Things you need to know from Tuesday's Texas Tech football
press conference:
Injuries:
Cornelius Douglas is not expected to play because of an
abdominal injury.
“He could go if we felt like we're playing a team that's going to throw
the ball a lot.But we're playing another running
team, so we need to get him and get him healthy,” said Tuberville
Marcus Kennard also not expected to play this week as he is dealing with
a groin injury.
Eric Ward and Javares McRoy
are back at practice this week. McRoy did not travel
because he had what Tuberville called a “bad week.”
Players of the week:
“Defensive scout player of the game was Brandon Bagley. (He’s a) young kid that came in this year, a junior college transfer
that did a great job playing corner.”
“Offensive scout player of the game was Keenon Ward from Snyder. Quarterback there last year, now
playing defensive back. But we played him in an option quarterback position.
He'll do the same thing this
week.”
“Special teams player of the game was Ryan Bustin, five field goals or field goals, a
50-yarder, which was his personal best, and 7 made
extra points.”
“Cody Davis, defensive player of the game. 51 plays,
96%, 7 tackles and an interception for a
TD, which was obviously the turning
point of the game.
And the offensive player of the game, 25
out of 32, 319 yards, 5 T.D.s, Seth Doege.”
Tuberville also assessed his team’s grade over the course of the first
two games as a “low B.”
“We've got a lot of room for improvement. But I don't
want to grade them in the Cs because of their effort. When you give a team a C
grade, a high C or a low C, effort is involved. I think if you give great
effort and you focus, you can work your way up pretty high.We're
a long ways away from being the
best technique team that we can be. So
if we can ever work out of the B category and get to an A
category, that means we're playing hard, a
lot of focus, lot of effort, and playing good technique, good football. We're
not playing great football yet. We're just playing good football, and good
football
is not going to win a lot of games
this year. We're going to have to play a lot better than good. We're
going to have to play in some places over
our head.”
Art Kaufman addressed improvement against a more
defined scheme and going up against a similar scheme two weeks in a row will
help the Texas Tech defense.
“That gives us a head start in our preparation,”
Kaufman said. “It’s all about us, lining up right, getting off the field and
executing…We have to make sure we stop the run and get the pass game tackled,
not give up a gadget pass or something unusual.
Neal Brown added on what Coach Tuberville had to say
about the letter grade for the first part of the season. “(A low B) is a fair
assessment. We stress playing fast, playing hard and playing physical. I’m
pleased with that over two weeks. We have to get better at technique and
assignment. If we can improve on technique and assignment, we have a chance to
be a really good offense.
Brown was also pleased with the number of explosive
plays they had, which are defined as a run or screen over 12 yards and a pass
over 16 plays. “We had 14 total against Texas St. We only had 7 against
Northwestern State, so we doubled that. I was pretty fired up about that.”
Brown and Doege also both commented about the even
number of carries that the three running backs have shared over the first two
games and breaking down what each does well.
“Sadale is better in space,” said Doege. “Kenny is
powerful and can run well inside, and Eric is kind of a combination of both of
them. I don’t have to look back and worry who is back there.”
Brown also eluded to the
fact that they will try to get Eric Stephens more rest during the week still
recovering from his injury.
Cody Davis also spoke and offered a good explanation
about how the big interception transpired.
“He threw it and I picked it off, and I ran as fast
as I could to get back.”
After the
laughter died down, he did give a little more detailed explanation.
“It was just a normal pass play. I saw a read pass,
dropped back, and luckily some receivers
were coming from the other side and I
just jumped the route. Everybody watching on film and everybody
on the defense was turning and
running, and that is the reason I got back to the end zone.”
Davis, Kaufman and Tuberville also talked about how
much more confident this year’s defensive unit is.
“It's definitely a change of pace,” said Davis. “
When Kaufman came in, it changed the whole attitude, and I think you can see
that on the field. We're going out there, having fun, flyingaround.
The results are coming. So we've just got to improve and keep that up.”