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The Assignment: Kansas vs. Texas Tech

Football
Seth C

The Assignment: Kansas vs. Texas Tech

The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-0, 2-0)
Bad Guys: Kansas Jayhawks (4-2, 2-1)
Where: Jones AT&T Stadium | Lubbock, Texas
When: Saturday, October 11th @ 6:30 pm
TV & Streaming: FOX
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -13.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | Kansas
Weather Report: Sunny, High 88, Low 65

Much like Willie Fritz, I have a ton of respect for Lance Leipold. He’s won 172 and lost just 69 in his career and that’s a pretty great record. Granted, 109 of those were at Wisconsin-Whitewater where he went 109-6, which is staggering and say what you want, but that’s probably a ton of coaching and not a ton of necessarily having great players.

Jim Zebrowski is the offensive coordinator and this comes off of just one year with Jeff Grimes as the coordinator. That didn’t work out with Baylor and that didn’t work out at Kansas. Zebrowski followed Leipold from Buffalo and was essentially a quarterbacks coach for them and prior to that he was the quarterbacks coach at Minnesota.

Leipold found DK McDonald coaching the defensive backs for the Philadelphia Eagles for a couple of years before joining Kansas. Prior to his time with the Eagles, he was at Iowa State and bet he got a masters in defense with the Cyclones and Jon Heacock.

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

  • Scout Team Players of the Week: Defensively S Chief Collins and Offensively, OL Connor Carty.
  • Excited to be back at Jones AT&T. Have had so many questions about Will Hammond and his role, the running backs and their roles, and the kickers and their roles, and Kansas should be 6-0. They were dominating Missouri at Missouri, the receiver is leading the Big 12 in yardages, and the role of Red Raider Nation that it is not about throwing tortillas and when the defense, which is the best in the country, stand up and get loud. Our guys are going to be helping. I go back to the Utah game and have never experienced a louder crowd and I know we have a more passionate fan base. Utah found out how passionate our fan base is and I know Houston found out. During basketball we are tallying the missed free throws and in Utah they are tallying the pre-snap penalties. This is the biggest game I’ve coached at Texas Tech. Really need help with that. It’s not about the tortillas. We are the most penalized team in the Big 12, if you are going to focus on something, focus on when the best defense steps on the field that we get up on our feet and get extremely loud. Push it out on social media.
  • Red zone offense: Struggling with pre-snap penalties. Down in the end zone and have movement in the OL, we’re going to walk in on that play, movement by the tight end and walk in on that play. I felt that Cam Dickey scored. I think that’s the biggest thing and re-watched the TV copy. Going into that game we were 65% in the red zone, we have to focus on that. We will continue to focus on it.
  • Why is the focus on NIL incorrect: it’s been since 2008 since we’ve been that high. That was the driving narrative through the winter and spring. It’s hard to say that this team doesn’t care about each other. When the national media interviews our guys, they say it’s a tight team.
  • I don’t think we’ve come close, self-inflicted wounds. Both Utah and Houston, were somewhat close. We should have scored 60 the other night. 4 drops, 3 receivers and the other was on the quarterback, 2 of them were touchdowns. We’ve got more left in us and clean that stuff up and become more discipline. It’s not all on the players or coaches, a mixture of things and situationally do better. I think Josh Cochran is an elite run game coordinator. He is one of the best in the country, saw RB set the all time rushing record with a very okay offensive line and now we have 2 sophomore running backs playing at a high level and he works so well with Mack, they’ve done a great job with that.
  • Improve on the penalties: We are scheming up these plays, that’s what we do every day. Sometimes let’s just get lined up and get off the football and not get the numbers and the motion. Coming into big packages. We haven’t been good in short yardage and sometimes we are in our stances a long time. Need to do a better job of just coming off the football and score or scheme it up.
  • Everything is about today and this year. We have the opportunity to change the narrative. I have a group text with the 2026 commits and I’m thinking about those guys and the 2027, but it’s about what we do. We have a well-coached team in Kansas, Lance has done a phenomenal job. That’s why I think it is so important, they have a great quarterback.
  • Really to get to know these guys and what they are about and call them out on it and how they respond. That’s a big part when they are committed to you. They made a point during the TV broadcast, I texted Blanchard and told him we need guys like Skyler Gill-Howard because he is a voice in that locker room. We need to find those guys and search for leaders who are good football players.
  • Howard Sampson is doing a good job, going up against Romello and David, everything else slows down. He’s in a good headspace, got to meet his grandmother and that was the first time she got to see him live. That is building into a guy playing at high level.
  • I don’t think Upton kicked any against Utah, when Stone hit that big one we let it drive. The games before that we alternated. Stone missing them, he missed his aiming point, they were long enough kicks. Kenny felt really good about Upton 30-yards and in.
  • I have a good relationship with the specialists, I’m of the opinion that you can talk to them too much. When we recruit specialists there is no one that will love them more than me, there is no one more under pressure than the specialists, and they have to execute.
  • On Jalon Daniels: I think his first start was during Covid and against Baylor. He’s a true dual threat quarterback. The receiver is the fastest player in the country snap-by-snap. He’s run the fastest and has good hands. Last year they had a different coordinator, Grimes. They have one in-house now and they really attack your eyes and a couple of good running backs that are really physical. Told them that there’s no such thing as too much film this week.
  • Keeping 2026 and 2027 recruits: When you get an early commit, it can’t just be about money. Everyone has the same amount of money, Oregon, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Texas. What’s the difference, it has to be the relationship.
  • Will get a little bit like Utah, more quarterback design run, Lance has had a speed option. our edge guys can’t get pushed pass the quarterback and have to get better in the interior rush. Can’t be independent pass rushers.
  • When I talked to Coach Wood I knew that he was going to be really good at what he does. He’s passionate when he needs to be, lots of times in pre-game I say just do what he says. He’s a really good in-game play caller and I don’t want to discount what Rob Greene is doing with the safeties, Jack Teachey with the defensive line, Zarnell Fitch, with the line, C.J. Ah You with the outside linebackers, Darcel McBath with the cornerbacks, Coach [Dave] Martin helping with the safeties and star. I think this is the best defensive staff we’ve been around and there’s no question who is in charge and he does a great job of keeping things on-point. Really cool is celebrating with each other. How many times David Bailey head-butted a team mate.
  • On Kansas: They are a good football team, a physical team and the quarterback is a good player. They have the ability to pressure the quarterback. They are no turning the ball over. Great interception by Jacob Rodriguez.
  • I feel that the biggest thing that we need to do is fix the self-inflicted wounds. If we can do that we can play with anyone. We are going to get in a game that and it stays tighter longer that’s going to affect the game. The offensive line has more in them and it comes down to everyone staying healthy. If we can fix our issues we can play with anyone.
  • 5-star players committing during the game: It’s more of a coincidence than anything.
  • We are going to have some of the alumni at the game, we did it at Cedar Hill, a lot of the letterman will be in the locker room and I am hoping that they find a guy wearing their jersey and stand next to them at their locker. It will be interesting to see those guys. I’m just going to get out of Lonnie Edwards way.

Feel free to inject into your veins.

Texas Tech will be in Tempe next Saturday for the Arizona State game with kickoff set for 3:00 p.m. and broadcast on FOX.

Education: This week’s education is every passing concept explained in 13 minutes.

Stock Up:

  • I know that it isn’t cool to do this, but I would like to give credit to the Houston defense, which I get that some of the red zone issues were self-inflicted, but that Houston defense was pretty good before this game. And I’d also state that Texas Tech is 13th in the nation in points per play and 19th in yards per play. Those are pretty good numbers.
  • Want more encouragement? The offense is 10th in the nation in 3rd down conversions, which is just outstanding. Even more outstanding? The defense is 7th in the nation in 3rd down conversions allowed. They are a buzzsaw at this point.
  • Texas Tech is 7th in yards per pass at 9.6 and 2nd in the nation in passing yards per game at 367.8.
  • The Texas Tech defense is allowing 2.4 yards per rush, good for 4th in the nation, and is 3rd in the nation in opponent rushing yards per game at 68.8.

Stock Down:

  • I think that I am a bit concerned about the big passing plays. Statistically, I don’t think you’ll find much evidence, but it is something I’m thinking about.
  • Texas Tech is 130th in penalties per play.
  • Texas Tech is 135th in penalties per game.
  • Texas Tech is 131st in penalty yards per game.

Understanding the Big 12: Help me make sense of the Big 12. BYU appears to be rolling, but they have beaten what appears to be a not-so-great Colorado team and a decimated Wet Virginia team. they’ll play Arizona this weekend on the road so that’s a better test and then Utah. Utah took the week off after playing Texas Tech and host Arizona State in what looks like a terrific game for the Big 12. The Sun Devils also took a week off after defeating TCU the week before in a stunning comeback fashion. I think those are the best teams with Iowa State, Cincinnati, and Baylor all seeming like they are in good spots. Kansas deserves a mention too thus far. What’s the minimum number of games before you really figure out who or what a team is? I think it’s 5 conference games before we know what a team actually is.

A Surprise: Not at all sure what this will be. If you recall, it was when they did the AI ripping off the tape with the word adidas on the field.

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