Watch Coach Klieman’s Press Conference  |  Listen to Coach Klieman’s Press Conference  |  Listen to Player Breakout Interviews

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman and select players met with members of the media on Tuesday inside the Vanier Family Football Complex as No. 19 Kansas State travels to Morgantown, W.Va., to face West Virginia. Links to video and audio of Klieman’s press conference – which was streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ – are above in addition to an audio link of player breakout interviews. A transcript of Klieman’s opening statement is below.

CHRIS KLIEMAN, HEAD COACH

Opening Statement…

“Well, good afternoon, everyone. An exciting week ahead. Heading to a tough place to play in Morgantown to play West Virginia, and I know the guys are excited. We’ll get into our real first heavy practice day. We had a short practice yesterday. Looking back at the film from Saturday, a lot of the things happened that we needed to have happen to be successful. Baylor is kind of what we hoped for and planned for. That was the game plan was to hold on to the football. We had it for 37-plus minutes, be productive in the redzone. I think we had four or five touchdowns in the redzone. Then find ways to get off the field on defense. There’ll be some third down stops, there’s going to be some fourth down stops. If we could do those things, we could keep that offense – which I think is a terrific offense – on the sideline, and we were able to do that. Just proud of the guys’ resolve and effort. Great focus throughout the week. That was a big win on the road against a really, really talented team in Baylor. We’ve got to move forward this week. Many of you guys know that we lost Kobe Savage for the year. He’ll be out for the year. It’s really tough because Kobe was playing such great football for us, and he was devastated but we’ll lose him for the year and that’s disappointing. With regards to Adrian (Martinez), he is not out for the season. I had heard that was out there, but that’s not the case. He is not available this week. He will not be playing this week, but he’s not out for the season. So, Will (Howard) is going to be the guy. This is his football team, and I’m excited for Will. Everybody knows Will is playing at a really high level. He gets to play back closer to home. Jaren (Lewis) and Jake Rubley will be the backup to Will this week. But, excited about the challenge.”