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MANHATTAN, Kan. – 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 the Wildcats’ contest against Colorado on Saturday. Links to video and audio of both press conferences are above, and a transcript of select quotes are below.

Offensive Coordinator Conor Riley

What concerns you most about the defense?

“The athleticism of that defense is very, very good. What they do, they do extremely well, and they have players that have the ability to do that. You know, you look at them, and obviously with some of the defensive backs, they play quite a bit more man coverage than, I think, the majority of teams that we do see and their ability to play man coverage, get right up in your wide receivers’ faces, and do the things that they do is pretty impressive. We watched it the other day and obviously their head coach is one of the best to ever do it. You know you look at the technique, and there’s two or three guys in press coverage, they all look the same. You know, as far as their technique, their foot patterns when they’re using their hands, and it’s really impressive.”

What do you see from Travis Hunter on the defensive side of the ball and what challenges does he present?

“Well, I think the easy thing to talk about when you see Travis is what kind of football player he really is. The more you study his film, you can see how smart of a football player he is. You can see that he is a guy who really, really studies the game. Some of the techniques that he uses, I don’t think a lot of corners in this country can get away with. And because of the type of player that he is, because of what I would anticipate, the type of preparation that he puts forth, he just makes some phenomenal plays.”

What kind of week did the offense have, practice-wise?

“It was a good week of practice. Obviously, you get back from a little bit of a break and there was some excitement, and then when we got into the lion’s share of our game plan, you know, there was some mistakes that we had on Tuesday but I think that’s very typical within a normal week of preparation. We got those mistakes cleaned up yesterday, and need to come out today and have a real fast, confident practice coming off the field today, Thursday. (Do you practice with any noise?) Yes, absolutely, and you know, you can look at our performances, and I think that’s a big challenge that Coach Klieman has said, and it’s a big challenge that we’re going to continue to echo. We have not played our best football on the road if you look at our two road games. It’s something that we need to continue to work towards is, you know, whatever may be, the distraction may be getting out of a normal routine that happens when you get on the road. If you want to be a very successful football team, you have to go perform very well on the road, and that’s what I’m excited about Saturday night.”

Defensive Coordinator Joe Klanderman

What are your thoughts on Shadeur Sanders?

“I think he’s a heck of a football player. I think he’s calm, he’s in control. He’s got a tremendous arm, very accurate. Appears to be very smart, you know, with what he’s doing. He’s running the show. He’s setting the protections. He understands matchups, knows what he’s doing with it. He’s a heck of a football player. There aren’t too many better than him out there.”

How will you approach his athleticism?

“We’ve dealt with guys that can extend plays before. You know, I always say there’s two camps of guys. There’s the guys that are going to get out and scramble, you know, they get out of the pocket and they’re gone and you have to find them, and then there’s the guys that will scramble to buy time to throw and to me that’s where they are at their most dangerous offensively is when he’s extending plays. We think their receivers do a really good job of scramble rules. I think he’s very accurate throwing on the move and so if you broke down—I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head—but if you broke down where their explosive plays are coming from, it’s because of his ability to extend plays and that’s how they’ve made their hay for a long time.”

Can you take anything from how you guys prepared for Noah Fifita and Arizona a few weeks ago or are they two completely different players?

“A little different. One of the things we gauge is kind of the average depth of the drop back and sometimes Noah Fifita was the kind of the guy that would throw the ball from 16 yards and just drift and drift and drift and made it hard to get there whereas Shadeur (Sanders) I feel like is more of a guy that’s going to step up, slide out, move around. He’s a little more diverse in what his stuff is. Shadeur is a bigger body and can step up and hurt you more ways in the pocket.”