Postgame Notes/Quotes - Kansas State 33, Baylor 20

[Tom Gilbert]

Attached are PDFs of the postgame notes following today's game between Kansas State and Baylor.

POSTGAME QUOTES
Kansas State Head Coach Bill Snyder
On the importance of Matthew McCrane in Saturday's game...
"It goes back some. He has missed a couple of substantial field goals but you look at the entirety of his career and he has been very good. Considering how difficult that is...as I have said so many times, that is probably - outside of snapping the ball - the hardest thing in the game of football itself and he does it quite well. It takes a lot of focus and a great deal of discipline on his part. He works at it and it is important to him. He has done well with it."

On the offensive performance during Saturday's game...
"It was very, very inconsistent. We made a few big plays but we need to be more of a big play offense. Not collectively a big play offense, but that needs to be part of the balance that we have and we do not have quite enough of those. In the second half, we were not a very good third-down football team, but a lot of that is Baylor. Baylor has been very successful on some of the things that they have done on third downs so my hat goes off to them. I think they played well, but nevertheless, it is not about them, it is about us. We just have to be better. There are a lot of things that I can go through and define that are issues or problems that we had as I could in any other ballgame. Those are the things that we have to go to work on. Sometimes they are the same and sometimes they are totally different from the previous ballgame. It is the nature of the game."

On the Baylor's improved second half offense...
"I think it was big plays. They had 10 yards rushing in the first half and then we pin them down there, 85 yards away from the goal line. They hand it off and it is like we have never been around before and the guy runs it 74 yards for a touchdown. That did not sit very well. It is just being out of position, being someplace other than where you are supposed to be. That goes back to discipline and quite obviously we need to be a far better disciplined football team than what we are in some areas."

Defensive Tackle Will Geary
On what worked for the defense today...
"I would just say we had good carry over from two games ago. The defensive line and the defensive front seven played really well and the defense as a whole and the coaches were stressing to us that you cannot just take it for granted, we have to practice well all week, stay focused, and come out and try to do it again."

On the defensive first half performance...
"I would say it is good because you obviously want to make teams one-dimensional and you know, we pride ourselves on trying to stop the run early on and trying to make them go to the air so I feel like we did that well."

On two sacks in one day...
"I just want to say our coverage was well, the defensive backs locked them up and gave me enough time to get back there."

Placekicker Matthew McCrane
On connecting on all of his kicks...
"It always feels good when I do my job. Last week kind of stung a little bit. The wind was tough today. I think the long in pregame was 42 (yards), so when I went out there to hit the 49 (yards) I was a little worried but I kicked it well and luckily it went in."

On using last week as motivation...
"Yeah of course, I mean especially on social media and stuff, people that tag you and are hateful to you, so yeah it is a confidence booster especially when I started off missing two. I wanted to go one hundred percent so, from this kick on, if I can go one hundred percent that is what I want to do."

On how tough the wind was...
"Yeah it was not fun. If you watch on kickoffs, the other direction was a touchback every time and then into the wind it was ten, fifteen yard line on kickoffs so it takes about ten to fifteen yards off a kick so I hit the 49 well, it kind of knuckled a little bit, and went into the wind but I struck it well and it went in."

Wide Receiver Isaiah Zuber
On 1st Quarter touchdown catch ...
"They jumped off-sides and in practice we just automatically run a fade, and he (Jesse Ertz) threw a perfect ball and I made a great catch."

On improved passing game from Vanderbilt...
"We watched film and went over our mistakes. We corrected them and had a better day."

On little passing game in the second half...
"It was the play calling. We were up and the running game started working well in the second half, so we went with the run game more. Running backs started breaking away, so we just turned into blockers."

Baylor Head Coach Matt Rhule
On today's overall performance...
"I am extremely disappointed in today's result. I am proud of how we played in the second half, but I am also really disappointed in the second half. I reverted back to some of the penalties and that showed up some in the second half. For the fifth straight game we had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead. We had the snapped ball over the quarterback's head and had a dropped punt. Obviously, we had two huge miscues that put the game out of reach. I thought the offense fought at the end and had a chance to make a play until [Kendall] Adams made that nice play. There are areas getting better, but at the end of the day we area five, six, seven or eight plays that are preventing us from winning. We have not been able to make those plays. A lot of credit to Kansas State and a lot of credit to their quarterback. I thought he was special in the red zone. We could not stop him in the red zone. We were not able to get in the in zone from the red zone. I think we might have had a lot more yards than them and a lot more time of possession, but there was not enough to show for it and that was the tale of the game."

On comments from Bill Snyder following the game...
"He told me before the game, 'Matt, I know what you are doing and I know how you are building it. I like the way you are doing it and I like the way your team is getting better. Every week, I see a better football team.' Afterwards, he said 'please share with your team I really respect their ability to fight back, and I really respect their ability to play hard until the end.' I take those words from a man like that with encouragement. It does not mean we are happy. Those kids in there are pretty broke up right now, because we expected to come in here and find a way to win. I do think that from a man I respect, that he sees these kids are fighting. They are giving everything they have got and for a brief respite in the fourth quarter that was a lot of fun. I thought we were going to make enough plays to find a way to win. We are going to go rest, recover and come back and hopefully be a better football team against Oklahoma State."

On defensive adjustments in second half...
"I thought the defense played a lot better. Phil [Snow] made some adjustments. We kept some of the zone pressures on. They were lining up and unbalancing it, trying to get us out of some of our blitzes. The biggest thing in the first half was we were not real physical and they were running through us. We challenged them at halftime to be the more physical team. I thought they certainly tried to do so."


Freshman Running Back John Lovett
On long touchdown run...
"I saw the linebacker blitz off the edge. I thought my quarterback was going to pull the ball and throw ."
it. I am glad he did not though, so when I saw the guy blitzing I just cut off of him and everything happened."



On second half play...
"We made the plays that we knew we needed to make. We said that this game was going to go in to the fourth quarter, but we needed to win the third quarter. We won the third quarter, but came up short in the fourth quarter. We have a lot of work to do."


Sophomore Wide Receiver Denzel Mims
On touchdown catch...
"I saw it once the safety bailed and the other safety went down to play the slot receiver on the other side. I knew that it was going to be open. It was a really good pass. He delivered it right there in my chest, let me catch it and make a play and score ."

On second half success...
"We all just picked it up and said we need to step it up. We came out slow and we all just needed to pick it up. I came out slow and I told myself I need to turn it up in order to win this game."

On losing five straight close games...
"When you do not get wins, it is always going to be a little frustrating. But we just have to come to practice every day and keep working until we can make those plays to win the game."
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TOM GILBERT
Associate Director for Athletics Communications | K-State Athletics
Men's Basketball Contact
T 785-532-7979 | C 785-587-7868
tgilbert at kstatesports.com<mailto:tgilbert at kstatesports.com>
k-statesports.com
K-State Athletics
West Stadium Center, Dev Nelson Press Level
1800 College Ave, Manhattan, KS 66502-3355

[powercat-kstate]

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