Texas Tech Football Scratch Pad: Ibeneme & McIvor Have Surgery; WR’s & DL’s Impress

Head Coach Matt Wells:

  • Two surgeries, defensive lineman Gilbert Ibeneme is out for the year with upper body surgery and quarterback Maverick McIvor had surgery on his foot, an extended amount of time, could be back in November.
  • Reduces it by one and can’t tell you who the back-up quarterback is, Jackson [Tyner] has good days, Jett [Duffey] has good days, who can be most consistent in the red zone and moves the offense and gives us the best chance to win.
  • Jett hasn’t won it outright, Jackson has done enough good things to stay in the mix, good things and mistakes by both.
  • Ja’Marcus [Ingram] entered the transfer porter in July and he contacted us, he has good skills, cover skills as a corner, but a safety body. Great culture kid and over-achiever, players have welcomed, they have been great. He has two years of eligibility, that’s a bonus for all three graduate transfers.
  • [Asked about Ingram starting] It will be earned, he knows a vast majority of the defense, Coach Patterson has changed some of the verbiage. He will need to win it, when you say win it, there’s a misconception, we have full-time starters and that’s not the case. We have depth at secondary, it gives you a lot of choices, we like to cross-train DB’s.
  • Three out of our six grad transfers are juniors, that is a major added bonus, similar to signing a JUCO kid, but they have played major college football and you want to add grad transfers that are coming from programs similar to us, you have to create that culture with every kid you bring in.
  • [Re. running back Armand Shyne] He’s getting a lot healthier, he’s been banged up a bit, he runs behind his pads, he’s a one-cut guy, pretty good in protection, he has played at a high level.
  • Maverick was hurt in the scrimmage on Saturday. Successful surgery.
  • [On Ingram’s legal issues] Ja’Marcus from two years ago, that was a deal that was handled on and off the court and never charged with anything, that was a long time ago. Wasn’t charged.
  • I think T.J. [Vasher], E-Z [Erik Ezukanma], KeSean [Carter], McLane [Mannix] is back to healthy and good to go, Xavier [White] and Dalton [Rigdon] have been there since training camp, they are very confident and playing fast, [Caden] Leggett can play either outside receiver and special teams player. I like where we are with our wideouts.
  • Tony Bradford, Tyrique Matthews, Dadrion Taylor, Austin McNamara, Trey Cleveland maybe. He’s passionate, he’s a young footbal junkie, comes from a good high school program. He grinds, he knows how to practice hard, short, but good motor, I think Eli [Howard] reminds him of himself because he chases the football. Just came in the summer and worked hard, he’s carried it well. Somewhere in there at 265-270.
  • Wideouts playing at a high level, Broderick Washington, Nick McCann, Quentin Yontz has played well at times. Eli is like the energizer bunny. Jordyn Brooks running the defense, he’s playing really well.
  • I think we like that, but we force that in training camp and in spring ball, we make wideouts, DB’s defensive line, I like it when we have guys who are injured nor not playing well, you can move a player or a veteran to another spot and I think it helps your team.
  • I’ve known Paul Randolph since the early 2000’s, he was at Alabama when I first met him, I brought him in at Tulsa, he coached the clinic. He coached at Tulsa right as I was leaving, so we have a lot of familiar friends and his background with Patterson at Tulsa, Pitt, and Arizona, great man and great man of faith, he comes to work. Very lucky to have Paul on staff.

A-J Media’s Don Williams and RedRaiderSports’ Billy Watson each have their notebook and/or takeaways from yesterday’s media availability. Williams’ notebook has quotes from defensive line coach Paul Randolph and RedRaiderSports’ Brandon Soliz has a separate post about Randolph, but you’re as covered as you can be with post-practice quotes. Here’s a bit from Soliz’s post about defensive lineman Tony Bradford:

“The most impressive thing about him is his character and who he is as a person,” Randolph said. “Naturally, it shows up in his work ethic. He is a hard worker, extremely smart. He’s committed. His whole goal has been, ‘I want to play as a freshman.’ He’s come in here and he’s really challenged the guys. He’s upped my competition, which has raised everybody’s level of participation and work. Right now h’es shown strength, speed , explosiveness, power for someone just being a young player … really, really a positive and major plus in camp.”

And this is from Williams’ article about the noseguard battle between Nick McCann and Jaylon Hutchings:

“Nick McCann has really stepped up his game,” defensive line coach Paul Randolph said, “but you know why? Because Jaylon Hutchings has stepped up his game, and so naturally we’ve got a whale of a noseguard competition going between those two.

“They’ve been battling all summer long, and what’s great about it is they’ve both been getting better because of it.”

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