Tuesday afternoon Charlie Weis and Dayne Crist met with the media to talk about Rice and look ahead to the TCU Horned Frogs in week three.
Kansas head coach Charlie Weis
On the team's injuries for the week:
"Let's go over some injury updates first. Prinz Kande, he tore his ACL and he'll be gone for the year. He's doing rehab right now to get the swelling down and then he'll have surgery. We have three guys that are day-to-day, (Brandon) Bourbon, (Kale) Pick and Lubbock Smith.
Injuries are definitely a constant concern with this team. We've talked about a talent deficit and one area I think we really start to see that is in our overall team depth. It's not capable of sustaining a huge rash of injuries. Hopefully everyone here can keep going and stay on the field. I certainly think Pick and Smith will do everything in their power, obviously we know Kande is done, hopefully Bourbon doesn't run into the injury bug all year again.
Weis with your TCU team breakdown
On TCU's defense:
"Although, they have this youth movement on defense all three levels are anchored by a very strong veteran player. You've got (Stansly) Mapunga on the defense line over there at defensive end, who has got tackles for losses and sacks and a heck of a pass rusher, high effort player leading the charges with the defensive line. (Kenny) Cain is playing in the middle at linebacker. He's their leading tackler last year and he's their veteran that kind of holds their whole defense together. Then (Jason) Verrett, who last year played more boundary corner than field corner, but you know he's playing field corner this year and he, once again, he leads their secondary. Although they're trying to infuse a bunch of young guys into the defense, on all three levels they've got a front line player that they can put out there that could kind of show them the way."
On TCU's offense:
"On offense they got co-offensive coordinators. Coach (Jarrett) Anderson has been there forever. (He) and Rusty Burns coordinate the offense together. It's interesting because they use multiple personnel groups whereas their defense is very similar to Rice in both style and mentality. You know their offense goes anything from 22 (personnel group), which is two tight ends and two backs and a wide receiver to 10, where you've got one back and four wide receivers. They go all through the gamut. They go back-and-forth and they're not afraid to put any personnel group in there and mix and match and try to challenge you, not only schematically but personnel wise to make you sharp. Last year, they were ninth in the country in scoring offense. They averaged 40 points a game and I think they're better this year than they were last year."
"The quarterback is where it starts and (Casey) Pachell, who is 6-foot-5, probably 225-230, has a strong arm and is accurate. Last year's numbers, I believe, were 25-7: 25 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. In his opening game against Grambling he was perfect. He was 9-for-9 and he didn't have to throw too much. (As a team) they were 17-for-17 in a game and I guess that's not a bad percentage. But he was 9-for-9 with three touchdown passes and threw for a couple hundred yards; I think just a good game for him to get tuned up. There's a lot of things to like about this kid and you know, but his arm strength and his accuracy stand out for me. One of the things that makes it a little easier for him is that he has a front line wide receiver who could play for anybody. (Josh) Boyce is a guy, who it wouldn't make a difference what team he was playing on, he'd be playing. He's a really, really dynamic receiver and he's not the only one they have but he's - if you have to pick your poison that's the first one you better be worrying about, because he's a very, very good player. Similar, they use multiple tight ends, like I said before, but (Corey) Fuller is their main guy. He's 6-foot-6, he's 255-260 pounds and he's a really good tight end."
"Now at running back, they'll play more - they'll go a little deeper, it's interesting because they have (Waymon) James, who is 5-foot-8, 200-205 pounds and is strong and he's quick. Sometimes people correlate short with small; he's not small. He's just short. They complement him with (Matthew) Tucker who is 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, so between the two of them you have your hands full."
"Then, you get to their offensive line and it starts with the two big offensive tackles, you know you got (Tayo) Fabuluje, at their left tackle and then they have this freshman (Aviante) Collins. They're both 6-foot-6, well over 300 pounds. Collins, I think, has got a very, very bright future. He plays to right tackle, he's a freak athlete. He comes from an athletic family and then they're really solid inside with (Eric) Tausch and (James) Fry and (Blaize) Foltz, who happens to be a Kansas native."
On TCU's special teams:
"We get to special teams, the only thing I'm a little confused on is (Ryan) DeNucci is listed as a kicker and a punter, but he doesn't start at either one of them. (Jaden) Oberkrom was really the starting kicker and (Cale) Patterson was the starting punter, so I'm not really sure what's going on there with DeNucci. You've got two home run hitters in the return game. (Josh) Boyce is the home run hitter on kickoff returns and a backup corner by the name of Deante' Gray is a home run hitter at punt returns. So, you're challenged with all three facets (of the game). They're solid on defense, like they always have been, but now where they've made the most progress is now they've become a really threatening offensive team and with a couple home run hitters on special teams, so we're going to have our work cut out for us."
Honestly I used to think this game had a glimmer of hope in terms of a potential upset. After our performance these past two weeks, and the performance by TCU, that just isn't in my mind right now. I'll be ready with bells on come Saturday morning, but it will be more due to my hope that this team competes. That's what I want to see.
On if he needs to do anything differently to run the ball against TCU:
"Let's face it, you got a top line defensive staff, you just played the (same) scheme - the almost identical scheme - last week so you schemed that scheme, besides your players you created some running lanes, but he's (defensive coordinator Dick Bumpas) going to take that away; he's not going to sit there and say, ‘Okay they were running that, so I'm going to let him run - let them have those plays'. So what that forces you to do is come up with new ideas, you know, we're over here meeting, too, in case you were wondering. I think that we feel pretty confident that we have ways to attack them in the running game."
I'll be anxious to see the new ideas and I hope we save or develop more ideas for the 4th quarter in case we need them.
On how he handled the psyche of the team after Saturday's loss:
"I let them be in the tank Saturday night, because I was in it, too. I just can't act that way. But you know, by Sunday morning, after watching the tape, meeting with the staff and getting together with the players and going out there (we were over it). Practicing is the best medicine. The best medicine in sports is to go out there and play again; that's the best medicine. So I mean - once we got out there Sunday afternoon and got through stretching and start hitting each other again - you've already moved on, so I let them sulk for Saturday night and then Sunday we were back to work. It's good doing it that way, because by the time they leave on Sunday, it's kind of behind them and that doesn't mean it's okay, that doesn't mean it's acceptable, but it's behind them and you can be moving forward."
Just a few tidbits on handling the loss. I don't disagree with the approach. I certainly still feel better with the approach by Weis than anything I ever saw these past two years. I guess the only concern is still whether or not Weis is a coach that can DEVELOP talent. Rivet hinted at it and I think that's what Kansas is always going to need to be successful. Yes Weis is billed as a strong schematic coach, but does he have a track record of developing talent. We also know that we've gone from a coach that was very lax to a coach with discipline, but that has to be geared toward personnel development at Kansas if we're really going to see change. We're only two games in so plenty of time to evaluate this, but something to watch.