Double-T Nation News:
DTN's Top Six:
- Philadelphia in 1910, with views of Independence Hall
- Duct Tape Bandaids, for real men.
- Big 12 War Blog recaps week 1 in the Big 12, not for the faint of heart.
- ESPN's Pat Forde, Dashing Through Week 1 (there's a Texas Tech reference in there).
- Statistically Speaking checks in after week 1 of college football.
- ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin empties out the mailbag.
Texas Tech Football:
The LAJ's feature is on the assistance that Lincoln Riley gives Captain Leach from the pressbox. This article is more than just about Riley as it also describes where and what the jobs are of the other assistant coaches. Here's Williams (I think) on the roles of the assistant coaches:
Leach said what Riley has done since makes him well-suited for the game-day assignment up top."He’s worked with me directly for a long time, which probably helped him," Leach said, "and he’s spent hours over five years watching film with me and things."
As far as the offensive staff goes, wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons, line coach Matt Moore and running backs coach Seth Littrell are on the field. Graduate assistant Brandon Jones, the Raiders’ former two-year starter at center, serves as Moore’s spotter in the booth.
Leach said it’s Simmons’ job to adjust all the receivers and "create energy" on the sideline. Littrell makes sure the proper personnel group, based on the play call, is on the field and also coaches his running backs and helps coordinate protections with the line coaches.
Riley spots the defense.
Lots of information in the LAJ's Red Raiders Football Notebook, and apparently Donnie Carona keeps his job, at least for another week:
"Donnie’s still our guy," special teams coach Clay McGuire said Tuesday. "There’s obviously some things he did wrong and some things that he didn’t do wrong. We’ll get it fixed this week. He’s still our guy. We’ve got just as much confidence in him this week as we had last week going into the game."
I like giving Carona all the chances in the world to work out his kinks. He has the most potential of he and Fowler and if he can be somewhat effective by conference play, then this is the best move possible.
There's also an injury update as Rylan Reed and Louis Vasquez are both wearing protective boots. I supposed Reed's injury is still residual? The coaching staff also gives credit to DeShon Sanders and Taylor Charbonnet, who were incredibly effective at the gunner positions against EWU. Finally, there a little on Nevada and defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill comments on the Wolf Pack offfense:
"We knew with Eastern, they were going to throw the football," McNeill said. "These guys (Nevada) try to give you a good mixture of run and pass and play-action pass off the run. The quarterback’s athleticism makes you have to prepare for him. He’s really fast."Snip
"It’s almost (like) the Wing-T thought process - all the rolls and bootlegs and pulls and sweeps," McNeill said. "They mix in some power plays and inside tackle plays and zone plays."
Post-Mortem Part II, this time from Barking Carnival's dedfischer and I thought this bit was really insightful (actually it's all insightful, but you know what I mean):
Since my transmission was via radio, it was tough to tell what packages we used, but I can only assume from what I heard that we primarily went with base 4-3 personnel, Cover 2, and OLB over slot receivers. EWU did most of their damage with the short passing game that Cover 2 concedes. This worked against EWU because Whitlock and Henley controlled the line of scrimmage, but I still believe you’ll get exposed in the run game at some point if you keep requiring your MLB to play 2-gap technique. This also allows for dual threat QBs to scramble untouched for first downs on 3rd and long. It wasn’t so long ago that we gave up a 47 yard run to Jordan Palmer. We’ll get a test this weekend as Kaepernick and Nevada rolled up 426 yards on the ground last week.
RaiderPower's Mark Sparrow focuses on the running game from the EWU win and reminds me that Woods' effectiveness is not limited to his running, it's also his blocking:
Quarterback Graham Harrell was impressed with Woods as well, stressing that his blocking ability is one area that he has an advantage over the other two running backs. "During camp he was really consistent, and that’s what it’s all about. In offense, a lot of times you have to block first and I think the running backs get overlooked a lot in this system and they deserve a lot of credit. He’s been unselfish."
Neglected Video: DT's series continues with Getting to Know Todd Walker . . . KAMC28 on the Texas Tech running backs . . .