Red Raider Gridiron | Brewer Dealing with Back?; Offense Looks to be Balanced

1.  Brewer Dealing With Back? | The LAJ has some things from practice yesterday, namely that QB Michael Brewer has a slight back strain, but no one really knows how severe it is or how much practice Brewer is getting because practices are closed. Brewer said that he strained his back early in practices, but he was cleared and there weren't any issues. I think that right now, this is a non-story, and it wouldn't surprise me to hear that Brewer may not be practicing as much may be an indication that Brewer is pretty much locked up in terms of the starting quarterback. With that being said, IR Jakeem Grant and C Jared Kaster both praised QB Davis Webb for his vocal leadership, here's Grant:

"We’re meshing well with Davis (Webb)," Grant said. "He’s been here consistently. We haven’t gotten a chance to do it with Brewer, because he’s been out. He has a back injury, but hopefully he can get back in and get right back on it. But as of right now, Davis is stepping up and taking over and showing us what he can do."

Two things. First, VTM's charris writes on his blog Ride Together and reported that Brewer was better than Webb on Thursday's practice and by a decent margin. Second, head coach Kliff Kingsbury said that both quarterbacks would go, so again, I think this is a pretty minor deal that seems more headline grabbing thing than anything else. I would also think that it also depends on the question that is asked of some of these guys as far as the player's answers.

Other than that, there will be a scrimmage today, again, closed to the public and media. It will be interesting to see if there will be anything to this story.

This video is from Thursday's practice and features CB coach Kevin Curtis and DT Kerry Hyder:

2. Offense Hopes to be Balanced | The DT is back, and I think I've missed a couple of these stories, but I'm glad the students are getting back into the swing of things. In any event, the DT reports that the offense is hoping to be balanced and one of the guys that hopes to do this is IR/RB Sadale Foster:

I’m taking on a lot of different roles this year," he said. "Last year I kind of just was set at running back and I did return some kicks for a little bit. This year, I’m playing running back, slot receiver and I’ll be returning punts as well. The different role is a lot more on my shoulders but I’m used to it, you know, I’ve been doing it for a while. Coach told me that he had a plan for me, and that was the plan he had, so I’m just going to do whatever I can to help the team win."

And WR Bradley Marquez talks about having high expectations:

"I feel like everybody has high expectations for themselves, and how can you not?" he said. "If your expectations aren’t high, you’re selling yourself short. Everybody’s going to have high expectations and each one of them is very capable of doing it. You set a goal — you set out to do whatever you can to reach it. That’s how I’ve always been. You set goals and you go chase them. If everybody across the receiving core said 100 balls, then yeah, that’s not realistic, but you can all have that goal and you can all shoot for it."

There are some other good quotes, so go check it out.

3. Hocutt Talks NCAA, Football and Texas Tech | RRS transcribed part of an interview that was on Double T 104.3 with the Morning Drive with Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt. Lots of good quotes there, so go check it out, but here's a bit about where Hocutt wants to do each game-day and where he sees all athletic teams:

"We've got to focus on building an the best college football environment in America six times a year at Jones AT&T Stadium," the athletics director said. "There's nothing more important we can do as the university and the West Texas community is to show our support to Kliff Kingsbury and this football program.

"But it's more than that. It's for all 17 varsity programs. Season tickets sales, attendance at our football games is our lifeblood and we need to make sure we have 61,000 strong in Jones AT&T Stadium every time we take the field. We've got to continue with our message how critically important it is to fill the stadium each and every week."

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4. Targeting Rules | The LAJ talked with some of the players (As an aside, Hocutt also said in the interview above that he agreed with the new targeting rules, which is interesting.) about the new targeting rules and S Tre Porter knows that these rules are important:

"I respect what they’re doing," Porter said. "Concussions are a serious injury that goes overlooked sometimes. Players continue to play, which is terrible, because it can have long-term effects on you."

5. 5 DC's in 5 Years | Big 12 Sports was in Lubbock earlier this week (look for additional stories from the Big 12 site) and this is sort of a notebook article with a handful of notes, but there is also this bit by Co-DC Matt Wallerstedt on how he wants his defense to perform:

"The scheme will be aggressive enough and confusing enough to make the quarterback earn his scholarship and keep the offensive linemen guessing," he said. "We’re going to have to play full speed and know where our fits are and play aggressive.

"I think the biggest thing here is the takeaway numbers have to go up. We’ve talked about that and stressed that since we hit the ground here. If we can get the takeaway numbers up, we can win a couple more games from that alone."

6. Q & A with Hyder | The official site has this Q&A with DT Kerry Hyder and maybe it's just me, but I was sorta hoping that they would ask more off the wall questions to get to know the player's personality. Nothing crazy, but something like, what's the best meal you've eve eaten? Who is his favorite follow on Twitter? What's his favorite website? These questions seem pretty vanilla.

7. SI's College Football TV Roundtable | I love reading this annually (I don't think I've ever linked to it, but I recall reading it for a couple of years) but SI's roundtable on college football television is up and it's a quality read. Luckily, there are certain announcers that no longer have jobs. One other television note, which is that they discuss the role of Fox Sports 1 and whether or not Erin Andrews is the right person to lead that group, which I think I would watch if it weren't for Clay Travis being on that station, and Awful Announcing has the latest on Fox Sports 2, which is a re-brand of Fuel TV. And to clarify the Speed Channel is being re-branded as Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 1 is the channel that the Texas Tech vs. Texas game will be televised.

8. Bonus Awesomeness for Reading to the End of the Post | Watch HC Kliff Kingsbury during the Oklahoma Drills, and really all of the coaches. This is what it means to be excited to be a football coach. Also, Dylan Cantrell and Gary Moore catching footballs! This film was posted by Texas Tech video, go give them a follow on the Twitter: @TexasTechVideo.

More from Viva The Matadors:

• RESULTS | Which Freshman Do You Think Will Have Their Redshirt season Removed?
• Texas Tech Basketball Schedule Released; Possible Addition to Staff?
• Red Raider Gridiron | Cornerbacks Separating; Amaro Getting Healthy and Stronger
• Texas Tech Links on VTM | Volleyball and Soccer Set to Begin
• Texas Tech Opponent Preview | Oklahoma Sooners