Red Raider Gridiron | Hays Talks Humble Beginnings, While Wheeler and Davis Impress

STORIES OF THE DAY

Another practice with just Kliff Kingsbury yesterday. Short and sweet answers yet again. I'm surprised that the reporters are really able to put much together in terms of reporting. The scrimmage on Friday night is supposed to be a live scrimmage, full hitting except that the quarterbacks aren't live. Kingsbury's comment about how QB Michael Brewer and his ability to see things better when he goes 11-on-11 is interesting and it is what the prior staff echoed as well.

I really enjoyed reading the LAJ about offensive line coach Lee Hays as we haven't heard from him at all this spring. Hays was a guy back in the early and middle oughts that traveled from West Texas A&M as the offensive coordinator there to hang out with former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach and all of their spring practices and truly worked his way up the coaching ladder:

"I would try to make every spring practice I could," Hays said recently. "Literally, if they had 15 practices, I would probably be at at least 10 of them. Those guys were great back then to me. (Former Tech co-offensive coordinator) Sonny Dykes, one of my great friends, was a guy that helped me get started, really. Sonny, after practice, would allow me to come in and I’d listen to the coaching points and take notes and try not to bother them, then head back up to West Texas and tell my staff about it."

There's also a bit from Kingsbury who talks about what Kingsbury brings to the table:

"His background in coaching is pretty impressive, when you look at his resume, where he’s been — he’s been an offensive coordinator in the Big 12 before — and then just his nature," Kingsbury said. "The way he carries himself, the way he recruits, the way he handles his players is the way I want the offensive line to play, so I was ecstatic he decided to join the staff."

I do think that it is interesting that this coaching staff has four coaches that could call plays, Kingsbury, Sonny Cumbie, Eric Morris and Hays. That's a lot of offensive knowledge sitting there. I know that it is standard to have an offensive coordinator sitting in the box helping the on-field play-caller call plays and I wonder who that will be for Kingsbury. I wonder the same thing about the defense and if there will be a coordinator sitting the box or if it will be a position coach.

NOTEBOOK

REDSHIRT FRESHMEN RECEIVERS | The LAJ has notebook focusing on the two redshirt receivers, Dominique Wheeler and Reginald Davis. Kingsbury talked about how they tried to recruit Davis at Houston and Texas A&M, but that Davis was sold on Texas Tech and it seems like Kingsbury really appreciated that.

"We went hard at him at both schools and tried to pull him away from Texas Tech," Kingsbury said. "But he was a Red Raider all the way. I know he wants to be here, so that’s pretty cool."

TEXAS TECH VS. TEXAS ON THANKSGIVING TO BE ON FOX SPORTS 1 | The DMN notes that the Texas Tech vs. Texas game WILL NOT be on the Longhorn Network, but will be on Fox Sports 1, which will be re-branded and is currently the Speed channel.

SPRING GAME ON FOX SPORTS SOUTHWEST | There's something very comforting about official press releases, and Fox Sports Southwest confirms that Texas Tech's spring game will be on FSSW. The interesting thing is that David Thetford will be doing play-by-play and Cody Hodges will be the analyst. I think this may be the first time that Hodges has done this sort of work? Interesting.

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