 (3-0, 0-0) |
Date | October 1, 2011 |
 (2-1, 0-0)) |
OPENING LINE | Texas Tech by 9.5.
PRIOR OPPONENTS | Kansas opened with a relatively easy win against McNeese St., 45-24 (SBN Coverage). The Kansas offense relied mostly on the ground game that churned out 301 yards led by RB James Sims who was just fantastic, but the Kansas defense did give up 325 yard passing to two different quarterbacks, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. A close win against Northern Illinois, 45-42 (SBN Coverage) where the ground game was effective again, with 253 yards rushing and QB Jordan Webb got into the act with 281 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Kansas pass defense gave up 315 passing yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions and 147 yards on the ground. The game that just got out of control, in a bad way for Kansas, was against Georgia Tech where the Jayhawks lost 24-66 and it was crazy. KU gave up 604 yards rushing, 7 touchdowns and 12 players had at least 1 rush on the day (SBN Coverage). Yeesh. Jordan Webb did have 148 yards passing, but was eventually replaced when the game got out of hand, while the rushing offense managed only 151 yards on 42 carries.
WHAT TEXAS TECH CAN EXPECT | Offensively for Kansas, they're doing pretty darned good offensively, ranking #30 in total offense with 447.67 YPG and #27 in scoring offense at 37.00 PPG. This should scare Texas Tech fans and I'm thinking that Turner Gill is licking his chops to face this Texas Tech defense as Kansas is #17 in the nation in rushing offense at 235.00 YPG. The defense, however, is one of the worst in the country, ranking 120th in rush defense, 102nd in pass defense and 120th in total defense. A Georgia Tech game where the opposing team just runs all over you will tend to do that and Texas Tech hasn't faced a decent opponent like Kansas did and I'd like to think that Georgia Tech would have had a similar result against Texas Tech considering how efficient Georgia Tech is at rushing the ball. Still, part of the problem for Kansas is that they're not especially getting to the quarterback, tied for 82nd in the nation in sacks. Texas Tech should still be able to take advantage of a Kansas secondary that is apparently struggling against opponents and I'd think that it would be even worse for KU had Georgia Tech decided to pass even a little bit (Georgia Tech had only 7 passing attempts for the day).
OPPONENT PLAYERS SPOTLIGHT | Offensively, RB James Sims is 59th in the nation in rushing yards per game at 84.67. LB Steven Johnson is a tackling machine, averaging 10.33 tackles per game, while DE Toben Opurum, who was a running back last year if you can imagine that, is tied for #8 in the country at 1.83 TFL per game.