In lieu of links this morning, DTN asks five questions. A couple of things to note, on the Monday following a game, the coordinators usually are interviewed on the official site. I'm very much looking forward to listening to their thoughts. Also, I'm not going to change a thing this week for fear of a DTN revolt.
1. HOW DO YOU IMPROVE THE PASS RUSH? | A big part of Texas Tech's defensive success early in the season was getting pressure on the quarterback, especially with the emergence of DE Scott Smith. With Smith's indefinite suspension, and the pass-rush was almost non-existent against Iowa St. and Baylor (totally admit that it's hard to get a pass rush on a mobile quarterback like RGIII and Arnaud), what do you do and how do you get the pass rush going, especially this week against Oklahoma St.? Do you try to do something schematically or is it a personnel issue (remember that Smith was out, and DT Myles Wade and DE Aundrey Barr were out with injury)?
2. HOW IMPORTANT IS THE RETURN OF TORRES? | WR Alexander Torres mentioned after the game that the back injury that essentially kept him out of the first month of the season limited him physically:
"I hurt for a while," Torres said. "I really struggled coming back, brought me down to earth. I kind of needed my team’s support and my coaches’ support, which it took to regain my confidence and get out there and play like I knew I can. They pulled me through some stuff. After all this, it’s good to be back."
Is it just coincidence that Torres returns to full strength and this offense takes off, or in the alternative, how important is a healthy Torres' return to the field?
3. WHO WORRIES YOU MORE? | The Oklahoma St. Cowboys have quickly transitioned to a balanced (but passing much better) offense with the hiring of former Texas Tech offensive coordinator, Dana Holgorsen. Of the Cowboys' offensive trio, QB Brandon Weeden, RB Kendall Hunter or WR Justin Blackmon, who worries you the most and why?
4. IS FOOTBALL A GAME OF MOMENTUM? | Head coach Tommy Tuberville (again, if you haven't watched the post game press conference video, you should, or at least read the quotes [PDF]) said after the game that football is a game of momentum:
This game of football now is a game of momentum and confidence and believing in what you're doing, and if you just look back to the Texas game, we played pretty decent on defense. Offense we didn't even have 200 yards. Today, last week, we totally looked different at times in terms of offense. We're getting rhythm. Guys are understanding what to do. We've been able to run the ball better. Last weekend, this week. If that continues to work, we'll be able to score a lot of points for the next six or seven games.
Do you believe that this offense is gaining momentum? And if the offense is getting better, is the defense losing momentum?
5. WHO ARE THE TOP THREE AND BOTTOM THREE TEAMS IN THE BIG 12? | Here's the Big 12 standings, now that conference play has started, who are the top three and bottom three teams in the conference?
Copy and paste the questions into a comment box for hassle-free commenting.
1. HOW DO YOU IMPROVE THE PASS RUSH?
2. HOW IMPORTANT IS THE RETURN OF TORRES?
3. WHO WORRIES YOU MORE?
4. IS FOOTBALL A GAME OF MOMENTUM?
5. WHO ARE THE TOP THREE AND BOTTOM THREE TEAMS IN THE BIG 12?
BONUS | Added the Fan Confidence Poll. I'm going to try to do this each Monday to highlight it.