ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill is impressed with Jett Duffey’s work at the Elite 11 and Jared Kaster makes the Rimington Award watch list.

Photo via Charles Henry @ Flickr.

Football

Kaster to Rimington Award Watch List. Congrats to C Jared Kaster for being named to the Rimington Award Watch List which goes to the country’s best center.

QB Breakdown. DMN’s Michael DuPont takes a look at the quarterbacks for Texas Tech.

Surprise Conference Team. B/R’s Brian Pedersen thinks that Texas Tech will be the surprise team of the Big 12:

Tech also has one of its best stable of running backs since the late 1990s, with the top three returners averaging better than 6.1 yards per carry last year. The Red Raiders have the unenviable task of opening Big 12 play against TCU and Baylor (right after visiting Arkansas), then things get much easier and set up well for a bounce-back year.

Luginbill Impressed With Duffey. KAMC’s Brian Holland talked with ESPN recruiting expert Tom Luginbill about Texas Tech’s QB commit Jett Duffey after his performance at the Elite 11 competition:

“With Jett you see it with how he carries himself, I think he has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder,” said Luginbill. “He’s not concerned with who’s around him, he’s not concerned with ‘oh this guy’s a big name a guy that’s got 20 offers’ — he doesn’t care about that stuff.

More there at the link.

QB Comparisons. 24/7 Sports’ Barton Simmons compares the current Elite 11 quarterbacks to a college counterpart and Duffey is compared to Arizona State’s Michael Bercovici:

Though we liked Michael Bercovici in high school (he was rated as the no. 22 pro-style QB per 247Sports Composite in the class of 2011), he wasn’t a highly-touted kid and wasn’t considered a no-brainer. Duffey has fought a similar uphill battle as the least touted prospect heading into the week but continues to battle, make throws and prove he belongs. Like Duffey, Bercovici doesn’t have the ideal quarterback body but he’s already proven that he can get the job done at a high level. For Duffey, stepping into a pass-happy system at Texas Tech, he’ll get ample opportunity to do the same under Kliff Kingsbury.

For those of you who didn’t know who Bercovici is (I didn’t), he filled in for Taylor Kelly last year, losing to UCLA (it was ugly, 62-27), but beating USC and Stanford in consecutive weeks. Bercovici finished with nearly 1,500 yards, completing 62%, throwing 7.8 yards per attempt, 12 touchdowns and 4 interceptions in spot play.

Weeks 4 and 5. ESPN’s march for the season continues and they’ve done week 4, against TCU, and week 5, against Baylor. As you might expect, they are giving both losses to Texas Tech.