Practice Updates
LAJ's Don Williams feature story focuses on receiver Alex Torres and a Red Raiders football notebook. We'll tackle the notebook first, where Don details Taylor Potts' struggles yesterday, throwing three picks, and almost throwing a fourth. Again, I'm still not worried about Potts and I'm genuinely excited to take a look for myself next weekend during the spring game. Captain Mike Leach isn't jumping to any conclusions and Potts is still receiving twice as many reps as any other quarterbacks, which tells me that Potts is still the guy:
"You look at the whole body of work,’’ Leach said. "We’re not going to base anything on three plays.’’Snip
"He threw the ball well,’’ Leach said. "He had a real good (skeleton passing) period. He had a good team period except for about four plays.’’
Williams also discusses RS freshman running back Harrison Jeffers who looks great at times, but also fumbled and was stopped short twice on back-to-back goal-line plays, leading Leach to comment:
"That’s why you have practice,’’ Leach said later about Jeffers’ day. "It’s like churches. You have churches for people that sin. You have practice for people that aren’t perfect players.’’
Umm, yeah, that's quotable Mike Leach material.
Baron Batch however, continues to impress, running 8 times for 51 yards, along with a receiving touchdown.
Alex Torres is an interesting player and Williams details his story in that he originally attended the Air Force Academy prep school, broke his hand, was sent home, and then showed up at Texas Tech. Originally from El Paso, receivers coach Dennis Simmons thinks Torres is playing well:
"Great,’’ Simmons summed up Torres’ play. "I think he attacks the ball well. He’s been awesome during spring.’’
Williams also notes that Torres played receiver his junior year, was switched to quarterback his senior year and his high school ran a spread offense. By my count, that's three former high school quarterbacks who have turned receiver at Texas Tech, the others being Austin Zouzalik and Cornelius Douglas.