MANHATTAN, Kan. — Kansas State’s Head Football Coach Chris Klieman fielded questions from the media Monday during the team’s fall camp.

CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH

Opening Statement…

“Good afternoon everybody. It’s good to be back out at practice. We just finished practice four today. We are in our second day of half pads, and tomorrow we’ll be able to put on full pads, put on pants and everything for our last day of acclimatization. You can tell the guys had a really good summer. Coach (Chris) Dawson and his staff did a phenomenal job of getting the guys into really good shape and into good condition. Hats off to our leaders for setting the tone throughout the summer in their captains’ practices. I think we really made great strides from the end of spring practice – practice 13 or 14 – to the first four practices now. You can tell there’s a lot of great retention with the guys and their willing to learn. We have a long ways to go, but we like the progress they’ve made so far.”

On the running backs…

“It’s so early, but we are excited about all the young kids we brought in. All of them are really good football players. We haven’t had any contact periods yet, but the athleticism of all the freshmen is really good. They’re going to be really good players. Some of them will have to be really good players this year. The others we can redshirt, but we aren’t even close to being able to determine where that will be. I’ve been impressed with the way that James (Gilbert), Harry (Trotter) and Tyler (Burns) came back after the summer. They had a great summer. They know our offense better. Jordon Brown didn’t get here until after the 4th of July, but you can tell he’s played an awful lot of football at North Carolina because the game has already slowed for him. I’m excited to see what he’s going to do over the next three weeks.”

On running back Jordon Brown…

“You’re always going to be behind when you miss the whole spring and some of the summer. But in the same respect, football is football and a lot of the things they were doing at his previous institution we are doing here. It’s just learning the terminology. He’s a sharp kid, he’s a quick learner. I haven’t seen him in any of the early practices make any mental errors. He asks questions. He’s a wonderful person to be around. I’m excited to see what he can do.”

On running back Jacardia Wright…

“He’s coming in as a running back right now, and he was a tremendous running back in high school. We’ll see where it shakes out throughout fall camp. We have a lot of good young players there and we want to give them all an opportunity to be running backs. I think they all have the skillset to do that. Jacardia is a big, physical guy that can really run. He’s probably behind because he missed a lot of the summer stuff being back home, but he understands the game of football and we’ll see where he goes throughout these next three weeks as well.”

On the backup quarterback spot…

“We’re giving them all pretty equal reps right now. Nick (Ast) and John (Holcombe II) are taking the most of the reps with the twos and both are doing some really good things. You can tell they both had really good summers physically as well as mentally. Jeron (Lewis), being here in the spring helped him. Chris Herron is brand new and just learning on the run. It will be an ongoing process. We want to continue to push Nick and continue to push John to see who ultimately wins that backup job.”

On if there is clarity on who will play safety as opposed to cornerback…

“We don’t have clarity on it yet. J-Mac (Jahron McPherson) is a good example. He’s just learning because he missed all of the spring. So I’m trying to figure out what his skillset is. We know he’s an inside guy, whether he is a safety or a nickel. We’ve kept Walt (Walter Neil, Jr.) outside right now at corner, but that doesn’t mean he can’t come back to nickel. He’s a real sharp guy, but we just wanted to him to focus in at corner right now. We’ll see how that plays out. We’ve kept Denzel (Goolsby) at free and Wayne (Jones) at strong safety. That was the change that we made about practice 12 or 13. Both of those guys, with all the reps they had in the summer, have settled into those two positions. I see those guys staying put. Whether it’s Jonathan Alexander, J-Mac, those are the guys that we have to find what their best position is.”

On former NDSU quarterback Easton Stick spending time with Skylar Thompson…

“It was great to have both Easton (Stick) and Darrius (Shepherd) down here. They came and spent a few days with us as coaches and we were out doing stuff. I think Easton and Skylar (Thompson) hooked up, got together and just visited, probably. I don’t know, I was never in on those things, which is great. We couldn’t be anyway, as coaches. That’s good for Skylar to have somebody to bounce things off of that’s been through the system. Whether or not they’ve texted or met, whatever they’ve done, I think it’s great to have somebody that really knew our system really well in Easton, who had done it for five years at a high level. I know that Skylar appreciates any conversation he does get with Easton.”

On Skylar Thompson’s performance in the early practices…

“He’s playing really well. He’s playing with so much more confidence. I knew he would because I just saw how much of a jump he made from practice five or six to practice 13 in the spring. I just saw his work ethic in the summertime of how much film he watched on his own and how much he was up here trying to continue to learn about our system. I can see in the first four practices that he’s got a great grasp of things. He’s already checking things at the line of scrimmage, which he wouldn’t have even thought about doing until late in the spring. Now he feels really comfortable with signals and being on the right page with the wide receivers and tight ends. It’s been really neat to see how much his growth has been. That’s just in four days, but now I’m really hoping and counting on there being some real substantial growth here in the next three weeks.”

On the cornerback position and guys being lock-down corners…

“I think AJ (Parker) can be. We’ll put him in some of those positions. We’re still learning the system with those guys. We have to be able to do both. We have to be able to play zone and be able to play man. Just to say you’re going to lock somebody down, that’s not the nature of what we’re going to do defensively as a whole. We’ll have to do it at times, but we’re looking for the total package at corner right now – a guy that can play zone, a guy that can play man, a guy that can tackle. The biggest thing we have to do a good job of at the corner position is to be able to communicate, be able to see things pre-snap and be able to understand what the offense is trying to do just based on the formations, splits and those things.”

On taking another step as the head coach at Kansas State…

“It’s excitement for me because this is the first year that I didn’t know what to expect come August. Having a system and having guys in place  year after year, you knew the progress they were making over the summertime and kind of knew what to expect in the fall based on a kid being in the program one year, two years, three years, four and five years. For us, we have a lot of older kids, a lot of upperclassmen, but with only having 15 practices with those guys (in the spring), I wasn’t sure what to expect. I think all of us coaches weren’t sure what to expect once we started the first four practices. Were we going to regress and maybe, not start from scratch, but start from practice five or six in the spring as opposed to hopefully continuing on from practice 13 and 14 and roll? That’s what we’ve done. As a coaching staff, we’re really excited and really pleased because we’ve put so many things in in installation, offensively and defensively, that were day six, day eight, day nine in the spring, and they’re already in on day two and day three. So that tells me the guys worked their tails off mentally in the summertime so that they could be ahead. Now we have to get those young guys, guys that are either new to the program or didn’t practice very much in the spring, up to speed. But, I’m really pleased and excited about the progress we’re going to make this month.”

On freshman quarterback Chris Herron working with the wide receivers…

“We want to see him as a quarterback, that’s what he is first and foremost. I really appreciate Chris because we have five quarterbacks out there and he wants repetitions. Wide receiver is a spot that you always get thin in fall camp. He went to Coach (Collin) Klein and said, ‘Hey, I’ll take some reps at wide receiver. I just want to be out there.’ The other thing I think it does is it allows him to really learn the system a little bit more by playing quarterback and then moving outside to wide receiver. The more you can grasp, the more things I think he’s going to feel comfortable with. I still see him as a quarterback this year and then we’ll decide where he’s at. It’s unfair to evaluate him as a quarterback even throughout fall camp. We’ll be evaluating daily, but after four practices it’s really foreign to him right now. He’s a great athlete, I know that. He’s a phenomenal athlete. Coach (Chris) Dawson would tell you he was one of the top athletes we brought in this year just through his testing and stuff. We have to find the best spot for Chris. We’d like to keep him at quarterback, but let’s see what happens.”

On the depth at linebacker…

“I was real pleased with how Eli (Elijah Sullivan) and Da’Quan (Patton) came back and worked hard this summer. Eli we just moved from the Will backer to the Mike position after J-Ball (Justin Hughes) got hurt. I can see the leaps that Eli has made and his comfort level and his communication skills. Daniel Green and Cody Fletcher are in the mix as well. We’re trying to develop another one, whoever that may be. We’re trying to find a fifth. There are a number of guys that are battling for that. We’re always going to be a little thin there, just losing Justin Hughes as late as we did and we didn’t have a big class of linebackers coming in. So, that will be an ongoing process of trying to find more guys that can help us there.”

On the linebackers rallying around Justin Hughes following his injury…

“I think the fact that those guys were on their own throughout the summer with the captains’ practices was good because Justin (Hughes) was out there with those guys during the captains’ practices. He was able to help coach a little bit with us not being out there. I think that Eli (Elijah Sullivan), especially, felt more and more comfortable being able to ask Justin questions, and Justin knows the game so well. They’ve settled in. It’s too bad, obviously, that Justin is going to lose this year. It’s great that he’s going to get the year back.”

On reaching into KU’s backyard and pulling recruits from Lawrence and its impact on future battles….

“We’re just trying to find and identify the guys that fit our system well. Keenan (Garber) and Jax (Dineen) both fit what we’re doing really well. Keenan is a really good wide receiver, whether we play him inside or outside, and Jax is a fullback within our offense – I think it fits and doesn’t matter who we’re going against in recruiting. I don’t look at it that way. I look at it more of find the individual player and see where he fits within your system, and if he fits within your system, I don’t really care who’s recruiting him. If he fits within the system, we’re going to try to go after that young man.”

On Reggie Walker sidelined during Monday’s open practice…

“He turned an ankle during the last week of summer conditioning, so we anticipate him being out for about a week. He’s already progressing pretty well, doing some things on the side. I would assume that he would probably practice next week. He’ll be behind a little bit, but once again, he’s a fifth-year guy that’s played an awful lot of football. He’ll be alright.”

On what Nick Ast has done to impress as a backup quarterback…

“How smart he is and the fact that he understands the system and works hard at it. The players really trust him. The players know that he’s going to get them in the right call and is going to execute at a high level. Athletically, he’s done a really nice job of making some plays with his feet, keeping things alive – he’s a big, strong player. I’ve really appreciated seeing him grow from early in the spring. He finished spring ball really well, he’s taken it right off the bat and started really well this fall camp. We’ll see how he does. It’s the situational things that I’ve got to see out of Nick and out of John (Holcombe II) – the red zone stuff, the third down periods, the two-minute things that will probably separate those two.”

On DJ Render continuing to take reps at safety after some experimentation in the spring…

“He’s going to stay there. He’s behind, obviously, mentally, just not playing defense for a while. DJ needs to find a way to get on the bus, get on the field through special teams. With all the defensive special teams, with punt and kickoff and different things, we’ve just got to continue to get him to understand defensive football more. Once he can help us on special teams, we’ll see how that translates to him helping us on defense.”

On Clyde Price’s future position and the possibility at helping with linebacker depth…

“Probably not this first year because he’s a talented running back. If Coach (Scottie) Hazelton was in here, if Scottie was in here, he’s foaming at the mouth. He’d take Jacardia (Wright), he’d take Clyde, he’d take a lot of those guys, but they were brought in here as running backs and we want to make sure we solidify that position and try to make sure that we have the ability to play two and three at one time. Plus, we’re going to lose two seniors out of this class with the two grad transfers (Jordon Brown and James Gilbert). They’re both really good athletes, all those running backs – that’s what we tried to do – you can take Thomas Grayson, you can take Joe Ervin, they’re good enough to play somewhere. That’s what we’re excited about, they’re not one dimensional. We’ll just see how it plays out, but all those guys are truly running backs right now.”

On the defensive back position…

“Johnathan Durham is running with the ones right now at nickel. We’ve tried Jonathan Alexander there, we’re going to try (Jahron) McPherson there. I know Walt (Walter Neil, Jr.) can play in there, we’ve played Ross Elder in there. We’re just trying to keep moving guys around to see if we can find that niche, so that’ll be ongoing. At the corner position we like AJ (Parker) exceptionally well, he’s a really smart kid that’s played a lot of football here. Walt would play opposite him right now. We’re trying to develop another guy, whether that’s Kevi (Kevion McGee), whether that’s D-Patt (Darreyl Patterson), whether it’s Ekow (Boye-Doe), there are a number of guys, Lance Robinson, that are doing some good things. We need to continue to get those guys repetitions so that they feel comfortable within the structure of the defense, we feel comfortable, and once that happens it would maybe allow Walt to be interchangeable with corner and nickel. Right now, we wanted to just lock him into one spot – I know he played nickel in the spring – lock him into one spot in the fall and then if we have to move him over we potentially could.”

On the wide receivers…

“I think the biggest thing is consistency. Consistency in alignment, consistency in the depths of their routes and coming in and out of breaks. Catching the ball is an obvious thing, but do they understand when Skylar (Thompson) checks a play that, ‘Hey, this is the route I have to run and I have to run a precise route.’ I’ve been impressed with Wykeen (Gill). Like I told you guys in the spring, I’ve been excited about Malik (Knowles). He missed some time in the spring. Chabastin Taylor has really done a nice job through three or four practices. He’s a guy that can go and catch the football. Landry Weber is doing a really nice job early on. Seth Porter is doing a nice job early on. Joshua Youngblood is a kid that makes a splash play. He doesn’t know what he’s doing right now, but he makes splash plays and will probably be in the mix somewhere as well. Between those guys and between the depth, hopefully, that we have at running back, maybe we can flex some of those guys out as well and try to create some matchup problems. It will be an ongoing deal with our wide receivers because with the lack of experience with the exception of Dalton (Schoen).”

On media availability during fall camp…

“When Kenny (Lannou) tells me there’s a media obligation, then we run the media obligation. He’s in charge of the thing right now. Honestly, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. I really don’t. He told me a bunch of you guys were out there today – I didn’t even have any idea. There are so many things we have to do, there is so much work we have to get done that I’m kind of oblivious to a lot of it. I know that’s probably bad to say, but I’m just focusing in on what we need to do every day to try to get the team better. If meeting with you guys helps you, this is what I’ve done in the past. I’m comfortable with that. You’ll know sometimes that if I don’t want to talk about something, then I’ll just say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to talk about it.’”

On freshman wide receiver Joshua Youngblood and the learning curve…

“Oh it’s steep, there’s no question about it. We want to make sure that he’s not just a one-position player. We don’t want to say, ‘Hey, you’re only a slot player, Josh.’ We need him to learn a multitude of positions at the wide receiver position so we can slide him and move him around. He has good size and good speed. He’s 195 pounds, which is a pretty good size for a wide receiver. He has really good hands and he finishes plays, he finishes practice. We kicked the ball to him and he’s on the scout team kick return and he takes the thing 80 yards. He’s running as fast as he can. He has innate motor that doesn’t stop. When you have those types of kids, you find ways to keep force feeding those guys to see how much they can retain. Whether he’ll be a part of everything in our package week one, week four, week six, I don’t know. If he can learn it, he’ll be a part of it quicker. That’s the challenge. I know it’s foreign to him right now, but it’s cool because you have guys like Dalton Schoen and Wykeen (Gill) and Skylar (Thompson) helping him out because they see what a lot of us as coaches see. He’s a pretty special talent there.”

On the depth at defensive line…

“Well, we do on the interior, for sure. We are playing a bunch of guys inside there – Trey Dishon and Joe Davies are in there. (Jordan) Mittie is doing a really good job. (Drew) Wiley is doing a good job. (Eli) Huggins is doing a good job. We have enough bodies there. We are just rotating guys in there. At defensive end with Reggie (Walker) being nicked up and (Bronson) Massie being nicked up – he’ll probably be back in the next couple of days – the guy I’m excited about and everyone is excited about is Wyatt (Hubert). He’s a no brainer. But, Kyle Ball, I didn’t see Kyle Ball in the spring and I told him about it. I said, ‘Shoot Kyle, I’m excited to watch you run around and play.’ He’s a guy that’s exceptionally strong, gets off the football well, it’s really hard to sustain blocks on him, and he plays the game the right way with an unbelievable motor. I think Kyle is going to be in for a terrific year. With depth, Spencer Trussell has done a nice job. He has a really good quick twitch, really good pass rushing ability. We’re moving Eric Gallon around. Gallon has been a linebacker for us, but we’ll slide him in and out of fronts. We’re playing him at linebacker and we’re playing him a little bit at defensive end because he’s a senior who wants to help the football team. He’s got a skillset that we think we can utilize some things at defensive end. So we’ll try him there as well.”

On anyone catching his eye along the offensive line…

“Evan Curl has done a really nice job. I’ve been excited about Evan. Noah Johnson has done some good things, playing center and guard. We’re just continuing to try to find the depth, especially at the tackle position. Duffie has done a nice job, Christian, but he’s a young player. We’re trying to develop eight, nine and 10 there and that’ll be on-going, but I like the way they’re working.”

On this being the most creative he’s had to be in the roster/team building process…

“You’re always trying to think a step ahead. We know the spots that we’re thin. A part of it is we knew the spots where we were thin at North Dakota State and you always try to think a step ahead as far as what guys can help you. You’re always looking for the splash players that you find a spot for, see if they can help you – maybe it’s in a third-down package, offensively or defensively, maybe there’s a specific skillset that an Eric Gallon, maybe helps us in third down or in a pass rush situation. We’re always trying to create depth. This is a long season, it’s a marathon not a sprint. So we have to continue (to create depth) – even with these young kids that don’t have any idea what they’re doing right now. A kid that’s really shown up to me, that I’m excited about, is Cooper Beebe. Now is Cooper going to play for us as a true freshman? Probably not, but I like what Cooper’s doing. He gets the game, he plays fast, he plays hard. Those are the type of kids that you develop and maybe there’s a four game rule and Cooper’s got to help us. He’s progressing well enough and wanting to learn, and you’ve got guys like (Adam) Holtorf and (Scott) Frantz that are helping a kid – those are the ones that are potentially going to give us a game somewhere along the line.”

On the four-game redshirt rule…

“I love it. I love it. I think we played eight to 10 last year. It allows maybe a kid that’s on every special team and starting on defense to get a blow somewhere and you play a young man. The thing that you have to be conscious of, and I think everybody learned from it last year, is one play equals one game. You want to make sure that you have something of a package together for somebody, or you’re going to play them on multiple teams so that you utilize those games effectively. You may be thin in week three, maybe thin in week eight, you want to make sure you spread those around if you can. I think it keeps the young players engaged because as they continue to progress, you never know when your opportunity is going to come. If you keep doing things well on scout team, keep progressing, we’re going to see what you can do because I want to have those guys have the experience of playing in a Big 12 game and still retaining their eligibility.”

On tight end Nick Lenners return from injury…

“He’s done really well in the first four practices. I don’t see him being limited at all. He’s cut it loose and so I’m excited for Nick.”

— k-statesports.com —