The Match Ups
| Texas Tech Pass Offense vs. Kansas State Pass Defense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| It’s been incredibly frustrating to watch, an offense that can go from prolific to pedestrian within a week. It appears that much of the criticm has been leveled at the outside receivers for failing to get open and failing to produce. All of that is true and I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out why there’s such a disconnect. I’ve covered the entire spectrum in my head and I think I’m just at the point where the freshmen, Keke Coutee and Tony Brown, are too young to be dominating and the the two juniors, Devin Lauderdale and Reginald Davis, have to work on what’s between their ears more than anything else. I don’t want to be too hard on these guys. Being a dominating receiver isn’t easy. There’s only so many that can do it on a consistent basis, but you saw what happened to TCU when Josh Doctson went down (not entirely his fault, but his loss has a huge impact on the game). Kingsbury mentioned as well that at this point, the freshmen aren’t freshmen any longer. They’ve had 10 games. At this point, there are probably trust issues between Mahomes and the outside guys. There’s a point of diminishing returns and they’ve got to figure that out over the next two games. | |
| Kansas State | |
| Kansas State has the 118th best pass defense in the nation, allowing 288.4 yards a game. They had a terrific game against Texas, on the road, where they only allowed 99 yards, but they still lost 9-23, but other than that, they have allowed 441 against Oklahoma State, 301 against TCU, 336 against Oklahoma and 419 against Baylor. Morgan Burns (5-11/201) and Duke Shelley (5-9/160) are the starting cornerbacks, Burns has 6 passes broken up and 21 tackles with no interceptions and Shelley must be incredibly inexperienced (he’s a true freshman) because he only has 14 tackles on the year and 3 passes broken up. The safeties are SS Nate Jackson (5-11/184), 37 tackles and 1 pass broken up, and FS Kaleb Prewett (6-1/204), 25 tackles and 2 passes broken up. Morris mentioned this week that Kansas State likes to keep things in front of them and that appears to be the case. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Texas Tech |
| Texas Tech Rush Offense vs. Kansas State Rush Defense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| Texas Tech’s run game has been one of the more consistent in recent year and it’s been a joy to watch. DeAndre Washington usually churns forward for positive yards and aside from the Baylor game where the offense only ran for 106 yards, mainly a result of being down so quickly, the rushing game has been incredibly consistent the entire year. I think the coaches prefer the offensive lineup of LT Le’Raven Clark, LG Alfredo Morales, C Jared Jaster, RG Baylen Brown and RT Emeka Okafor. Okafor is still a liability on some level and the use of Brad Pearson is obviously intentional and I’d like for it to remain that way for the rest of the year, especially against Kansas State. I think this is much closer than I prefer, but I think Texas Tech is going to get their yards on the ground. They’ve done it the entire year on a consistent basis, I don’t see a reason to change my mind here. | |
| Kansas State | |
| Kansas State has one of the best rushing defenses in the nation, allowing only 142 yards a game, which is good for 37th in the nation. This may be a bit deceiving because K-State only allowed 61, 37 and 49 yards against South Dakota, UTSA and Oklahoma State, but they’ve given up some yards too, 242 to TCU, 232 to Oklahoma and 274 against Texas. On the defensive line Kansas State rolls out DE Jordan Willis (6-5/250) and DE De Marquel Bryant (6-3/254) at the end, while DT Travis Britz (6-4/293) and DT Will Geary (6-0/297). Britz appears to be the leader of the line, 28 tackles, 9 tackles for loss and 3 sacks, although Geary is right there, with 32 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks. Willis also gets behind the line, has 8.5 tackles for loss, 21 tackles and 2 forced fumbles. Bryant, at the other end, has 4 tackles for loss and 3 sacks. At linebacker are Elijah Lee (6-3/218), Will Davis (6-0/224) and Charmeachealle Moore (6-0/221). Interesting that Sam Sizelove (6-3/217), from Argyle and former teammate of Ian Sadler, is backing up Davis. Lee is your leading tackler with 47 tackles, while Davis is second with 43. Moore lags behind a bit, at just 9 tackles, but I’d guess he’s filling in for an injured player. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Texas Tech |
| Texas Tech Pass Defense vs. Kansas State Pass Offense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| These are two pretty bad units and believe it or not, I think I’m pushing on this one. Hear me out. The Texas Tech passing defense is only as good as the opposing team is at running the ball, but the secondary does do some things that create issues for opposing offenses. Hubener isn’t great, he’s not completing 50% of his passes and I don’t think its going to be his arm is going to beat Texas Tech. Texas Tech has a ton of splash plays that can cause some harm. The key will be keeping everything in front of them. Seriously. Just do it. Don’t get fancy because it appears that Hubener will not be converting all sorts of passes for first downs. | |
| Kansas State | |
| Eh, it’s a bit rough and inconsistent. Kansas State is 114th in pass offense, but truthfully, this isn’t the strength of the offense. At quarterback is Joe Hubener (6-5/211), who has passed for 140 yards a game, competing 47% of his passes and has 6 touchdowns to 6 interceptions. The receivers consist of WR Deante Burton (6-2/205), WR Kody Cook (6-1/200) and Dominique Heath (5-9/175). Burton has 22 cactches for 278 yards and 3 touchdowns while Cook, who is also the back up quarterback, has 16 catches for 257 yards and 2 touchdowns. Heath is the inside receiver and he has 18 catches for 218 yards and 2 touchdowns. Kansas State also employs a tight end, Cody Small (6-5/241) and a fullback Glenn Gronkowski (6-3/234). Small is not involved in the passing offense at all, while Gronkowski has 3 catches for 29 yards and a touchdown. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Push |
| Texas Tech Rush Defense vs. Kansas State Rush Offense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| I don’t think I need to go into great detail here. Kansas State will run the ball and it could get incredibly ugly. Hubener can run quite ably and I would guess that the Kansas State run game will get going early and often. I think I’m at the point where Texas Tech rolls out three linebackers (shocking, I know) and let’s see what we have. The problem with this idea is that if Kansas State doesn’t employ that extra blocker, then you’re at a disadvantage in the passing game, so realistically, that doesn’t work, but if Kansas State utilizes a tight end, then roll out all three linebackers and let’s see what we have. | |
| Kansas State | |
| The strength of the offense is the rushing attack, which averages 170 yards a game, good for 71st in the nation. It’s not typical K-State in the sense that they can just run the ball at will. That average is really about what they do, although they did run for a season high of 258 against Baylor and the big reason why Kanas State was in that game until the end. Being able to control the clock is an offensive killer for teams like Baylor and Texas Tech. The offensive line is anchored by four seniors, LT Cody Whitehair (6-4/305), LG Boston Stiverson (6-4/316), RG Luke Hayes (6-6/295) and RT Matt Kleinsorge (6-5/310), while the lone non-senior is RS freshman C Dalton Risner (6-5/300). I’ve already mentioned Gronkowski, but the other running backs are Justin Silmon (5-10/191) a redshirt freshman and RB Charles Jones (5-10/206). Jones receives the bulk of the running back carries, 76 for 378 and 3 touchdowns, but it’s Hubener that carries the load, running the ball 117 times for 411 yards and 8 touchdowns. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Kansas State |
| Texas Tech Special Teams vs. Kansas State Special Teams | |
| Texas Tech | |
| In my Ten Things I didn’t even mention the two Clayton Hatfield kickoffs that rolled out of bounds against WVU and those were killers and came at inopportune times. Hatfield has been solid at place kicking, but I’d really like to see Taylor Symmank back for kickoffs. Jakeem Grant maybe had a bit of an off-day receiving, but he was huge in the return game as he had 131 yards on kickoffs alone. Those are probably forgotten yards, but they shouldn’t be. Those were a huge part of the offense on Saturday. Clayton Hatfield has been solid, making 11 of 12 and his only miss was against Kansas State. | |
| Kansas State | |
| Handling kickoffs is Ian Patterson (6-0/211), who has kicked 24% for touchbacks. The K-State placekicker is Jack Cantele (6-0/175) who has made 10 of 12 and all 18 extra points. Nick Walsh (5-11/212) handles punts, averaging 41 yards a punt. Dominique Heath (5-9/275) handles both kickoff and punt return duties, but Burns handles almost all of the kickoff returns. On punt returns and Heath averages 8 yards a punt return. Morgan Burns (5-11/201) is really good, averaging 27 yards a kickoff return. That’s something to watch. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Push |
The Tally
I’ve got Texas Tech favored in two categories, Kansas State in one and two pushes. This seems about right, although both teams have played competition closely for the most part (K-State in particular, but both teams have had bad losses).