The Wildcats and Cyclones kick off at 6:30 p.m., on Saturday in a game televised by ESPN2 with Clay Matvick, Rocky Boiman and Tiffany Blackmon on the call.
CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
“Good afternoon everyone. It’s good to see everybody again and excited to be back getting ready for a game. Last week was a good week. We had an open week, did a lot of stuff with our younger players, worked a little bit of Iowa State as well, but focused a decent amount on our young guys. Then gave them the weekend off so they could recharge their batteries and get themselves as healthy as they can get. Had a good workout yesterday for about an hour, hour and 20 minutes or so. We’ll get back into our padded stuff today on Tuesday and have kind of a normal week leading up to Saturday. We’re going to play a really good football team in Iowa State that we know well, and they know us well. So, we’ve got to do a great job coming up with game plans and, most importantly, being able to execute on both sides of the ball and on special teams. So, looking forward to a great crowd, looking forward to a great evening to play football. It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”
On who stepped up during the off week…
“Probably Krew Jackson. He might be able to provide some spark somewhere, whether it’s on special teams or a little bit on defense. I thought he had a really good week. I thought Tyrone Howell – although he’s played – started to understand more and more of our system. I think Tyrone can be a guy that can be a factor for us. Those two guys kind of stick out for us, one on each side of the ball.”
On if Skylar Thompson will be back to normal this year or have to deal with his injury…
“I think he’s going deal with it. He’s going have the brace on. I don’t know how long, but I know it’s going to stay on, but he felt a ton better yesterday. He practiced on Tuesday, Wednesday, and a little bit on Thursday of last week, not a ton of repetitions but practiced some. I asked him when we had our meeting yesterday, and just the weekend off and him continuing to do rehabilitation. He’s got to always continue to take care of his body, and he said he felt pretty fresh yesterday.”
On the special teams…
“Well, we need to continue to do a good job on special teams. We’ve had a couple of splash plays the last couple of weeks. We need to be consistent on our coverage teams as well. But, without a doubt, trying to find a spark in the return game. We punted the ball well last week and Taiten (Winkel) continues to kick the ball really well. So, it has to be a big factor for us.”
On using last year’s game as motivation…
“We discussed it a little bit on Thursday before we left for a little bit of a break. It’s a new season, new group of guys, and I know a lot of guys were at that game, but there’s a number of guys that weren’t, whether they were on the roster or were injured. So, try not to put too much into what has gone on in the past. You better focus on the future, and I know our guys are excited about the opportunity.”
On what Iowa State did offensively last year…
“Well, the running back (Breece Hall) is an exceptional player. We let him go early, and then had a difficult time containing him. Once the running game got going for those guys, then the play action pass worked really well. I think (Brock) Purdy is a tremendous quarterback that sees the field really well and is a really smart player that puts the ball in the playmakers’ hands. They have a bunch of tight ends and wide receivers that can make plays as well. So, you can’t say against these guys, ‘Boy you just have to stop the run.’ You have to be able to control the run, but you can’t neglect what they can do with the passing game.”
On how much the coaches look at last season…
“We don’t look at it right now just simply because we’re in the midst of this season. It was still a season, you still have to count it. But we’re trying not to look back as much as we’re looking forward to seeing how much better we are, not only on the field, but off the field. Part of that was out of some of the guys’ control. We just didn’t have a ton of bodies last year, and we’re focused on this year and continue to improve. Like we talked at the end of last week, I believe our best football’s in front of us this year as Skylar (Thompson) gets healthier and as we continue to learn more about ourselves on defense. I’m excited about the next seven weeks.”
On if Skylar Thompson will be able to run the football more…
“I believe so. I think each week he’s going to. I don’t know how much he will. Everything is just a little dictated on how people play the quarterback run because some people can take the quarterback run away and some people can make you run it within their defensive scheme. I think he feels more comfortable. I know he does. He needs to be able to run the ball for us a little bit, probably not as much as we’d ask Will (Howard) to do it, but has to be a threat. It can’t be that we’re not going to run some of our quarterback series. We have to be able to do that with him.”
On the progress of freshman quarterback Jake Rubley in the bye week…
“He did a really nice job, he’s learned. He’s thrown the ball really well. He’s feeling more comfortable in the surroundings of our offense, but he’s still a young player that we’re fortunate to have some older guys that he can continue to learn from.”
On the main focus of the defense…
“Yeah, we talked about that. We did some things in the limited practice time we had with the older guys. Then the young guys we just worked all of our base stuff. It still comes down to what we talked about at length last week of being able to get off blocks and being able to tackle and making sure that we correct leverage angles on tackling, as well as the ability to block destruct and get off and run to the football.”
On teams keeping the ball away from Phillip Brooks on punts…
“For starters, you almost gain a first down if you can field the 32-yard punt or 35-yard punt because people can bang it 45 and 50 yards. The operation time that we’ve seen from snap to kick so far in our first five opponents, as well as ourselves, doesn’t lend itself to having many opportunities to block kicks. Everybody’s getting so much better at the operation time. Operation time is so quick right now. A lot of that we’re seeing as well. So, we’re trying to set up some returns. We still have to be able to pressure people, and in case there is a bobbled snap or in case the timing is off, but we’re continuing to try to win outside. That’s the biggest thing we have to do on punt returns is people have really good, what we call gunners, that run down there and force fair catches. We’ve got to do a great job against those guys.”
On the versatility of Reggie Stubblefield…
“He practiced last week. He’ll practice this week. I think the bye week did him some good. It wasn’t just a hand. There were some other things that he was fighting through, and he’s I think healthier. He’s such a smart football player. It gives us another experienced guy out there, whether it’s direct traffic, or telling guys based on different things that he sees offensively what could be coming from a play standpoint. So, Reggie is a really versatile guy that’s good and with really good experience.”
On if Iowa State’s ranking matters…
“Absolutely none. I think probably Matt (Campbell) would tell you the same thing. I think rankings are something that nobody controls. I know they’re a really good football team and the two losses they’ve had, I think they would tell you they felt like they probably should have won both games, but that’s the parity of college football. It’s games in the fourth quarter and you have to find ways to win.”
On wide receiver Landry Weber…
“Well, he’s a great leader for starters. He’s up for the Campbell Trophy, the Academic Heisman, and he is well deserving of that. Does everything right off the field, in the community, in the classroom, and that rubs off on young players. Young players can see that the hard work you put in can be really rewarding on the field as well as off the field. And just his health this year, he’s healthy and he’s able to play the way that I know that Landry expects to play, the way I saw young Landry in 2019 play that he couldn’t do in 2020 due to his injuries.”
On the legacy type of players…
“Well, it’s huge because he and his dad and his brother had great careers here, and they bleed K-State. We have a number of kids like that on our team. We’ve got a lot of dads that have their sons on this football team, and I think it means a ton to the families. We’ve said this a lot that we play for the people that put the purple on before us, and it’s cool to have some of those legacies come back and have their sons join our program. We hope we make them proud. They’ve built this great facility that we have with the hard work, blood, sweat and tears that they put into it.”
On the close games between K-State and Iowa State…
“I think both teams are very physical. I think both teams have playmakers. It still comes down to being able to make plays at the right time. We had an opportunity to answer a score last year and didn’t do it. Then we turned the football over and it got away from us. The year before we were able to capitalize on some turnovers when we were able to win at home a couple years ago. They’re tough because you have to be able to run the football against them, and they do a great job of stopping the run. You have to be able to slow the run down against them. I think they’re two teams that know each other really well, and we spend an awful lot of time in the offseason self-scouting them. They’re a good enough staff, they probably scout a little bit of everybody, but I think when teams know each other pretty well and have playmakers that make plays, you get competitive games.”
On the Iowa State tight ends…
“They can do everything. They block at the point of attack. They can flex out and be wide receivers. They can start in the backfield and motion out. They just do so many things with these guys, and both the two (Charlie Kolar and Chase Allen) are the two I know. There are other ones, but those are the two that stick out to me as far as just making such a difference for their football team because they do so many things. And you can’t say, ‘Well if there are two tight ends, they must both either be on the line of scrimmage or in the backfield.’ These guys are wide outs as well, and they do a tremendous job of utilizing those guys’ versatility within their offense.”
On the rapidly changing recruiting landscape…
“We talked about it last week, but you still don’t know what your roster is. That’s what people don’t realize is you still have to have your roster scholarship guys at 85. So, it just depends on who comes back, it depends on who leaves your program. There’s going to be somebody that leaves our program that we don’t know about right now. Those are the things that you can’t control on October 12 or 11 or whatever the heck it is. Those are the sort of things that play out. We have a really good recruiting department that just lays out the plan of where we need help at, whether it’s young players or somebody via the transfer portal as well as what happens in December, what happens in April for that matter. So, it’s something that’s just always evolving.”
On if Iowa State is the same kind of team as last year…
“Yeah, absolutely. Because they have experience, they have guys that have played and won a Fiesta Bowl. They have a really good coaching staff. It’s hard to win college football games. I think Baylor’s a really good football team. I think everybody’s seen that now and Baylor did some really good things against them on both sides of the ball. You know, Iowa, they’re the second-ranked team in the country right now for a reason. That’s a tough game for Iowa State right now in that rivalry. So, they’ve lost two games against two pretty good teams just like we’ve lost two games against really good teams, and it’s hard to win college games against really good opponents. You have to play your best and to do that you have to be able to prepare Monday through Friday. You can’t just show up on Saturday. So, that’s what we have to do this week is have a great week of preparation and a great week of game planning and have our guys truly understand the game plan so we can execute at a high level.”
On the personnel issues against Iowa State last year…
“It was tough, but you know what I’m glad we played, especially for those kids that aren’t with us anymore. If not, they’d lost a football game. I look at a kid like Brock Monty, and I’m so glad Brock Monty got to play another football game. That was our goal was to play as many games as we could. We played them all.”
On the similar styles of defenses…
“Yeah, you bet. We did watch Iowa State, we’ve watched them a lot anyway. There’s some similarities, but there’s quite a few differences as well as this is their fourth or fifth year in the system. So, they’re doing some things a lot differently than we are. But, without question, their success in this league – and there’s a number of teams that have had some three-down success in this league to try to eliminate some of the RPO game. That’s the number one reason why people are doing it is to eliminate some of…
K-State Holds Weekly Press Conference Prior to Hosting Iowa State