That’s the one thing about sports that gets lost of a little bit: this time of year, you get so engrained in your process of doing it. We try to do everything in our power to not get out of our routine. We had our Thanksgiving meal as a team last night, so before we got hot and heavy into our routine. My daughter came home and said she wanted a turkey for Thanksgiving and neither my wife or I know how to make one of those, so that will be an interesting challenge on Thursday for the Campbell family.”
On if the team had goals for winning a certain amount of games in 2018:
“To me, if that’s our motivation then what the heck have we been doing the whole season? I’m such a firm believer that we judge the whole product at the end of the season and not judge it where we are in week 10, 11 and 12. Obviously, we want to be playing meaningful games and keep improving and winning is important. To me, so valuable is to get through the season and then say if we reached our full potential and did we become what we had the ability to become. I think this team does get it and really understands those things. There’s great things to play for and there are meaningful games to play. We’ll let the chips fall where they may to tell our story at the end of the season.”
On if he watched the Rams/Chiefs game Monday night and what he thought:
“It was on a little bit as I was leaving and I saw a couple plays. I have certainly watched a lot of Kansas City with some of our ties to some of the guys down there. We’ll try to see those guys as the season goes on. What’s fascinating about pro football today…I remember watching three or four years ago and you hated watching games because they were boring. Now all of a sudden, the pro game has adapted to where the college game is in a lot of ways. You see spread offenses, tempo and now defenses trying to adapt like college defenses have over the past four or five years. It’s cyclical, because they’re taking the guys from this game and putting them in their game. The quarterbacks know this style of offense. It’s fascinating to watch that occur in both college athletics and what it’s transitioning to in pro athletics. Fifty points in a pro football game was almost unheard of and now you see teams regularly doing that. I do like to watch it, because those are some of the best minds in terms of schematics of how they’re doing things. Those are usually offseason projects for us.”
