Tigers Meet the Press
11/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 9, 2009
Gary Pinkel, Head Coach
Injury Report:
“Hardy Ricks will have ACL surgery in the next couple weeks. It's unfortunate, him being a senior. He's been such a great kid in this program, so we wish him well. He will be a part of the team in a leadership role. Del Howard will move up into that spot.”
Opening Statement:
“We are preparing for K-State right now. I'm a big Coach [Bill] Snyder fan. I always have been and I have great respect for him. They are playing good football right now. They are running the football well, and they are playing good defense. They are No. 1 in the Big 12 in turnover margin, and I think that has a lot to do with the success that they're having. Time of possession, that's kind of the way they are handling their football team this year. They are winning some football games and it's going to be a good challenge for us. It's very important for us to play well and we'll get going again at tomorrow's practice.”
On the discipline of Kansas State:
“Turnover margin is definitely something to have on your side. We all know the value of that. They are leading our league and that certainly is helping them. They protect the ball well and are getting some turnovers. Time of possession, I don't think that's discipline. I think that's just what your offense is. No question about it, I think he's a great football coach.”
On Kansas State's kick returner Brandon Banks:
“Well, he's had four touchdowns. He is a guy that can change the game. We are certainly going to need to have a strategy on how we're going to handle it. We're working on that as we speak. We see a lot of people do a lot of different things with him, but he is very talented.”
On fixing errors:
“What you do a lot of times is you counsel players. In practice, you say 'okay this is the second half, this is the fourth quarter.' I've done this a long time but obviously we're not doing a good enough job. Bottom line is that you can't take sacks, you can't drop balls, you can't have penalties, you can't have critical errors that hurt yourself. And we did a lot of that offensively in the second half. We got some drives going at the end of the game and Grant [Ressel] gave us a field goal that at least gave us a chance to win it. I think you pull out some of things you need to start doing better, continue to work hard and persevere to get it done. Bottom line we didn't score enough, if they score 40 we need to score 41.”
On difference between the defense in the Colorado game and the Baylor game:
“They looked like two different defenses. We had a lot of missed tackles. I think we had over 17 missed. There are no excuses, it wasn't very good.”
On halftime adjustments:
“ I think you always look at yourself adjustment wise. I've always thought, if you're waiting until halftime to make adjustments, you're probably not a very good coach. We are on headsets all the time, talking to each other between every series. So I think that's overrated.”
On Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder:
“He's always been a disciplined, attention to detail guy. He is committed to what he does, and he doesn't follow trends. He's going to do what he does, and what he believes in. Have a good kicking game, don't turn the ball over, don't make mental errors, don't have penalties; that's what a Bill Snyder team is all about. I obviously believe in those things too. I have a lot of respect for him.”
On rest of the season:
“Well I think we should probably just focus on K-State. I think everybody re-evaluates their goals a little bit. We got stung pretty good Saturday, so we're just going to focus on getting better. We're going to go out, work hard in practice. We practiced really well last week, I know we did. But we got to play better. So that's what we're going to focus on against K-State.”
On loss to Baylor:
“It was tough day around here yesterday for a lot of guys, but that's okay, I have no problem with that. We got to get going, but you've got to play better. You can play well and lose a game, and be okay with that. But if you don't feel like you played your 'A game' that inexcusable.”
Sean Weatherspoon, Senior Linebacker
On whether the young age of the team is responsible for attitude issues:
“It definitely shows signs of a young team. You've got to put that on the leaders of the football team—we're not getting this football team ready to play. We know that we've got young guys on this team and it's our job to get those guys going in the right direction. It's kind of odd to me, because when I came in, I looked at the older guys and wanted to be just like them. Whatever they were doing to be on that field, that's something that I wanted to do. Right now we're not seeing that. I can't put my finger on it, but I can tell you this—we're still going to keep preparing and go out there and practice hard. I'm still going to be hard on guys that aren't there doing the right things, and I'm pretty sure the coaches are going to be even tougher.”
On whether Kansas State's sudden rise has surprised him:
“They've got a great coach in Coach [Bill] Snyder. He did some great things when he was there before. Until my freshman year, we hadn't beaten them in the past 13 years or so, and that obviously speaks volumes right there. I'm not shocked at all.”
On the Kansas State offense:
“They've got a tough running game. They're going to come out and run the ball at you—that's just what they do. That's the Big 12 North. They're going to try to run the ball down our throat, and as the front seven; you live for those games. It's my job and Jaron [Baston's] job to get the front seven going so we can be efficient against the run. If you stop the run, you can pretty much do what you want to do.”
Kevin Rutland, Junior Defensive Back
On hearing negative press about the team:
“It comes with the territory. We don't listen to that too much, but you can't help but hear it because you're going to read and see things. We go out and do what the coaches tell us, and we have excellent coaches that have been doing it for years now—so we'll continue to follow them.”
On motivation for the rest of the season:
“You've got to keep guys' hopes up, because we still have a lot to play for, whether it's going to a bowl game or whether it's leading into next year. With this team being somewhat a young team, we have a lot of guys that will be returning next year. For the morale to carry over into next year, we need to win these next few games.”
On not playing up to the standards of the first game against Illinois:
“I would say most of the team is surprised that we haven't reached that level again. You can always play better, and that was one of our best games, but we still had many mistakes. We were at a high, and it was our first game that no one really expected us to win. We came out fired up and played fast, and a lot of things went our way that game. So far, that has been our best game—and we would love to reach that again. We just have to stay focused and try to put the pieces back together.”
On what the defense needs to change:
Giving up that many yards in a game is unacceptable. I think the only way to go is up right now.”
Tim Barnes, Junior Center
On the team's mentality:
“We kind of have our backs up against the wall again. We felt like that a couple of weeks ago, and now after winning one and then losing another one here, we kind of feel like we're pressed to find out who we are. It's getting later in the season, so we've just got to really pull together.”
On Kansas State:
“Kansas State is a Big 12 North foe that we see year-in-and-year-out. It's going to be tough to play up there. I know they struggled early on, but they've come up strong and beaten Kansas, taken care of Colorado, and beaten Texas A&M all in the last couple of weeks. They're playing solid ball, so we've got to prepare well and play our best.”
On not playing to the early high hopes of the season:
“It's a little odd. We had a really good start to the season, and then to find ourselves in this position makes it hard to figure out what happened. We've just got to continue to move on and not dwell on the past, or even our record. We've got to go out and focus on one game, and that's Kansas State. This week is huge. It's going to help us figure out whether this team wants to forget about what happened and move on, or if we're going to just dwell on it . We've got to pack our things up and go.”
Grant Ressel, Sophomore Placekicker
On being named a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award:
“I didn't expect it at all. I just wanted to do the best I could this year, and I wasn't really focusing on any awards or anything at all like that. It feels good. It's kind of unexpected, but I'll take it.”
On his focus:
“I've just tried to focus on my kicks this year and wasn't really worried about anything else. I'm just going to keep trying to make all my kicks. That's really my only goal every game, is to make every kick I can. Our next game is against Kansas State, and we're just going to try to go out there and play our 'A game.'”
Danario Alexander, Senior Wide Receiver
On the focus for the rest of the season:
“We have been successful in the past and we've got a younger team this year. If we're able to finish the season the way we want to, it will show a lot about our team. We've got to come out and play our best game.”
On his personal work ethic:
“I've been working hard since I came here, but the injuries have made me push myself a lot more. It's a great feeling for it to all pay off. It's a great feeling.”
On Kansas State:
“We're going to try to finish out the season well. We've got to get the team ready for Kansas State, and do everything we can. This week we're going to be stricter. The seniors are going to try to get everyone going on the same page.”
Kurtis Gregory, Senior Offensive Lineman
On the loss to Baylor:
“I was pretty down about it, but we can't just give up. We've got three games left. What do we want to do in these last three games—do we want to go out and run away or are we going to go out and fight? We've still got a lot of opportunities.”
On the lack of a run game against Baylor:
“I'm kind of a take what they give you type of guy. They were trying to put eight or nine guys in the box against the running game, so then you just have to take what they give you and throw some bubble screens and over the top passes. I get frustrated if the running game doesn't work, but if we're using something else that helps us, then I don't really care. It's kind of like when we played Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl—they were dropping eight or nine into coverage, so we just started running the ball. The statistics don't matter, because if they're giving us another opportunity, then we'll just take that.”
On his focus for the rest of the season:
“I just want to work the hardest I've ever worked, and get better as a person and as a player. I want to encourage all the younger guys to work. We've still got a lot, so we can't just give up.”
On his leadership role:
“I just need to be an encourager. I've been feeling around a lot, and talking to some of my friends on the track team. They've given me information on some leadership and motivational qualities, and some leadership books, and I've been using that to try to figure out the right things to say to be an encourager.”
