Texas Tech Weekly Press Conference Quotes: Central Arkansas

Opening week of Texas Tech’s football season is chalked full of headlines, not the least of which is the two-deep released last night and the playing time some prominent freshmen are looking to get.

Head coaching Kliff Kingsbury, quarterback Davis Webb and defensive end Branden Jackson spoke the media this morning about those young players, the offseason and preparations for Central Arkansas.

Kingsbury on what he expects from Webb and the offense in the first game: “[Davis Webb is] ready to go, so I’m sure he’ll come out with an attacking mindset and try to go at it. I know these guys. They’ve been going against the defense for what seems against June, really, 7-on-7 and team drills they’ve been doing on their own. So they’re going to see another colored jersey and I’m sure they’ll be ready to get after it.”

Kingsbury on what position group he’s been pleased with: “I’ve been proud of the way the young corners have competed. That’s a tough deal at that age to come in and be thrown into the fire, especially going against the guys we have, and the way we practice and the way we play and as much as we throw it, but they’ve stepped up and competed well. So I’m anxious to watch them play, but I would say that’s a group that’s been a pleasant surprise.”

Kingsbury on playing time for Patrick Mahomes: “Since he’s not redshirting, we’re going to play him as much as we can. When we can find times that he can go in the game throughout the year, we’re going to try to maximize that, because in an ideal world, like I said, you would like to redshirt him, but he’s not afforded that luxury. So we’ll get him out there, and as much as we can play Pat, we’re going to play him.”

Kingsbury on pass/run balance in this year’s offense: “I don’t have a number or percentage, but just be more confident in our run game leaving this game. You’d like to be able to hand it off more when you have the box to do so. So hopefully we can get that rolling a little bit.”

Kingsbury on Justin Murphy and Robert Castaneda being in the two-deep: “I think with the numbers we have, you’d like to redshirt at least one of them, but we’ll see how it goes. We’re not deep enough to lose many bodies and not have those guys play, so we’ll see how this first game goes early and go from there.”

Kingsbury on Tevin Madison winning the starting job at corner: “Having played in high school and he’s got great ball skills and I think he just picked up the system a little bit quicker, but all those guys are tremendous athletes at that position. So you kind of have a youth movement over there at that one corner and rotate them through, and they know that. We’ll just do it as a group effort.”

Kingsbury on overall offensive improvement: “Yeah, it’s night and day. Davis will wave me off on play calls now if he sees stuff. So they’re taking control of it as a group, and that’s when it gets really fun.”

Webb on he’s group of receivers: “Yeah, I think our two deep is probably one of the best in the Big 12, you look at the outside and see Devin Lauderdale and D.J. Polite-Bray, and obviously Reggie Davis had a big Bowl game, and Dylan Cantrell has come on this spring and fall camp. We’re really excited about those outside guys and obviously, Brad and Jakeem leading the inside as our two best receivers. They’re both going to have heck of a years and break some records here.”

Webb on watching Central Arkansas: “Oh, yeah, I’ve already watched them. Since we had our last two-day was Monday, I started watching them on Wednesday. Yeah, they’re a good team. We watched a lot of the Lafayette stuff because Central Arkansas didn’t have a defense last year because of the new head coach and everything. But I know they’re a good team, and they’re going to come ready to play because this is a game for them and big game for us.”

Webb on his offensive line: “Having those guys back. I think four to five starters from the Holiday Bowl are back. We have a great two deep. Those freshmen came in and Rob and Justin Murphy have done a great job competing with those guys. Jared Kaster wasn’t here in the spring so that was rough because we didn’t have a vocal ead her up front. But having him back from fall camp, and Clark going back to left tackle, and him being our best offensive lineman, maybe the best in the Big 12, has been huge for me. The biggest thing, I guess for those guys is I bought them a $275 meal at Rudy’s last week, and I think they feel a lot more comfortable with me too. I felt like the next day they practiced a lot harder. So I wonder if I need to do that every week.”

Webb on left tackle Le’Raven Clark: “This year I feel like I expanded my group and hanging out with Le’Raven has been on awesome. He’s a heck of a builder. If you follow him on Instagram, you can see the garden he has in his backyard and things he’s building. It’s connected him on that level. And he’s the best player on this team. He has the biggest potential of anybody on this team, and he’s going to be a heck of a player for us this year.”

Jackson on having the same coordinator and defense for a second year in a row: “I think we came out of camp as a confident group, a group that kind of knows where we need to be and kind of learned the scheme a lot more than we did last year. It’s a relief having to go into another year with the same faces and knowing everything that is expected and things like that. So confidence was big coming out of that camp.”

Jackson on stopping the run: “I think this is the year because we’ve always had good players on the defensive line. We’ve always had players that were capable whether we were underweight as some people may look at it undersized. But this year we have depth at positions, and we actually go three deep, and I think that goes a long way keeping people fresh.”

Jackson on developing a ‘sack dance’: “Not really. Coach Smith gave him a couple suggestions and things he’s seen with when he was with the Jets in Baltimore that he thought would be kind of cool. But with the new rules and penalties, I don’t think I’ll be dancing too much. I would hate to get a sack and then get a 15 yard penalty taxed on top of it, so won’t be too much dancing going on.”

Jackson on backup Gary Moore: “Gary is freakishly athletic. He came in as a receiver, but he’s always been an angry player. He’s so violent. We always felt he would come to defense and now he’s come to it. He’s hit it full speed. He’s fast, athletic, and aggressive. He reminds me of me when I started to first play defense. I know he can be a great player as long as he buys into the program. He flashes every day. There is not a day goes by without a sack.”