Weis Teleconference Recap

Kansas coach Charlie Weis talked with the media during his weekly teleconference.

Weis on banning blocks below the waste …

The problem is where most of their issues come is in space. You are out in the open field and the block is below the waste. I think both NFL and college have done a good job of minimizing those to eliminate injuries. The real problem would come closer to the line of scrimmage like if you were running a stretch play to one side and trying to get your linemen to cut off guys to the back side. You are almost putting your offensive players at an unfair disadvantage. If you are throwing a screen pass and you have a rush end coming up field and not being able to cut him. There is a lot of issues closer to the line of scrimmage that even if their intent is to save injury it would really put the offense at a competitive disadvantage.

Weis on West Virginia …

Obviously this team is as dynamic of an offense as you could possibly go against. Between having a quarterback as good as they have. Having that one-two punch at running back and taking that #1 guy and having him where he is not just playing wide receiver but running back too. They have the smash mouth guy and then an absolute burner which really makes their offense very dynamic. Defensively you saw against Iowa State, they show so much versatility in what they do that they have been exposed at times this year because of the nature of the Big 12. They do so many things out of this personnel group that they play with that you could turn people completely free if you are not careful.

Weis on finding more creative ways to run the ball …

Really what happened is I like to be a 50/50 play caller but we were really inefficient in our passing game in all facets. The best players on our team are our running backs. We have morphed away from being a 50/50 team to being a clearly a run first team. That has forced me to spend more time with the offensive staff and think of ways to be one step ahead of the posse so you are not dialing up the same runs every week so the defensive coordinators who have studied you on tape aren't getting the same look every week. The runners are pretty good and the offensive line run blocks pretty good. It has given us a chance to hang in some games we wouldn't have been in if we weren't running the ball efficiently.

We haven't been lighting it up in the passing game so as we have evolved through the season I felt that it was important in my first year here to have something we are good at so we have something to hang our hat on a weekly basis. Going into every game plan we think how are we going to run the ball with what we have at our disposal with who we are going against. That's where we start every Monday morning. The rest of the game plan falls off of that.

Weis on the players getting the bye week …

I think that the Iowa State game that we played was a major disappointment. It was our last game at home and our last opportunity to leave their home field with a good taste in their mouth and it was a very disappointing loss. I am glad with the way the schedule worked out that we didn't play on Thanksgiving weekend. You can only get the guys up psychologically up in a short span so many times. I think we were set up to be kind of so we had a bye week while WV was playing. They had a chance to get it out of their system. This morning at 5:30 we had them on the field to get that Thanksgiving dinner out of them. I think that the juice is back and we will be ready to go this week.

Weis on Notre Dame's success this year …

I think the most important thing for me is I stay low profile and don't try to take accolades for their success. I think that it is really easy for a guy in my position to say that they are all my kids that they are winning with and be jealous or bitter. Take Manti for example. I love Manti. We will be close for the rest of our lives as well as his family and I. I think it's important for me to understand that it's their team and not my team. I have to worry about Kansas. There are a lot of young men who are having a lot of success that I am very happy for.

Weis on West Virginia's Tavon Austin …

He is faster than most people on the field. Whether they line him up in the backfield or motion him across. Just take two plays from last week's game. Take the punt return and that little pass on the flat on the left hand side. Everyone has angles on him and he just outruns everybody. That's not coaching now. I am sure everyone wants to take credit for that but that's just unusual talent and speed. He's just a very dynamic player. Whether they line him up in the backfield and give him the ball or line him up at wide receiver he is a pain in the butt that you always have to account for.

Weis on the team practicing early Monday morning …

Since I let them come back on Sunday evening, two things were accomplished. I gave them Sunday as a players day off instead of Monday. Since they set up the class schedules here around labs in the afternoon, it would've been too disruptive to have a Monday afternoon practice because that's the day they schedule afternoon and evening classes. Everyone is there and it's a little chilly out there so the easiest way to stay warm is to run around. I think it kind of got them out of the Thanksgiving doldrums where you are laying around the couch eating too much.

What we did last week was we used two practices to focus on West Virginia. We have a pretty good jumpstart on the task at hand. They were well aware of it before this morning. We treated last week, over half of our practice was dedicated to playing West Virginia. I think these guys are pretty familiar with who they are playing against and I am sure a bunch of them were sitting around on Friday watching that game on TV as well.

West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen

Holgorsen on Kansas …

They have played good then it seems like they have relaxed every other game. They will coach them up. We will be at a major schematic disadvantage going up against their coaches. They have coaches with incredible pedigrees and they have coached everybody in the world for decades and decades. We are going to have to regroup real quick and get together with a good game plan and play at our highest level. Our coaches will be challenged this week to go up against them.