Kansas State offensive coordinator Conor Riley and defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman met with members of the media on Thursday at the Vanier Family Football Complex prior to Kansas State’s game on Saturday against Arizona State.
CONOR RILEY, OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On if opposing defenses are playing K-State differently the last few games…
“No, not terribly different. You look at the latter part of the Kansas game, and I think there’s a little bit more pressure than maybe what they typically had done. You look at the latter part of the Houston game, and maybe a little bit more where they’re loading the box. How much was it? What the weather was like. Some of our challenges that we had getting the ball to the perimeter in that particular game, those are all some of the things you analyze.”
On if they need to be better against particular loaded boxes and pressure…
“I do know one thing – we need to stay on blocks much better. When you look at that – and credit our last opponent, and quite honestly, our last two opponents – I think that they were both very good up front. We knew going into it they were going to be very good up front. We need to do a better job at executing, and we need to do a better job of being more physical at the point of contact. It’s kind of one of those things where we’re getting a double hat on a guy, and we just didn’t get that much movement. That’s something that certainly we’ve emphasized and we’ve worked, and we need to be much better at.”
On Arizona State’s safeties and nickel do well…
“Well, when you look at their nickel and their safety, who I believe are their top two leading tacklers, both of them are aggressive. Both of them are very physical. They’re very active. I think they’re extremely well coached. I’ve coached against this defensive coordinator. He was at University of Nevada in 2021. Prior to that, he was at Western Illinois when I coached at North Dakota State. I just think he does a phenomenal job. I know the linebackers coach personally, and he’s a great coach as well. So, I think they’re very well coached, and I think they play very fast and play very aggressive.”
On if the offensive linemen took the last game hard…
“I think they’ve responded very well. I’ve been very pleased with how they’ve responded. They should – and all of us – look at how that game unfolded throughout it, and when we are called upon as an offensive line to run the football, we weren’t nearly as efficient as we needed to be at that very particular time.”
On if there were any younger players that stood out…
“Especially coming out of a bye week, you’re starting to see guys who are developing more and more this past week and for the past few weeks. I can speak to myself, I’ll start there – Gus Hawkins is doing a really, really good job. Navarro Schunke, both guys who have taken some of those reps during our developmental stuff last week, where I really thought those guys did some fantastic things. Tre Spivey is going to have more of an opportunity. I just continue to see him play with more and more confidence, and his knowledge of the offense is continuing to get better. I’m very, very pleased with him. I think Joe Jackson, his role is continuing to improve as well.”
On Avery Johnson’s various rush attempts per game…
“A little bit of it is what is the defense giving us when you start getting into some of the read game? I thought that they had a pretty good plan last week as opposed to two weeks ago. So, some of it is dictated on that. We every single week have a dedicated, what you’d call, dedicated quarterback run. Absolutely you do, and I still contend you need to be very measured when you’re using those tools. Then you have a little bit more of the read game. On some of the read game, you can see where he’s very effective, and you can see where some teams have done a good job of taking some of that away.”
JOE KLANDERMAN, DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
On playing against Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo…
“He’s a phenomenal player. He’s really good. There’s a lot of really good backs in this league, and it’s hard to compare and contrast them, but he’s right up there with any of them. Unbelievable contact balance, competitor. I’m not a big stats guy, but I bet he breaks as many tackles as anybody in the league or in the country for that matter. He’s a good football player.”
On what stands out the running game of Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt..
“The first thing that I thought when I saw him was how decisive he is. I don’t think he hesitates when he either sees what he likes or doesn’t see what he likes. He’s quick to pull it down and scramble if he doesn’t see what he likes. He’s quick to pull the trigger on something that’s open. He’s decisive when he’s pulling the ball in their read game. He’s decisive in their RPO game. They got with a really good combination of guys over there.”
On Arizona State defeating UCF without running back Cam Skattebo..
“Well, schematically they’re very sound. So that didn’t surprise me that they were able to move the ball and do some things. They’ve got a tremendous receiver core, too. When you put all of those things in conjunction, the weapons they have, I feel like they have good receiving tight ends as well. They got a lot of weapons. They’re not a one-dimensional team. Skattebo is just so good that people think that he’s the reason – and he is a big part of the reason – but they have other ways that they can get you.”
On if any up-and-coming defenders excited him over the bye week…
“There were several, but the two that just jump into my mind right away are Jordan Allen and Ryan Davis. We did a little bit more work with guys that – I wouldn’t quite call them developmental guys, although they probably fit that category – guys that have played some but haven’t been in the mix a ton. That was kind of the emphasis of our practices this past week, and those two guys were above dominant. There were other people I could name, but those two guys stood out to me as guys that were outstanding.”
On the importance of the front seven making an impact against Arizona State’s running game…
“We’re going to have to control the line of scrimmage and change the line of scrimmage. We’re not going to be successful tackling this guy if he’s able to run downhill or at 45-degree angles. So, our ability to get knock back, our ability to move, our ability to change direction, those are going to be paramount, as they are in any week in any run defense. Philosophically, that’s not us. We’re not a catch you and read you. We’re going to try to be disruptive every chance we can, and hopefully we can do that and keep him embodied up and stop his feet in the backfield.”