Read all of Kansas State coach Chris Klieman's comments from today's Big 12 coaches teleconference.
On the 24 hours since the win…
“Honestly, typically like they are after any win. You enjoy the win. I know it was a big win for the program. You enjoy the win Saturday night. On Sunday, to be honest with you, we came, met as a staff and went right to work on KU. That’s the thing that’s great about this profession: You can be on top of the world in one week, and you can get knocked off quickly. You better stay humble, move on and get ready for the next opponent.”
What do you hope to remember about Saturday’s win?
“I’m happy for the seniors first and foremost. Happy for those guys who stuck it out all four or five years to have a win like that at home. Just thrilled for those guys with the new stuff that they’ve bought in to some of the new things we are doing here. Just most importantly happy for those seniors.”
Are you an offensive guru now after that performance against Oklahoma?
“I’m definitely not one. I spend equal time with the offense and defense. My biggest thing for Coach Mess and the offensive staff is to go in there and tell them what I see, how we would attack a play or how they should attack it. I let Courtney and those guys on offense do what they do and am really happy for those guys; they had a great game plan. Most importantly the kids executed it at a high level.”
Is that as well as you’ve seen Messingham do?
“No, I’ve seen Courtney in a lot of great rhythms. We won two national championships together and had an awful lot of success. Courtney is a phenomenal football coach and a great play caller. I’m happy it led to success last week. Now, we have to turn the page and move on to the next one and come up with another great plan.”
On Eric Gallon…
“He’s going to be lost for the season. We are sick about it. Eric had a significant knee injury. I think we’re just learning a little bit more of the details, but it’s going to require season ending surgery and makes you sad for any player, especially the fifth-year guys who put their heart and soul into a program. He was playing some significant snaps for us. That was his most involvement for us, especially on defense. He’s going to be lost for the season.”
On impressions of Kansas…
“It’s a terrific football team playing at a high level, playing with a lot of confidence. I’m really impressed with the quarterback and the skill players all playing at a high level, and more importantly being on the same page. That’s the thing you can tell; they’ve played a lot of football together. They’re in sync with each other. On defense I think they’re playing really fast, I think they fly to the football. They have really talented players on that side. We have to come up with great plans. It’s going to be a four-quarter, great game.”
On the relationship with the fans…
“I think early in our tenure to be able to get a big win over a phenomenal team, a top five team like Oklahoma, does a lot of things obviously from the belief standpoint with the younger players. That’s the biggest thing. We’re still learning a lot of our younger guys. The older guys we know pretty well. It’s our younger players, the ones that maybe aren’t playing much, that if you continue to be patient, continue to work hard, and your opportunity does come and you make the most of it that great things are going to happen. It was a great fan base on Saturday. The fans were electric the whole game. I’m so happy they got to share in that special moment with the guys. We’ll continue to learn and grow and build the program.”
On Kansas’ offense since the OC change…
“It’s pretty early in the prep, but you ask the defensive coaches and there are probably some differences. I think there is just a comfort level with what they’ve doing, especially the last couple of weeks. I think Stanley is playing at an unbelievably high level. The wide receivers, there are bunch of them playing at a high level. Obviously, they are running the football. They’re balanced. They are doing an awful lot of good things. The more success you have the more confidence you get.”
Lessons from the FCS you can apply at Kansas State and thoughts on the FCS level now…
“Honestly, other than following the Bison and happy they got the big win, I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to what’s going on in that FCS world. I’ve told a lot of people that football is football, and it’s great at all levels. It doesn’t matter if its Division 3, Division 2, and so on. I appreciate my time at NDSU. It was a great place. I’ve kind of turned the page and am doing a lot of the same things that I was doing at NDSU, we are doing here. The guys are buying in. It’s a daily process, but I’m excited about what the future holds for us here.”
Most proud of after watching the OU film?
“We really talked about not looking at the scoreboard and just playing the game. We were down 10-0 really quickly. We were down 17-7 pretty quickly in the first quarter. The kids had resolved and said we’d play our game and worry about the score later on. We were able to make some plays and stay in the fight for four quarters.”
On Skylar Thompson…
“I just think he’s getting more and more comfortable in our system, in our offense. Now it’s game seven. I thought he was really in control last week. We’ve seen that over the last couple of weeks, him continuing to improve.”
On the running game…
“We were starting from scratch. We didn’t have any running backs when we got here, just Harry, who was a walk-on that we put on scholarship. Harry Trotter, and he’s done a nice job. We went out and got James Gilbert and Jordon Brown as grad transfers. Unfortunately for us Jordon has been hurt a good chunk of the season. It was his first action in a while. James has played really well. He’s just learning our system. Same with the offensive line. We have a bunch of seniors, and they’ve continued to improve every week. That’s something we were hopeful for an were planning on, that as guys learned what we’re doing offensively we’d gained more confidence and continue to get better. That’s what we’re trying to do this week. We know we have a great opponent we’re going to, and we have to continue to play better.”
On confidence level going into the Oklahoma game offensively…
“There were some things we had focused on, trying to go back to some A-Gap power and gap scheme stuff inside that we had not had great success on. We continue to work on that every day to try and get better at it. I think we are getting better. Then it was just trying to mix it up and eliminate some of the negative plays we’ve had. We have had too many second and 12s and second and 13s where you’re forced into throwing the football. We were in a little bit more second sixes and manageable, which opens up the playbook a little bit more. Just challenged the guys to continue to get better at rushing the football, because for us we have to be able to rush the football to be able to have success.”
On rivalry with KU and both schools having new coaches at the same time…
“It does matter. But, in the same respect I try not to get caught up in… I know it’s a big rivalry, but it’s the next game for us, as well. We need to continue to prepare Monday through Friday like we have in order for us to be successful on Saturday. I’m going to learn a lot about the rivalry, just as I’m sure Coach Miles is, from the players. We know it means a ton to the guys. That will be addressed throughout the week. But we can’t get ahead of our ourselves. We have to put the work in on a daily basis to give us a chance. If we look too far ahead to Saturday and don’t put the work in, it’s not going to matter, we’re not going to have the success.
