Grobe: Zach Smith, Shock Linwood, KSU & more

Baylor head coach Jim Grobe met with the media on Monday afternoon to discuss Baylor's upcoming matchup with the Kansas State Wildcats on Saturday morning at McLane Stadium. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. CT.

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On the 2016 seniors…

“Let me just say, this game we will honor our seniors. A great group of kids. Twelve seniors will be honored. I hope we have great support at the Bear Walk. I think that goes at 8:30 and then we will honor our seniors pre game around 10:45. I hope we have a great crowd Saturday. It’s just a wonderful group of guys, and a group that has persevered through a really tough season so far. Really proud of these guys. They’ve been very, very important to Baylor football a long time and this year have been exceptional in their leadership. I’m hopeful we will get a great group to support these guys on Saturday and I hope we play well.”

On Zach Smith…

“Honestly, I’m not sure. I feel good about Zach (Smith). I think you know I really like the kid. One thing I was impressed with Saturday was his maturity. When it was his turn to go, he didn’t panic. He seemed really calm, but focused. I was just impressed with the maturity he showed by taking the field in a tough situation. Hopefully this week he will get more work than he typically does. He’s just the kind of guy that you want. He’s a smart quarterback. He takes his role very seriously.”

On running the wildcat package…

"The wildcat is always a possibility. It’s something that we do as a staple, really, especially red zone running situations."

Identifying the back up quarterback…

"Preston Heard is our backup quarterback. Preston is not a scholarship player. He’s spent most of his time running our scout team. Does a great job on the scout team, but of course that’s running off of cards. He’ll get a week of running our offense, making our calls, reads and decisions. He’s a very talented kid. He’s not nearly got the size that Zach has. He’s pretty nifty, he’s got good athleticism, runs pretty well, throws the ball pretty well."

Running back situation...

"We will probably be a little better depth wise Saturday. Shock (Linwood) will be back Saturday. JaMycal (Hasty) is fine. He’s going to be OK. We didn’t run him (Sunday), but I think he’s going to be fine. They didn’t find anything structurally wrong with JaMycal. I think those two will be good. Terence Williams, we will see. He’s really sore and we’re going to have to try to get him healthy, but he’s really sore right now. We will kind of see as the week goes on."

On Blake Lynch and Tony Nicholson's roles on offense...

"I loved what Blake Lynch did. I was shocked honestly when (Jeff Lebby) and those guys said we’re gonna give him some snaps at running back because he’s a wide receiver. He’s got good height and really angular. I thought running back? But he did a great job, so he’s an option. We’d like to keep him at wide out if we can. But he certainly an option. We will probably use Tony Nicholson a little bit at running back. He was a wildcat quarterback in high school and that may even be an option for us if we had to go that way with a quarterback running the wildcat."

What Seth Russell's injury meant...

"When he gets hurt, you don’t think you just lost a really good quarterback to help us win. You think we lost a really good kid. When we got out there to find out how badly he’d hurt his ankle, it just makes us all heart sick."

How Russell will help the team moving forward...

"Going forward he will be really good for Zach (Smith). He’ll help him with his development and spend a lot of time, I’m sure, around the football office. He’s kind of a football rat. He’ll be around Zach a lot. I know Zach loves Seth Russell, so it’s going to be good mentor for Zach these next three games."