Takeaways: Patterson, Leggett talk much-improved Kansas and more

Two straight losses have affected the Red Raider’s overall and Big 12 record heading into what in past years would be a guaranteed victory with the Kansas Jayhawks. However, Kansas head coach Les Miles and his squad have turned a few heads this season with the much-improved offense ran by senior quarterback Carter Stanley.

For those of you who don’t know, the Jayhawks took the lead over the Texas Longhorns (in a home game for Texas) with 1:11 remaining in the game after a two-point conversion. Kansas ended up leaving too much time on the clock to give the Longhorns’ kicker Cameron Dicker an easy 33-yard field goal for the win.

UT may have won, but Kansas has proven not to be taken lightly this season with the changes Miles has brought to Lawrence, and that is what Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson noted today after Monday’s practice.

“Just completely different,” Patterson said. “It’s like they maybe, identity-wise, they were wanting to be a physical, Les Miles-pound-the-rock type team with some spread principles mixed in. Now they just whole-cell run spread. They look like every other Big 12 team in the league now. They got a quarterback with great experience, he’s a senior (Stanley). You got talented wide receivers, you got a transfer from Alabama, transfer from NIU, got a nice slot, inside receiver. They’re extremely talented. It’s like every week in the Big 12, it’s just another challenge. Our focus is not only on Kansas, but it’s also on us trying to correct all those things discussed up to this point and continue to grow as a defense.”

Patterson said he brought more pressure against the Cyclones, saying he brought six or seven to the quarterback 15 times of the 60 plays on defense. KP talked on how he will have to do better to get more pressure on Kansas quarterback Carter Stanley.

“I think it speaks to the intensity,” Patterson said. “That’s coaching, that’s my responsibility to be able to get our guys to where they play at a high level. Football is a game of passion. It’s a game of emotion, and when you do not play with emotion and if all things are equal, victory goes to the aggressor, and we were not the aggressor (against Iowa State). It’s that simple, and that’s my responsibility, my job. I’ll never put that on kids, but I got to figure out a way to inspire them to play with that kind of energy and effort.

First it was Adrain Frye, then Desmon Smith, and now Frye is out again and “questionable to probable” for the Kansas game. The shortage in the secondary has been a weak spot in some games this season, particularly the Iowa State game with the size advantage the Cyclones brought in their tight ends.

Patterson talked on how hard it is to deal with injuries and trying to accommodate them with rotating players.

“It’s just been frustrating,” Patterson said. “It seems like every week, and I don’t like using that as an excuse. It’s hard to develop continuity, especially on the back end when you’re playing someone like Iowa State, who does all that, and now all of a sudden, it’s like musical chairs. So (Thomas Leggett) one week, it was Frye one week, Des… It’s just been hard to develop. Of all the groups, that’s the most important because they perform as a unit, and all the communication. All of a sudden, we got this guy who’s been playing right corner. Now he’s playing safety, and this guy is at spur, and he’s back at safety, and all the things you done that week go right out the window within the first two series of the game, and it creates a little bit of chaos. So it’s hard to develop continuity as well as the chemistry and the consistency that we’ll keep discussing.”

Penn State transfer and DB Zech McPhearson agreed saying players just got to move around.

“Normally when injuries happen,” McPhearson said, “guys got to move to different positions they probably haven’t played before. A lot of the guys that were put in a position this week, they’ve only been there for about a couple of days. Some learn the position Thursday of game week. I would say that kind of affects the communication because guys are just, those guys that are there – they’re worried about getting their job right and not to worry about everyone else around them.”

Junior defensive back Thomas Leggett said his injury didn’t affect him much and felt good last Saturday, so that’s a good sign.

Leggett also spoke after Monday practice about this Kansas Jayhawk team the Red Raiders will be facing as the sun sets Saturday night.

“I think they got a lot of athletes,” Leggett said. “I think they got a lot of playmakers. We’ll have to definitely bring it this week. You know, it’s not the same Kansas team that the Big 12 has been seeing the past couple of years or whatever.”

Leggett also got to comment on the close game Kansas made of against the Longhorns last Saturday, including and specifically the late 4th quarter drive to take the lead, momentarily.

“I mean we know everybody in this league can play,” Leggett said. “It’s kind of week-to-week. So, you know, just seeing those guys go down to the wire just shows the fight that they had and what they’re doing over there in that program, and how we have to be able to prepare for that as well. None of these teams are the same from last year. We’ll have to prepare every week for every single team.”