1. Game Links:

Game Recap
Stats
Highlights

2. Mistakes. Before Joey McGuire could even get going, he praised the fact that Quinten Joyner got to see the field and play football and he immediatley went to the issues that are probably bothering you. The 12 men on the field with the punt return is not excusable. Will Hammond’s interception on a 2nd and 1, there’s absolutely no need for that especially when he could have just run down and gotten the first down. And finally, the offense stalling in the red zone and settling for field goals rather than touchdowns. McGuire said it was patience, or lack thereof, down there and maybe should have run the ball a bit more.

3. Defensive Penalties. There was that one drive that led to the field goal where the defense simply kept stepping on their own foot, giving up 3 penalties in the same drive and then another that was actually 2 penalties that were called on the same play 2 different times. I don’t think this has been a huge issue for the defense previously and I think giving a bit of grace for Shiel Wood and not piling on too much, this is an issue that I hope will be corrected.

4. Forcing Patience. ACU did a good job of forcing Hammond to take the short stuff. It seemed like it was a lot of high safeties and forcing a quarterback to just take the small stuff. That’s what you want to do if you are ACU and the impatience is a problem for Hammond to solve. Every spread quarterback goes through this sort of thing, learning to take what you can. It seemed that when the drives stalled it was a 1st down pass that was incomplete and now it’s 2nd and long and the run game isn’t as effective. When asked if it was play calls or the quarterback mkaing the call at the line of scrimmage, McGuire said it was a little bit of both. Hammond said that he just missed guys on various drives and the red zone issues are on him.

5. Brendan Jordan’s Violation of Team Rules. Didn’t expect this, before and after the game, it was announced that starting safety, and you would think a leader of this team, was out for the first two games with a violation of team rules. McGuire said that Jordan was in good standing, but that he would miss the first two games. I have no idea what this is, but I’m not excited about it.

6. Secret Site. I know that some of you probably know this, but if you are ever following at home and you want to keep up with a game and not be on ESPN or some other site, then you should bookmark or save stat broadcast. All the advanced stats that I use is from this website. It’s terrific and it’s even better during a game or if you’re on your phone and can’t watch a game. And it’s not just football, it is every sport. It is a fantastic resource.

7. Joyner Back. I think that Cameron Dickey is a terrific back, but he doesn’t have a ton of wiggle. He’ll have really good stats and he obviously carried the load last year. But he doesn’t have a ton of miss to his game it seems. He’s quick to the hole and he runs hard, but not a ton of miss. I think that with Quinten Joyner he’ll give you that miss and has more wiggle to his game and I tend to think that’s a pretty big part of being a running back. It’s why you sort of hold your breath when J’Koby Williams runs the ball, you just never know what you’re going to see.

8. Idle Thoughts.

• I love watching Micah Hudson out there. His arms are huge and if I had to guess, his hands are big as well. I think he’s going to be special. Finished with just 2 catches for 26 yards, but I think he’s going to be really good.
• Same thing with Kenny Johnson. Quick personal story, Yoyo’s first game started a little rough and he reminded himself that he needs to have fun, smile and it will all work out. Seeing Johnson smile after every catch makes the game better and I can’t tell you how much it can loosen up a team. Yo immediately noticed it when we were watching together.
• In the absence of Brenden Jordan, Malil Esquerra and Peyton Morgan played well I thought. ACU didn’t complete anything deep and they had some sure tackles.
• Texas Tech had 471 total yards and 173 yards rushing without giving up a sack.
• Third downs was a problem for Texas Tech, just 5 of 12 and all of the third and longs (+9 yards) were 0-5 for the day. I don’t have a huge issue with missing those, but the offense shouldn’t be in those situations in the 1st place.
• In fact, Texas Tech was in passing downs just 22% of the time, which means that for the most part, Texas Tech stayed ahead of the sticks on just about every down.
• Hammond was 13-13 on short passes (5 yards or less), 9-10 on medium passes (5-14 yards) and 4-7 on deep passes (15+ yards).
• Texas Tech had 10 big plays for 232 yards.
• You think that Kenny Perry is going to have some things to say about giving up a kickoff return for a touchdown and also having 12 men on the field on a punt return?
• Defensively, Texas Tech allowed ACU to just 2.5 yards on 1st down. That’s one of the keys to success. In fact, ACU had 13 rushing attempts for 23 yards (1.8 average) on 1st down.
• Will Karoll had 2 punts and averaged 50.5 yards per punt. I sort of want to spell his name Karrol, but that’s not correct, it is Karoll.
• Stone Harrington appears to not have skipped a beat, thank goodness.
• If you haven’t seen what happened to Western Michigan against Michigan, you owe yourself to check out that robbery.

9. Coach Comments.

10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.

Quinten Joyner returned and I think I’m pretty excited for what he might bring to the team. He ran 10 times for 43 yards and after the game he sounded really grateful to just be out there and to run with some aggression. I think football players just sort of miss hitting and it takes a bit to get back to that. Well, I’m excited for his return and am glad to see him back.

After the game I knew that I wanted to give a tortilla to John Curry, but after thinking about it overnight, I thought that Jamond Mathis deserved one as well. Just as a refresher, Mathis is a transfer from Kent State and he wasn’t mentioned a ton during the preseason. He defenitely showed up this game, 6 tackles and 2.5 sacks to start the season isn’t bad and speaks to the depth that this team has. Curry’s interception was a thing of beauty and after the game he had initially read the play completely differently, but that’s why you go through those reps and rely on that rather than guessing and he made just a terrific catch. He’s the reason why you can play 3 linebackers in an age where playing 3 linebackers isn’t something that most programs do.

I’m going with J’Koby Williams for the 3 tortillas because when you talk about holding your breath because a player could do something special, it is J’Koby for me. He had 13 rushing attempts with 71 yards and a touchdown as well as 8 receptions for 57 yards, catching everything thrown his way