Zach Kittley coming around on heavy-duty run game with Tahj Brooks | Williams
It's quite a change to see Texas Tech football No. 81 in the FBS in passing offense. Just as strange, if not more so, to see the Red Raiders with the nation's fifth-leading rusher.
That style's not what Zach Kittley is known for. To the extent a 32-year-old offensive coordinator can have a reputation, Kittley derived a portion of his by teaching Kliff Kingsbury's offense to a young Patrick Mahomes II and for developing Bailey Zappe from an unknown recruit into a record-setting passer at Houston Baptist and Western Kentucky.
But with the Red Raiders' passing game slow to come around this season, Tahj Brooks has been a lifesaver, putting together four consecutive 100-yard rushing performances.
If that's what works, Kittley said Monday, they'll keep doing it.
"It's definitely a little bit different," he said, "but I think each week you've got to go into it saying, how do we win games? I'd rather win a game 14-10 than lose 52-49. I've been in way too many of those in my career, so I don't want to get back to that.
"Whatever it takes to win, so we definitely have some Air Raid roots. You're still seeing some of those concepts being called in these games, but if we can run the football the way we run the football and win games, let's run it every play. That's kind of the philosophy moving forward."
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Some Tech fans have been clamoring for that since shortly after the season started. They even adopted an acronym: RTDB for Run the Dadgum Ball.
Tech's commitment to the run game will be tested Saturday when Kansas State comes to town. The Wildcats not only have won seven in a row and 11 of 12 in the series; they also lead the Big 12 in rushing defense. They've been good so far at defending what's suddenly the Tech bread and butter.
"It's going to be fun schematically ... who can impose whose will," Tech coach Joey McGuire said, "because we're running the football at a really good rate right now, and we're going to continue to do that. They've done a good job stopping the run."
McGuire said from the outset of his Tech tenure he planned to build a team to play complementary football. Losing games 52-49 or even winning some 52-49 is not what he had in mind. In our first conversation after Tech hired McGuire, he derided the idea of, in his words, "Hey, defense, only get two stops a half and we'll outscore 'em.
"That's not the style of football we want to play."
Tim DeRuyter is OK with feeding Brooks, too.
"I'm not real upset when we don't score in 30 seconds and it takes five minutes to score," the Tech defensive coordinator said with a smile, "because we can actually make an adjustment or two on the sideline. Just to get that rest and get our guys able to focus in on what just happened because coaches are doing a great job all across the country of, what you practiced against, they're not going to run the next week."
Adjustments, contrary to popular belief, aren't made only in the locker room at halftime. They're made between series. That's always been the case. DeRuyter, who's spent more than 35 years in the college game as player and coach, says it's even more necessary now.
"You've got to (convey quickly to the players) that, 'Hey, I know we practiced against X. They're doing Y. This is how we adjust,' " he said. "There's that constant cat and mouse. When you've got additional time because Tahj is doing a great job of just getting first down after first down, it makes it a lot easier for us to make those adjustments."
In this recent four-game stretch, Brooks is averaging 24 carries for 145 yards, and some in the gallery of Red Raider fans are calling for him to get it even more.
Let's not get carried away. As we've pointed out before, the Tech offense will not operate at peak efficiency without contributions from Myles Price, Jerand Bradley, Xavier White and others in the receiving corps. You need look no further back than Saturday when Price caught 10 passes for 90 yards and Behren Morton hit tight end Baylor Cupp for a couple of touchdowns.
Kittley, of course, knows all that. He pointed out that the past few weeks are not his first time to adjust an offense. He did it last year to maximize Donovan Smith's skills as a runner. He did this same in the first month of this season with Tyler Shough.
Now circumstances dictate he maximize what Tahj Brooks can deliver. He's willing to see how long the Red Raiders can ride their new horse.
College football
Who: Texas Tech vs. Kansas State
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Jones AT&T Stadium
TV: Fox Sports 1
Records: Kansas State 3-2, 1-1 in the Big 12; Texas Tech 3-3, 2-1
Rankings: Both teams unranked
Line: Texas Tech by 1. Over-under: 56 1/2 points.
Last game: Oklahoma State 29, Kansas State 21; Texas Tech 39, Baylor 14
Last year: Kansas State 37, Texas Tech 28 in Manhattan, Kansas
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Zach Kittley coming around on heavy run game with Tahj Brooks | Williams
