Takeaways: Kingsbury, defensive players know they'll be tested by WVU
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury and select defensive players met with members of the local media on Tuesday afternoon to preview the weekend's contest with West Virginia....
KLIFF KINGSBURY
-Kingsbury on how practice has gone so far this week:
"it's been focused. I think we got all the pouting out of the way, and we know it's a big opportunity. Top 20 team coming in here on Homecoming. It'll be a great atmosphere, nice weather, and the players seem excited."
-Kliff expects West Virginia to mix up pressures in different ways on defense. He thought the Mountaineers did a great job of tackling the Red Raiders in space last year, and he believes they'll have to make a few guys miss and flat out play better on offense than they did in Morgantown last year to win this game.
-Coach Kingsbury addressed a number of injuries: T.J. Vasher is day-to-day. Derrick Willies only did walkthroughs on Tuesday and is likely going to be a game time decision for Saturday. Both have leg injuries of some kind.
-Kliff likes where true freshman tailback Da'Leon Ward is at. He's been great on special teams, and they're just trying to get him more experience learning and repping the pass protections before they get him some carries.
"As we get more comfortable with him being out there, I would expect him to probably get some touches."
-Kliff on cornerback Paul Banks' play in his first week back:
"Not bad. He had some really nice plays, had some things where you could tell he hadn't played in a while. Played with confidence, which was good. Didn't seem like the moment was too big. I think as the season goes on, he'll get better and better."
-I asked Kingsbury if he thought his secondary was doing better against the deep ball as of late:
"I'm not sure. We'll get tested this week, cause they like that vertical passing game, have some guys who can really run. I think our guys have done a fairly decent job of staying over the top of things. Like I said, we'll see Saturday."
-Kingsbury noted that he thought West Virginia's veteran offensive line was a big reason they're running the ball well, but also likes both their tailbacks: Rushel Shell and Justin Crawford, who are splitting the carries about 50-50.
-The head coach was asked about Devin Lauderdale catching and being targeted for a few deep balls against Kansas State. Kliff noted that he liked getting Lauderdale more involved again with the deep ball, some of which has to do with him getting in better game shape and getting back on the same page with Mahomes since he couldn't be with the team until fall camp began.
-Kingsbury also wants to get Reginald Davis a few deep ball catches. He's run by a number of DBs this year, and either Mahomes has missed him on the throw or hasn't seen him running free.
"Doing better than last week. Progressing quicker than last week. Last week it wasn't up until late in the week, and this week I feel like he's feeling a lot better."
"That's something we're trying to practice more, trying to get more tackles for losses, get in the backfield more. So, I feel like we're making strides to get there. So, I feel like we're doing good in that aspect."
"He felt like we played pretty good against Kansas State. There's a few things we could've adjusted and done better, but he feels like as a D-line unit we're coming together more and making plays."
-Hill noted that West Virginia, while an air raid offense, will still run quite a bit of counter and power plays in the run game, which is similar to what Kansas State will do.
-On how he feels going into WVU:
"I think we're taking it one day at a time, working our technique and fitting our gaps in practice, and I think it's paying off."
-Nelson feels that the skill players are the strength of West Virginia's offense. They have both speed and size at both tailback and receiver, so it'll be a good test for them.
"Keeping everything in front of us. They've got some big guys. They've got some fast guys. They take the top off, so keeping everything in front of us, wrapping up, and tackling (will be key)."
-The team hasn't given up a pass longer than 17 yards in the last two weeks. I asked Nelson why that is, and he noted that deep coverage has been an emphasis as of late.
"Coach Gibbs has been harping on it. Technique, technique, and that's all it comes down to, not letting a guy get behind your back and playing the ball when it's in the air."
"We're going to have to keep the ball in front of us and make sure to rally at the tackle."
-Jenkins on how he thought things went defensively against Kansas State:
"I feel like we're improving," he said. "Last week we had a couple of busts, and it ended up biting us in the year, but hats off to Kansas State. They got the win. We've just got to continue to improve as a defensive unit."
-However, the linebacker does feel that their number of busts have continued to decline week by beek.
"Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. I feel like we're helping our offense more and more and more, weeky by week by week, so that's always good. We just need to bring more turnovers to the table. We're working on it, still working on it, and we can only go up for here, so that's a good thing about us from here."
-So, what's the focus for the linebackers this week in practice?
"Just accountability and doing the right thing every day, just small things. Being able to line up, more communication. Coach Spav talked to us about how it's going to be a really physical game, so we just have to - practice-wise, we just have to be way more physical than we have been, just because they're going to be physical, ground and pound it, but they're also going to throw it. We just have to be ready for everything."
-Saturday is actually Malik's birthday, so he made sure to point out that he's going to make sure and ball out to commemorate the occasion.
-Fun fact: Jenkins is an art major. He absolutely loves to sketch and wants to work on storyboards for Pixar or Dreamworks someday.