Box Score | Post Game Quotes | Post Game Press Conference
THE RESULT | A TALE OF TWO HALVES | Almost everything that could go wrong or just look downright ugly in the first half did go wrong or look ugly. Texas Tech had two turnovers, a pitiful looking offense and a defense that looked like it didn't have a clue. After halftime, it felt like two different teams. I'll get more into Doege a bit later, but I forgot that the wind was blowing 25 MPH as he kept working a 20 to 30 yard window down the field to look for Moore and take advantage of that. It was really a beautiful to watch him play. I'd also add that the defense figured it out in the second half and I think that someone mentioned this in the post-game thread, which is that perhaps the silver lining, at least with the defense is that Glasgow either motivated or coached up his players to be in the right spots in the second half.
THE STORYLINES
MOORE IS BETTER | The coaching staff kept talking about how good WR Darrin Moore was during the camp and that he was going to explode on the scene. Well, he did. Moore was good for 12 catches, 221 yards, 2 touchdowns and 18.41 yards/reception. Moore was physically dominating and he might not have that type of advantage in the Big 12, but the way that Doege was pin-pointing his passes to Moore was a thing of beauty. Moore's father passed away during the early part of fall camp and he's performed. In Moore's post-game quotes, he said that he did okay, but needs to correct the fumbles and he's right. Ball security is a huge part of football and I think he was told that by the staff. I also like to read things like this:
Q. Talk about the relationship between you and Seth Doege. Looked like you were all clicking really well tonight, 221 yards receiving.
DARRIN MOORE: Yeah, me and Seth have a real good relationship. I mean, day after day, in the summer, spring, I mean, getting extra work after practice. We worked a lot together. So I feel like we've got a pretty good relationship.
THERE ARE PROBLEMS | No game is perfect. The nice thing is that I don't think that any of the mistakes aren't correctable. As an example, I thought the defensive line was just getting bulldozed in the first half (and they were), but Glasgow and Tuberville both said that it was about alignments and getting in the right spot. The second half, it was a different story. Glasgow mentioned that part of the problem was that he didn't have any film on Texas St. so you'd like to give him some credit for correcting that issue (discussed more below). I absolutely hated to see Doege getting crushed after RT Mickey Okafor was absolutely beaten off the edge. There is a reason why Okafor doesn't play left tackle and this is it. Okafor's lack of consistency doesn't get Texas Tech beat too much from the right side, but he has to be better if Doege is to survive the season. There were too many fumbles.
There was one play, it was a long third down for Texas St. and the Texas Tech defense essentially rushed four players and backed the linebackers so far off the line of scrimmage that they were entirely out of position and the Texas St. QB, Rutherford, scrambled for the first down. That didn't make a lick of sense. DC Glasgow said after the game that the rush defense was unacceptable. This is true considering that Texas St. rushed for 273, yes, that's not a typo, 273 yards for a 5.1 YPC average. Again, if it truly was an alignment issue, then maybe Texas Tech will be okay. The pass defense really didn't get tested at all, but I think it was CB Derrick Mays that was trailing a Texas St. receiver on two deep throws. One throw, Mays was called for interference, rightfully so, and the second was just out of reach of the receiver. This was talked about during the camp, but the defensive backs cannot afford to get beat on deep plays. Again, remaining somewhat hopeful, I think that these problems can be corrected and I don't think that this team was the worst team ever. There are things that need to be remedied, but I find it incredibly frustrating to get too concerned about a game that ended up being a 40 point win.
REDSHIRTS REMOVED | By my count, the following players had their redshirts removed: LB Blake Dees, WR Bradley Marquez, SS Pete Robertson, LB Sam Eguavoen, RB DeAndre Washington, TE Jace Amaro, DE Kindred Evans, C Alfredo Morales, WR Marcus Kennard and DT Dennell Wesley. There was talk during the fall camp that Kennard would be redshirted, but apparently he played. I remembered him going up for a pass and looking a bit over-matched. I think he would have benefited from a redshirt, especially with so many options at receiver, but I'm thinking that Kennard may have been a bit nervous about being passed up if he doesn't get on the field. I threw Wesley in with this group as he could have been redshirted, so there's eight freshmen that played significant minutes this game.
Additional Storylines and MVP's after the jump.
DARTWAN MAKES PLAYS | DE Dartwan Bush had a productive game and he made plays. Bush was only in on 4 tackles, but he had 1.0 TFL, 2 forced fumbles and he tipped a pass. He looked really athletic and I think I read something before the game that Bush was really excited about the defensive change because he would be able to utilize his his speed (maybe it was DE Aundrey Barr) by lining up outside the offensive tackle and not line up taking on the tackle one-on-one, but you could see where guys like Barr and Bush would be able to take advantage of their speed on the outisde.
WESLEY AND MACKEY WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE | I loved what DT Dennell Wesley brought to the table. Wesley is not a 320 pound blob that just takes up space. Wesley is an athletic mover that can and will make a difference. He's not starting, but he's a good football player that doesn't just run himself out of plays. Wesley was paired with DT Chris Perry, who looked like a different person -- so much more athletic than last year -- and I realy like that combination. I think Wesley could have as big of an impact as Mackey does and I love Mackey. Despite getting injured, some sort of chest contusion, Mackey is more than capable of being a significant play-maker on defense.
DEES SAYS ADJUSTMENTS AT HALF | LB Blake Dees had a short Q&A after the game, but he said that at halftime Glasgow went over the personnel and types of plays at halftime. I mentioned this above, but I love the idea that Glasgow can and will coach players up at halftime. Glasgow mentioned it in his post-game presser, but he said that he wasn't sure what to expect, that Texas St. ran 60% of their plays in 22 personnel (2 RB and 2 TE) and that they weren't sure what to expect from the Bobcats. I'll dig into the data later in the week, but the defense was significantly better in the second half and if adjustments were made, that's good for this team.
MCDANIEL WILL GET BETTER | C Terry McDaniel didn't have the best day at center, but something that OC Neal Brown said after the game was that Terry will get better. I can recall at least one blitz that McDaniel missed that got Doege pressured, but I'm incredibly confident that McDaniel will be able to make significant adjustments to his game within the next two weeks. Overall, I thought that McDaniel's performance, playing center for the first time in his career, he looked pretty darned good.
FRESHMEN GET TOUCHDOWNS | When WR Bradley Marquez grabbed a fade route for a touchdown I had to do a double-take because I wasn't sure who was making that catch. It looked like Bradley had been playing for 2 years and was a veteran. The fade route wasn't the reason why Marquez's redshirt was removed, it was for his down the field possibilities, but if he can do this too, then I think the staff knows they have something special. RB DeAndre Washington struggled a bit and looked somewhat tentative, but in his touchdown run, it was what you can probably expect from the true freshman. I was a bit surprised by his speed, but maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. OC Brown acknowledged that Washington has to work on not fumbling the ball. This is the big-time and he can't have mistakes like that, but overall, I thought he could add something to the team.
OFFENSIVE MVP | WR DARRIN MOORE | As said above, he may not be able to be more physical against every team's cornerbacks, but Doege and Moore took advantage of a significant matchup advantage for Texas Tech. I realize that I haven't even talked about Doege, who was efficient and didn't make mistakes (I think he had one poor throw that was almost intercepted). Doege was pretty good, as was Stephens. Both had good days, but Moore was better.
DEFENSIVE MVP | DE DARTWAN BUSH | Made some significant plays for the team when they needed it most. Very much impressed with his game and what he'll be able to do.
SPECIAL TEAMS MVP | K DONNIE CARONA | No missed extra points!