2011 Texas Tech Football Preview: Red Raider State of the Union

If Treasures has Tech grads, Tubs has been bringing in more than one kind of SEC talent.

Good stuff, Trips. I actually learned something. And laughed. Winning formula right there.

Big 12 may not be home to the best coaches in the country, but with Tubbs and Gundy, it’s home to the best hair in college football.

Lots of great one liners in here. My personal favorite: Hailing from El Paso, Torres is the possession guy, he just hasn’t been caught yet.

I think Tech’s about a year away. Increased recruiting and an emphasis on defense will get them past the Leach years. If Tubs can develop his guys, watch out.

I’m surprised there wasn’t more reference to the epic Leach book. Great read. Amazing a guy that insightful and elementary on paper couldn’t leverage his smarts to a better ending.

Have at you!

Us tech fans are really gonna miss Lyle Leong. He was the greatest human to ever catch a football.

If I’m a tech fan I don’t know that I really like what Tuberville is trying to do up there. It seems like he’s trying to play it conventionally (vs the Leach years) and I just don’t see how he gets the afoletes up to lubbuck to rival what Texas and OU and A&M; can get (maybe A&M; isn’t relevant if they can finally leave us for the SEC).

If I’m Tech and behind Texas and OU and A&M; in the pecking order for state of Texas talent I want to be contrarian or unique like Leach. Maybe the biggest problem is the adapters to his system in Stillwater and Waco made them not unique enough- I don’t know.

As a Texas fan Tubs doesn’t scare me as much as Mike Leach. No way Leach loses to the 2010 addition of the horns, in Lubbuck, imo. We shall see though, but I don’t know that running traditional schemes with slightly better athletes (compared to the Leach years) but worse athletes than your conference rivals for title have is a winning formula.

You forgot to mention the mascot:

gotta agree with jc, the possession guy line was good stuff. nearly as impressive, if not moreso, was the fact that you put together a funny, informative sotu without many references to epidemic syphilis outbreaks and the fact that lubbock is a barren wasteland. well played.

and tceh fan, leong was quite the asian sensation, but i want to know whatever happened to mega(de)tron lewis?

Agreed, possession line ftw.

I can’t believe Kerry Hyder is up to 260 – and even more shocked that he’s a DT. Maybe they move him back now that Simmons is eligible.

Wulaw – As much as I liked Leach, I like Tuberville’s line of thinking here. To win head to head recruiting battles you have to play teams honestly. Tuberville’s bringing in amazing recruits and even as pass happy as Leach was, he never had a WR haul like the one that Tech currently has assembled in the 2012 class. Not to mention that never in a hundred years would Leach have beat out the rest for Michael Starts.

What you’re seeing now is Tech in a needed period of transition. Similar to Tiger after he retooled his golf swing (the first time) it will take some time to get back to winning.

Dewhurst is the backup at whi….weak safety. Cody Davis will be starting his 3rd year there. He doesn’t have the hips and quicks to cover in man, but he’s a good tackler, plays smart and has been a relative strength of otherwise disappointing defenses. He’s like a taller, heavier Dewhurst.

Langley may be on the light side, but he’s a strong player and a really good athlete. I’m of the opinion that the line will be the strong part of the defense. Scott Smith will come off suspension after 4 games and add some depth at DE.

Scotty Young is currently 3rd (or 4th) in line at QB. Jacob Karam is #2.

On offense Marquez has already earned a spot in the rotation outside receiver (Z). Their also playing with Ronnie Daniels at tailback, H back, and slot receiver. You’ll also see a tight end this year in Jace Amaro.

I have higher hopes than you in stopping the run. TTU’s salty defenses from the mid/late 90s ran a 4.2.5. Granted, I don’t see a Zach Thomas on the roster but the new scheme should fit a lot better than the crap we rolled out there last year.

Informative and entertaining, yes. But we need more insults and condescension to bring the fans out of the wood-works with their hair on fire. I’m not sure I want to live in a world where we Longhorns don’t get to condescend.

It’s going to be a tall order for some of these undersized guys to stay healthy up to the Texas game. Tommy T knows defenses though so I expect they’ll be ready. Fun writeup and this team is getting more talented.

If you could ease up on the feminine hygiene bashing, that’d be great, otherwise good stuff!

How are you going to ’dis Hanspard like that? The greatest RB in the history fo the Desoto Eagles.

No Wednesday practice report?

I think this was the most educational of the SOTU’s. Thank you, sir.

Small quibble, isn’t Nevada the place where Chris Ault and the pistol offense is from? That would be one of the top 4 rushing offenses in the Big 12.
If Tech is as deficient against Power running schemes as I think they’ll be than Nevada will expose that early on.

Several one liners got me. Well done.
 
Texas Tech feels like the gatekeeper of the league. They’ll beat the pretenders and fall to the teams that are more worthy.
 
The athletes they have at DE are surprising – I didn’t know about these cats. The lack of size inside is a little troubling, but TCU has shown a pretty good facility for how to scheme around that on key snaps.

I think this was the most educational of the SOTU’s. Thank you, sir.

Well fuck you. Not really.

Nostra – Wow. I was not impressed with Karam in high school. I’m no talent evaluator by any stretch, but I’m surprised.

4thn5 – No practice Wednesday, scrimmage today.

Nickel – Nevada O won’t be as potent without Kaepernick, no?

Tuberville will be a much more successful coach than Leach if he stays at Tech. He’s an excellent evaluator of talent on both sides of the ball, as he proved at AU. He is already recruting very well, not only at skill positions as well. And he can coach ‘em up once they get there. He tried to be something he wasn’t in his last year at AU and in his first year at Tech, mostly because of the existing inventory. They will play better defense.

Don’t be surprised if they sneak up on Aggy this year. They are going to be a solid program in the near-term

Yeah, Jake hits on an important point. If you’re a recruiting observer, the quality of talent that Tuberville is bringing to the Plains is pretty impressive. His evaluations are great and they’re beating out big-time programs for signatures.

Scipio- my point is- are the caliber of recruits he’s bringing in the same level as UT and OU?

If the answer, as I suspect, is no then how do you get past the big boys (and OSU and Mizzou and A&M; if they stick around) and win the conference without being contrarian?

Wulaw -
 
They’re beating OU in Texas right now.
 
And we’d trade for several of their guys. No one is going to beat us in state, so that’s not a very useful measuring stick.

Tuberville brings a lot of name recognition and can drop several familiar NFL names from his Auburn tenure.

Also, keep in mind that LBK isn’t the wasteland it once was and kids this young don’t remember a losing TTU squad. All they remember are the Leach years which at the very least were enternaining to watch.

The real question is — has Tubs upgraded the talent at bell-ringer??

Mack Brown would kill everyone in this thread for Michael Starts. Hell he offered Starts as a DT when we clearly think he’s an OT. That rarely happens in Austin.

By the way, good SOTU, I share a lot of your thoughts.

First of all, you take shitty notes, Trips, but well done on the rhetoric and big picture. Langely and Hyder aren’t bad talents (Langely started at Tennessee as a true frosh), but they’re also JAGs. I expect Delvon Simmons and the Juco guy Dennell Wesley to be logging significant minutes by conference play. Either way, I think Raider fans are going to miss Whitlock more than they realize right now.

We get Scott Smith back from suspension after game 4 and just in time for the Aggies coming to town. I think our pass rush with Leon Mackey and Smith will be on a good as you need in this conference level. I don’t see any 1st round picks at OT right now. This should help our secondary out tremendously. Bush, Richards and Aundrey Barr provide reliable and solid depth.

Tubs and Glasgow have scrapped the bizarro Ruffin McNeill LB stable and are investing snaps in the new guys now. Sam Fehoko and Tyrone Sonier aren’t what they’re looking for in the long term, so they’ve rolled the dice with Hubert and true freshman Dees. Both are an upgrade in speed to the Bird/Duncan era, and Hubert is actually bigger than either at the same point in their respective careers. I suspect they’ll make shit-ton more mistakes, but could create more turnovers. Putting 265-lb DTs in front of them won’t help their case, so if we’re having to overload the run game to stop everyone, then I expect big plays in the passing game to be the Achilles’ heel. That might not be so bad with a better pass rush, but this still feels like a 6th to 8th ranked unit in the conference due to youth, but talent to be in the top 4 for 2012.
 
I’m not worried about the offense. It will still be a 450+ yard/33+ point per game unit when it’s all said and down with the running game on the upside, the passing yards down, but the yards per completion up. I’m thinking about 160 on the ground and 290 through the air sounds about right.

Wulaw, there’s always execution. Even with a drop off in talent, a team that executes well, running a fundamentally sound scheme isn’t at as much of a setback as you would expect, especially when the talent gap is closing considerably.

Regarding size at DT, Simmons gave some quotes after practice yesterday. Said he is up to 286 lbs.

I’m not saying that Tech is screwed per se- it’s just I see a lot of people saying stuff akin to Scipio as Tech is a gatekeeper, tech is 8-4/ 7-5 waiting to happen, and of course last year they didn’t beat the worst UT team in the Mack era in Lubbuck, when we lost up there with pretty good teams in 02 and 08. Leach had them in the cotton bowl a couple years in a row and beating OU 2/3 and UT 2/6. I’m not saying Tubbs won’t do better, but I’m from missouri on that. Was simply wondering if there was concern in the high plains about going away from the air raid and being more conventional- unconventional has brought tech their greatest success in those 2 cotton bowls (and really unlucky for them that it wasn’t a BCS bowl in 08- that’s a tough pill to go 11-1 and not go to a bcs bowl- especially with the big 12 being fairly salty that year).

I’m not as worried about them as I was with Leach in the fold. At any rate, tech is easily my 2nd favorite team in the conference, if for no reason other than they have only 3 wins in over Mack Brown (granted all three hurt- big time) and they have provided hours and hours of entertainment (both from the leach era offense to their goal post sawdamizing with the Gap kids of Col McKinney).

I root for those guys way more often than not- so this isn’t a criticism per se, just wondering if their future is as bright with Tubbs as their recent past was with the drunken pirate.

Regarding Alex Torres, the kid is quite the athlete. I personally saw him play while he was at Franklin High School in west El Paso. He can play both receiver and QB. He had started his college career at Air Force, but after a freak fall while training, ending up transferring to Tech. Certainly, not very fast, but very reliable hands, a Mexican “Shipley” if you will. Always gives 100% and finds ways to make great catches. Has had serious back problems lately, so that might slow him down a bit, but still a real threat against anybody. See him as a late round draft pick one day.

I am not sure I would trust any of the weights on Tech’s roster. They have not changed in over a year. Simmons is still listed at 265. It was noted in the paper that he checked into camp at 295, and now he is supposed weighing in at 286 per his interview yesterday.

Wulaw – I think this is a pretty big year for Tubs to prove himself. In Leach they lost one of the best offensive coordinators in college football. The new guy, Brown, does things a little different but he still spreads the field out. TTU is still going to throw the ball 65-70% of the time. If they can move the ball and put up points this year then I think it is a sign things are back on track. I’d watch the OL though because I don’t think there is much depth behind the starting 5.

Defensively, they’re putting an extremely unconventional scheme. The 4.2.5 was built to help an athletically inferior team to compete. Glasgow is a new coordinator but if he can get things going then good things will happen.

There are far too many new faces to tell much right now about this team. You’ve got 9-10 guys that are true freshmen, RS freshmen, or JuCo transfers that will be in the 2-deep on defense to go along with a new coordinator. You’ve got a new QB and some new wrinkles on offense.

I’m just hoping for some progress throughout the season. I think the team is too young and the staff is too new to make a lot of noise this year. I think they are better than 7-5 on talent alone though.

Smith, Bush and Lackey (rotated just right) make up a book end team that might just surpass that of rivals Jeffcoat and Okafor. Scott Smith continually exposed the extreme weakness we had at right tackle last year. I hear from others that SLC’s Richards didn’t fare so well against our own Hopkins and Ashcraft in his prep years, so not sure he is the real deal.

No big news on the all-world Wichita Falls Rider receiver?

How about we trade you a McCoy for a Brewer??? Hey, we’ll even take a player to be named later to seal the deal.

Brewer has already passed Scotty Young on the depth chart.

Blu – Eric Ward was out with a concussion but I think he was back at full speed yesterday. He may be going the wrong way on the depth chart along with Scotty Young.

“I hear from others that SLC’s Richards didn’t fare so well against our own Hopkins and Ashcraft in his prep years, so not sure he is the real deal.”

There’s the hilarious film of him destroying Ags starting OT Luke Joeckel during their senior years. Shows why it is pointless to evaluate OT vs DE high school film. The DEs are usually going to be more advanced. If the OT is constantly winning, then you definitely have yourself a winner.

hmmm… as in big boys i suppose the wrongwhorn is talking about his 5 and 7 team…? the best team red mccombs can BUY? whateva homer…
as for the aggot writer aka tripping out, he has some rather obvious omissions. boy don’t know come here from sick’em!!!
doesn’t mention scott smith who gave the whorns problems before being axed. doesn’t mention perry either… hmmm, sure you even have seen this team? eric ward? stephens?
btw-those in the know understand that brewer already may be the #2 qb behind doege… tech won’t be world beaters this year, but will surprise some folks. i’m thinking more like 8-4. perhaps 9-3 if things blow up. next year, look out folks, better get your licks in now, cause they will be for real sooner rather than later!!!
WRECK’EM!!!
ps-don’t let the door hit you in the arse aggots!!!

Great write up trips. I thought you did a really good job for a non-Tech fan + you made me chuckle a couple of times.
I’m thinking 7-5 is pretty realistic. I’d be glad to see 8-4 and F-ing pumped to see 9-3. I’ll echo what everyone else said and go with “too young and inexperienced at this level”.

Ded – sorry about what’s been going on with your family. I’ll be glad when you’re back and writing legit stuff on the Tech fooseball squad.

Dedfischer where have you been brother? Us Techsters missed you man. When is your Next posting on Tortilla Retort?

Trips you did okay but missed several mid to upper grade Big 12 performers Davis SS , Perrry DT, Fehoko DE, Hybrid weak side LB S, Smith DE..
On offense Crawford RB , Marquez WR, Zouzalic WR/KR, McRoy RB/KR
Any one of them might be the key to an upset of the big 5 – Mizzou Ut,aTm, Ou and OSU.
O-Line might be a problem depth is needed. Def Line seems to be trending up in 2011.

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