Postgame Quotes
Oct. 25, 2008
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Postgame Quotes
No. 6 Texas Tech 63, No. 18 Kansas 21
Oct. 25, 2008 – Lawrence, Kan.
Kansas Head Coach Mark Mangino
On how the game slipped away:
“When they held the ball, they had sustained drives. They mixed it up with the run and the pass. They were able to eat up the clock. They kept our offense off the field quite a bit. They controlled the ball for long periods of time, and then we turn the ball over, which didn’t help the situation, because you can’t give them a short field like that. That’s probably the biggest reason, but we just didn’t play well. They’re a very good football team and we didn’t match up with them like we would have liked to.”
On Todd Reesing’s tough day:
“I think the Tech defense made some plays. They had some safeties that did a good job of getting under some routs. Todd probably made a couple of decisions that he shouldn’t have, but he doesn’t do that very often so it’s hard to find fault with him.”
On defensive effort on Graham Harrell:
“I thought that we had some pressure on him at times. There were a couple of instances where we hit him as he was throwing the ball and he completed it. That’s pretty impressive. We had people in his face, and he sat in there and delivered the ball knowing that he was going to take a shot. That’s a sign of a pretty doggone good quarterback.”
On looking to the future after two losses:
“Here’s the reality of it: we got a good old fashioned butt-whooping today, and we know that. It happens to everybody from time-to-time in college football. You just get a day where the snowball starts rolling downhill, and it gets bigger and bigger and before you know it, you have no chance to stop it and it runs you over. That’s what happened to us today. In our locker room there is no panic or feeling bad. Nobody’s taking that route. We don’t do that here. This program has had to fight through losses before and tough times before and we will continue to do that. There is no doubt in my mind our team will be ready to play next week. I’m not concerned about that.”
Junior Safety Darrell Stuckey
On Chris Harris playing safety:
“He’s an athlete. I think he’ll play as hard as he can wherever we put him. He’ll be a successful player because he knows the game very well. As long as he’s comfortable, anywhere we put him he’ll be fine.”
On the mood in the lockerroom:
“It was disappointment. We know that we went out there and didn’t do anything right. It’s been a long time since we’ve been beat like that. I think it’s a learning experience. Anytime you go out there and you fall so hard on your face, you really have to see what happens and learn from this. As a team, we have to pull together and stay strong. Anytime you have so many things go wrong, you have to become a better player. You have to become humble and see that maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was. We have to come together.”
On if Texas Tech is the best offense the defense has faced:
“I don’t know if I can say that, but they are up there with some of the top offenses. Their quarterback plays with such great confidence that it makes it tough.”
Junior Running Back Jake Sharp
On the game:
“I hate to go back to this, but we’re on the other end of what happened last year with Nebraska. Things just started snowballing and getting out of hand. We hope this never happens again.”
On if the team will try and forget this performance:
“You don’t want to forget this. We learned a lesson today. We’re just going to take this lesson and get things back to where they need to be.”
On averaging six yards per carry:
“Our offensive line was making creases. I was hitting those creases and making yards. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for us in the big picture.”
Senior Quarterback Todd Reesing
On the pressure of the Texas Tech defense forcing his mistakes:
“I am not sure it was the pressure they were putting on me. The first one was just a bad throw. Dexton (Fields) was open and I was throwing on the run and just couldn’t get a good ball out there to him. The next one I was just unsure of what to do with the ball and the guy made a good play. The last one was the same thing, the guy just made a good play. I’ve never had that happen to me in a lot of years of football to have back-to-back mistakes like that. Sometimes when things go bad they can get real bad. You can’t really sugarcoat that. We just didn’t play very well in the second half. We started off not too bad on offense, we were moving the ball. Then they kept scoring and we couldn’t respond. And then we started to fall apart in the second half.”
On the offense’s start to the game:
“It is tough because you move the ball effectively on the first two drives and get two scores and are right there with them. We figured we could do that all day. Then we lost momentum, lost focus or whatever it was. You could point a finger at a lot of things. We just didn’t come out in the second half and things started going bad and we just didn’t combat it.”
On the difficulty of taking such a lopsided loss:
“It is hard. Since I have been here, the few snaps that I had my freshman year and all of last year we have never been beat that bad. So you have three years of football and like coach said we have never had a butt-whooping like that. It is tough, but the reality is that it happens. You can’t expect to play for three or four years and expect to not get your butt whooped every now and then. You have to learn from it. We are still tied for first in the Big 12 North with a lot of football to play. We just have to bounce back and for how bad we played hopefully we got a lot of mistakes out of the way today.”
Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach
His thoughts on the game:
“I was really happy with the way our team came out. We were excited to prepare all week and we played well when we got here. Our defense got better and better as the game went on. Offensively we were really steady. Kansas is a good football team, as everybody knows. But sometimes you get on a roll and that helps you out a lot.”
On his teams’ defensive play:
“I thought they were really good. They got better and better as the game went on. Their first touchdown came too easy but we got tighter after that. We were close to getting some turnovers and then we did get some turnovers and that helped too.”
On the Red Raiders’ game next week against Texas:
“All of the games leading up to this game were big games. You just have to do the same stuff. We will start preparing on Sunday. We will prepare well and see where it takes us. We just have to worry about ourselves and what we can do to get better. We have to keep our eye on the task at hand.”
On his team’s missed field goal:
“(Donnie) Carona has good range. It was a 49 yarder or something like that. He struck it good but he just missed it by a little. I wasn’t disappointed with him, but I wish he would have made it.”
Senior Quarterback Graham Harrell
On the game:
“It’s all about having fun. When we have fun, we’re at our best. We went out and tried to have a good time. That’s what we did and we played really well.”
On new placekicker Matt Williams:
“He gets the ball up quick on extra points. If you get the ball up quick and doesn’t get it blocked, that’s what it is all about. He did a good job of that. Those points are big and we have to have them. He did a great job today.”
On the way Texas Tech attacked KU’s defense:
“We weren’t concentrating on what they were trying to do we were focused on executing and moving the ball. That’s what we did. We went out there and executed well. When we play like that we’re tough to beat. When our line protects we’re tough to beat.”
On the Texas Tech Defense:
“If they play like that, we’re tough to beat. They did a great job today. They continue to get better and that’s what it’s all about. We just need to keep getting better everyday in practice and every week. If we do that, I think we can be really special and compete with anyone we play against.”
Sophomore Running Back Baron Batch
On the game overall:
“God is good. He helped us win this game and I praise Him for every yard that I got. We did a good job executing and it paid off.”
On if he is surprised by the offense’s performance:
“No, we’re never surprised. We practice hard and we do that same thing in practice. We expect for it to show in games.”
On the goal for the season:
“We’re taking it one game at a time and one play at time. We’re focusing on not looking ahead and knowing that the most important opponent we’re playing in the one we’re playing that week.”
