You have Texas Tech football questions, and we have answers as Red Raiders stew over loss to Oregon | Don Williams
The Texas Tech football sage Spike Dykes once said in the days after a tough loss, "People have to have something to complain* about. We'll let them complain* about that," referring to some forgotten beef. (Complain* wasn't the word he used.)
Folks have registered many complaints since the Red Raiders' 38-30 loss to No. 13 Oregon. I got more than 70 questions afterward. We answered one batch earlier this week. How about another session?
Q: What purpose does it serve to start a sixth-year senior when we are 0-2?
DW: Minor-league baseball is about developing young players without regard to wins and losses. College football is about winning now, using the players who give you the best chance every Saturday, including sixth-year seniors. As it pertains to quarterback, Tech coaches who've watched them daily for three years believe Tyler Shough gives them a better chance to win right now than Behren Morton.
And in college football, this week is the only thing that matters. If you're not going with the players who give you the best chance to win this Saturday, you're shortchanging the COVID-year seniors who came back for 2023: Tony Bradford, Jaylon Hutchings, Malik Dunlap, Rayshad Williams, Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, Xavier White, Austin McNamara, a half dozen others.
Also, Tech hasn't lost a game in the Big 12, and making the conference championship game is Joey McGuire's stated goal.
Remembering a Texas Tech icon: The legend of Spike Dykes: As told by those who knew him best
Q: Why is there a guy holding a tire over his head on the field?
DW: Motivational tactic by the strength and conditioning staff, taken from the movie "Creed II" from the Rocky series. Two fighters engage in a grueling sparring session, each standing with one foot inside a tire on the ground. Holding the tire is a visual reminder to beat your man one on one.
I'm more of a pumpjack guy myself.
Q: Why does it always seem that (offensive coordinator Zach) Kittley has no short pass plays except to the flat and up the sideline? Nothing over the middle.
DW: I charted at least 12 pass plays to the middle Saturday. The distribution of passes thrown to the left, to the right and to the middle was pretty close to even.
Q: Why does the offense struggle to establish the run game consistently?
DW: The run blocking needs to be more effective. The timing and the coordination have to come along. Rusty Staats at center and Cole Spencer at right guard are playing their first games in Tech uniforms. The returnees up front — Caleb Rogers, Monroe Mills and Dennis Wilburn — are starting in different positions than last year, and Spencer is starting in a different position than he's ever played.
Q: Why does Kittley refuse to run the ball with Tahj Brooks? Six carries for 66 yards, 11 yards per carry.
DW: People have harped on those numbers, but it was one game. Anyone want to wager that Brooks gets that few carries on a regular basis?
One of Brooks' carries was wrongly attributed to freshman Anquan Willis, so his corrected totals were seven carries for 71 yards. That's too small a sample size to draw any conclusions, about Brooks' production or about Kittley's use of him. Outside of one carry for 35 yards and one for 16, Brooks had five carries for 20 yards. The game before that, 11 carries for 39 yards with a long of 8.
Last season, Brooks and SaRodorick Thompson each averaged 11 carries per game and combined for 1,375 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Tech game-planned a lot of quarterback run against Oregon, and it worked. Tyler Shough carried 19 times for 145 yards gross rushing, less the yards lost to four sacks.
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Q: Bordering on embarrassing when your QB has two times the carries of your running back, and the running back is averaging 11 yards a carry.
DW: The quarterback had carries of 58 yards, 9, 7, 11, 5, 5, 6, 15, 5, 7 and 5. When quarterback run was that productive, they'd have been foolish to abandon it.
Q: How can you say Shough didn't lose you that game?
DW: One of the four turnovers was on a desperation throw to the end zone. Another was on miscommunication between two receivers being in the wrong place, one drawing a DB into the window of the other who was the target.
The unit that seems to have gotten a pass is the defense. Given a 27-18 lead, a rowdy environment and all the momentum they immediately allowed a 17-play drive ending in a touchdown. Then, given a 30-28 lead with 5:13 left, they allowed a 10-play drive to the game-winning field goal.
The Tech defense played well for a good portion of the game, but didn't finish. In this market, though, ever since the Mike Leach era, many have no standards or expectations for defense.
College football
Who: Tarleton State at Texas Tech
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Jones AT&T Stadium
Online streaming: ESPN+
Records: Tarleton State 2-0; Texas Tech 0-2
Rankings: Both teams unranked.
Last game: Tarleton State 52, North Alabama 31; No. 13 Oregon 38, Texas Tech 30.
Last meeting: Never played.
Line: None.
Game guarantee: Texas Tech to pay Tarleton State $475,000.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: You have Texas Tech football questions, and we have answers as Red Raiders stew over loss to Oregon | Don Williams
