Avery Johnson Postgame Kansas State win over Tulane

uh Avery with the way the offense kind of flowed game one versus game two do you feel better about how you guys played today or still about the same feel a lot better kind of I mean scratched the first half this first half was really slow for us and we just kind of weren't connecting the way we wanted to but finished the first half with a good two-minute Drive put some some good things together and kind of just took it and ran with it in the second half I feel like we were really explosive in the second half we came together and really started to look like uh what what we needed to what was said at halftime between you guys coach said uh captains really stepped up and won the game what what did you guys talk about halftime to get things going I feel like the biggest thing is just like we're not out of the fight it's always going to be tough to to win games on the road and the biggest thing for us was just we wanted to come out here and we wanted to start fast we didn't um how are you going to respond when adversity strikes my biggest thing was just you know I out with the offensive line challenge those guys like hey win your one-on On's up front and we're going to be just fine and that's exactly what they do that that's exactly what they did we had lot of guys step up and um be you know vocal in the locker room and and just challenge the rest of our team and guys stepped up and and made big plays and ultimately we got the win today how did you and uh DJ know to go deep on that wheel route as opposed to throw in the B um so it it is a wheel route and it was just kind of you know my first read and pre- snap I saw there in man but I thought that boundary safety was going to run with DJ and when I saw the boundary safety go across the formation and not match DJ I mean I saw the buck try to try to drop out there and play DJ one-on one so I kind of held on to it for a little bit he ended up not even carrying him down the field and I just kind of put some some air and touch on it and you know let him run run under it where do you think you made the most growth from game one to game two you know just being able to battle through adversity I feel like this is our you know our first my first time especially uh being down in a game especially being on the road it's it's harder to be down on the road so we had kind of had to make our own momentum shifts and the defense did a great job um of getting us the the ball back and and you know in their their offense and then it was just kind of up to us to get us back into the fight we were playing from behind and you know we had some guys step up and make some big plays tonight and that's just what we needed how crucial was that defense with the scoid score and the pick at the end I mean it it just it goes to show I mean we had 8 minutes or so on the clock we think offensively we're getting two more drives uh defense gets a big scoop and score now we're up kind of thinking that the game a little bit different um and then you know we're thinking okay we might have a two-minute at the end of the game they run the clock all the way down and they use the timeout and throw the interception and at that point we know we can just kneel it and and um head back to Manhattan so it was a great feeling especially being on the sideline you running the ball at the outside how many of those were designed runs versus you reading the defense and then deciding that was the best play um kind of 50/50 I I don't know how many times I ran the ball tonight but sometimes it would be um drop back maybe feeling some pressure getting up trying to keep my eyes down field and then just trying to make the defense have to have to stop me as a runner as well that was a big Focus I wanted to to make this week is make those guys stop me as a runner cuz I am dangerous out in space and then some of the other ones were design quarterback runs some quarterback sweeps and read game just getting me out out on the edge and using my speed and and making the defense um have to play all 11 of us through the first two games how would you assess your ability to throw the ball and then the receivers and just the passing game in general I mean we're so talented at receiver um I I really feel like we're going to step it up for for weeks to come and we we haven't really been able to Showcase what we can do um throwing the ball down the field as much as we'd like but I mean at the end of the day we're 2 and0 going into week three couldn't ask for anything better and we just hope to get those those receivers more involved with weeks to come but we we'll find ways to get those guys the ball get them easy touches because we do have a really talented receiver group that we have not been able to Showcase yet is there anything you've learned specifically about being a college quarterback over the last two weeks I mean I feel like it's really just a blessing um it's a lot of fun to be able to go out here and play this sport play the sport of football at such a high level and and a lot of the relationships I'm building right now I'm going to have for the rest of my life so a lot of people Overlook you know kind of the the process and the experience that comes along with um you guys just see us come out here on on Saturdays and play a game but we build a lot of relationships it's a lot of fun just being around those guys each and every day day in and day out and um I'm really excited to to to be able to you know call those guys my brothers all right every thanks thank