1. Game Links:

Game Recap
Stats
Notes
Highlights

2. Grades.

D	PASS OFFENSE
The positive is that Hammond didn’t turn the ball over, but on the not so great side of things was that Hammond was 17 of 28 for just 134 yards. Hammond did not complete a 3rd down pass. The offensive line didn’t help the situation.
B+	RUN OFFENSE
The offense did run for 181 yards and that’s without Cameron Dickey. As mentioned above, too many negative plays, but thank goodness for J’Koby.
B	PASS DEFENSE
How do you rate a category when the defense actually gave up 290 yards passing to a quarterback who hasn’t started in 2 years, but also threw 3 interceptions? Of those passing yards, 127 happened in the 1st quarter when they had the chance to script those first few plays. Only 1 sack and 3 QB hurries.
A	RUN DEFENSE
Felt that this was pretty outstanding overall. Colorado ran 32 times and only had 78 yards rushing for 2.4 yards a rush. That’s really solid.
B-	COACHING
A few coaching things here. Going for it on 4th down so close to the goal line when it appeared that the offense was struggling to score, even early. Regardless, to give credit, Texas Tech won by 22 points and covered the spread. Admittedly ugly by McGuire, but we don’t apologize for wins on the road in the Big 12.

3. Defense Played Lights Out. I’m going to talk about positive things to start out with, a bit of a change of pace for me. You can say that it is about 1 stat, which is the score, but 4 turnovers in the 2nd half was the biggest statistic. I had a feeling that the Colorado offense would self-destruct at some point. That seemed to be what Wilson actually was as a quarterback and why he probably didn’t start to begin the season. But the Texas Tech defense made plays. Regardless as to what a mess the Colorado offense is, the defense stepped up and played huge.

And aside from the turnovers, the Texas Tech defense allowed just 2.4 yards a rush, and that number doesn’t have to be sack adjusted because Texas Tech didn’t record a sack. The defense also held the Colorado offense to 38% on 3rd downs and 1 of 4 on 4th downs, which means that in addition to the 4 actual turnovers, there were 3 turnover on downs. That’s 7 times the defense absolutely stood up and stopped the Colorado offense.

4. Hammond Has Issues, But So Does the Offensive Line. I do think I have figured out what bothers me about how Will Hammond plays. It is situational awareness. I was watching the Texas Tech soccer video yesterday morning and about about the 9 minute mark, and Coach Stone says, “We just need to play here without high risk. We don’t need high risk.” And then he pulls a player aside and asks her if she could have shot that because he had a bad angle. The player answers and he talks through, really quickly, why the player didn’t decide to take the shot. He listens to her and trusts her judgement and tells her that this was ultimately good decision making. Not taking a shot at that time. It’s what makes Tom Stone such an effective coach.

That’s what I feel like is missing from Hammond. There are times where I think that Hammond takes a shot and doesn’t need to take a huge shot down the field, whether it is a situation where Texas Tech is maybe in their own territory and Hammond takes a big rip down the field, wasting a down. Maybe not realizing that positive yardage to move the chains work better in that situation rather than going for something that’s just not necessary.

And the offensive line is a completely different thing. They were clearly out-matched against what I thought and proved to be true, terrific defensive line. All of the things that was discussed previously, which was sustaining blocks and finishing plays and attempting to exert your will did not play out at all. Colorado had 11 tackles for a loss, 5 quarterback hurries, and of those TFL’s, 2 of them were sacks. That’s not acceptable and asking a quarterback to just complete a pass or a running back to get positive yardage starts up front and Texas Tech simply didn’t do that.

5. John Carter With a Pick 6. Err, I mean, John Curry (the play-by-play guy called Curry “John Carter” on maybe the most impressive play of the game). This all started with a Will Karoll punt that went 66 yards and an incredible play by Malcolm Simmons to down the ball on the 1-yard line. Then it is the pressure applied A.J. Holmes and finally an incredible play by Curry to jump at exactly the right time to have a 0-yard pick-6. That’s 2 weeks in a row where I’ve seen something defensively that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

6. Speaking of Karoll. I don’t know that Will Karoll will get a tortilla, but he’s getting a ten thing. Texas Tech has had some really terrific punters roll through Lubbock, but Karoll may be the best. Karoll was only able top punt 3 times, but he averaged 55.7 yards a punt, a longest of 67, 2 of those punts were inside the 20-yard line, and 2 of them were 50+ yards. I can already hear the comments, “Seth is talking about punters. Punters!” Karoll is special and deserves a mention!

7. Advanced stats.

• Texas Tech on 3rd down was just 3 of 12. That’s a problem. The average down and distance was 8.6 yards, which is an indication of the offense not doing a great job of setting themselves up for attainable 3rd downs.
• I’ve already mentioned it, but no passing 3rd downs and Texas Tech went 0-7 on 3rd and long.
• If you would have asked me how many big running plays where were and I’d definitely remember the two long runs by Joyner (Joyner’s big run was for a TD) and Williams, but Texas Tech actually had 11 big plays for 205 yards, 8 of them on the ground.
• Colorado only ran 39% of their plays on Texas Tech’s side of the field so a lot of Colorado’s plays were not close to getting a touchdown.
• Believe it or not, Texas Tech had 52% in Colorado’s side of the field.
• Texas Tech’s defense only allowed 37.5% of 3rd downs and forced Colorado to need 5.9 yards a third down.
• Of Texas Tech’s 3rd downs all 3 of them were a result of Colorado penalties. Wow.

8. Idle Thoughts.

• I felt like Colorado was talking way too much trash and they played like it. That’s not a good look.
• I did not enjoy Devin Gardner as the color analyst. Just way too much energy that seemed forced.
• Another really nice game from Austin Romaine, 7 tackles and 1 tackle for a loss. Not spectacular, but incredibly solid.
• Brice Pollock had an interesting day, he missed on a couple of tackles that then allowed some big plays, but then he had 2 interceptions. Welcome to life as a defensive back.
• The wide receivers were completely non-existent for the most part. Maybe it would be more appropriate to write that they did not make an impact.
• I have gone through this thing without really talking about J’Koby Williams. Yet another terrific game, a game where he had 114 all-purpose yards, 88 rushing and 26 receiving. He’s so good.
• I don’t have a ton of injury updates, but you can see below in the quotes section that Cameron Dickey had x-rays and they were negative so he likely has a high ankle sprain, which takes a ton of time to heal. Brendan Jordan seemed to get a better post-game report as the staff was being cautious. Donte Lee had a knee issue that they are waiting to find out about.

9. Coach Comments.

Opening statement

“Woo! Some really ugly football at times. We talk about all the time about trying to fix bad football, and it was throughout the game. I thought [Brennan] Marion did a great job. Their offensive coordinator. I think I saw everything that you could possibly see on offense. They drove down and scored on the first play, and then we turned to taking the ball away. They were creating four turnovers. I think we dropped another three interceptions, but we’re just finding a way to win the game. That’s what we’re trying to do. “We’re trying to get better. We’re trying to start cleaner. We’re trying to do all that. But at the end of the day, the last thing I tell the coaches when we’re in our staff meetings on Saturday is, whatever game it is, whatever game we have going on, then we adapt to that game, and we find a way to win the game. And that’s what these guys have done. We’re sitting here five and zero, and we’re two and zero in conference play.”

On Terrance Carter Jr.’s return from injury

“That was huge. Whenever you have a really good tight end like Terrance, he becomes such a security blanket for the quarterback, and he’s one of the best tight ends in the country. He came up big tonight. It was great to have him back because he also has great leadership.

“And one guy that really stood out tonight for me, leadership-wise, was Howard Sampson. There was no doubt some frustration and some panic early, but man, Howard just kept telling guys, ‘Calm down, keep throwing body blows. It’s going to break. Just keep doing what we’re doing,’ and I was really proud of him. TC was right there with him.”

On playing without Tommy Castellanos

“It changes a lot. Two things that changed tonight really early in the game. So we lost all of the stuff that we’re going to do in the red zone quarterback run game. Will [Hammond], whenever he takes off running, he either calls his own number or he’s scrambling, which he’s done a great job of the last few weeks. But you take out a lot of your run game. We had six or five trick plays, you’re taking out four of the five.

“Then you turn around, and what really hurt tonight, especially in the two fourth downs, I think we got both of them if Cam [Cameron] Dickey’s playing wildcat quarterback. You’re probably going there with Tommy, but whenever we don’t have Tommy, Cam’s going to do it. He ended up with an ankle injury, and that hurt a bunch, losing him. I thought the other two running backs, Q [Quentin Joyner] and J’Koby [Williams], really picked it up, but that’s not what they do. They practice it, but not at the level that Tommy and Cam Dickey practice it at.”

On Colorado’s defense and the plan against it

“It was kind of a mixture. Colorado did a really good job of formation on us, putting us in some situations, especially early. I think once Shiel [Wood] and Rob [Greene] got the defense settled down and were able to talk through some adjustments, we started playing a little bit better, and then the pressure helped. We got some pressure on the quarterback. We didn’t get as many sacks. I think we only sacked him one time, but we did get a lot of pressure on him, and that forced him to change his angles so the ball floated, and we were able to pick it off.

“And then, the one thing John Curry did a great job on was the pick-six in the end zone. Whenever you’re backed up, you’re going to get a hard count, you’re getting direct runs, or you’re getting sprint out. The quarterback is going to move the pocket, and the last thing that Shiel said to him is, ‘Get ready for sprint out.’ And John was the edge of the defense, and he was right there to make a huge play.”

On Brice Pollock’s game

“It was big. He’s been a little banged up. So I hate to say he wasn’t playing great, but he was really frustrated last week, and it was one of those days that I thought he really challenged Darcel [McBath] this week to really lock in. And man, he came up big tonight. Those turnovers just changed the game.”

On the importance of the bye week

“One bye week is always important because you’re always trying to work on things that you self-scout. We always self-scout every week, but you’re self-scouting heavy. You’ve got a bunch of games to self-scout, but more than anything, this bye week is to get some guys healthy.

“We came into this game really healthy, and then we lost Tommy on Friday, so you count him as out. And then tonight, guys that left the game were Cam [Cameron] Dickey, B.J. [Brenden Jordan] and Dante Lee [Jr.]. It’s going to be one of those deals. The bye week will be huge for getting those guys back.”

On the injuries

“BJ was the neck. He came down, hit his head hard on the turf. Dante was knee. We don’t know yet exactly, and then Cam Dickey was the ankle. We did get X-rays because we were worried about where the pain was. X-ray came back negative, so usually, whenever you’re having an X-ray, you’re probably looking at a high ankle sprain. It all depends on the guy, but it’s always hard in a high ankle sprain with a running back.

“I think BJ will be back. He felt good afterward, and we were really cautious. Really cautious. Anytime you go head or neck, you got to be really cautious about those guys.”

On the defensive plan

“Preparing for this game, that’s our goal. We’ve always talked about take-three defense. I’ve coached for 32 years. I’ve only been in two games where a defense caused three turnovers, and not the turnover ratio, but causing three turnovers on your opponent. I’ve only had three games where I lost those games. One was OU [Oklahoma] in 2019. One was West Virginia overtime in 2020. And you have a great opportunity to cause turnovers. Your guys feed off of it. It’s one of the biggest momentum shifts there is. It’s huge. I mean, it’s huge.

“I told those guys in there we’re in Big 12 play, so you’re going to look up tomorrow, and you’re going to have X amount of teams that are two and 0, X amount of teams that are one and one, and X amount of teams that are 0-2. Then you look around the country, and you think, man, that team’s really good, and then they go into a place and get their tails kicked. That team’s really good, and they’re in a battle. There’s going to be teams that are sitting there going, ‘Man, we played so good. We just were right there, and we lost. And we’re just trying to find a way to win and trying to find a way to respond.’

“These guys played really well in the second half. They were fine. We’re going to find ways to start. I didn’t think we started as badly as we did in the first four games. I think because we saw everything that first drive by Colorado, I thought we started OK, but we just need to find ways to start better. But man, we’re going to respond wherever the game is. We’re going to try to find a way to win it.”

On the wildcat specialty play

“They did review it, so you can’t say it’s 100%, but we run that play starting week two on with Cam Dickey. That’s the play he scored the touchdown on against Oregon State whenever he went over the top with Cam and Matt [Ludwig] back there. They reviewed the play. He said he didn’t get in against Houston, but that play has been really successful for us.

“After the two that we missed without Cam Dickey, we put that play on the back burner. We weren’t going to run it again. Just making sure those guys understood, and we’ll work on it this week. And you know, shoot, you never know. Might see old Terrance Carter back there, back in his old quarterback days, running that play.”

On the improvement needed on offense

“We have to really make some strides because we’re going to play Arizona State. I don’t know what they’re doing tonight, but they’re a really good football team. Going in tonight, they’re undefeated. Cincinnati is a really good football team. They are running the ball really well at a high level. I know they’ve got a big game tonight in Arizona, but that’s our next two games. So, we’ve got to make some strides on the offensive side of the ball, and we will. We’ll make some strides on the offensive side of the ball and keep getting better.”

10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.

A tortilla for Malik Esquerra, his 1st interception of his career and then he had 6 tackles to go along with it.

During the game I thought that Texas Tech really needed their play-makers to make plays and here comes Terrance Carter, Jr. who caught 8 passes for 67 yards and a touchdown. No drops. A terrific day for Carter coming back from injury.

Curry’s pick-6 may be one of the best plays I’ve ever seen, but he also had 7 tackles, the interception, a touchdown, a TFL and a QB hurry.