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Takeaways: Kingsbury very pleased with Shimonek, defense, not special teams

Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury met with the local media after the Red Raiders' 55-19 rout of Kansas on Thursday night. His thoughts on the contest overall...


-Kingsbury, when asked about QB Patrick Mahomes and the seeming shoulder injury he suffered in the contest, said he had no update on the signal caller's status, specifically because he wanted to find out more tomorrow as they do more tests. He did, however, tell RedRaiderSports.com's Chris Level during the postgame radio interview that he thought Mahomes would be "okay."

-On the play of backup QB Nic Shimonek: "Yeah, that was awesome. There's not a harder worker on the team. I had seen him do that in practice. I know how good he is but it was good for his teammates, the other coaches, fans to see what he can do. He threw some incredible passes. I don't know what his quarterback rating is, but it has to be incredible. Made all the right reads, had some great checks, so. Working with him every day, you see the work ethic he puts in, so for me, that was awesome, and I couldn't be more proud of him."

-Kingsbury on the play of the defense, who gave up fewer than 300 total yards, less than 50 yards rushing, and surrendered only 17 points: "I thought they did a great job. Best performance by them so far. Lots of energy, created a couple turnovers. So very proud of that group."

-The special teams play from Texas Tech's kickers was very poor on Thursday night against Kansas, as the kickers as a group gave up a safety on a botched punt, kicked two kickoffs out of bounds for penalties, and missed an extra point. Kingsbury on his kickers: "Our kickers aren't doing it. They're really bad right now. It's just brutal honesty. So, they're in a funk and they got to step up or we'll have to start going for it every time or going for two or something. But it's -- Coach Rob is a very good special teams coach and those guys got to step up and perform."

-The offense sputtered late in the 1st quarter and well into the 2nd quarter after coming out of the gates hot, going up 14-0 in short order on Kansas. Kliff's thoughts on the bad stretch on offense: "We struggled there for about three or four drives. Just, I think we got up and kind of, our focus got lost and that was it. And they do a good job, they see this offense a bunch, gone against Coach Bone a bunch, he has a good feel for it.But the way we got it going in the second half, that was kind of the expectation and scored 55, should have scored a lot more, but you got to give them credit because they created a turnover and we muffed the punt and at times they got after the quarterback. I didn't think our O line played very well and that's something we have to address."

-In the third quarter, after giving up several sacks, Kingsbury and O-line coach Lee Hays pulled right tackle Madison Akamonu from the game, putting Paul Stawarz in at right guard and shifting Justin Murphy out to right tackle. The unit seemed to play much better after that, and Kliff shared his thoughts on the O-line play and the decision to shuffle the unit: "I was very disappointed in Madison (Akamnonu)'s play. He's a guy who we keep trying to prod to come on and he hasn't. And so we'll see how he responds. But those other guys stepped up when we made that change and had some good drives."

-So, if Nic Shimonek had to start at quarterback for an extended period of time, would Kingsbury be comfortable with that? Yup: "Very comfortable. I think you saw tonight he's a great thrower of the football, knows where to go with it, got it out of his hand quick. That's not easy to come in, momentum is kind of against him, and he steps in and plays his tail off. So, I've always said he's a good player and I know his teammates have confidence in him."

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