Opening statement:
"Just running quickly through last week; I thought it was a great team win. Overall, that's what we stressed over the past couple of weeks is that it's team first. I thought our guys really responded against a dangerous and good football team. I thought going into the game that special teams and defense would be the difference in the ball game and that the offenses would kind of offset, and I think that was the difference in the game. I thought our defense got some big stops early in the first half and we were able to capitalize and separate a little bit. You never feel safe against anybody, but especially against Texas Tech. Then on special teams, I thought a couple players of the game were Spencer Evans; we thought we had to be great on kickoff and punt team, and Spencer did a tremendous job of placing the ball all over the field. Our coverage guys were just outstanding. And Drew [Galitz] punting the ball - he's a true freshman and played like a seventh-year pro - flipped the field with punts that were just tremendous and our coverage was excellent down the field. Those are things you never take lightly because they can certainly determine the outcome of the football game. But those are two guys that really made a big difference in the game the other day.

Moving on to Kansas this week, anytime you go on the road to play a conference opponent, you see that it's tough. That's just the way it is. It's always tough, it doesn't matter what's gone on prior, you have to go and win for those 60 minutes. We've been there. We've been witness to it, on the good side barely and on the bad side a few times. Every home team in our conference won last week, so it's a special deal when you can go on the road and win. That's what we have to do this week. We have to keep improving. We have some guys that are playing up at a pretty good level, and those guys need to stay at that level and keep increasing. Once you hit one home run, they want you to hit two. Once you hit two, they want you to hit three. You can't ever take a step backwards, you need to keep going forward. I like our football team. I like their passion, I like their energy, I like their intensity and I like their toughness."

On the play of the offensive line:
"It's safe to say that it's the most experienced offensive line that we've been around. What makes them so good is that right there - experience. Like I've always said, you can have all the money in the world but you can't buy experience, you have to live, taste and breathe it. These guys have all played a lot of football, a lot of good football. They've helped us win a bunch of big games and they still have a lot of hunger and desire. I think that comes from great leadership from Coach [Randy] Clements. Five out of our six guys that play there are fifth-year seniors, so they're not kids, they're not boys, they're men. That's the way they have to play, and that's the way we treat them. We don't treat them like a kid, we don't treat them like a boy, we treat them like men and they've responded this way."

On Seth Russell running the ball and if this is the most dynamic offense yet:
"I think it's a little early to start jumping out there and feeling really comfortable because you can't. We know and understand that inclement environments, inclement weather or a mishap here or there can flip the whole thing. So what we're really trying to do is be steady. Seth certainly adds a dimension that we feel like we can use if we have to or need to. We don't like to, but we felt like we had to and needed to the other day because of the opponent, because they're a team that can score. You can't have three-and-outs. You play Texas Tech and get three-and-outs, and you're going to get beat. You have to sustain drives and keep the ball and when you have it, you have to score touchdowns. He allows us the ability to do that. We still haven't thrown the football like we're capable of yet."

On being 42 point favorites on the road:
"I don't think that it's just our conference where it's hard to win on the road, I think it's every conference across America. I don't really know what happened last weekend, but I bet if you checked the Big Ten, the Pac-12, the SEC, the ACC, the AAC, Conference USA; I'd bet 75 percent of the home teams won the game, or something close. I don't know, I might be throwing numbers out there, I just know what it's like. So if we can get out of there 7-6, I'd get on that plane as happy as I can be, because it's set up now where every game is a playoff game. If you win, you advance. If you don't win, you're really fighting an uphill battle. So all we're trying to do is win."

On Seth Russell's running compared with Robert Griffin III's running:
"We ran Robert in 2010, we didn't run him much in 2011. A lot of the runs he did were ad-libbing, where the play would break down and he would take off and make runs. We'd diagram a few, but we knew he was an X-factor. Seth has that ability. Robert was an on-and-off again three-year starter at that time, Seth's had five games. I just think as he becomes more aware, I think his talent level and ability level is sky high, so he can really do a lot of things. The thing I like about him is his mentality towards being a really complete player. He's not a get-happy guy. He's a get-me-better guy, and that's what I really like about him".

On how many carries for Seth makes him uncomfortable:
"Really, one. You really don't wanna run that guy a whole bunch because we're not really a running quarterback offense. We can be, we don't really want to be. We know we're going to have to be in some situations. It might be this Saturday. We certainly have the threat there to do it, as everyone does, everyone poses that threat. We just happen to have a guy that can really fulfill that threat. We'll try to limit his runs. 12 is a high number, it really is. I honestly didn't know he had that many, I thought he had eight or nine, but 12 is probably six more than what we'd want. If he has four to six a game, I figure three of those are on his own and three may be called."

On Xavien Howard and Travon Blanchard stepping up on defense:
"I think we have good speed on the field defensively. I think we're at that point. I think as a staff we've done a great job recruiting guys that fit Coach [Phil] Bennett and that staff's system and what their looking for. In the Big 12 it's all about speed. You have to cover space, the field, and cover people. [Xavien] is a two-year starter now, high school QB, just gets better every time he walks out on the practice field. Very diligent, very disciplined, very coachable, and in a tough situation a lot of times he's locked down, he's on an island. So he's done a great job. Tra Blanchard, we've always known Blanch would be a really good player. It's a maturity deal we just have to go through the bad to get to the good and just understand his role in the system, and be disciplined and know what he's doing, and then you back that up with ability and that's where he's at now. The guy is a playmaker, the guy's long and he can run and he can make plays. I was a little surprised he didn't make that play in space the other day on fourth down but he'll make that more than not, he's a really good player and brings a good dimension to us."

On forcing turnovers, importance of them, against Tech, and its impact:
"It's gigantic. If you win the turnover battle and win the field position battle, normally you are going to have the momentum and you are going to win the game. Those are usually the three things that determine the game. It's big. Actually, on one of the interceptions we actually lost 23 yards, but we're not going to tell the guy not to catch it. Because he may catch it and run it back for a touchdown, you never know. We're not going to play scared back there and work it that way. If you can get the ball, get it. If it's up in the air, it's ours. Really, the turnovers in the first half, the strip and recovery right there, it might've been a 21-14 ball game at the time. And they're driving and we get the ball and make it 28-14 and I think we get another pick. I think [Xavien] gets the pick and we go up 35-14. It flipped the whole game. We let one get away right there at the end of the half. That was my fault, we got a little conservative and shouldn't have in hindsight. We should've cut loose, should've played and tried to get up 35 at the half."

On Patrick Levels' impact:
"He's a great special team's player. He's on all our special teams and if we were picking special team captains, which we don't pick captains obviously, I make everyone a captain that's a senior and gets through our program and graduates so they can put in on their resume, because I think it's deserved. But he'd be a guy who would be there. He's done a great job the last couple of years. He's actually in some packages defensively where he and Blanchard are on the field at the same time so it's not really that he's a backup. It's just a different defensive package than allows guys of that skill level to get on the field at the same time. He's a playmaker, he's very similar to Taylor [Young]. What makes Taylor so great is that he is very instinctive, he reacts extremely quickly, and Pat has those same qualities."

On being ranked AP No. 3:
"I think there's a lot of benefits, quite honestly, and not to do anything with national image or anything, but to do with the playoff committee. When it comes to that they're going to start their own ranking but if you start high you have a better chance to stay high. We've done it both ways. We've started out of the top 25, and ended up in the top 10. If you start in the top four or five, and you do what you should do, which is just win and advance, win and advance, win and advance, then you have a chance to be in the final four when it's all said and done. So you are not on the outside looking in, you are on the inside seeing who's coming with you. I think that's the biggest advantage."

On J.W. Ketchum no longer being enrolled at Baylor:
"I think there's a chance he can be back next year. Just growing pains this year, didn't allow him to stay at our University, he's a good kid and really hope the best for him."

On Seth Russell knowing Kansas Head Coach David Beaty:
"Honestly, and I know David really well, he's a great coach and done a great job. I know a bunch of guys on their staff. They're really good football coaches and really good people. They've been through four coaches in four years up there. Like I was going to say if Turner [Gill] had stayed the coach there we probably wouldn't have Seth Russell right now, that's how he became available, quite honestly. He was always on our radar, but he had committed to him and that was kind of in the transition with Robert [Griffin III] staying or going so we were kind of slow playing a quarterback move right there but Seth was certainly a guy that we always wanted and felt like he fit our system. The thing about Seth is that I don't really think it has a lot of meaning to him. He's a lot like me, and our football team trying to prove we belong every week. There's a lot of people that don't want us to belong, don't feel that we belong, we're just trying to prove we belong."

On health update after Texas Tech game:
"I think [Byron] Bonds could've played the other night. We've got some guys banged up a little bit which goes with getting into four, five games. I think there's a chance [Devin] Chafin could be back this week. I thought he maybe could've gone the other week, but his Tuesday practice wasn't great and he was real sore Wednesday. But I think everyone else is minor, so we've been very fortunate on that end."

On Corey Coleman's stellar stats and ability:
"I would almost debate he's only been tackled 13 times. He stepped out of bounds two, three times. He's a hard guy to get off his feet. That's what really makes him different. He's very capable with the ball in his hand. To me it's about passion and energy, and burning inside, that's what kind of separates him. It's like I tell him he's not happy unless he's mad. That's when he's the happiest is when he's mad. He's a great football player and great for our team."

On playing well against Texas Tech:
"I give all the credit to the offensive line because they were opening up some big holes. And our receivers did what they do. I feel like in all, it was a pretty complete game. In the second half, we kind of slowed down a little bit to conserve some energy and stay healthy and get out with the W."

On being the favorite at Kansas:
"You can never take any game lightly. It doesn't matter if a team is having a down year. They could have the best game of their season against us, and we don't want them to. You never know, so we just have to go out there and focus on ourselves because our biggest opponent is ourselves. As long as we're playing the game we know how to play, I feel like we'll come out with the win."

On the experience of the offensive line:
"They're old guys. They all started last year. They have a lot of experience, and that's something that you want as an offense for the offensive line. I think that's something that we have to have a dynamic force on the offensive side."

On running the ball against Texas Tech:
"If I have to then I will. More than likely I'll want to save my body a little bit. I'll give it to the guys that have a lower center of gravity. Shock [Linwood] is hard to take down. He's a big kid for his size, but he knows how to run the ball. He's been doing it his whole life, but I just sporadically do it. As long as I give the ball to the guys that actually run the ball, then I think we have a better chance of winning."

On his decision to play for Baylor over Kansas:
"Coach [Turner] Gill was a phenomenal guy. I had high respect for him. I went up there when Coach Gill got released and Coach [Charlie] Weiss came in. It just didn't have that same feeling. It didn't have the same family atmosphere. It was more like a business type deal. It didn't have that same feeling, but when I came to visit Baylor it was just like Kansas all over again before Coach Weiss. I felt like it was a good fit for myself, and it was."

On Seth Russell's performance so far:
"We love the fact that we have a quarterback who can run. Teams have to respect that about him. He can run out of the pocket like he did last game, so it's another weapon and it's something teams have to respect. If they don't, we're going to use it and they'll be trouble."

On playing Kansas:
"In 2011, they hadn't had a very good season and we had to go into overtime to beat them. You can't go to sleep on Kansas because they'll play up and beat you. They usually have that one game a year where they beat somebody or it's close. We don't want that to be us, so we have to stay focused."

On the newest rankings and whether it affects the team:
"A win's a win. Right now, I think all of the rankings are way too early to tell because some people have played people, but you're only four or five games into the season. I don't really think that's a resume to rank people, but I'm not the person who does that. I don't know what they're looking for. I just go out and play."

On the game against Texas Tech:
"The defense did a great job stepping up to the next level and the offense did great. We were clicking and it was just a great team win."

On how to stay at this level of play:
"We have to stay hungry. It's an away game, and those are always the hardest to play. So we just have to stay focused and motivated to do what we need to do."

On his career-best performance against Texas Tech:
"It means a lot. It says a lot about our offense running the ball. It shows our run game and shows that our offense has another way besides the passing game."

On his 79-yard touchdown run against Texas Tech:
"The offensive line was able to get up the linebackers. I was one-on-one with the safety, so all I had to do was win the one-on-one. The opportunity came, so I just made a move on him and after I passed him I knew there was nobody left."

On the running back rotation:
"It keeps my legs fresh, and it keeps their legs fresh. It keeps us in a good rotation, and it also puts pressure on the defense because we each have a different style of running. They have to adjust to that every time we rotate in the game."

On the defense:
"Against a team like Texas Tech, who could run a lot of plays, it felt good getting out there and limiting them to 35 points. A lot of the mistakes we made were self-inflicted, so after watching film yesterday, the good thing is we can correct those mistakes and make sure we don't make the same mistakes against Kansas."

On turnovers:
"Coach preaches to us, especially against a tempo team, to just get aligned and play defense. Forcing takeaways can completely kill the momentum of a drive, so taking the ball away and kind of getting the crowd out of it was a big deal."

On the upcoming Kansas game:
"It's all going to come down to doing your job, getting aligned, getting in your assignment, and then trusting the technique that our coaches preach day in and day out."

On the #GangGreenBU mentality:
"Against a team like Texas Tech, who can run over 100 plays and plays at a very high tempo, it's good to get takeaways because that will completely kill a drive. The faster we can get the ball back into the offense's hands the better."

On Saturday's performance against Texas Tech:
"It gives us a lot of confidence. Texas Tech has a good team, a good quarterback. As a defense, we hold ourselves to a high standard. We aren't really happy about giving up 35 points, but the good thing about it is that most of the mistakes were self-inflicted. Somewhere in there, we know we can make sure we don't make the same mistakes again."

On preparing for Saturday's game against Kansas:
"We take every game the same. Right now the biggest game of the year is Saturday against Kansas. We have to make sure we stop the run and make them one dimensional and predictable. After that, we have to rally to the ball, make tackles and force takeaways."