Chris Klieman’s opening statement:

“Well, good afternoon. Excited about the chance to get to play Missouri again. It’s been awhile since K-State and Missouri have hooked up, but I know our fans are excited and our players are excited. We had our first team meeting back yesterday and then had a practice yesterday. I know our fans will be cranked up and we had a great, great crowd last Saturday at the Bill. It was an electric crowd and I know our kids really appreciated the fans coming out, the students and our band is as good as always. It was a great atmosphere and I know our players really appreciated that so I want to thank the fans. I challenge them even this week it’s going to need to be even louder and more electric and I think it will be for this great game. We’ll start our prep today with our pads on and get a plan together.”

Klieman on an update for Taylor Poitier and Shawn Robinson:

“Yeah, TP, it’s a cruel thing, man. He tore a knee again and he will be out for the season. It’s awful how sometimes the cruelest things happen to the best kids. So, it was confirmed to us on Sunday afternoon that that was the case. He’ll be out for the season and my heart goes out for him because of all that he did to get himself back. He’ll get surgery once all the swelling gets down. Regarding Shawn (Robinson) and Josh (Hayes), it’s too early to tell this week if they’ll be back. Hopefully, we’ll get them back but we’re not sure.”

Klieman on what he’s seen from the Missouri offense so far:

“Multiple. They really do a nice job running the football. They’ve got a wide-zone or stretch run game and some counter that is really effective. Really good guys up front and a number of backs that can sprinkle in and they are very dynamic at the wide receiver position with guys that can hit home runs through the vertical passing game or jet sweeps or just getting the ball out in space. They do a lot of things that are going to be a big challenge for us.”

Klieman on the plan for the offensive line and moving Hadley Panzer to right guard:

“That’s the plan. We’ll move some other guys around and continue to get a rotation, but right now Hadley will start at right guard. (Andrew Leingang) will play a little bit more. He’s a guy that can be versatile and play a couple of different spots. Carver (Willis) will still play some, Sam Heck we’ve got to continue to push and maybe get him some more reps in practice so he’s ready. Dawson Delforge more reps in practice so he’ll be ready.”

Klieman on Panzer’s versatility:

“It’s pretty unique. It’s something he’s worked on a bunch to get himself ready at center. Now – he’d always played some guard because we’d took some reps off of Beebs (Cooper Beebe) and (Poitier) in fall camp, so he’s had a lot of reps at guard throughout fall camp, so it’s not going to be foreign to him. But, the fact that he knows all the calls and (Hayden Gillum) played really well so I’m excited to keep him at center and have Hadley play right guard.”

Klieman on who stood out on defense after watching tape back from Saturday:

“Austin Moore played really well for his first start. We think of him as a veteran kid but it was his first start. He did a really nice job. I was really excited about some new players. Uso (Seumalo) made a couple of good plays, Damian (Ilalio) made a couple of good plays. I thought Omar Daniels did some good things. Desmond Purnell did some nice things, some guys that were really new, Kobe Savage is a really good football player and I think everybody saw how he flies around and can make some plays. Getting Cincere (Mason) back really helped us because he understands our defense so well and he’s getting himself as close to healthy – it has not been quite a full year, so he and Drake Cheatum split those snaps – but we played a lot of guys and we’ll probably do the same this week.”

Klieman on who was responsible for the hit on Adrian Martinez that jarred the ball loose:

“It was probably an offensive lineman or a back, but it was a delayed blitz and we just missed it. They had a real good timing to it and I think we missed some communication on it because he came a little late, without question. And then they came later on with the same blitz and we did pick it up, but it was a good call by those guys.”

Klieman on the challenge of Missouri’s wide receivers and what KSU’s defensive backs must do:

“Well, everybody. Safeties and corners alike have a great challenge with some really dynamic receivers. There’s going to be a lot of motions and shifts. They are as good of a trick-play, gadget team as there is. They run a lot of reverses, reverse pass, flea-flickers, double passes and we have to make sure that we’re really disciplined in the back end because I think they do a tremendous job of showing you one thing and the next time showing you the same look and having a trick play or gadget play from it and execute those at a high level. We have to have great eyes and great discipline and it’s going to be a big challenge for the secondary. You hope that we can put some pressure on the quarterback or pressure on some of the gadget plays with whether it’s four and five-man stuff to make it a little harder to get that stuff off.”

Klieman on the importance of discipline:

“It’s a challenge but we’re up for it. It’s something we’re going to see from here on out.”

Klieman on what he thought of Adrian Martinez’s performance after review:

“I think we’re all going to improve from game 1 to game 2 collectively offensively. We think we left some plays out there collectively on offense, but as far as the game operation and the management of the game, he was really good. Didn’t have any false starts and didn’t have any delay of games. Didn’t turn the football over and I’m excited to see the growth we make offensively.”

On what stands out about Missouri quarterback Brady Cook:

“He’s a talented guy. He’s got enough snaps in him now that he’s a veteran. I think he runs the ball exceptionally well. They have a really good controlled passing game and then they’ll take some shots vertically and he throws the deep ball well. So I’m really impressed with him.”

On whether Martinez was hesitant to throw deep or if South Dakota did something to stop it:

“I think South Dakota did some really nice things that we had not seen on film. You practice against something and you feel like you know what somebody is going to do. Probably from myself and coach Riley and years and years of when they did a lot of things different to try to change our eyes. Maybe some of the routes we had would have been good against a different coverage, and we get the coverage that they were probably not good on and so we have to check the ball down. But give South Dakota credit.”

Klieman assessing play of the nose guards and how each half started:

“When you have Eli Huggins it usually is pretty good. Eli made a big-time sack to start the second half and we rotated an awful lot of guys in there. Eli is hopefully going to play the lion’s share of reps, but the start of the game was really good for us on offense and defense and special teams, and then the start of the second half was critical. We were up 27-0 but we got a kickoff, went three-and-out, they punt it to us and we score on a long drive, so I was pleased with how we started both halves offensively and defensively.”

Klieman on whether playing more guys made KSU more vanilla schematically:

“Yes. We were going to protect Deuce once we got ahead 20 and 27-0. We were going to protect Phillip, protect Malik and try to do some different things. We wanted to get DJ the ball some and wanted to throw the ball around a bit underneath and I was excited that Jake Rubley got a chance to play because Jake did some really nice things. But yeah, we played pretty vanilla in the second half.”

Klieman on DJ Giddens’ first impression:

“He runs hard, like I thought. He’s shown us all through camp, and the growth that DJ has had from last fall and last spring where he was just a football player, to now he’s a running back and understands the traps and where the hole is and where the play is hitting. I thought he ran really well and I’m excited for DJ.”

Klieman on VJ Payne:

“Great for a first time coming out. He doesn’t know that he’s going to play until Wednesday’s practice and we had started him at a different safety spot all throughout fall camp and then switched to the free safety spot toward the end of August, so now he’s got 10 practices to understand the free safety spot as a back-up, becomes the starter and I was excited for VJ. He’s going to be a terrific football player. We’re going to need him to be a really good player this year and based on the availability of Josh he’s either going to play 60 snaps, 50 snaps or 20 snaps. We don’t know.”

Klieman on whether playing Missouri feels like a rivalry game with the lack of recent matchups:

“Yes. To me it does. You’re right, to the players, we’re having some of the older guys reach out and talk to them about the rivalry game because I think it is and I remember as a kid growing up and watching KU-Missouri, K-State-Missouri and Nebraska-Missouri and I thought it was great rivalries. So I’m excited when you get a regional one. We’ve played Stanford. We’ve played Mississippi State. To have a regional game for our players and I know it is exciting for the fans and all the people who saw Mizzou come in here for so many years.”

On Khalid Duke being thrown in:

“He felt good. I think Khalid is going to be better as the season goes on and he gets more and more comfortable playing the outside linebacker spot as well as his body getting into better and better football shape. Understanding that he only played that position for about a game last year and then he gets hurt in the second or third game when he’s playing defensive end. It’s a little bit of a work-in-progress because he missed the spring and fall camp at that new position, but he’s explosive and he runs through people. It’s a different dynamic playing linebacker as opposed to safety like we did all of last year and that maybe inhibits us in some respect, but I think it really helps us in some other spots especially against the run.”

Klieman on Missouri’s pressure:

“They are really active up front. I think they are really good up front. They are long, they use their hands well, they get off blocks and then you combine that front four with outside linebackers, inside linebackers and corner blitz. They are going to do a lot of things to try to disrupt your offense. I don’t know how much they showed. We know there are certain things we can look at from last year or other years, but there are things that we didn’t show on offense or defense and I know that there’s probably a number of things that they didn’t show offensively or defensively. It’s still going to be a game of adapting or adjusting.”

On Jake Clifton’s role in the rotation:

“We’ll see. He’s a guy that keeps learning and getting better. He’s a really athletic and fast guy who just has to keep learning the nuances of the inside linebacker spot because he’s been a bit more in space during high school. But he understands what we’re doing, for sure, and this week we’re excited because Austin is a tremendous football player and will take the lion’s share of those reps, but he’s gotta be able to spell. Gavin Forsha we’ve moved to that WILL linebacker spot and he’s taken a lot of those two reps to see if one of those guys rises up.”

On Jax Dineen’s absence from Saturday’s contest:

“He was, similar to some of those other guys, out medically. He should be available this week.”

Klieman on Shawn Robinson’s value after being at Missouri:

“(Laughs) I would say to our guys he probably is more as far as personnel and some of those things. Schematically, we haven’t leaned on him as much probably, but I know talking to his teammates on personnel or ‘this is what this guy does well,’ is maybe something that we can take advantage of.”

On the kicking situation and communication with Chris Tennant:

“Kickers are like golfers missing a 3-footer and I’ve missed a few of those. You don’t say much. We know he’s a talented, talented kicker and he’s going to figure it out. I’m excited for him to get another opportunity and we’re going to give him the opportunity because he’s earned it. Chris is a terrific kicker and we’re going to keep believing in him and keep relying on him.”

Klieman on Eli Huggins and what he means to the defense:

“Well, he’s a captain. He’s a guy that has been here the longest. He can help the young guys in the transition to college. He helps the young guys to get settled in. He makes a lot of the calls up front. He challenges the younger guys that are playing to watch more film. He’s a terrific football player and he’s very underrated across the national landscape, and he’s OK with that. He just makes plays and had a couple of big plays. He didn’t play a lot of snaps but he’ll play a lot more this week and in weeks to come. He does everything really well, but he’s just so smart. He understands the blocking schemes, understands where everyone is at and understands if a guard or center is light that they could be pulling. He’s a step ahead because of his film study and because of the amount of experience he has. He’s crafty in slipping blocks and it’s hard to block him.”

On choosing to take the opening kickoff against LSU and South Dakota:

“A couple things. Last year, in the bowl game I wanted Collin Klein to relax and go play football, so we wanted to take the football and give those guys a chance to get settled in. I think we’re really explosive on offense and I wanted to take the opening kickoff and get a 7-0 lead to get the crowd into it. Not that we couldn’t have kicked off and stopped them just as easily, but I wanted to take the ball in hopes of getting a score and getting the crowd into it. And it got them into it because on the first play I saw Malik coming right at me and Cade and Deuce making a couple good blocks and it was 7-0 and I said, ‘boy did that work out well.’”

On if Collin Klein needled him about taking the opening kickoff:

“Nope. He knew the same thing you did, so whatever we’re going to do we’re going to do. I don’t know if that’s going to be every week, but just felt very comfortable and for a lot of reasons during the bowl game of the guy calling plays.”

On Missouri’s transfers on defense:

“It is tough. You evolve as the season goes on just like we’ll evolve as the season goes along with Kobe or Drake just like any of the new guys we have. You want to make sure that they play your base stuff really well and really fast, and some of it also has to do with the amount of stuff that you’re seeing from an opposing team. We didn’t think South Dakota was going to do a lot of motion and shifts, so we thought ‘let’s just get these guys in base and let these guys get comfortable.’ And we’ll keep adding to the package. I think they were very similar last week against Louisiana Tech. I didn’t think they did a ton of things defensively, but they did a lot of things really well defensively with those guys – they brought pressure – but they did a lot of things from base. They played some man, they played some zone, they applied pressure and they dropped eight at times. I’ve seen more stuff being added for those players just like our players get more comfortable.”

On 67 players getting snaps against South Dakota:

“Yeah, the biggest number that I looked at is we had 39 kids play special teams and that is what I was looking for. Offense, defense we were going to play a number of guys but on special teams to see guys like (Matthew) Maschmeier who hasn’t played a lot for us and Thomas Helten – what a great story to see Tom play. Shane Porter, Krew Jackson each got an opportunity. There are so many guys. Desmond Purnell, how about him? That was a positive and we’re going to continue to do that these next couple of weeks.”

Klieman on special teams:

“It’s a couple things. It’s the amount of drill work that we do because there’s a return side, a hold up side and an art of blocking punts. I thought Seth (Porter) did a phenomenal job on the first punt of the game not roughing the kid because I thought he was clean and Seth just has a knack to fall off and not rough the kid. And then the next punt, maybe because of timing and stuff, I think it was Helten and Maschmeier who get a ton of credit for creasing the shield and getting those guys to squeeze on him. And then Seth would’ve probably blocked it anyway because he’s so fast and athletic. But we spent an awful lot of time with the drill work of it and we spend a lot of time on special teams. We have first punt against first punt return and intermix some of the 2s and go live as we can all fall long so that you can get the timing of it. Now, we’re going to put the ball out there so that Ty (Zentner) and Jack (Blumer) don’t get run into, but we know how hard of a block it is to try to come down and block Seth or how hard it is to time things up and wiggle your feet late and get in a position to block. There’s a lot of time on it, but as we know in this league that we’re playing in and college football in general, you have to have a factor in that phase of the game. When you block a punt and score, the likelihood of you winning the football game goes through the roof. We’ve been very fortunate. Well before I arrived here with K-State and special teams and we try to hold up our end with our staff to make sure that it still is ‘Special Teams U’ as our guys call it.”

Klieman on Andrew Leingang:

“I thought he did a really nice job and got more and more comfortable – especially since he missed about nine days and his first practice was Thursday of game week and he was out August 15th on, so he missed so much time. But I think he ended up playing 35 or 37 snaps and was really good to see him out there. The more comfortable we can get with (Leingang), the more versatile we’re going to have with him and with KT (Leveston) – who I thought played really well – and (Cooper Beebe).”

Klieman on if TJ Smith is available this week:

“He was out there yesterday running around. Today is a padded day, so I’ll have a little bit of a better indication today, but in all likelihood he will play.”

On going from game 1 to game 2 what needs to improve:

“Just execution offensively. That’s the biggest thing. I thought we did some really good things, but like I said, we left some plays out there. So execution is one thing. Defensively, we were a little – we loved how hard our guys played. They ran and did things right, we got off blocks well. Some of our angles in tackling were poor and part of that is the lack of live tackling you do in fall camp. I know Daniel Green missed a tackle. Daniel Green never misses tackles. So maybe part of that is the lack of doing some of that on a daily basis in camp and you just can’t. You’re trying to get everybody to the first Saturday in September, so tackling and maintaining our leverage is the one thing on defense.”

On the quick offensive start:

“I think it was after it was 27-0 it really got to that point. For us to get up 20-0 with some really good drives on offense after the blocked punt, we wanted to do some things to start the second half that we were comfortable to do, and then we got some of the players out of there once it got to 34. There were a lot of things that we worked on in fall camp that I know that Collin did not get to on the card because he wanted to hold.”

On Kobe Savage’s physicality and whether it surprised him:

“No, not at all. That kid is an Energizer bunny and man does he play hard. If you can’t tell, man does he have a lot of fun out there and he loves contact. It’s kind of infectious because it got the crowd going, it got our defense going, it got the sideline going. That's what I’ve seen from that kid all spring and all fall and he is a football junkie. He’s up in that office all the time. He doesn’t care about a 20-hour rule. He’s going to be up there by himself watching film all the time. And he wants to be a sponge and learn as much as he can. I’m so excited to have – even though he’s a junior college kid – to have young players learn from him, oh this is how you get really good. You learn what the heck an offense is doing, you learn your craft and then you play extremely fast and you trust your eyes, trust your keys and you run through your leverage. And he ran through his leverage.”

On Julius Brents:

“He’s always been a physical guy. He and Ekow (Boye-Doe) are going to get challenged and I’m excited for those two guys. I think book end we have really good corners. We have some really good players behind those two, but Julius and Ekow will get challenged this week for sure. And I’m sure they are excited about it.”

On the offensive line:

“I thought we played well in the run game. Some of the protection things were maybe a back, or a tight end. It could have been a variety of things. Once again, offensively, I think we left some things out there and that’s not just saying from a pass game or a run game. I think collectively we can be a little bit better on pass protection, sustaining blocks, whatever you want to say. That’s where you hope you get a lot of improvement from game 1 to game 2.”