KLIFF KINGSBURY
- "It's a win. I think we left a bunch of things out on the field but I think effort was good. Kids played hard. It was pretty penalty free until the end."
- "There was a lot of things that we did that we talked about doing all offseason, so that's good to see."
- Kingsbury said that the rest of the nation doesn't know much about Pat Mahomes right now, "but they will."
- "He's got some magic about him."
- Kingsbury says he has a "long whistle" in practice when Mahomes is at quarterback. He doesn't whistle the play dead when Mahomes starts to scramble around in the pocket.
- Kingsbury said that Devin Lauderdale needs to become more consistent. He notes that Lauderdale has a tendency to make the big play and miss on a routine play.
- "You try not to overcoach (drops) or talk about it. But it's good to happen in the first one because then you can really come down on them hard and go from there."
- Kingsbury said that they repped the Justin Stockton route -- the play that he dropped -- "20 times" during camp and Stockton didn't drop it once during practice.
- "There's a lot of improvement on that (SHSU) tape, and we know that as a unit, as a group. To not really play our best game and still get a victory is encouraging."
- "I wouldn't trade jobs with anybody. I truly enjoy coming to work every day and working with those people and being here."
- Kingsbury said he expects more quarterback run game from UTEP on Saturday than the Red Raiders saw last season.
- Kingsbury said Mahomes "checked down quite a bit" -- "some deep throws, some movement things." Kingsbury said "most" of Mahomes' reads were "right on."
- Mahomes has "100 percent freedom up and down the field" to call a play at the line of scrimmage.
- Kingsbury says he follows the offenses of Dana Holgorsen, Mike Leach, Kevin Sumlin and Sonny Dykes "on a weekly basis" to see what they're doing, get ideas, etc.
- "The key is to adapt to your personnel and put them in the best position to be successful."
- Kingsbury said he "couldn't be more proud" of Jakeem Grant's maturity on and off the field. "He's been a very good leader to our young receivers." "I couldn't be more impressed with how much he's evolved."
- Kingsbury said the new Rawls College of Business building is shown by the football program to every recruit because of how nice it is.
- "I'd say Davis Webb is the player most like me." Kingsbury pointed to Webb always thinking about football.
- BREAKING NEWS: Kingsbury's favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake.
- Kingsbury called his time with NFL Europe was the "most incredible cultural experience that I've had in my lifetime."
- "They're (UTEP) very good up front. They're physical. They want to impose their will on you with the run game."
- "I think, going through last year, having a close game and a hard-fought game, they know what to expect. They know they need to play well."
- Red Raiders will be wearing all white Saturday against UTEP.
- Gibbs joked when asked about his decision to come to Lubbock. "If you can play bad defense, and still win a game. Why would you not want to come to Texas Tech? I'm just kidding."
- "It is what it is. I'm not going to sit here and make excuses. We didn't play very good."
- Gibbs said the defense will improve. "We'll continue to build from there."
- More jokes from Gibbs: "Kliff and I hadn't met (before the job process began) -- we hadn't really even talked. Kliff doesn't talk to a lot of people, in case you haven't noticed."
- "Did I expect to give up 45 points last week? No."
- Gibbs said the coaches coach fundamentals and technique day-in and day-out.
- "Growing up now, all the kids, they all want to play offense. [...] Nobody wants to play defense."
- Gibbs expressed disappointment that the Red Raider defense wasn't able to hold in the redzone and force more field goals from Sam Houston State.
- Gibbs said the yelling and screaming coach approach "has been tried here before" and obviously hasn't worked.
- Gibbs did acknowledge that he "went off" on the defense today for the first time this week after rewatching the SHSU game again. "We've got to regroup. We've got to have a sense of urgency about ourselves and go out and play well Saturday."
- Gibbs said, "bottom line," he came here to improve the defense and that didn't take place on Saturday. "At the end of the day, that comes back to coaching. We've got to do a better job coaching."
- "If you're in position to make a play, you've got to make the play."
- "(Zac Spavital's) the son of a high school football coach. Obviously a football family. His brother is the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. [...] He's done a great job with our linebackers. Just like everybody else, up until Saturday afternoon, in scrimmages and practices, they've done a good job."
- "We've got to play better defense."
- Gibbs praised Davis Webb and Pat Mahomes, said both are "phenomenal" quarterbacks.
- "Our guys understand that most quarterbacks won't be as well-coached as ours are. [...] We'll continue to get turnovers."
- Gibbs on UTEP running back Aaron Jones: "We're going to try to slow him down, keep him in front of us and try to get him on the ground."
- Gibbs on UTEP: "They're very well-coached. They know what they're doing. They play hard. If they stay on the field too long on offense the head coach might be screaming at me. We'll do our best."
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