Thank you to K-State Athletics Communications for providing the following quotes after Kansas State's 31-12 loss to Baylor.
CHRIS KLIEMAN, K-STATE HEAD COACH
On today’s performance
“People are running against us. I thought early on they were blitzing the heck out of us and we did a really good job, Skylar did a good job of checking off to a lot of quick throws and quick hitches and those were good. Then they kept the blitzes on but they rolled their coverage which took a few things away. We have a really good plan for the three down. We have to execute the plan and we have to continue to get better at.”
On the amount of tackles for loss by Baylor…
“Some of those were obviously late, we were trying to make plays but we can’t have those. We had a third and one coming right out of the second half, it was a one score game, the y stuff us and they go down and score. We had moved the ball and then we get a third and one and then lose two. We have to be able to sustain those drives.”
On low confidence after two straight losses…
“That’s human nature but that's our jobs as coaches , to get them back and the jobs of seniors. We are all accountable. We all have to be better and it starts with me and I’ve got to be better and make sure to push the right buttons. The seniors have to be better, everybody’s got to get invested a little bit more so that we can get this thing turned. Once again, we are going to get this thing turned, we’re 3-2, we have a bye week probably not at a great time but we have the bye week so we have to utilize it and get better.”
On the offensive line disappointments…
“Well we saw it a little bit better today, we can’t put it all on those guys. Those guys are playing their butts off. We’ve just got to continue to improve and give them some better options maybe in whatever it is offensively, play calling and those things and I’m not questioning the playcalling don’t start that with Mess[ingham]. We just have to find some ways that they can find some confidence. I thought in the second half we had some confidence running the football, once again we just couldn't sustain it.”
On getting Joshua Youngblood involved…
“I thought he did a really good job. We got Josh (Youngblood) involved, we got Joe Ervin involved, we got Chris Herron involved. We’re trying to find a few more playmakers. Those guys made some plays, probably made some mistakes but they’re making them fast. Good chance in the open week to find some guys that get us some production.”
JORDAN MITTIE, SENIOR DEFENSIVE TACKLE
On the main message in the locker room following the loss…
“Obviously after a game like that it’s just improvement. We’re going into the bye week right now so, y’know, everyone saw from today we have plenty to improve on and y’know we’ll have time to do that, so that was basically the real message. But y’know, another one was, y’know we’re gonna get it figured out this year. As seniors it’s kinda on us to drive the team that way and make sure that gets done.”
On how much the last two weeks have hurt the team’s confidence…
“I mean it’s tough. Any time you go out and don’t play the way you want to… I don’t want to say it hurts our confidence because, y’know, I think we’re all confident in our ability and know what we should be able to do, but it just comes down to going out there and executing.”
On if the seniors were part of the conversation following the game…
“Yeah definitely, I mean, y’know this is a really big senior group. Klieman’s, Coach Klieman’s, his whole deal coming in was, y’know, we wanna get it done this year for this class, so it’s really gonna be on us to get, y’know, this whole team moving in that direction the way we want.”
On the defense giving up big plays…
“Yeah that’s tough. I mean, I was just talking about how important it is that we need to get consistent in everything. Our fits, our reads, and especially today you saw that, I think that second-to-last touchdown tackling. I mean we can’t allow that to happen, and I think that last touchdown was a mis-fit, and y’know that’s just things we’ve gotta clean up but it can’t keep happening if we want to go out and do something in this conference.”
DALTON SCHOEN, SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER
On the scoring drought to start the game…
“For whatever reason we had a tough time getting a rhythm going offensively. Also I feel like a couple times we would get the drive going and then we would hurt ourselves somehow by having a negative yards play or something like that that would set us back and then just couldn't get the ball in the endzone and that's just not acceptable.”
On having so many setbacks offensively…
“It;s just tough. I feel like negative yards plays are just drive killers and it’s just hard to come back from that sometimes but you just got to bounce back and get out the next play but it’s tough offensively when you can’t get the ball in the endzone when your defense is playing like they were.”
On Malik Knowles being hurt…
“It’s tough. I know he wants so badly to be out there and playing and I can tell it’s hurting him but love to see him giving it all he has and trying to give it a go tonight.”
On his success today…
“I guess just kind of getting back to the basics. Being good at the line, getting separation and the top of the routes, being physical. Skylar did a great job putting the ball in good spots for me to go get it all day.”
On Coach Klieman’s comments about finding consistency…
“I think he’s probably talking about consistency in all three phases of the game. We got to play well all the time because the margin for error between a win and a loss is really small. I would say from the offensive standpoint we got to be consistent in fact that we got to put drives together. We got to be able to run the ball and throw the ball because when we can’t do one it just gets us out of our rhythm and then like we said, we made some good plays but not all the time and had trouble stringing drives together so that’s just inconsistency.
SKYLAR THOMPSON, JUNIOR QUARTERBACK
On the the game…
“Anytime you lose it is frustrating. It is never fun. It definitely hurts and we are all frustrated honestly. It is part of the game sometimes, part of the journey. We just really have to buckle down and focus on what we need to work on and our mistakes. We need to have a great couple weeks with this bye week we really have to improve and just get better. I just truly believe our team did not stop fighting and I do not think giving up or all of that stuff is an issue. Guys are fighting, guys care and we just have to stick together and come together more than ever and trust one another more than we ever have. I think that is the biggest difference.”
On throwing the ball when the defense is shutting down the run…
“It is tough in certain situations. Teams are playing man coverage on us now. Baylor has not played any man all year and that is all we got on third down. We have to beat man coverage… We did well in certain situations but I feel like we need to improve offensively. For the most part, I felt like I hit my unique stuff and hit my hitch routes versus man. Guys made plays but we just have to get the run game going consistently and get in a rhythm. What we are lacking right now is having a rhythm and things. We just have to stick together and keep working hard. None of us are gonna give up and I am doing my best to lead this team. I am going to give it my absolute best every opportunity I get out there. Sometimes you just come up short but at the end of the day that is what makes the story and the journey great. We have to focus on overcoming adversity and we are going to overcome it and keep pounding at it.”
On the upcoming bye week…
“It does help, it gives us a chance to get healthy and get a lot of practice in which is going to be good. We need practice obviously. It does come at a good time. We did not have a good last couple of weeks so it will give us a chance to rejuvenate, get our feet back under us and get ready for the home stretch of the season. It is just two games we have a lot ahead of us and a lot more opportunities that are in front of us. We can’t allow these two weeks to destroy the rest of the season. We will be fine.”
WYATT HUBERT, SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE LINEMAN
Overall thoughts…
“14 of those points came in the fourth quarter so that’s just something we’ve got to buckle down, just finishing the game, playing for all four quarters not three quarters or three and a half quarters. And like I said, we’ve just got to fix our tiny mistakes and just get better at tackling of course and just keep filling our gaps, playing our schemes. In my opinion this isn’t anything on the coaches at all, this is all players faults for giving up so many points and not being able to get in the endzone from the offensive side of the ball.”
On what his message was to his teammates in the locker room…
“The main thing, especially being a part of a team, you’ve got to take ownership when something goes wrong and like I said no one has to worry about the coaches because they’re taking full ownership for what they’ve done and what their doing and everything they do is for the best interest of us, us players and at the end of the day a good team goes off whether the players take ownership and have accountability towards ourselves and towards each other.”
On the explosive plays given up…
“Obviously it just comes down to football and obviously you’ve just got to play your technique, what you’re taught to do. There’s talent everywhere in this conference and everywhere in college football so you’ve got to just take care of business and do what you’re trained to do.”
JAMES GILBERT, SENIOR RUNNING BACK
On what’s not working with the run game...
“It’s not the coaches it’s the players. Execution wise, we’re not excuteing right and it comes down to blocking and tackling and we’re not doing that real well as a football team. We are practicing hard during the week we’re just not executing right on gameday so we’ve got to get that fixed and we’ve got two weeks to do it.”
On the confidence level in the locker room…
“We let another one get away from us but we’ve got a couple more games at home in October. We’ve got two weeks to get ready, work on our craft, and work on our fundamentals. I feel like there’s still a lot of football, still a lot of things we can achieve on our football team so we’ve got to keep getting better and stay consistent.”
On if he’s ever struggled with fumbling in his career...
“Never, never man. It’s again, frustrating for me because I never put the ball on the ground and now it’s starting to happen back to back so I’ve got to fix that.
DEVIN ANCTIL, SENIOR PUNTER
On how he was able to punt so consistently…
“Preparation throughout this week, and that’s really it. Going with the wind was a little bit easier to punt, but going into it I kinda had to keep it a little bit lower to drive it out since it was so windy out there.”
On his punt that was downed at the Baylor 2 yard-line…
“That was an awesome moment. I was just trying to drive it as low as I could so I could get as much distance as possible from it. It was just kinda a huge adrenaline rush after. That was a really good moment. Thought we might be able to get a safety, but just barely missed it.”
On coping with a 98-yard touchdown drive following his punt downed at the 2…
“As a punter you’ve just gotta hope that your defense can do good right there, but we weren’t able to get it done. But I know in the future, I think we should be able to do that. As long as I keep doing what I’m doing, I think we’ll have a good chance at trying to get some safeties and maybe a three-and-out if we get them pinned inside the 10.”
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