By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Each week, Big 12 coaches have their weekly meetings with the media via the Big 12 coaches call and press conferences. Baylor head coach Dave Aranda’s comments have already been posted. Rankings are from the AP & Coaches Polls. Here are some highlights elsewhere in the league. All quotes and notes are taken from those pressers. All games are Saturday.
Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma – The No. 3 Sooners (1-0) have a bye: OU’s opener against Missouri State came pretty close to being scrapped because of COVID-19. Riley admitted his program has to do a better job managing circumstances so there are no future close calls. “We actually had zero (test positive) on Friday,” Riley said. “It was actually just a culmination, which can happen, especially with the contact tracing element. I mean, one or two positives can knock out a lot of people in a hurry.
“Was I disappointed we had so many people out? I was. I was. I think at some point become a little bit of a victim of some of the success we had early, because obviously the more guys on the team you have that test positive throughout a year, that’s obviously a lot smaller number of guys that you’re testing. But still, we’ve got to handle it better. Regardless.”
Les Miles, Kansas – The Jayhawks (0-1) have a bye: Amid the embarrassing lost to Coastal Carolina for the second consecutive year, now health questions surround top RB Pooka Williams. He only had 12 rushing attempts on Saturday and his playing time decreased. Miles was asked about Williams status and responded, “playing football.’’ He was then asked to elaborate. Miles said: “Don't get mad," Miles responded. "Pooka has got a nick and I suspect he'll be back relatively quickly."
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State – The No. 11/12 Cowboys (0-0) play host to Tulsa: The delay of the Tulsa game didn’t note much of a change as far as Gundy was concerned. “All I go off of is practice, and their enthusiasm has been just fine,” Gundy said. “They’re just tired of practicing, in my opinion, but the preparation in this sport, and the physicality is so important that we have to continue to push through it.
“But we have allowed them to have more days off just recently because of the push-back of the schedule.”
Chris Klieman, Kansas State – The Wildcats (0-1) have a bye: Klieman on his team’s stunning 35-31 home loss to Arkansas State this past weekend: I know what the guys have gone through over the past month to five weeks trying to prepare to play, and we can’t make excuses. The guys that played, we are counting on to play, have success and make plays when they have the opportunities. I said to the guys in the locker room that this is the kind of adversity we are going to face all year, not knowing who’s going to be out. But that’s reality. That’s the hand we’re dealt, so we have to be prepared to tee it up and play. That being said, I appreciate the resolve.
Neal Brown, West Virginia – The Mountaineers (1-0) have a bye: Brown won’t apologize for the almost exhibition performance in the 56-10 win over Eastern Kentucky. “We ran a lot of plays offensively — 86 and I think we maybe had 90 called once you take out penalties. But we called basically everything we planned to coming into the game. We were pretty simple and that is what we wanted to do. A lot of that was due to the first game. Some of that was due to the youth that we were playing, a lot of guys were in their first action.
“Defensively, there were not as many calls. We had 49 countable snaps. On purpose, we did not show a whole lot defensively.”
Matt Wells, Texas Tech – The Red Raiders (1-0) have a bye: Wells didn’t have much of an answer after Houston Baptist QB Bailey Zappe threw for 567 yards and four touchdowns. Tech held on, 35-33. “Not sure why we struggled [in the secondary], but we must improve going forward. We have to tighten things up. We have to play with confidence. I thought we got a little down. I think we got beat a couple of times, and in the secondary you better be kind of like a relief pitcher. You better have a short memory just in case you give up a homerun with a two-run lead. You better have a short memory. I think that affected some of those guys back there. We have to tighten coverages down and on the flip-side, we have to be able to pressure the QB.”
Matt Campbell, Iowa State – The Cyclones (0-1) have a bye: With an effort to fix special team – ISU gave up two returns for scores – Campbell talked about where his program is: “There’s no panic because we have played our preparation for the long haul,” Campbell said. “I think the reality of preparing our football team, getting the experience of playing a game, where are we?
“I felt that way going into this (previous) week, that this was going to be a great test to see where we’re at at this point. Are we playing the right guys? Where are we at schematically? Where do we need to continue to pour into?”
Gary Patterson, TCU – The Horned Frogs (0-0) have a bye: Amid losing the game with SMU because of a COVID-19, Patterson curiously talked about what it would have meant to have a game prior to opening Big 12 play next week at home against Iowa State. All of the teams that have losses are going to get better,” Patterson said. “I wish I had a ballgame under my belt so I knew where I was at.”
Patterson said it is hard to know how good of a team you are when you play yourselves.”
Tom Herman, Texas – The No. 9/8 Longhorns (1-0) have a bye: Safety B.J. Foster, who reportedly quit the team during the 3rd quarter of Saturday’s blowout 59-3 win over UTEP is still a member of the program. Foster has started 13 games between the past two seasons. "He was very contrite, very apologetic," Herman said. "We'll handle the discipline in-house. He knows what he did was wrong and let his frustration get the best of him. It's OK to be frustrated, but we've got to be able to control our actions. He realizes that, and again, is very apologetic and will serve his penance internally, and it'll be water under the bridge for us and his team."
Publisher
Each week, Big 12 coaches have their weekly meetings with the media via the Big 12 coaches call and press conferences. Baylor head coach Dave Aranda’s comments have already been posted. Rankings are from the AP & Coaches Polls. Here are some highlights elsewhere in the league. All quotes and notes are taken from those pressers. All games are Saturday.
Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma – The No. 3 Sooners (1-0) have a bye: OU’s opener against Missouri State came pretty close to being scrapped because of COVID-19. Riley admitted his program has to do a better job managing circumstances so there are no future close calls. “We actually had zero (test positive) on Friday,” Riley said. “It was actually just a culmination, which can happen, especially with the contact tracing element. I mean, one or two positives can knock out a lot of people in a hurry.
“Was I disappointed we had so many people out? I was. I was. I think at some point become a little bit of a victim of some of the success we had early, because obviously the more guys on the team you have that test positive throughout a year, that’s obviously a lot smaller number of guys that you’re testing. But still, we’ve got to handle it better. Regardless.”
Les Miles, Kansas – The Jayhawks (0-1) have a bye: Amid the embarrassing lost to Coastal Carolina for the second consecutive year, now health questions surround top RB Pooka Williams. He only had 12 rushing attempts on Saturday and his playing time decreased. Miles was asked about Williams status and responded, “playing football.’’ He was then asked to elaborate. Miles said: “Don't get mad," Miles responded. "Pooka has got a nick and I suspect he'll be back relatively quickly."
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State – The No. 11/12 Cowboys (0-0) play host to Tulsa: The delay of the Tulsa game didn’t note much of a change as far as Gundy was concerned. “All I go off of is practice, and their enthusiasm has been just fine,” Gundy said. “They’re just tired of practicing, in my opinion, but the preparation in this sport, and the physicality is so important that we have to continue to push through it.
“But we have allowed them to have more days off just recently because of the push-back of the schedule.”
Chris Klieman, Kansas State – The Wildcats (0-1) have a bye: Klieman on his team’s stunning 35-31 home loss to Arkansas State this past weekend: I know what the guys have gone through over the past month to five weeks trying to prepare to play, and we can’t make excuses. The guys that played, we are counting on to play, have success and make plays when they have the opportunities. I said to the guys in the locker room that this is the kind of adversity we are going to face all year, not knowing who’s going to be out. But that’s reality. That’s the hand we’re dealt, so we have to be prepared to tee it up and play. That being said, I appreciate the resolve.
Neal Brown, West Virginia – The Mountaineers (1-0) have a bye: Brown won’t apologize for the almost exhibition performance in the 56-10 win over Eastern Kentucky. “We ran a lot of plays offensively — 86 and I think we maybe had 90 called once you take out penalties. But we called basically everything we planned to coming into the game. We were pretty simple and that is what we wanted to do. A lot of that was due to the first game. Some of that was due to the youth that we were playing, a lot of guys were in their first action.
“Defensively, there were not as many calls. We had 49 countable snaps. On purpose, we did not show a whole lot defensively.”
Matt Wells, Texas Tech – The Red Raiders (1-0) have a bye: Wells didn’t have much of an answer after Houston Baptist QB Bailey Zappe threw for 567 yards and four touchdowns. Tech held on, 35-33. “Not sure why we struggled [in the secondary], but we must improve going forward. We have to tighten things up. We have to play with confidence. I thought we got a little down. I think we got beat a couple of times, and in the secondary you better be kind of like a relief pitcher. You better have a short memory just in case you give up a homerun with a two-run lead. You better have a short memory. I think that affected some of those guys back there. We have to tighten coverages down and on the flip-side, we have to be able to pressure the QB.”
Matt Campbell, Iowa State – The Cyclones (0-1) have a bye: With an effort to fix special team – ISU gave up two returns for scores – Campbell talked about where his program is: “There’s no panic because we have played our preparation for the long haul,” Campbell said. “I think the reality of preparing our football team, getting the experience of playing a game, where are we?
“I felt that way going into this (previous) week, that this was going to be a great test to see where we’re at at this point. Are we playing the right guys? Where are we at schematically? Where do we need to continue to pour into?”
Gary Patterson, TCU – The Horned Frogs (0-0) have a bye: Amid losing the game with SMU because of a COVID-19, Patterson curiously talked about what it would have meant to have a game prior to opening Big 12 play next week at home against Iowa State. All of the teams that have losses are going to get better,” Patterson said. “I wish I had a ballgame under my belt so I knew where I was at.”
Patterson said it is hard to know how good of a team you are when you play yourselves.”
Tom Herman, Texas – The No. 9/8 Longhorns (1-0) have a bye: Safety B.J. Foster, who reportedly quit the team during the 3rd quarter of Saturday’s blowout 59-3 win over UTEP is still a member of the program. Foster has started 13 games between the past two seasons. "He was very contrite, very apologetic," Herman said. "We'll handle the discipline in-house. He knows what he did was wrong and let his frustration get the best of him. It's OK to be frustrated, but we've got to be able to control our actions. He realizes that, and again, is very apologetic and will serve his penance internally, and it'll be water under the bridge for us and his team."
