Here is the Cliff’s Notes version of Kansas football coach Turner Gill’s comments at his weekly press conference today.

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Full audio has been posted.
• Gill thought KU played well in the second half against Southern Miss. He believed his team competed well through the whole game.

• Gill’s keys for this week: 1. Have a tremendous work ethic, both through the week and in the game. 2. More cohesiveness in play-calling on offense. 3. Play more physically and with more passion on defense. 4. Win every phase on special teams.

• Center Jeremiah Hatch should be good to go this week. Linebacker Chea Peterman is still slowed a little bit.

• Gill says bad communication on offense play-calling is a mixture of a few things. KU needs to get plays in sooner. Some of it is mixed signals from coaches on sideline. Gill says KU has had enough football games to have that cleaned up more than it is.

• Gill says the team wants to go down the field more. The coaches have called more deep plays than fans have seen, but because quarterback Jordan Webb hasn’t had much time to throw, KU hasn’t had many plays down the field.

• The coaches changed who was relaying defensive plays on the sideline for the USM game. Gill said he and the coaching staff takes a majority of the blame for the poor communication that took place last game on defense.

• Gill believes the kickoff return unit has been good, but the other special teams units need work.

• Gill says the two blocked punts have come about because of missed blocks. It’s about execution.

• Gill says he’s not sure offensive lineman Brad Thorson is ever going to be 100 percent from his preseason foot injury, but it shouldn’t impact his performance. He actually had a good second half. Gill was pleased to see Thorson’s improvement in the second half.

• Jake Laptad is doing some good things that are not showing up on statistics.

• Gill was OK with his pass rush against USM, though it still needs improvement. Gill wants his defense to create more turnovers, though. If Gill’s team isn’t getting sacks but is getting turnovers, the coach is OK with that.

• Defensively, Gill is OK with the defense’s progression from training camp. He’d still like more turnovers. Offensively, he didn’t know what to expect. It’s been a slow process. All that has to come together, and that takes time. Special teams is the area that Gill is disappointed in.