Kansas State offensive coordinator Collin Klein and defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman met with the media on Thursday to discuss the upcoming Sunflower Showdown.
Kickoff against Kansas is scheduled for 6 p.m. central and will air on FS1.
Transcripts of Klein and Klanderman’s quotes and the press conferences are available below.
COLLIN KLEIN
On the Kansas defense:
“They’re doing little things really well. You can tell their block destruction, tackling and space. You can see the confidence in their scheme, knowing what the other guy is doing and how they fit into that. There is a lot of experience in their secondary. They’re doing a nice job, and it’ll be a good challenge for us.”
On addressing Kansas’ effectiveness in producing turnovers:
“They’ve been extremely opportunistic with that. Looking at it from the cornerback coming up and being physical on that second play of the BYU game and finding points to the pick-six against Iowa State and Oklahoma. They’re making plays, they’re playing within themselves but still being very aggressive.”
On the team’s change in mentality after the Oklahoma State loss:
“Our attention to detail has improved, which is something that we’ve stressed. It’s hard to say that directly because all of our guys’ effort level from the start has been off the chart. We just missed too many opportunities in those situations. I’ve been extremely proud of their effort and how they’ve competed through the whole season.”
On Will Howard becoming the career touchdown passing record holder at K-State:
“I’m just so proud of him and how he’s just worked himself into having such a great career here, and it’s not done. Just being able to continue to have milestones like that for him makes me pretty proud of him.”
On achieving efficiency towards the end of the season:
“It is a game of inches. Growth is never a straight line, either. There have been learning experiences for myself, for us as a staff and for our players. Each year it’s a different team, regardless of how many guys you have returning or not and how you continue to grow. You continue to put it together, and we’re still doing that this year. There are things we’ve improved on the last couple of weeks that we have to continue to do, and at the end of the day, you can’t focus too much on the what ifs. It’s about trying to be as good as we can right now and be as good as we can be today.”
JOE KLANDERMAN
On the quarterback situation at Kansas:
“We haven’t talked about it that much, as hard as it is to believe. I think whoever it is we just have to play our game, our style, do our thing, and execute our calls. They have very similar skill sets no matter who plays. Watching Cole Ballard last week, it seemed like he was very athletic. He didn’t seem to panic when he had a bunch of pressure. He threw a good ball and was able to run their offense. They didn’t seem to dumb anything down for him. I don’t think it is going to affect us one way or another.”
On getting aligned during Kansas’ pre-snap shifts…
“That’s the biggest thing. They do a really good job with that, and they orchestrate it well. They do it with a lot of tempo, too. It’s one way to get no huddle without being no huddle because they’re going to make you get aligned at the last second to get your eyes right and play. That’s been the emphasis for us because I think if we can do that, we’ll have a chance to succeed. But, we have to get dialed into those pre-snap shifts for sure.”
On Baylor’s first drive last week:
“There was a call that I wish I had back. We had a couple of technique errors, but just kind of Murphy’s Law. That first series last week had little things that could have gone much differently. It was kind of the worst-case scenario for us to start the game like that, giving a team life that needed it. Cody Stufflebean and Desmond Purnell on that next series was huge for us to get our feet back underneath us and get going. It was just some things I wish I had done differently there. That just wasn’t our finest moment.”
On Cody Stufflebean’s performance last week:
“He’s just Mr. Reliable. I was telling somebody an earlier joke about this. He doesn’t wear gloves. He’s just different from a lot of guys, and he just has this remarkable ability to remain calm. Like when everything around is frantic, he’s just calm. He and I kind of joke about that. I think it was about five or six weeks ago, some kind of thing was going on, and it was really intense. I grabbed him because he was just standing next to me and I said, ‘You know what, sometimes it’s hard to be smart and good looking at the same time.’ After the fumble, and the sack the other day everybody was dancing around with him, and he came up to me and said, ‘You know what, it is hard to be smart and good looking at the same time.’ I just really appreciate all the work he’s done for us.”
On the secondary settling in:
“Kobe Savage and VJ Payne for sure. The more pictures that those guys can get at their respective positions has helped them a lot. I think sometimes it’s my own fault because we take for granted some of our base things. We emphasize some more of the exotic things when those guys need those base reps to get comfortable in their new positions when we flipped those guys around. Those guys have been rockstars. The other part of it is Will Lee III and Keenan Garber, they have really settled in. I don’t want to say they were wildcards early in the year, but I think they were still kind of learning the flow of the game. Just seeing their confidence on the field is a big deal. Those guys have solidified us for sure.”
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