Defensive Coordinator Tim DeRuyter and Offensive Coordinator Zach Kittley spoke to the media as the Kansas State game week begins. DeRuyter and Kittley both spoke about what the Red Raiders are expecting from an improving team in Manhattan.
DeRuyter:
DeRuyter spoke about the challenges that Deuce Vaughn brings to the Tech defense after facing a great running back in Bijan Robinson last weekend.
“Two really premier running backs in our conference that couldn’t be more different,” DeRuyter said. “Bijan is your traditional, you know, NFL-type running back. He's the fastball pitcher, you know, he's throwing 90 miles, 100 miles an hour at you; and now you got the knuckleballer coming in this weekend with Deuce.”
DeRuyter continued on the K-State offense, praising the Nebraska transfer, Adrian Martinez, and gave some insight on what they are preparing to do this weekend.
“This is probably the most quarterback designed and run centered offense that we face to date. Certainly, Tune’s capable of it, and Leary is but they didn’t design a ton and at least not in our games,” DeRuyter said. “There's a conscious effort and he's the second leading ball carrier for them.”
When DeRuyter was at Fresno State, he was one of the first offers for Martinez and he spoke about that process along with his relationship with the Wildcats’ quarterback.
“I offered a scholarship back at Fresno State that's what you’re wondering,” DeRuyter said. “I knew he was going to be a really good player. I think we might have been the first team that offered the scholarship. He had a lot of attention from a lot of schools.”
DeRuyter spoke about his defense and the standout performance from Reggie Pearson that earned him Co-Defensive Player of the Week in the conference this week.
“On his interception, he did a great job of tracking football playing good post defense, being as deep as he needed to be and then just read the quarterbacks eyes,” DeRuyter said. “We got to work on getting some returns out of him and following his blockers a little better.”
DeRuyter spoke about the final drive of regulation against Texas, saying it was a learning moment for Rayshad Williams and himself.
“We've gone through a lot of two minutes situations, not exactly that scenario where there's no timeouts and that much time but you know, we've got to do a better job coaching and then you know, actually executing,” DeRuyter said. “There’s a couple of things that he (Williams) could’ve done better and few things that we need to coach better.”
Kittley:
Kittley spoke about what has stood out to him about the Kansas State defense early in his game planning phase.
“You know, they're a little bit different schematically, and we’ve seen this last week,” Kittley said. “They fly around play fast; they don't beat themselves. They're kind of a blue-collar type that prides themselves on their culture and not making mistakes.”
Kittley spoke about getting Myles Price more involved on Saturday and that he hopes that will continue.
“Yeah definitely, we like to get him involved as best we can. You know, kind of game plan wise, that game we saw some shorter, easy time passes that we want to take advantage of early,” Kittley said. “We got a couple big catches there, you know, Myles is a good player, really a lot of energy.”
JJ Sparkman & Trey Cleveland had breakouts on Saturday against Texas and Kittley spoke about Sparkman’s strong week of practice and his emergence into an elevated role on the offense.
“Yeah, it's just very consistent,” Kittley said. “You know, he had a couple of big catches that kind of go overlooked a little bit. He's done a really good job, again, very consistent throughout the week, practice wise and it was his time to get out there and show us what he's got.”
