Press Briefing - 10/4

Chris Klieman and his players addressed the injury situation with multiple contributors on Tuesday. One of the more notable pieces of news probably came in regards to Nebraska transfer Will Honas who has not seen the field this season, and Klieman made it seem like it would be unlikely that happens anytime soon, if ever.

“I don’t believe so. I think the injuries that Will has had are probably not going to allow him to move forward. We’re still holding out hope, but he’s had quite a bit of damage on some injuries throughout his time and it’s been tough on him. It’s been really hard. I know that and he’s been at every game, been at every practice and it’s probably not responding the way he hoped it would.”

As for guys that missed a few snaps on Saturday against Texas Tech, Klieman confirmed that those players would be good for Iowa State, it also helped that both Eli Huggins and KT Leveston made appearances at today's media availability.

Leveston said he took a finger to the eye, but his vision is in good shape moving forward.

The hottest topic on Tuesday was what each player thought of Farmageddon and the upcoming rivalry game with Iowa State. The aforementioned Leveston said he "loves all rivalries" and that getting to play at night adds to it for a few reasons. Extra time to prepare your body and being under the lights makes for a "special moment."

Quarterback Adrian Martinez is preparing for his first and only appearance in Farmageddon, but said he is "excited" and that it means a lot to the fans and his teammates to beat Iowa State. This is not the first time a rivalry gets focused on crops that Martinez has been involved in though.

"Something about the midwest and rivalries just have to do with crops, I was a part of one back at Nebraska and here."

Kade Warner is quickly getting up to speed in his second year with the rivalry, "I just saw that now, we are boycotting corn. Wheat over corn, something like that."

In addition to the not-so-serious aspect of the rivalry, Warner mentioned that his teammates that played in the 45-0 loss in 2020 are highly motivated to get another shot at the Cyclones in Ames. "Hearing what that game was like, they are excited and motivated to get out there this Saturday.

Eli Huggins was on the 2020 team and called it the "worst game I've ever been a part of."

Deuce Vaughn has embraced Farmageddon, saying "it's fun to see the corn and the wheat and the Twitter memes. It's actually a really cool rivalry that I am excited to play in again."

Felix Anudike-Uzomah and Khalid Duke became the first Wildcat teammates to each come away with three sacks in a game against Texas Tech. Adrian Martinez took note by wearing a #91 shirsey in his interview today.

"I did have to buy it, no free handouts around here. He means a whole hell of a lot, he is a stud on defense and had a great performance last week and is a key to our team."

Anudike-Uzomah said that he and Duke had conversations before the season about how "lethal" they could be on the field together and were able to prove that on Saturday.

"It showed everyone how great of pass rushers me and Khalid Duke are. And again, it's not just him, it's Nate and Mott. They are both effective pass rushers too."

Duke came away with Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors, and Anudike-Uzomah had nothing but excitement for his teammate.

"I was very excited, he went through a lot of stuff. His knee, his surgery, and his rehab. He had some personal issues too, so to see him get that award, it was very happy for me."

Defensive tackle Eli Huggins plays in between the two talented pass rushers for the Wildcats, Huggins attributes the success of the entire team to their depth.

Chris Klieman said that they will still use Duke in coverage, but are going to try and find more chances for him to play alongside Anudike-Uzomah.

"We have to continue to find different ways to utilize Khalid. We’re still going to play him in our coverage stuff but try to find different ways to use him in the rush game as well. I don’t know if that’s first down or third down stuff, but he’s one of our best 11 and we’ve just got to find ways to get him on the field in different places.”

On Saturday, the Wildcats raced out to a 13-point lead that had dissolved to a 13-10 halftime lead. Chris Klieman wasn't pleased with that and made it known in his halftime interviews with TV and radio, that wasn't going to fly. His players got to hear about that as well, they all appreciated the wake-up call and said the speech got them motivated.

Deuce Vaughn decided to give a grade for the speech, "Ten out of ten, 100 percent. It woke us all up and something we needed out of our head coach."

Kade Warner was also in the camp of agreeing with the halftime fire from Chris Klieman was necessary.

"We needed it, and that is the thing too, we responded well to it. We all agree with exactly what he said and his temperament with how he said it and definitely gave us some motivation and fire going into the second half."

Klieman said he saw it in his team at the end of the first half, that they were "shell-shocked" to be in a 13-10 game after their hot start, that is when he decided to bring the fire into the locker room.

"We’ve talked about ‘how are you guys going to respond?’ and I’ve probably said it a little bit more direct than that but how are you going to respond to the adversity that you just had because they have all of the momentum and even though we didn’t start off great in the third quarter, and it took us a little bit, nobody did panic and then once we started to hit those explosive plays – it’s a game of momentum and you saw the life come back into the sideline on Deuce’s run and then from there we kind of started to take off.”