The Assignment

Good Guys: Texas Tech Red Raiders (6-0, 3-0)
Bad Guys: Arizona State Sun Devils (4-2, 2-1)
Where: Mountain American Stadium | Tempe, Arizona
When: Saturday, October 18th @ 3:00 pm
TV & Streaming: FOX
Radio: The Varsity Network
The Line: Texas Tech -11.5
Game Notes: Texas Tech | Arizona State
Weather Report: Sunny, High 81, Low 61

Kenny Dillingham and his no-nonsense attitude enters the chat. Dillingham is an alum and he absolutely says what’s exactly on his mind. After losing to Utah 42-10, Dillingham did not mince words:

“They just outcoached us, outplayed us, absolutely whooped our butt, and it’s the first time we’ve really gotten whooped like that in a long time. I think they just fired off the ball. I mean, I wish there was a better way to put it. We got to go back to the fundamentals of defeating blocks and tackling.”

It did not help matters as Sam Levitt was unavailable. Arizona State’s offense is predicated on the typical up-tempo and RPO type of offense that works great when it has a quarterback like Leavitt and a running back like Cam Skattebo. Marcus Arroyo is the offensive coordinator, previously at UNLV as the head coach and prior to that at Oregon as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. And prior to Oregon, Arroyo as at Oklahoma State for a couple of years, so he does have some familiarity with the Big 12. Defensively, the Sun Devils are led by Brian Ward, who was leading the Washington State defense (when they were good) a few years ago. Ward’s defenses try to create chaos, but maybe this team just doesn’t have the horses to do that this year.

The News:

Non-transcript of head coach Joey McGuire.

• Scout Team: Offensive Player of the Week – Kye Powell; Defensive Player of the Week – Luke Dillingham
• Huge week. Playing the reigning Big 12 Champions. Homecoming for them and an alternate uniform. Expect a loud crowed and done a phenomenal job and one of the brightest coaches in the game. Expecting a tough game. Have the best training, strength and doctors in the country.
• Special teams are playing at a high level, the kickers have been a big surprise. Doing a great job and not allowing a lot of yardage on returns. Would give them an A.
• Proud of what the offense has done, scored a lot of points. We’re right there, probably a B+. Take away the 2 15-yard penalties that we didn’t control, best game in penalties, maybe 5 for the night. They have responded and the pre-snap was on the quarterback.
• Hard not to give the defense an A, the starting defense. Points scored go down when you have the best on the field. If we can stay away from self-inflicted wounds, 14 points given up on blown coverages. Think we can play better.
• I think we have an older team. 9, 31, and 33 are going to phoenix, when you have guys like that, our big boys and our top-dogs sign in first class. I’m going to walk by Jake Rodriguez on the plan, we have a good opportunity to win a game. We’ve talked a lot about business trip. Special forces have never won a game on the road and talked about being mission focused. But the players are going out and competing at a higher level.
• I try to stay in my lane, my lane is making sure I’m giving the coordinators everything that they can have to be successful. Focus on practice and starting to get everyone healthy and feeling good.
• Tristian Gentry: He should practice tomorrow. We are riding the hot hand and we expect Coy to be the punt returner and we have 75 guys that can go on that plane.
• Two weeks ago, Houston really focused on Romello and Bailey capitalized on that. You have to pick your poison or leave your running back and tight end in. We did a deal that grades every college play. Stats aren’t always what pushes your grades up, the effort you are playing and how you are helping your teammates. I thought he played really well. His get-off and twitch, he’s playing at a high level.
• I expect him to play. Thought process is that if he was really banged up, going into Utah, get as healthy as he can. He’s really talented and extends plays with his feet. He’s going to play on Sundays. One of the best receivers in the country, great ball-skills and high points the ball. Knows where Tyson is. They have a really good tight end, he catches the ball well. Have a J’Koby Williams, #5, I think he’s leading the Big 12 in rushing. They are really good on offense and expect Sam to play.
• Update: Behren is day-to-day, he feels a lot better than after the Arkansas Pine Bluff game. He’s the toughest kid I’ve ever coached. His pain tolerance and care-factor is high. Skyler Gill-Howard, will know a lot more by Thursday, it’s an ankle. Want to send him to an expert in Dallas to see how fast we can get him back and what we need to do. He’s more questionable. We’ll see. Everybody else is football banged up. Movement is medicine and by the time we get to Tuesday, they feel pretty good.
• If it was a normal situation, I would be in a full blown quarterback. Two years ago our quarterback didn’t practice for 7 straight games. He’s so different and so lucky to have him and would be more in a panic if I didn’t have Will Hammond. Mitch Griffis play off each other and Mack and Lindsey Scott prepare those guys. No cut-off date with Morton. With Jacob Rodriguez, he’ll tell you that he wants to get reps and needs to see it and move around with it. Behren is not like that. It is muscle soreness and with the shin. There’s no swelling like the last time.
• Never thought about it until Rob Greene and camp. Chapman Lewis has been taking reps in the walk-through room. Rob has been doing that since camp and has had injured guys take the walk-throughs. Chapman has been doing that and makes a big difference. Sheil did it with Rodriguez and never thought about it on the injured side until Rob did it.
• It’s a mixture of some of it is doing a better job of getting into the right spots and make windows a bit different. Some of it is giving something up to take something away.
• Part of it is to make sure he feels good to make sure he feels good to cut it loose. He’s tough. He was playing really well. Touchdown to Carter. Playing at a high level.
• We have our team meeting tomorrow and make sure our guys know that. That’s why it’s homecoming and an alternative jersey. It is constantly finding things to poke the bear and get guys going. Two weeks ago it was Barstool saying we weren’t Georgia, Ohio State, or Alabama. We’re Texas Tech. Sent a text to Josh Pate to thank him for saying we were going to come down.
• They have been good. We have had so many guys who have played so many snaps. Guys have personal goals and team goals. They have handled it well.
• It is constant, Kirby and the administration, i was saving it for next week, Cody Campbell was saying the same thing. Before I leave this earth I want to see Texas Tech to win the Big 12, going to take everyone and all of us. Are you one of us? Are you that passionate, or is it about you? It’s important to understand. We are going to have a great crowd in Arizona. Fired up to see the Red Raiders, to do something special it takes everyone being on the same page.
• We’ve been doing that, but haven’t been good at sacking the quarterback. Got a text from them on the amount of money that was raised, sent it to the front 7 and have put it on the power points, and sent it to the front 7, all of this stuff in feeling sorry for yourself or sore, if you have an attitude of gratitude. It is impossible for those things when you are a servant and helping people. We are sending that stuff out, they want to hit the quarterback no matter what, but this is a good purpose.
• We rotate a couple through, the first week, Coy was in there, Ben was in there. If you are a big young guy, there’s 20 that sit up there. It’s cool to see these reactions and Terrence Carter and he’s never flown in first class. You’ve got large humans. Can’t imagine Howard Sampson squeezing in a regular seat. Some of the older guys.
• Gill-Howard it was an ankle, tough because it was friendly fire. He’s passionate every day. He’ll be out there tomorrow if he’s not flying to Dallas. He’ll get us going.
• Our relationships is great now, we’ve texted and we’re going to get on the phone. There is people that do good things and it doesn’t matter where he’s at and he’s done it at a high level to get where he is at. Have a lot of respect for him. In the midst of competition where you are at a high level of adrenaline, you say stuff and you get over it and figure out how to get passed it.
• If you are a big guy and play on the offensive or defensive line, you should come to Texas Tech.

Texas Tech and Oklahoma State will kickoff at 3:00 p.m. on October 25th with the game being broadcast on ESPN2 or ESPNU.

RB Cameron Dickey and DE David Bailey received the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week respectively.

Feel free to inject into your veins (again).

Education: This week’s education is every passing concept and why they work.

Stock Up:

• The Texas Tech offense is currently sitting 11th in the nation in yards per play, 6.7, and 8th in points per play, at .552. It feels really unconventional at times, but I also don’t really ever feel that I know what the offense is going to do.
• Same metrics for the defense? 5th in the nation in opponent points per play at .191 and 3rd in opponent yards per play at 3.9.
• Texas Tech is 39th in the nation in field goal conversion and is 4th in the nation in field goal attempts at 16, which is tied for 4th. That seems like a lot, but maybe when you score as much as Texas Tech is doing, it’s not that much.
• I tried to find the statistic that Texas Tech is best at and it is yards per game, currently sitting 2nd in the nation at 531 yards a game.

Stock Down:

• Do you know what you haven’t seen? McGuire going for it on 4th down. Right now Texas Tech is 102nd in 4th down conversions, but he trusts his defense a bit more and is currently 131st in the nation in 4th down attempts with just 5, converting 3.
• Texas Tech is 124th in opponent passing percentage, which means that they are throwing the ball a ton, mainly because teams just can’t run on this defense. I don’t know if that will change, but right now teams are throwing 56% of the time.
• Not sure if this is a stock down item, but Texas Tech is 75th in the nation in passing play percentage, at 47%, which means they are running 53% of the time. Pretty even, but leaning a bit on the running backs. There was probably a time when this was skewed at 60%, maybe more?
• Texas Tech is 83rd in the nation in giveaways per game at 1.4.

Now That’s a Knife: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams with some additional details on the closed pocket knife found on the field during the Kansas game:

Giovannetti confirmed on Monday that KU personnel did show him a knife on the Jayhawks’ sideline shortly after a Cameron Dickey 55-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. After the kickoff, officials assessed the second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Red Raiders.

“It was a pocket knife. Closed,” Giovannetti said. “That’s what it looked like. … I held it in my hand.”

“They (KU personnel) told us that a knife had been thrown on their sideline,” Giovannetti said. “After we had scored a touchdown, kicked off, sometime in that time frame, when there was still smoke on the field, they told us then that had happened.”

When Leipold was really upset about it, it felt like it was maybe an open knife thrown their way, but it was closed and I wonder if it was also a situation where tortillas were in a pocket and the knife got tangled up in the tortilla. Who knows. I’d also say that any time I lose a pocket knife I immediately want to cuss. I think I’ve lost 2 in the last 20 years or so and I hated losing both of them. Of course, this could also be some jerk throwing whatever he or she had in their pocket onto the field to be a jerk.

I’d also say that this is a bit of a failure on the security into Jones AT&T Stadium, they are supposed to be checking and running people through metal detectors. Maybe people will have to start emptying their pockets.