The Assignment: Oregon State vs. Texas Tech

The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (2-0, 0-0)
Bad Guys: Oregon State Beavers (0-2, 0-0)
Where: Jones AT&T Stadium | Lubbock, Texas
When: Saturday, September 13th @ 2:30 pm
TV & Streaming: FOX
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -23.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | Oregon State
Weather Report: Partly Cloudy, High 87, Low 66

Oregon State is in a bad way right now, losses to Cal and Fresno State, the Bulldogs by 9 and a special teams disaster for a touchdown was pretty much the difference in the game against Fresno State. The head coach is Trent Bray, in his 2nd season. Bray is an Oregon State alum, a defensive whiz and the de-facto defensive coordinator. The offensive coordinator is Ryan Gunderson, also an Oregon State alum, starting his 2nd year, and was the quarterbacks coach for UCLA for 3 years before arriving back in Corvallis.

The News:

/Condolences to the family of Rod Blackburn who was at the game with his family and passed away./
Crowd was incredible. Need a packed Jones AT&T. Players appreciate the fans. Very physical team, big quarterback and running back.
Scout Team Players of the Week: LB Gage Elder and QB Holden Phillips. Scout team guys take a lot of reps and give us good looks.
Oregon State: Has had crazy moments in games and will get the best version of Oregon State.
Clean Up: 91st in the country in penalties, are much better in pre-snap penalties, 4 of them are on special teams on big returns. Need to cut those down. Really drill it this week.
Players that Stepped Up: The running backs. Reggie Virgil. All 3 quarterbacks. The defensive front 7 when they are in the game they are affecting the game.
3 Reasons for Success this Year: Healthy locker room. It’s dove season and had 5 or 6 guys, Howard Sampson, and Tanner Allen and Cam Dickey and they limited out on Thursday. Have a great locker room. Hit home runs with the coordinators. When you have better football players, you are a better coach.
Special Teams: We are a drill oriented group, it is more the drills than schematics. It has happened on returns. Returners need to stay on the path that they run. Just cannot panic and hold the defender.
CJ Baskerville: CJ has come back, he’s a landman now and working around Midland. Cool to see him at Raiderwalk, and saw him and Drew Hocutt. Caleb Rogers texted and asked for his login to watch game film.
Amier Boyd: Internal discipline actions and will handle it inside.
Oregon State: Highly recruited quarterback. had a great year at Duke. Has a huge arm, will have to get him off of his mark, must pressure him. Have a good running back. Walker is a big target. Defensively, Taylor can pressure the quarterback. Are going to be a big physical team. Will challenge us up front.
Biggest thing is similarities between Utah and Oregon State is how big and physical they are. Defensive head coach. Need to match their effort and need to be the team that plays the hardest. Excited because we’ve done what we are supposed to do. They are a good football team and will challenge us.
Oregon State Offense: We will introduce the team and when you see a quarterback at 6’5″ and 235, seeing what they have done, it is easy to to understand that they are a team with talent and can play at a high level. Still about executing on our end. they play a lot of press on zone or man and Reggie and CD have got to go in and have some opportunities for big plays.
Marcus Ramon-Edwards: Hoping this week, he’s practicing, but not taking him to the ground. The tough thing with him is that it is a non-football injury.
Freshmen Receivers: Hope that the NCAA gives us 5 for 5 and should only redshirt should be a medical redshirt. If a player can help us win, they will play. If they are not ready to help us win, then we will stick with the 4 games. Helping win is a physical issue and not developed yet. Brock and the receivers, if they can help us win, they have to go.
Hunter Zambrano and Vinny Scuiry: Feel good, Vinny is getting back and played better in game 1 than 2. Jados is playing at a high level. Hunter played really well. Vinny can play both guards. Can Hunter play guard. Do feel good with Jacob and Hunter, do think Hunter is pressing Jacob. Howard got banged up and Jacob went to left tackle and Hunter to right tackle. Both played well.
AJ McCarty: Looked good and trying to get back in shape and dealing with hamstring and hip. Felt good on Sunday. Challenge the guys to come in on Monday and he’s trending in the righ direction. Between BJ, Oliver and Payton Morgan, feel good about high safety. In this game and the Big 12 is 11-personnel, John Curry can match up with a lot of tight ends and playing at a high level.
Lee Hunter gets the defensive line together and Skyler and AJ Holmes, they run extra even though we know they have to play to get into shape. It would not surprise me if they weren’t playing the entire game, we are 2-deep and feel good. Hunter played 17 snaps and he’s likely playing 35 to 40 snaps. Linebackers and safeties are in such great shape. Do think that the more they play the more plays are going to be made. Definitely a difference when those guys are out there.
One I’m proud of that could play more is Adam Hill. He’s done good things. Cam and J’Koby will play more in the games we will be in. Bryson Jones and Leyton Stone and Tristian Gentry. Gentry is a legit returner. Some of those freshmen receivers and Hill have surprised me. They are mentally and physically more ready than I thought.
A lot of people will miss the opportunity we used in the 2-minute drill, we are bringing in Mack, Shiel giving us an opportunity, Kenney runs our book, it is a lot more than 4th down. Stuff like that was big to get done and challenging myself on how to be ready. Coaches managing the game is the main criticism.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese on the arrest of Amier Boyd for doing donuts in the intersection of Boston Avenue and 3rd Street.

The Ride for Week 2.

Texas Tech football will kickoff at 11:00 CST against Utah, meaning that this will be a brunch game for the Utes and their fans.

Skyler Gill-Howard was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week award, the first interior defensive lineman from Texas Tech to ever win the award.

Education: This week’s education is every offensive philosophy described in 18 minutes.

Under the Microscope: I think that the Oregon State offense is going to be a much better test for this defense. The offensive line is fine and running back Anthony Hankerson is a transfer from Colorado and very productive. Maalik Murphy can also be really good, but he also threw a pick-6 last week that turned the game a bit. The offensive line consists of 4 upperclassmen with just one redshirt freshman starting at left guard so they are generally experienced. The defense will need to step up and I’d also add that the Beavers have two standout receivers, Trent Walker and Taz Reddicks will be the keys for the defensive backs this week.

The Chat: A++ on the production and broadcast from TNT. Superb work, embrace the place where you are, which is exactly what they did, particularly Mike Golic, Jr., because every place has something to highlight.

Roll of the Dice: Behren Morton was ready for the game and I didn’t see much of any effects from his hit to the leg against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. I do think it was beneficial for Morton to get time, he was very good, but not perfect and there were items for him to correct and that’s good. I get the impression that Morton is obsessive about his play and likes the details.

Stock Down:

I think the special teams needs some work. This is two straight weeks of some penalties and issues with returns. I would think that Kenny Perry will tighten things up this week, but do think it is worth watching.
Amier Boyd doing donuts in the middle of town. Seriously. Not a huge deal, but also not cool. I keep going back to blatantly breaking the law on something where you know you that if you get caught, it’s not just a traffic ticket. As a result, Brice Pollack now has his starting job. Keep the main thing the main thing.

Stock Up:

Terrence Carter dropped a pass and then made up for it by absolutely trying to carry Kent State’s team to a touchdown. He was trying to prove something.
Texas Tech’s offense is 6th in the nation in passing yards per game, 21st in rush yards per game, 4th in points per play, and 8th in yards per play.
Texas Tech’s defense is 5th in the nation in opponent 3rd down conversion, 36th in opponent points per play, 19th in opposing rushing yards per game and 36th in opponent passing yards per game.