Postgame Quotes
Sept. 15, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
POSTGAME QUOTES
No. 15 TCU 20, KANSAS 6
SEPT. 15, 2012 – LAWRENCE, KAN.
Kansas Head Coach Charlie Weis
On the message after Saturday’s game:
“It’s what I just said to them in the locker room. If you score at the end, there’s a minute left, you kick an onside kick and you never know. I was proud that they competed their butts off for 60 minutes. But still, there were too many missed opportunities. Four turnovers today and some of those turnovers prevent scores, not just lead to scores. So those were good things for us that kept us hanging around in the game; we just didn’t get enough done offensively.”
On KU’s red zone defense:
“Every [turnover] was a big play. At least three of them that I can recall were in the scoring zone. That’s keeping points off the board and that’s why at the end there’s still a chance.”
On the progress of the passing game:
“We threw the ball downfield more than usual. I think the quarterback got beat up pretty well too. He stood right in there and he took the hits. When we got down two scores we had to start slinging it. There were a lot of big plays. We missed a few, but we definitely made progress.”
On how the average starting position of the offense caused problems:
“That was really bad. I thought our kickoff return unit was awful today. They’re kicking off and we’re coming out of our own end zone and ending up behind our own 20-yard line; that’s never a good place to start.”
On preparations for the first road game next week:
“Not much is going to be different in our preparation, but I think toward the end of the week that’s when it will differ, because we’re traveling on Friday, we’ll be in a hotel Friday night, a foreign hotel, and the game is at 2:30. We have to go off the 11:00 time clock to a 2:30 time clock to get your bodies ready to go at that point.”
Kansas Sophomore Halfback Tony Pierson
On his thoughts of the game:
“We defended well. In the second half we came out and worked our butts off. Unfortunately we didn’t come out with the win.”
On mood in huddle during teaching moment:
“He said to keep on playing with confidence. No matter what happens just keep on playing hard.”
Kansas Sophomore Wide Receiver Andrew Turzilli
On his thoughts of the game:
“It was a tough loss. We played hard until the end. We made a couple crucial errors in the red zone but we hung in there the entire game. The whole game was just back and forth.”
On mood of the team after the game:
“It was really rough in the locker room; we were all down after the game. This was one that we all really wanted, but moving forward we just have to come out and get ready for Northern Illinois next week.”
Kansas Junior Running Back Taylor Cox
On James Sims Returning:“We are excited to have him back. He is obviously a big part to our offense. It is also going to add to the threats on the offensive end.”
On Dayne Crist’s improvement over the weeks:
“He definitely has improved. But us as a whole, we are trying to each take responsibility. We are all trying to up the tempo and playing a little looser. But most importantly we are all trying to go out there, execute, and have fun.”
Kansas Linebacker Ben Heeney
On Coach Weis timeout teaching moment:
“He was just trying to let us know that if we keep playing that hard. We’re bound to come out on top sooner or later.”
On how much pressure falls on the defense when struggling:
“We just play the same regardless. The offense puts points on the board, but we don’t worry about that. We just do what we do and we forced four turnovers today. If we keep doing that we’re going to win some games.”
Overall defensive performance:
“We played hard. We had four turnovers in the game and we held them to 20 points. For the most part we played pretty good but we had some big plays that we should not have let happened.”
Kansas Defensive Lineman Josh Williams
On the message of Coach Weis teaching moment:
“The message was that it was obvious they we’re going to keep moving the ball and the game was going to be over, but we competed throughout the entire game. We didn’t fold, we didn’t quit.”
On the way the team finished:
“I think the effort was there but in the end the biggest thing is getting that win. I like the effort that we put in the game and I like the way we finished the game competing.”
Overall defense’s performance:
“I felt like the defense played pretty good. We had some big plays and some big turnovers. We obviously didn’t do enough to win the game, so in that aspect it wasn’t good enough.”
On stopping the passing game:
“Get more pressure on the quarterback and play tighter defense in the secondary. That was a pretty tough team that we were facing and to hold that team to 20 points is pretty big.”
Toben Opurum, Kansas Defensive End/Linebacker
On the team’s confidence:
“Most of the guys on this team have a lot of confidence in themselves and confidence in what we do. Just watching the work that we put in all week, I’m not surprise that we are able to compete with anybody and I think I speak for everybody else on the team.”
On the improvements of the run defensive in the second half:
“I would say we had improvements (in the second half) but as a defense we have to accept the score. It’s obvious that we let them score 20 points, but we have to keep them under what our offense does. If our offense scores six points, we have to keep them under that.”
On the satisfaction of the defensive turnovers:
“We are pleased with the turnovers that we are causing, but I feel that (TCU) was getting too much movement in between the 20s. I think that is something that we need to tighten up on.”
TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson
On Saturday’s game:
“We are excited to get our first Big 12 victory. You can’t get to two without one. Gotta give KU a lot of credit they came out and caused some turnovers and moved the football. We were fortunate to play good enough in the red zone.”
On the turnovers:
“It’s one of those games where you can’t turnover the football. It’s been a long time since I have seen both quarterbacks fumble in the end zone. You’ve got to come away with points. We knew we did not play well today, but you have to give KU a lot of credit. You can’t just move the football and take for granted that you are gonna score.”
On the KU offense:
“One of the things we were worried about early is we had to take away the back screens. We felt like we let them have three screens to number three and we said he was the number one guy we wanted take away. We got better at it in the second half. They had many passes just off their fingertips. We feel really fortunate to get out of here with a victory. We came in feeling like KU had pretty good wide receivers. I warned our guys that you’ve got to go play every week, especially when you go on the road.”
On his return to coach in Kansas:
“One of the greatest things about coming into the Big 12 was coming back home. I have waited 30 years to come back here. It’s special to me because it’s close to my family and my uncle was a great player at Kansas and all those things are big for me.”
TCU Sophomore Safety Sam Carter
On his emotion on getting the return right back after fumble:
“It was a big deal. KU had all the energy and we needed something to happen and I was there to get the pick and help our team out.”
On their energy to start the game:
“I agree with Coach P. (Patterson); it was probably because it was an early morning game and we’re not used to that. It was our first time playing at 11 so we’re happy that we got the win.”
On playing their first Big 12 opponent:
“It was a normal game, but KU was pretty good. KU came out and gave us everything they had. It was just a game–you have to come out and perform.”
On the team’s performance against KU:
“We’re happy we got the win, but we know we can always play better.”
On the resilience of the defense:
“We just come out every drive and try to play as hard as we can. We give all those guys the credit. We knew we would have to come out and give it everything we had.”
TCU Senior Guard Blaize Foltz
On the performance against KU:
“(We) Played well, but made too many mistakes today. We’re not going to be able to do that next week or any week after.”
On returning to his home state of Kansas to defeat the Jayhawks:
“It feels pretty good. I had a lot of friends and family in the stands–about 100.”
On the team’s overall performance:
“We played good as a team. I think we played well upfront, especially the young guys that came in. I thought defensively we played really well. After the mistakes we made they came and had our back and helped us out a lot.”
On fumbling the ball throughout the game:
“It’s football–it’s adversity and we faced it. Overall, with the win, we can’t complain.”
On the exchanges between former high school teammates:
“I saw a lot of guys out there today–it was cool. It was cool to see them after the game and talk to them a little bit. (I) haven’t seen them in a long time.”
