Texas Tech Football Notebook: Texas Tech Begins Prep for Arizona State

Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury met with the media again yesterday and here’s your non-transcript.

Kliff Kingsbury:

. . . A lot of stuff to clean up, maybe down the road, maybe back off and give them a greak. We’re going after it and staying in game shape.

. . . [Clean things up] I think so, an opportunity to focus on an opponent that’s not focusing on you. Also, continue to grind and work on physicality.

. . . [Status of Travis Bruffy] We’ll see, we’re still trying to get that weight back on him. If he’s able to go and be healthy, then we’ll go with him. Not going to get to exact number, but it was quite a bit. It’s borderline, we’d like for him to be bigger than where he is at right now.

. . . [How Madison Akamnonu fared] He has good game experience, played really well in the game last year, we have all the confidence in the world he can step in and do it, but you’d like ot have extra bodies and depth.

. . . [On Mych Thomas] He did, he’s done such a good job of changing his body, he’s a lot stronger, really proud of how he handled the offseason, he’s going to have a really good role for us this offseason.

. . . [On walk-on receiver Dalton Rigdon] He can really run, he’s a guy that picked up the system quickly, he’s a big 12 caliber long jumper, you can see the explosiveness on the field. He’s not as big and strong as you like him but he’s a true freshman so you wouldn’t expect that but he can really fly when he gets going.

. . . [More on how they found Rigby] You have to give to give coach Kittley credit with the track program, he finds diamonds in the rough, and he could be another one. He brought him to us, how he talks about football and his speed and explosiveness.

. . . [If Desmond Nisby could carry 20 times] I think so, he’s a big guy, only got here late, but he’s dropped 15 pounds since he got here, so I think 20 would be a max, but he could handle it.

. . . [On the balance between the running backs] That’s what we wanted to do, we wanted to give them all touches, we’ll see how it goes moving forward, they did everything we asked them to do.

. . . [Why run/pass balance is so important] So they can’t make us one-dimensional, that’s what we became last year, it’s hard for a quarterback, luckly we had a guy last year that could manage it, numbers wise, I’d love to throw it probably 45 times and run it 40.

. . . [On Quan Shorts’ improvement] I think the health part is huge, pre-habbing before practice, he had all the ability in the world and it’s just about finding the confidence and maturity, now you see the marked improvement. Coach Jones does a great job of demanding a lot from those guys, competing and really working on your craft.

. . . [On not fully rushing the passer against EWU] Yeah, when you have a guy like that you want to try to contain him, so we probably had some times we were trying to keep him in the pocket and that will change from game to game.

. . . [If they are working on Arizona State] We’re on them, we implemented on Sunday, we want to take advantage of this week as much as we can, they have a good opponent this week, so hopefully schematically, we can get ahead of them.

. . . [Honoring Luke Gonsioroski] I put it on my shoes, he believed in me and I think the world of that young man and how he battled and I just wanted to represent for him.

 A-J Media’s Don Williams talked with receiver Quan Shorts and how he’s improved, and credits a handful of folks, including Keke Coutee and receivers coach Emmett Jones:

Shorts still isn’t one of the first names discussed when the topic turns to Tech receivers. The starters are a solid foursome of seniors Dylan Cantrell, Cameron Batson and Derrick Willies, plus Coutee. Shorts comes up in the next tier, though, and starts this season with much more chance to make a contribution than the past two years.

“Coach Jones does a great job of demanding a lot from those guys day in and day out about competing and learning the offense and really working on your craft,” Kingsbury said. “I’ve got to give him a lot of credit for getting Quan on the right path, and then Quan has done a good job of taking his lead.”

 Both A-J Media’s Don Williams and RedRaiderSports’ Brandon Soliz both recap with notebooks of sorts on the presser today, so check it out.

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