By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Each week, Big 12 coaches have their weekly meetings with the media at their press conferences during the college football season. Baylor head coach Dave Aranda’s comments have already been posted. Rankings are from the AP Poll. Here are some highlights elsewhere in the league. Quotes and notes are taken from those pressers if not specified elsewhere. All games are Saturday unless otherwise noted.
Lance Leipold, Kansas – The Jayhawks (5-2, 1-2) play at Baylor: While the status of starting QB Jalon Daniels remains unclear with a shoulder injury, Leipold knows his team has a ways to go: “I’m not saying we’ve got to play perfect football by any stretch. I mean, that’s not realistic. But there’s some things that we’ve got to be a little bit better on that I’d like to see us [do] — but, like I told the team, some of these things I say now I need to wait to see, that we not make emotional statements to all of you either until we really look at it.”
Brent Venables, Oklahoma – The Sooners (4-3, 1-3) have a bye: The Sooners break a three-game losing streak with a 52-42 win over Kansas. Our guys have been, have shown great humility. And I made it a challenge. You guys heard it, where I challenged [them] if anybody wants to leave, all that; it wasn't as though there was all these bad things happening. I wanted to make it very clear what it's gonna take. It’s gonna be really hard to finish the year. It always is hard, no matter if you’re [good or bad]. If you’re really successful, then you're fighting complacency. You’re fighting the noise that goes with it. If you're one of those undefeated teams, usually you have some really good players that also a lot of people are trying to get their hands on.
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State – The No. 11 Cowboys (4-1, 2-1) play host to Texas: The health of QB Spencer Sanders (shoulder, ankle) is in question. “It just depends on what it is. And it could be a variety of things. It could be a non-throwing shoulder and so we just have to weigh our options based on where we’re at and what it is and then go on down the road. Any type of injury is a concern for a player that we have that we want to play on Saturday, that can’t practice as much during the week. But it’s not something that we haven’t ever dealt with. We deal with this all the time. That’s just the way it is. Sometimes guys can’t make it back to the game other guys have to play. Sometimes they can make it back.”
Neal Brown, West Virginia – The Mountaineers (3-3, 1-2) play at Texas Tech: Brown’s assessment of the win over Baylor. "On defense, we got to get better..... my message to them is, if we continue to play hard, good things will happen. Things have a funny way of evening out. If you play hard and do things the right way, the ball is going to eventually bounce your way. And, let's be honest, it hasn't bounced our damn way too many times this year, right? Until tonight."
Chris Klieman, Kansas State – The No. 17 Wildcats (5-1, 3-0) play at TCU: Klieman expects his team to be healthy including RB Deuce Vaughn who didn’t finish the game on Oct. 8 at Iowa State. “We have a handful of guys that would probably be questionable if there were a game this Saturday, but nobody that got injured on Saturday will be out a significant amount of time,” Klieman said. “I think the closest guy would be Khalid (Duke). But we would envision everybody practicing, probably not this week, but next week, for sure. We didn’t lose anybody long term.”
Matt Campbell, Iowa State – The Cyclones (3-4, 0-4) have a bye: Campbell was visibly upset at the end when QB Hunter Dekkers fumbled. Replays confirmed it on a drive that could have won or tied the game. But Campbell went further. “You know, obviously, nobody knows. And that’s the problem. The question is, man, is he down? Man, is it targeting? They said they were only reviewing the targeting. Fact of the matter is, it looked like his knee was down. But, I’m sure it’s like anything else. We’ll get no clarification on it.”
Joey McGuire, Texas Tech – The Red Raiders (3-3, 1-2) play host to West Virginia: If he’s released, season starting QB Tyler Shough (collarbone injury) could see time along with Donovan Smith and Behren Morton. “It was good to see Tyler throw. He was back in shoulder pads [Monda],” McGuire said. “He’ll practice Tuesday then we’ll see if he’s going to be released. If he’s released then you’ll see all three quarterbacks. If not you’ll see both quarterbacks on Saturday.”
Sonny Dykes, TCU – The No. 8 Horned Frogs (6-0, 3-0) play host to Kansas State: Dykes has his program at the top of the conference race along with KSU. But the 17-point come-from-behind double OT win over Oklahoma State meant something more. "Great win for our program," Dykes said. "We made every mistake humanly possible in the first half, and guys just kind of kept hanging in there battling and I really thought we had a good mentality at halftime. ... Then we just came out defensively in the second half and just played lights out." Then on QB Max Duggan. “"Great win for our program," Dykes said. "We made every mistake humanly possible in the first half, and guys just kind of kept hanging in there battling and I really thought we had a good mentality at halftime. ... Then we just came out defensively in the second half and just played lights out."
Steve Sarkisian, Texas – The No. 20 Longhorns (5-2, 2-1) play at Oklahoma State: Sarkisian hopes what his team has found recently travels to Stillwater, OK. “Our ability to kinda control the fourth quarter there with our ability to run the ball, give our defense a little bit more rest, I thought was important. That's kinda been a common theme here over the last three weeks. We've [run] the ball well, we've stopped the run and we've created more turnovers, and we've limited our turnovers offensively. I think, all in all, that formula for success for us is good and that's something that we're gonna have to continue to do moving forward because this week we're going to play a very good team on the road.”
Publisher
Each week, Big 12 coaches have their weekly meetings with the media at their press conferences during the college football season. Baylor head coach Dave Aranda’s comments have already been posted. Rankings are from the AP Poll. Here are some highlights elsewhere in the league. Quotes and notes are taken from those pressers if not specified elsewhere. All games are Saturday unless otherwise noted.
Lance Leipold, Kansas – The Jayhawks (5-2, 1-2) play at Baylor: While the status of starting QB Jalon Daniels remains unclear with a shoulder injury, Leipold knows his team has a ways to go: “I’m not saying we’ve got to play perfect football by any stretch. I mean, that’s not realistic. But there’s some things that we’ve got to be a little bit better on that I’d like to see us [do] — but, like I told the team, some of these things I say now I need to wait to see, that we not make emotional statements to all of you either until we really look at it.”
Brent Venables, Oklahoma – The Sooners (4-3, 1-3) have a bye: The Sooners break a three-game losing streak with a 52-42 win over Kansas. Our guys have been, have shown great humility. And I made it a challenge. You guys heard it, where I challenged [them] if anybody wants to leave, all that; it wasn't as though there was all these bad things happening. I wanted to make it very clear what it's gonna take. It’s gonna be really hard to finish the year. It always is hard, no matter if you’re [good or bad]. If you’re really successful, then you're fighting complacency. You’re fighting the noise that goes with it. If you're one of those undefeated teams, usually you have some really good players that also a lot of people are trying to get their hands on.
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State – The No. 11 Cowboys (4-1, 2-1) play host to Texas: The health of QB Spencer Sanders (shoulder, ankle) is in question. “It just depends on what it is. And it could be a variety of things. It could be a non-throwing shoulder and so we just have to weigh our options based on where we’re at and what it is and then go on down the road. Any type of injury is a concern for a player that we have that we want to play on Saturday, that can’t practice as much during the week. But it’s not something that we haven’t ever dealt with. We deal with this all the time. That’s just the way it is. Sometimes guys can’t make it back to the game other guys have to play. Sometimes they can make it back.”
Neal Brown, West Virginia – The Mountaineers (3-3, 1-2) play at Texas Tech: Brown’s assessment of the win over Baylor. "On defense, we got to get better..... my message to them is, if we continue to play hard, good things will happen. Things have a funny way of evening out. If you play hard and do things the right way, the ball is going to eventually bounce your way. And, let's be honest, it hasn't bounced our damn way too many times this year, right? Until tonight."
Chris Klieman, Kansas State – The No. 17 Wildcats (5-1, 3-0) play at TCU: Klieman expects his team to be healthy including RB Deuce Vaughn who didn’t finish the game on Oct. 8 at Iowa State. “We have a handful of guys that would probably be questionable if there were a game this Saturday, but nobody that got injured on Saturday will be out a significant amount of time,” Klieman said. “I think the closest guy would be Khalid (Duke). But we would envision everybody practicing, probably not this week, but next week, for sure. We didn’t lose anybody long term.”
Matt Campbell, Iowa State – The Cyclones (3-4, 0-4) have a bye: Campbell was visibly upset at the end when QB Hunter Dekkers fumbled. Replays confirmed it on a drive that could have won or tied the game. But Campbell went further. “You know, obviously, nobody knows. And that’s the problem. The question is, man, is he down? Man, is it targeting? They said they were only reviewing the targeting. Fact of the matter is, it looked like his knee was down. But, I’m sure it’s like anything else. We’ll get no clarification on it.”
Joey McGuire, Texas Tech – The Red Raiders (3-3, 1-2) play host to West Virginia: If he’s released, season starting QB Tyler Shough (collarbone injury) could see time along with Donovan Smith and Behren Morton. “It was good to see Tyler throw. He was back in shoulder pads [Monda],” McGuire said. “He’ll practice Tuesday then we’ll see if he’s going to be released. If he’s released then you’ll see all three quarterbacks. If not you’ll see both quarterbacks on Saturday.”
Sonny Dykes, TCU – The No. 8 Horned Frogs (6-0, 3-0) play host to Kansas State: Dykes has his program at the top of the conference race along with KSU. But the 17-point come-from-behind double OT win over Oklahoma State meant something more. "Great win for our program," Dykes said. "We made every mistake humanly possible in the first half, and guys just kind of kept hanging in there battling and I really thought we had a good mentality at halftime. ... Then we just came out defensively in the second half and just played lights out." Then on QB Max Duggan. “"Great win for our program," Dykes said. "We made every mistake humanly possible in the first half, and guys just kind of kept hanging in there battling and I really thought we had a good mentality at halftime. ... Then we just came out defensively in the second half and just played lights out."
Steve Sarkisian, Texas – The No. 20 Longhorns (5-2, 2-1) play at Oklahoma State: Sarkisian hopes what his team has found recently travels to Stillwater, OK. “Our ability to kinda control the fourth quarter there with our ability to run the ball, give our defense a little bit more rest, I thought was important. That's kinda been a common theme here over the last three weeks. We've [run] the ball well, we've stopped the run and we've created more turnovers, and we've limited our turnovers offensively. I think, all in all, that formula for success for us is good and that's something that we're gonna have to continue to do moving forward because this week we're going to play a very good team on the road.”
