In lieu of links, DTN has five questions (Well, actually, I do have one link, which is from LAJ's Don Williams, who says that S Franklin Mitchem broke his thumb on Saturday and his status for this week is unknown, while WR Derrick Mayes is getting some time at cornerback because the team is so thin at defensive back.).
1. WHO DO YOU WANT TO PLAY AT QUARTERBACK AND WHY? | Let's get to the elephant in the room, LAJ's Don Williams talked with OC Neal Brown about the quarterback situation and here's what he had to say about QB Taylor Potts:
"Potts early in the game missed some throws," Brown said. "He was off. I don’t know if he got too excited. I don’t know the reasons why, but he was off. Our receivers actually made some really hard catches on some balls that he threw, and he missed some other throws.
"And then in the second half, he held the ball a little too long and took some hits. I thought we’d go in a different direction there, because he was taking some hits and wasn’t real sharp."
And about QB Steven Sheffield:
"He ran around some times when he shouldn’t have," Brown said. "He threw the (interception) there when the ball shouldn’t even have been thrown in that direction late in the game. He’s got to get a little sharper, but I thought overall he did some good things."
I have no doubt that my tin-foil hat theory as to why Sheffield hasn't seen time is that he does things his way and that could set a really bad precedent for the coaching staff. No matter, all I care about is this year and winning games this year, so if the staff decides to make the move to Sheffield, are you in favor of that move, or would you rather get even younger at that position and take a look at Seth Doege or Jacob Karam (Scotty Young is being redshirted and would seem silly to remove his redshirt at this point of the season)?
2. IF YOU KNOW THAT THE CORNERBACKS ARE YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED, DO YOU STILL MATCH THEM UP ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE OPPONENT'S BEST RECEIVERS? It's unfortunate that Sheffield cannot play cornerback because the Texas Tech defensive backfield needs some help. After practices yesterday, both of the coordinators spoke and here's the non-transcript of DC James Willis:
James Willis: Keep making adjustments and always ready to make adjustments. Doing a good job of toughing this out. Keep positive energy up, they enjoy playing the game. Played fast in the beginning, we didn't make enough adjustments. At the end, we were gassed a little bit. TAMU QB Ryan Tannehill is a good quarterback and worked the offense. Good to see turnovers and the kids are having fun and they competed well, but gave up too many yards and too many plays. Wanted to affect the quarterback, not game-plan around WR Jeff Fuller.
So DC Willis' game-plan was to hassle the quarterback and force bad decisions rather than double-up TAMU WR Jeff Fuller. The problem of course is that Texas Tech has had a tough time hassling any quarterback over the past few weeks and OLB Brian Duncan has hardly been mentioned in terms of sacking the quarterback. If you're the defensive coordinator and you know that the personnel is very young and very inexperienced, do you gamble and try to get to the quarterback with a pass rush that hasn't been around in quite some time or do you double-team the opponents best receiver?
3. IS ANYONE ELSE CONCERNED THAT IF THE MAJORITY OF FOLKS ON DTN GET THEIR WISH AND OC NEAL BROWN IS FIRED AT THE END OF THE YEAR, DON'T YOU THINK THAT TUBERVILLE WILL HIRE AN EVEN MORE CONSERVATIVE OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR? | OC Neal Brown spoke yesterday as well, and here's his non-transcript:
Neal Brown: Going to get more guys involved at running back, RB Aaron Crawford played well, but Baron Batch and Eric Stephens are beat up. Harrison Jeffers played, but didn't play well. WR Darrin Moore hopes to get some more time. Offense hasn't played well and doesn't think that the offense isn't playing poorly, hasn't looked at stats, but still in top 25 in total offense, but it's not about playing hard and they did play hard, but about execution. The offensive line is getting better, both QB's got hit. Running game wasn't as good and had to throw the ball to catch up.
I asked this question yesterday and I didn't get too many responses, most likely because everyone is afraid of the answer, but if the general consensus is that they want OC Brown because you don't think that the offense is performing at the level you expect, however, if given another opportunity, does anyone believe that Tuberville would hire a more explosive offensive coordinator or a more conservative coordinator? Should you be careful what you wish for?
4. DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT POTENTIAL AD CANDIDATE BUTCH WORLEY? | AAS.com's Kirk Bohls mentions in his very first note the following about a potential successor for the Texas Tech athletic director position:
Texas' Butch Worley will be seriously considered to replace Gerald Myers as athletic director at Texas Tech, I'm told by a solid source. The senior associate AD at Texas could put himself in that conversation or might decide to stay in Austin and in the mix as a future successor to DeLoss Dodds in the next three years. Worley's 57th birthday is approaching, and after his 24 years at Texas, he could have to make a decision soon about possibly taking the Lubbock job, after Myers steps down next May.
I've heard this name too, or at the very least a reference to someone at UT that was high up the food chain. I couldn't find any information on Worley, although at the UT website, he's right behind Deloss Dodds. Does anyone know anything about Worley or if he even attended Texas Tech and does that matter?
5. WITH TUBERVILLE STARTING TO POINT FINGERS, DO PEOPLE STILL BELIEVE THAT THE PROBLEM IS STILL THE OFFENSE RATHER THAN ONE OF THE WORST DEFENSES OF ALL FBS TEAMS? | I failed to mention this, but after the game, Tuberville had this to say about the difference between the offensive and defensive side of the ball:
"Right now, most of the guys with experience are playing on the offensive side of the ball," Tuberville said. "They’re the ones that have to help the defense out. It’s a team game, you can’t play without one side or the other. Those guys on defense are scratching and clawing."
Maybe it's just me and me reading too much into a quote, but it seems as if Tuberville is starting to point fingers at the offensive side of the ball, despite the fact that the defense gave up 623 yards. Tuberville talked about how the defense is giving a lot of effort, but I was listening to the radio broadcast for the Cowboys game yesterday, Babe Laufenberg said playing hard does or playing with effort not win games, playing well wins games. Everyone keeps complaining about the offense, but the defense has been absolutely awful and has the 119th worst pass defense in the country (out of 120 teams) and it's not even close as the defense is now 113th in total defense (again, out of 120 teams). If you had to blame one over another, are giving more credit to the offense or the defense for the 4-4 record?
I've copied and pasted the questions after the jump as well as some video from the DT . . . all after the jump.
1. WHO DO YOU WANT TO PLAY AT QUARTERBACK AND WHY?
2. IF YOU KNOW THAT THE CORNERBACKS ARE YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED, DO YOU STILL MATCH THEM UP ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE OPPONENT'S BEST RECEIVERS?
3. IS ANYONE ELSE CONCERNED THAT IF THE MAJORITY OF FOLKS ON DTN GET THEIR WISH AND OC NEAL BROWN IS FIRED AT THE END OF THE YEAR, DON'T YOU THINK THAT TUBERVILLE WILL HIRE AN EVEN MORE CONSERVATIVE OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR?
4. DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT POTENTIAL AD CANDIDATE BUTCH WORLEY?
5. WITH TUBERVILLE STARTING TO POINT FINGERS, DO PEOPLE STILL BELIEVE THAT THE PROBLEM IS STILL THE OFFENSE RATHER THAN ONE OF THE WORST DEFENSES OF ALL FBS TEAMS?
A&M routs Tech for second straight year (via DailyToreador)