Red Raider Gridiron | Headed to Midland and Multiple Fronts for Defense

STORIES OF THE DAY

It was just head coach Kliff Kingsbury speaking today and it's funny to watch him in that environment. He would hate talking to me because I talk too slow. Kingsbury is waiting to get the answer out before you can finish the question.

Kingsbury talked doesn't really talk very much. He answers the questions and that's it. No additional commentary. The highlights (to me) were that he's excited to go to Midland (and I do think it is pretty cool that the Midlanders will be the first people that get to see this football team in action) and he thinks it is good thing to travel and go through that process with the team. Kingsbury was asked about freshman QB Davis Webb and said that he's pushing all of the other quarterbacks and if they're good enough as a freshman, then they will play. He was also asked about cornerbacks coach Kevin Curtis, who is trying to help turn around a defense was was 118th in the country in takeaways. Kingsbury did know that statistic off the top of his head.

NOTEBOOK

DEFENSIVE CALLS | The LAJ has an article on how the defense is going to make many more calls than they have in the past. Co-DC and outside linebackers coach Mike Smith talked about how there are at least 35 different looks that the defense can bring:

"Same thing when you get rookies in the NFL. Here, we might have 35 calls. You get in an NFL training camp, about 150 calls — and you’re a rookie. They’re not that far out."

[SNIP]

"When you have multiple fronts ... ," Smith said. "Now the safety’s coming. Now Raider (outside linebacker) is coming. Ends are dropping out. (Inside linebackers) are coming. Those guys have fun. They hear a call (and think), ‘This is my blitz now. Now I’m coming.’ They get excited."

"Raider" LB Terrance Bullitt confirms the exotic looks the defense is bringing:

"It’s real fun. Real exotic," Bullitt said. "They’re not going to know where we’re blitzing from. It’ll change things up, instead of just the outside blitz. It could be a Raider blitzing to the ‘A’ gap or an end dropping out doing spy coverage. It’ll be fun this year blitzing on defense."

I do think that it is interesting Smith says that he doesn't think he's putting too much on the players, but that you'd be surprised how much they will pick up. I think this is going to be interesting to see how much of this works.

NOTEBOOK | The LAJ's notebook mentions a lot of the things mentioned above and they have actual quotes abou things, while I just summarize things. Go check it out.

LEROY OPINES | I don't know who the Midland-Reporter's Oscar Leroy is but he writes about Kingsbury in Midland this weekend:

It's also a win-win for Texas Tech. Not only is this good P.R. for the university as it reaches out to the fanbase, but it also gives Tech officials a chance to shake the hands of boosters and oil company folks down here in the Permian Basin. After all, some oil money finding its way up north to the athletic program could never hurt.

So enjoy this Midland and the Permian Basin. How often does a major college football team come to your own back yard free of charge to show you what it has worked on over the past couple of weeks? Not often, that's for sure.

KINGSBURY IN AMARILLO | The Amarillo Globe-News reports that Kingsbury will make his first appearance in Amarillo next month, May 16th.

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