Opening statement:

“Hard fought win on Saturday. Tremendous environment, great atmosphere. Nothing came easy, that’s for sure. Talked to the guys at length yesterday, about the resolve and toughness and grit that we showed for 60 minutes. I think our guys knew going in it was going to be a fist fight and everything was going to be difficult to get. I’m so pleased with how we handled the first half. I think we got outplayed and had a 7-6 lead. We weren’t stopping them on defense until they got in the red zone and then we were able to get some good stops which we talked about and I thought they did some really good things against us defensively and then at halftime made some adjustments but biggest thing is we needed to get off the field on defense and stay on the field on offense. We were able to do that and didn’t capitalize with a lot of points, but we were able to get the one field goal with Chris (Tennant) and hold those guys a couple times when they were able to get into our territory. So, great credit to our players for staying the course for four quarters. We got beat up pretty good from the game just injury report we would have a handful of guys that would probably be questionable if it were a game this Saturday, but nobody that got injured on Saturday would be out a significant amount of time. I think the closest guy would be Khalid (Duke). But we envision everybody practicing probably not this week, but next week for sure. We didn’t lose anybody long-term.”

On how much a bye week is spent on development:

“A bunch of it. Yesterday we had a development practice working a lot of guys on special teams. Some kids that haven’t played yet, some other guys that are in the two-deep but more specifically special teams guys. And then we’re taking the young players and the first or second-year guys and doing some K-State versus K-State team. Get those guys away from the scout cards and get them back to our schemes offensively and defensively. We’ll do that quite a bit today and tomorrow. We’ll do a little bit of TCU here in the next couple days as well.”

On the advantage of being able to play press coverage with both corners:

“That was not really the plan going in, because of all the motions and shifts that Iowa State gives you. And we gave up a couple of what we would call easy access throws to go to more press with Ekow (Boye-Doe) and Julius (Brents). And probably – I know, not probably – we pressured more on Saturday than we have in previous games and a lot of that was out of necessity because of the shorter routes. The crossing routes and some of the routes that were at the sticks of trying to play tighter coverage.”

Klieman on DJ Giddens recruitment process:

“Well, so much respect for Junction City and what coach Zimm does and the program. We had tracked DJ and I had been able to see him play just because of Colby (Klieman) being at Manhattan when Colby was a little bit younger. So I was really impressed with DJ and we did enter it pretty late but always were impressed with him as a player and we were able to get him late in the process and like I said last year I thought he had a good development year but probably wasn’t ready this year, even though we have Deuce, we knew that he would continue to progress and get better and better and you saw in practice in fall camp when we would sit Deuce (Vaughn) a lot the pop in him, the explosiveness, his ability to run through contact and it was just a matter of maybe time or circumstance that he would get an opportunity. He was by Missouri probably the clear No. 2 for us and so Deuce got dinged up a little bit and he did some really good things. We’ve got to find some ways to continue to get him on the field and continue to get touches.”

On progression in the wide receiver room:

“It’s gone well. The three guys are the mainstays right now. Keenan (Garber) played a little bit more on Saturday which is good because he had a really good week of practice so we’re excited about him. RJ (Garcia) has been dinged up a little bit but we’ve been playing him a little bit and we’ve got great confidence in him. Xavier Loyd is continuing to improve. Jadon Jackson is continuing to learn our system so we have some guys that are pushing those three top guys, but we still like our development and growth there and think not only this year but the future is bright there.”

On the play of the offensive line:

“It’s been good. We lost (Taylor Poitier) so early it kind of put us into a spot where we had to play Hadley (Panzer) and we wanted to play Hadley more at center, but fortunately for us (Hayden Gillum) is playing so well that we haven’t really worried about pushing him back into center. wE’ve kept him at guard to replace TP. I’m excited about getting (Andrew) Leingang back. He missed some time so he’s getting back into the practice mode and he’s kind of our swing guy and Carver (Willis) is the swing guy at tackle, more at right tackle than anywhere but he could play left tackle. And then Dawson Delforge has come on a little bit. (Cooper) Beebe is a great player, an all-conference player. KT (Leveston) is playing really well. (Christian Duffie) is playing really well. I think the guy that has been most impressive to me is Gilly just because he hasn’t played that many snaps prior to this year and he’s really done a great job with communication as well as play and it’s allowed Hadley to get more reps at guard and get more comfortable.”

Klieman on who has jumped off the tape to him:

“Desmond Purnell. Once again it’s you always have to prepare for your opportunity and don’t let your circumstance dictate how you prepare for that opportunity. He knew he was the backup behind Khalid, but we always talk about being a play away from having to take significant snaps and Khalid goes down in really the second or third play of the game and Des really has to play every snap. We went to nickel a couple times when he came out, but if not he played over 50 snaps and did some really good things. I think he was trying to feel his way through and then he realized ‘I’m good enough. I can play at this level,’ and we talked about it. Nick Allen was great with him on the sideline. Nick was challenging the heck out of him but that’s Nick. Nick is a great leader. And I was challenging him. Devin (Klieman) and Steve (Stanard) were challenging him. And he rose up and he made some really good plays so I’m pleased with where Des is at. And he’s a guy that we’re going to continue to push. The defensive line rotation we’ve still got to find more plays probably for Uso (Seumalo) because he’s progressing well enough that we’ve got to get him some more snaps. It’ll probably help Eli out. (Cody) Stufflebean made a couple really good plays when he was in there. (Brendan) Mott is playing well. That was as healthy as Nate (Matlack) has been this season so this week will come at a great time for Nate to get his body back because we’re going to need him moving forward. But with the defensive line I think the rotations have helped us and some of the guys have probably evened out some of those reps.”

On the back-half of the season and checking redshirts:

“Yeah, but we look at that all the time. There are some guys that you’ve seen early in the season that we’ve kind of held back on now because they’ve played a couple of games and don’t want to put a guy in not necessarily for mop-up duty, but for a play here or there that could cost them that game. There’s really no mop up duty right now in our league, so it’s just trying to – and it’s harder to on the road because anybody you take on the road you have to be willing to play – because of injuries and you don’t have that depth, and it came into play this weekend. Jack Blumer who is our backup punter played some snaps on punt return and Jack has been involved with the drill work so much that he knows all the techniques and we trust Jack so we put him in there, but there are still a handful of guys that are right around that two and three-game stretch that you never know. Let’s say Des is a guy – and he’s not – but all of a sudden you get a guy that got hurt and that means you’ve gotta be ready to step in and play and that’s the hard thing about managing the roster and managing playing time and managing people. Is how much is enough where you feel like they are getting a good use out of the year but it’s also still about the team and what we have to do to make sure the team is successful.”

On whether he wants to use all of Will Howard’s games for a redshirt:

“Let’s just say we would like to get the redshirt. I can’t tell you on the games because it’s so different. You just don’t know how things are playing out and we’re so pleased with Adrian right now and how he’s grown and I think you guys can all see in different ways – and I told him this – I thought he played his best game on Saturday. He did some unbelievable things against Oklahoma and against Texas Tech, but just when he had to make a play for us on Saturday he made the plays. He got us out of some really bad situations with changing calls just in that environment in a tight tight ball game he was so calm. I thought he played a phenomenal game and so if Adrian can stay healthy and it works itself out, I don’t know how much Jake or Will (Howard) will be in there, but we’d like to preserve Will’s year.”

On Josh Hayes:

“Well, I’ve known him for a long time and known his parents for a long time and have had a couple of home visits with him, but he’s been every bit as good as we thought he could be and knew he could be. Really proud of Josh for coming in here and making a name for himself but not being overbearing as far as thinking it’s his team or anything like that. He’s fit in with the guys really well, he’s been a corner his whole life and about three days into spring practice, four days into spring practice we said to Josh, ‘we need you to play safety,’ and I thought it would help him for his ability to play at the next level if he played something more than just corner. Whether he’s a nickel, whether he’s a safety at the next level I think he’s proving that he can play at the next level. I have always known it. I think Josh has always known he’s had the ability, but I think the skillset we’re putting him in now is really showcasing his talents and he’s a very physical player, he’s a very talented player. He’s a very smart football player and he just – there’s something about a guy that loves football like that and Josh is a football junkie. He loves to compete and I think Iowa State tried to match him up a few times with (Xavier Hutchinson) thinking they could get a safety on him which is the smart thing to do, but Josh has such good corner skills that he was able to make big plays.”

On Skylar Thompson getting playing time on Sunday:

“We texted back and forth on Sunday night or Monday morning – I can’t remember – just how proud I was of him handling the circumstance, handling the environment. I watched just a little bit of it but was impressed with he just seemed calm. He seemed like he belonged and I just thought he did a great job of handling the circumstance of not knowing you’re going to play. I didn’t see the other quarterback got hurt – so I didn’t know what the plan was of if he was going to play – but I saw he was in like probably everybody else in our football office did and so tried to find it and was able to follow him a decent amount. I know that he was happy that he got a chance and got his feet wet and who knows what’s going to happen there in the future, but excited for him. It was a big moment for him.”

On all the NFL quarterbacks (Thompson, Carson Wentz, Easton Stick he’s coached and the secret to his success coaching the position:

“I didn’t know – I don’t know how many – I know those guys but I don’t know how many other coaches (have that many quarterbacks in the league) but it’s a credit to those players. It’s not me. It’s a credit to those players and it’s a credit to the Collin Klein’s and the Randy Hedberg’s that develop these guys and coach the heck out of them and prepare them. For me it was just believing in them more than anything and I know that from the vantage point of a defensive-minded head coach, letting a quarterback know how much you believe in them is very very important. Loved all those kids. Told them I loved them and believed in them and they have God-given ability and then the QB coaches they’ve had has been really good.”

On his celebration after the game-winning first down:

“I grew up in Iowa and had a lot of family there. I know how hard it is to win in Ames, Iowa. Been in Ames at night on a number of occasions as an assistant and to play at Ames at night, in that environment, and it was a great environment, it was a big win for our team. A couple guys sent me texts that I trust in the profession and said it’s OK to enjoy a big win and appreciate you showing the emotion. It was a big win at the right time coming into a bye week and knowing that guys like Deuce was out, Felix (Anudike-Uzomah) was out and Khalid was out. DJ is making plays and Desmond Purnell is making plays. It wasn’t easy and people talk about ugly wins and stuff, I think it still counts as a win and that’s all that really matters. It was a big night for K-State football.”

On the decision to hire Collin Klein as offensive coordinator and how that’s going:

“What you’re seeing is what I thought as far as mixing up tempos and mixing up formations and getting the best 11 guys on the field at a number of different times. When you go on the road and the crowd is really into it and you’re able to go fast, you’re able to slow it down when you need to and you’re able to have different cadences it creates problems for a defense. It creates problems for us – I know that – and creates it at home especially when people go fast on you. So the style that Collin and I spoke about when we were together last December on the road is what I envisioned we were going to do. I think we’re still six games into it and we’re still growing as an offense. We’re still learning as an offense. I think our best football is ahead of us as an offense. The thing that probably excited us as coaches and even our players when we met here yesterday is we still haven’t played our best football. We are playing as hard as any team I’ve ever been associated with. Our kids lay it on the line every Saturday and play their tails off. We’re making some mental errors on both sides and on special teams that we need to clean up. So this is a big week for us to clean some of those errors up. Some of it is focus, some of it is the environment and pressure and all of those things, but we need to clean up those mental errors and continue to play as hard as we are and then I can live with the results because those kids are laying it all out there on Saturday.”

On Klein’s progression as an OC:

“Just his ability to mix things up. Run and pass and tempo and not tempo. Just trying to get the play-makers the ball. Everything. Once again, we’re six games into it but I’m excited about the progress we’ve made and I know there’s continued growth there.”

On the SAM linebacker spot and how it changes if Khalid Duke is out:

“Yeah, we haven’t dug into that yet as far as what we would do because Khalid isn’t ruled out by any means for TCU. There’s a good chance he can play at TCU so we’re going to go through this week because it’s such a development week for us and not worry about the schematics of how we’re going to change things because Khalid doesn’t have a long-term injury. But Des – we didn’t change the gameplan – Des blitzed a decent amount. Des was on the line of scrimmage and he’s not as big – there’s no question about that – but he’s productive and he’s instinctive inside there so we’ll continue to evaluate that as we learn more about Khalid. As well as we’ll probably move Krew Jackson will get more reps, Jake Clifton who has been in-between SAM and WILL will play some more SAM as well.”

Klieman on whether Deuce could’ve finished out the Iowa State game:

“No, he could not.”

On the luck of the coin toss:

“You’d have to ask those captains out there, because we talk about it all the time of what we’re going to do and that’s kind of the big joke is what do I want to do this week because it’s changed quite a bit. Kade (Warner) and I kind of laugh about it and Kade hasn’t been out there for all of them, but it’s kind of like, ‘OK, what are you thinking?’ I know he’s excited when I say we want to take the ball and he kind of turns away from me when I say I want to defer but there’s a lot of things that play into it every game and for whatever reason I don’t know who’s called it. If you ask me of the six games who has called it each time I don’t have any idea, but they are on a hot streak I think right now. I don’t know how many we have won… all of ‘em? All six. Wow. That’s pretty good. Three or four. OK, see. Nobody really knows. That’s good.”

On the logistics of Friday night recruiting for a road game:

“Help. Great donor support here. For me it was last week and if it’s a home game we usually are out. Coordinators won’t ever go out. They are always staying back here with the guys and typically we always have one or two assistants back as well. It was just coach Anderson and I out here last week and coach Stanard was out in Iowa. Taylor Braet and his staff they do a good job of facilitating places to go that we can get back. The other thing that plays into it is the late start. Playing at 6:30 or 7 is a lot easier to do that than playing at 11. I don’t think we had anybody out for Texas Tech. It’s just too hard when you’re playing at 11. Every week we kind of evaluate it based on game time.”

On the explanation given regarding the running into the kicker penalty:

“We sent it in and I have not gotten word back of what they saw. The official came over to me and said he did not think he hit his plant leg and so that’s what I think of as the rule is if they hit the kicking leg it’s typically running into and if they go into the plant leg (it’s roughing). I haven’t received anything back yet.”