K-State Weekly Football Press Conference
November 11, 2014
Head Coach Bill Snyder
On if struggles in the running game at TCU were due to game plan or execution…
“I think it was a combination of both. What we put on the field sometimes was not always the best thing to put out there. How we executed some of the things we did on Saturday was not always the best way to do it. The third element is TCU played extremely well. It is a combination of all of those things.”
On the learning experience from the TCU game…
“I do not wipe away anything clean, good, bad or indifferent. That is at least my theory. I think we will approach this the same way that we always do: with an open mind and honest assessment, define what we did well, what we did not do well, and how we can improve on those things we did well and how we can correct the things that we did not do well, which there was a plethora of those. That is what we are doing right now. We are in the process of overcoming some of the mistakes we made, meaning correcting those mistakes. That is the agenda, obviously.”
On the comparison in film between TCU and WVU…
“I have looked it and do not always like what I see, obviously. I think Clint (Trickett) is throwing the ball awfully well. He is an accurate thrower. I think he got ingrained in the system consequently like (Trevone) Boykin. Therefore, he has a greater comfort level for it. His performance level over the season has shown that. (Kevin) White is not the only receiver they have. I believe he had seven 100-yard games or so in a row. That is quite a bit of a day’s work over a consistent period of time. If you watch him on tape, you realize that he is a gifted young guy. He can run, catch, and make you miss after he catches the ball. He has all of it. He is getting at least eight or nine catches a ballgame, so that is a substantial number, but like I said there are a number of guys that (Trickett) can throw to. He throws to his backs at times. The backs have caught 55 balls through the course of the season so far. They can distribute it around.”
On if having time off after last week’s game is beneficial…
“That is a good question and I have been asked this a few times before. I cannot think of a time that would replicate Saturday’sgame and having a week and a half of preparation because a good portion of that, like I said, is devoted to becoming a better football team regardless of who you are going to play and try and improve on the mistakes that we made that were so costly to us on that Saturday. You will just have to ask after the game whether it was beneficial for us or if it was not. I think that at certain circumstances it is easy to say that the feeling of a loss can linger on for a longer period of time that you have. More often than not, people say, ‘Get over it,’ but at the same token, as you indicated, you go through those stages and that is human nature. If you genuinely care, if it’s really important to you, then there is the disappointment that is going to linger. We can say, ‘Get over it,’ and look past it, but then if it meant a lot, then that is going to be there. That eventually turns into anger. That again goes back to the qualifying remark, ‘How much do you really care?’ Then if you cared enough, then after the disappointment comes the anger about the performance level as well as other things. In my way of thinking, that serves as motivation to move forward. That is the process that most people in our program would go through.”
Linebacker Jonathan Truman
On moving past the TCU game…
“In order to take those mistakes and learn from them you have to critique and learn from them. We have to critique ourselves to the finest little thing; just look at the things that are uncharacteristic. I think we just had a little bit of lack of discipline on some plays, with some of our technique and our assignments and things like that. Those are the things that we are going to correct for sure.”
On the quickness of TCU…
“I do not know if they were the fastest, but they were sure up there. They could compete with anyone for being the quickest. Their offensive line did a great job of making holes for the running backs, and when the running backs have lanes, they look super-fast. They did a great job offensively.”
On the emotions after watching film…
“There was some definite anger there, just a sense that we missed a big opportunity for this season. We just saw so much potential, and the things that hurt us were so small that we could have corrected. It could have been a whole different ballgame if we could have been a little more disciplined and sound on the players’ part.”
Linebacker Will Davis
On moving on from the loss…
“It was a painful process for us, the whole Saturday night all the way through until we watched tape yesterday. We have now kind of shelved it, and we are moving on. We are going to try and improve this week and get better on the things we were not very good at this past Saturday. That is what we are going to use this bye week for, and we are going to just try and improve.”
On watching the game tape…
“We evaluated it. We know what we have to improve on. We are going to try to correct all the mistakes we made and try to improve every day in practice this week.”
On improving the pass rush…
“It is not just pass rush, it is everything that goes along with the pass. We have to improve in coverages, matching up routes, pass rush and everything. Just overall in the pass, we have to improve this week. We watched the film on it and that is what we are going to try and do.”
Defensive Back Morgan Burns
On the TCU loss…
“I know we are a lot better than the way we played. There is some truth in what coach says. There is a lot of anger and frustration that we just want to respond well and finish these last three games well. We need to prepare better. We were just not prepared going into that game at TCU. They wanted it more and played better than we did.”
On a Big 12 title on the line…
“Right after the game, we were all pretty bummed. Jake Waters looked at me and told us that we still have a lot to play for, like a Big 12 Championship. We can still have a great season if we finish out well. I think right after the game we started moving forward and realized we have a lot of great things we can play for.”
On the difference between the Auburn loss and the TCU loss…
“The difference was that the Auburn game was a lot closer than TCU. Obviously, it is a lot harder, in that aspect, to bounce back. It was a weird game and TCU played a lot better than we did. The Auburn game was a lot closer and felt like we played a lot better. We do not want this to happen again. West Virginia is a great football team, and we know if we do not come prepared, the same thing could happen. I am glad we have a while to fix our mistakes and watch film from TCU.”
Quarterback Joe Hubener
On his improvement…
“I have come a long way from where I was last season. Getting on the field is huge for me to gain experience and move forward. You cannot really get that experience from being on the sideline. You really need to be on the field to get it.”
On the main factor of his success in limited action…
“I think it has really come in the film room. Coach (Del) Miller has really helped with that; just being able to read defenses and figure out the schemes that go against which coverages. Collin (Klein) and Jake (Waters) have been very helpful in that as well.”
On wanting to make things happen when he is on the field…
“I try to be as calm as I can. I try not to force anything. Coach Miller always tells us that we do not have to make a play every play. It is definitely something that is important to me to not push things that are not there and only take things as they come.”
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RYAN LACKEY
Assistant Director | Athletics Communications
