I'm Back: Didn't get home until somewhat late last night so I'm going to need a day to get my feet back under me. I know that some of these articles have been linked other places here on DTN, but in an effort to get into work at a somewhat decent hour, no hat-tips this morning, but you know who you are.
When I Last Left: I can't be real sure, but to catch everyone up, per LAJ's Don Williams, QB's Steven Sheffield and Taylor Potts are both out for the spring, which leaves a majority of the snaps to fellow QB's Jacob Karam and Seth Doege. Friday's practice and scrimmage was closed to the public (it's been announced that it was closed for a week or so, well before the injuries) and here's Williams and head coach Tuberville on Friday night:
Tech’s workout and 70-play scrimmage Friday at Jones AT&T Stadium were closed to the public and the media. Tuberville said Doege played with the first team and Karam will go with the first team Monday.
"They’ll go with different groups each day and try to give them a fair opportunity to throw to different receivers, have different offensive lines and, of course, have a different defense coming at them, too,’’ Tuberville said. "It’s a little bit different with that first defense coming, with the speed, and the we do a little bit more blitzing with group one.’’
Also, Tuberville wants to acknowledge that if the performance warrants it, that Doege and Karam have an opportunity to put some pressure on Sheffield and Potts:
"These guys will fight for the job (in 2011), so it’s an advantage for them to have six or seven practices by themselves with the first team and second team,’’ Tuberville said. "They know going into two-a-days they’re going to be spectators. But you never know. One of these two guys might bounce out of the pack and put a little pressure on the seniors going into two-a-days.’’
Jeffers Develops: LAJ's Don Williams profiled RB Harrison Jeffers, who apparently had a rough first scrimmage, only to have a much better scrimmage on Friday night. Williams recounts Jeffers' on-again, off-again relationship with Leach, and Jeffers is still adjusting:
"It’s faster than what Leach ran,’’ Jeffers said. "It’s faster tempo and everybody’s moving around and everything’s going in chaos.’’
Jeffers said that the first week of workouts. Last week, Tuberville said coaches told him to go full speed anyway. Even if Jeffers did feel confused, coaches told him they’d rather have him making mistakes at a hundred percent effort than doing everything right at three-quarter speed.
"I’m just trying to get better and learn all the signals and learn my position from coach Scott,’’ Jeffers said. "I’m just learning everything new and how they run it — the faster tempo and everything else.’’
More Reps: DMN's Mike Graham writes that Tuberville thought the young quarterbacks did well on Friday:
"I'm really proud of the young quarterbacks," Tuberville said after the scrimmage. "They came out and threw the ball well, threw some touchdown passes. We were able to get them some work that otherwise they may not have seen."
Q&A With Tubs: FSWS's Brian Smith has a question and answer session with Tuberville and for those of you who have been playing along since the beginning, you've seen most of this before, but it's still a pretty good read (FYI - Smith is not the guy ranking the positions within the Big 12 South and failing miserably). Go check it out, here's a snippet:
How well is the team adjusting to the new 3-4 defensive scheme being implemented by defensive coordinator James Willis?
It’s good. Defense is defense, whether it’s a three-man front or a four-man front. I’ve coached as much four-man front in my life as I have three-man front. The reason we’re going to a three-man front here is because of the competition that we play against. In this league, we play a lot of passing teams. So if you have to have success in terms of nickel and dime defenses, then you have to have a lot of speed on the field. We’re basically taking a bigger defensive lineman out of the game, and inserting an outside linebacker like Brian Duncan who can play linebacker and defensive line. That way you can play against teams who do throw the ball down the field a bit more than they do in the SEC. We’re just kind of adjusting to what we think we’re going to need in terms of being able to stay up with the competition in the Big 12 conference. As we go through, we will play a lot of four-man front, but right now we’re sticking with a three-man front for talent purposes.
Fox 34 has some video after the jump:
Video: Fox34 with a bit on Doege and Karam: