MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and select players met with members of the media on Wednesday to discuss the final week of spring practice.
CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH
Opening Statement…
“Alright, good afternoon. Great to see everyone. Practice 13 Thursday. We'll have a full padded practice on 13, then we have 14 where we are back into just helmets and jerseys, clean some stuff up, get ready for the offseason or summertime for those guys, and then 15 on Saturday. Once again, due to our situation we have at the defensive line, we're just going to practice (on Saturday_. Probably the least amount of scrimmage that I have done in my time as a head coach from a spring ball session, simply because I think the other day, we were down to three defensive linemen and then we lost (Trevor) Stange, who was helping us out and Nelson Pipes was one of the three, and he's a long snapper. Pipes is doing a heck of a job. So, it's just been hard. Every time we have a drill offense versus defense, we have to supplement that with a special teams for five or six minutes to get those three kids a breath and they go hang out on the side. So, we probably will get one guy back tomorrow and Saturday to maybe get us up to four or five, but the max we've had is five. You can't function as a normal practice. So, I hope we're getting a lot better at special teams, and that was the emphasis during team period. Myself and another coach are down there doing special teams drills with everybody from old guys to young guys. Emphasizing an awful lot of things. Doing a lot of full group punt versus punt return, kick versus kick return, not to the ground but just full speed. That's an area that we know we need to improve upon. Even though we've been good, we want to be great. So, we feel good that we're getting better there. Then we'll finish up here and have those three days, and then coaches will be on the road and guys will finish up the semester.”
On the fear of losing stuff that they would do during a normal spring…
“No. You always are conscious that you are getting that, but with the amount of skill kids that we have returning, we're getting all of our 7-on-7 work. For the most part all but two guys, wide receiver, running back, quarterback, defensive back, linebacker are doing some things. The only area that really isn't is the defensive line. I know that Coach (Conor) Riley's a little bit concerned that we're not blocking Eli (Huggins) and we're not blocking Felix (Anudike-Uzomah) and Nate (Matlack) and (Jaylen) Pickle and Dee Hentz (Robert Hentz II) and all these guys. So, that's the area that's not getting it, but all those kids have played enough on defense. I know Cooper Beebe and I know Duff (Christian Duffie) and those guys are wishing those guys were out there just from a competition standpoint, but I think we'll be able to get that back in August.”
On figuring out the interior of the offensive line…
“We won't know till the fall. I mean, you can say a young man is getting better at being assignment sound and getting better with technique and those things, but we want to make sure we get through the fall where they're blocking a Pick (Jaylen Pickle) and Eli (Huggins) and Dee (Robert Hentz II). We've played Beebe more inside. We've been impressed with Andrew Leingang outside. He's been nicked up a little bit, but Taylor Poitier is not taking any of those snaps at all. So, it's still a work in progress. We know the guys that we're working with, but we have a long ways to go once we get to fall camp.”
On the backfield behind Deuce Vaughn…
“Getting better, but constant competition. Everybody will have a day here and there. Whether it's Jordan Schippers or whether it's DJ (Giddens) and Jax (Dineen), and we've even put Seth Porter back there a little bit. We were really excited about Devin Weathers, and he's missed all of spring with an injury that happened during bowl prep. So, it 'll be a work in progress throughout fall camp.”
On how much more they will go into the transfer portal after spring…
“We’ll know more by the end of April after all of our meetings go, because once we get done with spring ball, the coaches will meet with the players individually and then I'll meet with players throughout the rest of the month of April to see where we're at, but we have a few (scholarships) available. There's some position things that we're still looking at to see where we can maybe move a guy around internally on our roster, but we have a few that we're probably going to use, yes.”
On practicing some areas that might have been ignored…
“Oh, absolutely. Just getting better at technique things on special teams, which we always work on special teams, but we're sustained 15-20 minutes on drills rather than five minutes go to the next thing, five minutes go to the next thing. We would be a group doing team stuff and everybody else down with myself and Coach (Buddy) Wyatt for this 15-20 minutes and working the details of all these drills, and then we go when we go full group punt and punt return, kickoff and kickoff return, we're seeing some of the drill work carry over into the 11-on-11 setting. So, I'm really hopeful that the reps these guys are getting is going to pay off.”
On programs moving away from spring games…
“I think they are. It was always neat back in the day having a big spring game to finish it off. I was a part of 20 practices. So, you're really glad when it was done, and you'd have a spring game. I don't think people's roster sizes are big enough right now to do it. Some kids are mid-year enrollees. So, you get a few of those guys, but you know, with the revolving door of roster management, I think we have 98 guys on our roster right now. I would think 30 of those aren't practicing because of some kind of condition or surgery or something. So, you can't do much with 60 guys. It's great we've got a bunch of wide outs, but we don't have a bunch of defensive linemen so you can't scrimmage. We’ve got to be smart. We're trying to get everybody to the summer and everybody to the fall. You're going to win and lose the spring game no matter what. You’re going to be on the winning side and losing side. Want to make sure that we get everybody to August, as healthy as we can get.”