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BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES

COACH GROBE: Well, I told our players in the locker room I felt really bad for them. I thought that, first of all, that Kliff's team played really well. I thought Texas Tech did a really nice job against us tonight.

I did feel like we were just too sloppy and undisciplined to win. We really should not be in a situation where we're having to go for everything on fourth down to keep drives alive.

And then defensively, we knew going in they had great foot speed and, of course, they got a really special quarterback. And, you know, we got in a foot race two or three times and lost that. The Quarterback put the ball right where it should have been and a couple of we missed tackles and gave up big plays.

But I felt like the bottom line for us defensively is we played really hard. We just gave up too many big plays. I thought offensively we were just too sloppy. We just didn't handle the ball very well. I think we had three fumbles in the game. Actually, it's six fumbles but lost three of them, and they were big fumbles. I mean, they really hurt us.

And you just can't make a living going for fourth down at the 50 yard line all the time. So I think we've got to be more consistent offensively.

Defensively, obviously, you know, we just got we got to keep people in front of us. We got I think we want to play aggressively, but at times we probably crowded them too much and give them home runs. And then I thought our special teams really other than we had a great onside kick as far as Drew kicking the ball and didn't execute it well, but I thought overall our special teams were a little better this week than last week.

I just told the players, too sloppy, too undisciplined to win today.

Q. You mentioned sloppy and undisciplined. Do you guys take that on as coaches as kind of the responsibility? And Zach mentioned a frustration level among the players, obviously. Do you sense that same kind of frustration among the coaching staff?

COACH GROBE: Absolutely. You know, coaches are teachers. And when kids are not playing their best now, there is a trade off for ability. I mean, you got to have enough ability to make plays. And there are times out there where you just got to give Texas Tech's kids credit. They just made plays. They played well and they beat us.

But there were so many opportunities today where we hurt ourselves, and it's never the players and it's never the coaches. It's all of us, you know? So we need to demand more maybe out of our players during the week. And the players need to accept responsibility. We don't need finger pointers. We need thumb pointers. We need everybody saying, "Hey, I can get better, I've got to get better" and that's coaches and players.

Q. When you were 6 0, could you ever have envisioned that you would be where you are right now?

COACH GROBE: Well, I knew, David, that the tougher part of our schedule was coming up. I don't think there was any question about that. I think, you know, we're in a situation now where we have to get better with a young quarterback. We have to help him.

I thought he did some things better today than he did last week. I'm hopeful he will be better next week. You know, certainly we've had some adversity. And, you know, we're close. We really it got away from us a little bit today in the first half.

I thought second half we came out with some energy and our guys really wanted to play well. But we just dug too deep a hole for ourselves. So I didn't when we were 6 0, I didn't feel comfortable going into the last half of the season because I know we had a lot of things going on and swirling around outside the program that could affect us.

But we knew we needed to stay healthy. There was no question. We talked about it. We're not deep, and quarterback is one of the positions we're not deep at. But we're not deep at some other positions. And so staying healthy was important to us. But we knew going into the last half of the season, we were going to play some real good football teams.

Q. You mentioned that Mahomes is special. Is he about as good a quarterback as you have seen this year?

COACH GROBE: Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of good ones. That's the problem. And I would say he's as good as any of them. He's not as much threat to run the football, but some of the things he did tonight, especially when he got flushed out of the pocket, some of the throws that he made were really, really impressive.

And you can just tell that he's got a calmness about him. You know, he doesn't panic. And I think Kliff does a nice job with the offense and they have got a lot of good receivers for him to work with. But he's pretty special for sure.

Q. You just talked about Patrick. For a freshman, could you have asked for much more from Zach today?

COACH GROBE: I really think Zach is special. I love that kid. He's got a great work ethic. He's really smart. He's really talented, and he's in a tough position right now because we're asking him to do it as a true freshman.

And so I think I don't know that he could handle the ball a little better sometimes. And, honestly, he took some shots he shouldn't have taken. He should have gone ahead and gotten rid of the football. He's trying to make plays, which you like about him. And he'll get smarter about that.

No, I couldn't be I couldn't we're going to demand more, but I couldn't expect more. I think he's playing as hard as he can right now.

Q. Not taking anything away from Tech's offense, because obviously Patrick is very talented. The receivers are very good as well. There was a lot of plays where they were roaming free and coverage seemed to have broken down or they just found holes. I know looking back you will learn more. But what could you identify why they were having so much success doing that?

COACH GROBE: I think, Craig, the thing that you see from a defensive perspective is one of the things that keeps guys from roaming free is pressure on the quarterback. And so at times you try to play coverage; at times you try to bring pressure.

But I think what we'll probably find out is that when he had more time, he was more effective. And when we were able to flush him out of the pocket and make him move around, things turned out a little bit better. But I think it's a combination. It's not just the secondary plays poorly and turning receivers loose. It's a situation where, if you give those guys too much time because all the receivers can run. So if you end up singled up on too many of those guys for very long, it's not going to be good.

Q. Zach mentioned that he had a strained muscle in his neck and that's why he had to come out for that one play. His status going into West Virginia? And was he checked out at all for a possible concussion?

COACH GROBE: Yeah. We don't take any chances with that stuff. He did, with the ball on the ground, got his neck bent backwards pretty good. And he told us as soon as he came off that his neck was bothering him.

The official had him come out, thought he was a little bit dizzy or whatever. But Zach looked great to me. I don't know whether maybe it was just confused about a play call or something. But the official thought he should take a play out. And, of course, Mike Sims, our trainer, looks at him and would never, ever let him go back on the field if he thought there was a problem.

But he looked really sharp mentally to me when the official wanted him to come out of the game. I was a little miffed at that. But I will say this, if he thought he should come out, he should come out because you want to make sure they get taken care of.

Q. We didn't see much of Shock Linwood there in the second half specifically when you had first and goal at the 1. Were just playing the hot hand with Terence Williams, or was that just something you wanted to go with there?

COACH GROBE: We felt like, honestly, that Terence was playing really, really well, and we thought JaMycal was a guy that needed to be on the field. That's totally up to Jeff, Jeff Lebby, our running back coach. It's kind of a hot hand thing with those three guys. Whoever we feel like is playing the best is going to get more snaps.

Q. Blake Lynch, didn't come back after playing early. And how it Terence doing? Looks like he hobbled off a little bit.

COACH GROBE: Yeah, I think Terence, his knee is sore. I went in and patted him on the knee and asked him if he was okay and he didn't seem to think he was. He was sore. We'll see how he does.

Blake hurt his hand. And I haven't talked to Mike. I don't know whether he's got a break in there. I think I heard him tell one of the kids that he broke a finger. So that's not real good for a wide receiver. But we'll see when we get back. I'm not real sure. I haven't talked to Mike yet.

Q. I know you are probably getting tired of answering this about trying to regroup after what's happened the last five weeks. With one game left, what do you say? How do they somehow regroup? And do you think there's anything left in the tank?

COACH GROBE: Well, honestly, David, I really you know, I love these guys. I'm telling you, they've had a lot of adversity. And we played some really, really good football teams and we haven't played well enough to win. But I don't really question their effort. I thought today we played really, really hard. We played hard. We didn't play well at times but we played hard. We did some really good things.

Offensively, I don't know what our numbers ended up being. We had 634 yards of offense and really not much to show for it. And so if you look at the times that we were across their 50 and down close with the chance to come away with points that we came away with no points, we could have had a really good day offensively and didn't.

And then, defensively, the thing I was proud of is when we came back out after halftime, our kids continued to play hard. So as long as our guys are playing hard, they've got my respect.

I think sometimes you just have to look at it and say the better team won. And so going to West Virginia, we know they're going to be a really good football team, but I think our guys will continue to play hard. As long as they are playing hard, I'm going to be proud of them.

QUESTIONS FOR QB Zach Smith AND LB Aiavion Edwards

Q. Zach, several fourth down opportunities didn't go like you wanted in the first half. How key were those?

QB Zach Smith: Yeah. I mean, when you're going for it on fourth down, I mean, it's pretty important that you convert or else they're going to take the ball over right there. We just didn't convert right there, and they ended up scoring on the field. We just kind of shot ourselves on the foot once again.

Q. You took several hard shots today. Did you undergo concussion protocol? Did they check that out at all? And how are you feeling?

QB Zach Smith: Just kind of strained a muscle back here in my neck. I mean, it wasn't nothing really. But just to strain that, yeah, it was hurting for a little bit. Nothing concussion wise.

Q. You told me earlier this week at Austin that you could wash away some things like this. How hard will it be to let this one wash away and get ready for next week?

QB Zach Smith: Yeah, I mean, it's going to be rough. Knowing that we had several opportunities to go out there and score and just didn't execute. I mean, it's just one of the things you got to do. You got to wash it away and get ready for next week.

Q. You mentioned the strained neck. Is that why you had to leave? Is that what they told you on that play? What happened on that where you had to leave for a play?

QB Zach Smith: Yeah, I was just grabbing my neck, I guess. He said I had to go out for one play. I mean, I ended up going out, but ...

Q. Zach, with your second start now on under your belt, do you feel some improvement? Did things slow down for you a little bit? Did you feel more comfortable?

QB Zach Smith: Yeah, I definitely felt a little bit more comfortable, a little more poised. I mean, just missed a couple of balls that were pretty important. You got to go out next week against West Virginia and execute a lot better.

Q. You had your best game so far as a starter, 377 yards, three touchdowns. What was it about today? Was it just things were clicking? What was it?

QB Zach Smith: Yeah. I mean, pretty much everything was clicking for the most part. I mean, I know we're going to have to go out there and score a lot of points because Texas Tech is great team. They're going to score a lot of points. I knew we had to throw the ball around the yard. I mean, just ended up missing a few that were pretty important. They executed. I mean, I felt like it slowed down a lot more. Felt a lot more poised.

Q. You guys are obviously in a tough slide. You got one left. What is it like right now in that locker room?

QB Zach Smith: Yeah, I mean, the same. I mean, just frustrated, hungry for a win. We go out every week and we grind, and we end up with a loss, and it's just real frustrating. We just got to go out there and keep grinding and stick together and just go get a win next week.

Q. Aiavion, how tough was it to defend against Patrick Mahomes?

LB Aiavion Edwards: It's very tough. He's a good quarterback. He can keep the plays alive, and he always keeps his eyes downfield. If you give him any time at all, he's going to find an open target and most likely deep.

Q. Did it feel like it was snowballing a little bit? They had three drives on one play where they scored in one play. Did it feel like it was kind of getting out of hand?

LB Aiavion Edwards: I don't think we ever thought it was getting out of hand. It was just we couldn't make the plays when we needed to. Coach put us in great position, and we just weren't making the plays we needed to at the times we needed.

Q. Do you think about other games where you've had comebacks when it gets to 20 or even I think at one point you got within 16. Are you thinking about some of comebacks that you've made?

LB Aiavion Edwards: Yeah. We know with our offense, no game is really out of hand if we take care of business. As a defense, we couldn't get the thoughts we needed to give those guys another opportunity to get out there at times..

Q. Seems like everybody now is attacking you guys on the ground, trying to go up the middle. Tech rarely ever runs the football, and they were making the point early on to run the football on you guys.

How frustrating is it when you can't get the stops you want? But, also, now that you have had an entire season to kind of look over at the attrition that took place in the off season, how much do you think that that has hurt you defensively?

LB Aiavion Edwards: I think it has had an effect on us. But it's something we just got to continue to fight through. We know what people are going to try to do to us because of what's happened this year. It's just something we got to stick our noses to the ground, get to work, and continue to do our best to stop the run.

We did a pretty good job today, but we gave up a lot of big plays, and that kind of just overthrew their limited run game.

Q. Texas Tech was 4 4 in the red zone today on offense. What was it about playing defense in the red zone that y'all struggled with today?

LB Aiavion Edwards: Kind of hard to say. They just did a great job of kind of just making plays in the red zone. When we got there, we weren't making the plays we needed. Those guys did a great job today of finding the end zone.

Q. Coach Grobe mentioned that right now we need thumb pointers, not finger pointers, like people not blaming each other, everybody kind of blaming themselves, I guess. Do you sense that among the team that, you know, everyone is still fully invested coaches, players, everything?

LB Aiavion Edwards: No doubt about it. I think that as defense all the guys on the team actually. I don't think anybody gave up. I think everybody knew what they were doing. A lot of guys took blame for what did happen during the game today. So I don't think our guys are pointing at each other. I think that they're kind of evaluating themselves in the midst of all this. And I think it's something that definitely will help us hopefully next week.

Q. With everything that's gone through lately, what would a win at West Virginia do for you guys to finish off this year?

LB Aiavion Edwards: It would be big. It's a real tough place to play. It's a crazy place. And they're doing really good right now, and I feel like we could go in and hopefully kind of just turn things around. I think that would be big for us to finish out the year. After these last five games, it's been rough for us. We've worked hard. We just haven't been able to come out with the outcome we needed. So go in there and doing that would be a huge deal for this team.

Q. Amidst all the things that have taken place and the craziness and the losses and just everything as a whole your senior season, are you still finding a way to enjoy parts of it and have fun and live in the moment?

LB Aiavion Edwards: Yes, I am. The guys that I'm around are just great guys. The coaches are great. It's just something that, after the senior year, it's gone. It's something that I do cherish each and every day and every game as well.

Q. Could you explain how the team came out last week and then now this week how y'all came out?

COACH KINGSBURY: No, I can't. I can't try to explain that this week. I don't know what that was last week. I'd never seen any signs of that. It was embarrassing. It was a complete debacle. And this week, I saw the team that I thought they were during practice and the energy and running around fast and making plays. So I don't have an answer for why it was so different.

Q. Coach, how about the performance of Patrick Mahomes, got over 5,000 yards passing for the season. He was really on.

COACH KINGSBURY: He was. He came out sharp. He's a huge Cowboys fan so every year we played here, he seems to put on a show and loves playing in this arena and he got us going early and stayed hot and protected the football well and, you know, he's very talented. When he can hang in the pocket and make throws like that, he's hard to beat.

Q. Kliff, what will be your advice to him this off season as he decides what his future will be?

COACH KINGSBURY: I know what I'd like to tell him. But we're going to get the grade back. We'll submit that tomorrow, get the grade back, talk with his parents through the entire process and just figure out what's best for him. If, you know, the money is right and he needs to go and do that; but, if it's not, if there's some way we can improve and improve his skill set and his talent, then he'll come back and we'll do it again. So we're going to have a thorough process and do what's best for Pat.

Q. Kliff, how desperately do you want to be able to right this ship?

COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I mean, that's why I came here. You know, I don't have a family. I don't have a lot of friends out there in Lubbock. And that's all I do, is work on this football team and this program and try to build something special. And excited about the direction it's going. We have 18 or 19 starters coming back and 12 mid year signees, and a lot of guys there in the spring that we can continue to work with and continue to build on. So yeah. That's why I'm here.

Q. Should you be given the opportunity?

COACH KINGSBURY: I don't know. That's a question for y'all to throw around there. But I'm just focused on this night and celebrating with those seniors.

Q. Kliff, along the same lines, did you feel like you needed to win this game today to secure your future? And how much pressure have you felt, say, over the last month?

COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I don't know about pressure, I just hate losing and I feel bad about when Texas Tech doesn't win because it means a lot to me. I know it means a lot to our fan base and our student body and our alumni, and when you're part of that, you wear it. And so yeah, more than anything, that's what I feel. I try not to focus on the pressure; you try to focus on each game and making sure you're doing right by the players and putting them in position to win the game.

Q. Coach, I know you gave up the the team gave up over 600 yards. However, you got three turnovers and some stops on fourth down. So you you've got to be pleased with that.

COACH KINGSBURY: That was huge. That's been our Achilles heel since I've been here, is the turnover margin. And when we win it, that's what can happen. And we won it. That's something we have to continue to get better at. And if we can ever flip that number, it would go a long way towards those wins.

Q. Kliff, how would you sum up Pat's first three years at Tech?

COACH KINGSBURY: He's just gotten better and better. You know, first couple years kind of freestyle wheeling and dealing, still see a little bit of that, but his pre-snap recognition, his operation of the system, his footwork has come a long way. And you know, it's the first year he really focused on football the entire year, didn't have baseball, and I just think the sky is the limit if he puts that type of work, another year into that type of focus.

Q. Kliff, as a follow up on Patrick, how likely is it, do you think, that he will be back? And maybe also as a follow up, considering who his father is, presuming maybe financial needs is less of a concern for Patrick than some other players in his situation. Do you know at all if that plays into

COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah. I don't know if the financial side of things does. I think more so we've got to do what's best for him. If there's a high pick out there and that's where he's going to go and the money is right, then that's probably what he needs to do. But, if there's a way we can improve his draft stock and he can get his degree and come back and be better and learn more about the game, then that's what we'll do. So I truly don't have a feel for it either way. We're going to go a thorough process, and he's on board with that, and figure out the best decision for him.

Q. I think there was a point after one of the touchdowns you met him and y'all had a laugh and said something, I guess. What was that conversation like after that TD?

COACH KINGSBURY: I don't remember. He threw, what? Six of them. So there's a few conversations. But he just we have a good relationship. He knows that I'm going to be hard on him when I think he can play better because I think his potential is through the roof. And when he does the right thing, we try to enjoy it.

Q. Kliff, why was Derrick Willies not out there today? And I know Quan Shorts plays a different position. But when did Quan kind of work himself into the game plan?

COACH KINGSBURY: We just saw some speed matchup problems for them possibly and wanted to get him a shot and put him in there, and he did a great job getting open on that post so it was more of a personnel mismatch thought going into the game. And then Derrick was just a coach's decision. Just leave it at that. He was.

Q. Coach, do you know what the plan is as far as the staff returning? How much of the staff do you believe will be back next season?

COACH KINGSBURY: Yeah, I truly don't know. That's going to we'll have a conversation about all of that stuff either tomorrow or the next day, I'm sure, and figure out which way it's going to go. I'll just keep, you know, any of that stuff to myself at this point. You'll find out soon enough, I'm sure, about what's going on.

Q. Kliff, obviously, you played a lot of defensive backs and have throughout the season, but today you have DJ Polite Bray, Paul Banks, Kisean Allen, Justis Nelson all come out of the game injured, how did you feel your DBs kind of held up with all those personnel losses?

COACH KINGSBURY: I felt they did a great job stepping up as a senior. Last game he made good plays to be us. That's stuff. They have dynamic receivers and y challenge you every snap, but I thought they fought. I thought they were in position a lot of time. They kept things in front of them for the most part with those dynamic receivers. And you've got to take your hats off To Coach Gibbs and Coach Scott for having that many DBs ready to play in that game.

Q. Coach, given all the distractions off the field after the game, what does it say about this team that y'all are able to come out here and put on this kind of performance?

COACH KINGSBURY: They're high character. There's no doubt. That's easy to cash that one in against a very good Baylor team after all the stuff, the noise, how poorly we played. But they didn't. They fought. I felt that Monday. I felt that were back and wanted to prove to people how good a team they were. And it was nice for the seniors to go out with a victory. Thank you, all.