Tech facing injuries; Kliff Kingsbury’s thoughts on Iowa State

AMES — When Iowa State faces the nation’s second-ranked offense on Saturday, it will likely be without three of its top receivers – a significant issue for an air raid offense. During his weekly press conference on Monday, Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury noted that Devin Lauderdale and Ian Sadler are questionable for Saturday’s 2:30 kick on FOX Sports Net. Dylan Cantrell has yet to play this season. 

As for quarterback Patrick Mahomes, expect him to be good to go. Tech’s gun-slinger dinged up his knee the week before vs. TCU but is feeling better this week, according to Kingsbury. 

“I’m proud of him,” Kingsbury said. “I know it shows his teammates what kind of competitor he is which is good for our entire program.” 

Tech is also expected to be without its starting right guard, Justin Murphy, who suffered a right knee injury vs. Baylor and never returned. 

KINGSBURY ON THE CYCLONES

On Iowa State overall…

“I think they are a much-improved team. They played Toledo, who is a top 25 team really close to overtime. They had a great game against Kansas last week. They are much better than last year. Defensively, I think they have done some things schematically that will help them out. They are turning people over and anytime that you have a senior quarterback who can run a lot, that’s going to give you problems. He throws well. That will be a good challenge for us.”

Back-and-forth between one Tech reporter and Kingsbury…

Is there a different mindset when you go into this game? I mean, in terms of how the players approach it when everybody has kind of checked it off as a win around town compared to maybe what you had to face last week?

“I hope not. You try to fight against that as a coach because you know this is a good team. Coach Rhoads has had a lot of success there. It is a veteran team with a veteran quarterback and they are going to come in here expecting to win. We had a close game with them last year right down to the wire. It should be a great game again this year.”