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Red Raider Gridiron: First Practice Recap; Kingsbury and Morris on Offense

We have the non-transcript from the first practice of the year with head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Kingsbury and offensive coordinator Eric Morris discuss the offensive game planning.

John Weast

Post-Practice Non-Transcript. There were only a few minutes of quotes, and non-transcribing Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Kliff Kingsbury is incredibly tough because he doesn't slow down and he talks very quickly.

For those of you who are new to non-transcripts, this is me, typing away while the video plays and I try my best not to stop the video, just type and get the gist of the interview.  Anyway, here's the non-transcript and the video:

Kliff Kingsbury: Good and spirited, moved around pretty good. A lot better than last year. Much smoother this year, like I said, meeting with them all summer helped. Have some guys with a little more speed, so that is exciting, they're heads are spinning, but they out there trying hard. Put in work is a lot of fun for these coaches and players. One day, you can't judge. Good energy as a group. Knowing the system through the summer meetings. (On the offensive line) We added one guy, but moved some pieces around. (On defensive line) They are big bodies and I felt that they had a pretty good first day.

Lee Hays: Dominique Davis, all he really knows is left tackle. Le'Raven Clark played right guard and he had no problem switching back. A lot of NFL teams have him rated as a guard, luckily he can play both, he is 315, get some movement on a 3 technique. We're at a point to step up and compete and be a part of the rotation. We have depth, so if you don't want to compete, you can go to the scout team.

Notebook. The LAJ's notebook has a ton of information.  Please, click on the link for much more details.  Here goes.

* OL Cody Hayes may be out for the entire year with a shoulder injury that he suffered while working out in the offseason.  
* Also not on the 105 man roster is DL Bennett Ofor for medical reasons.
* With speedier running backs, Lee Hays talks about what that means for the offensive line:

"There's subtle changes," offensive line coach Lee Hays said Monday after the team's first preseason practice. "There's some things maybe play-wise we've added or taken out, just based off the personnel we have now. We've got some speed in the (backfield), so maybe a little bit more outside zone versus inside zone, stuff like that."

Photo Gallery. Want to look at some photos? Here you go.

The More Things Change. The more they stay the same.  Since Eric Morris is the lone offensive coordinator, and the LAJ wonders if things will change for Morris and the answer is essentially no, things won't change really at all:

"We've done the same thing since I was a graduate assistant at Houston," Morris said. "He does his entire script for the week. I do my whole entire script for a week, and we'll meet on it and see what ideas we like and don't like and discuss it together.

"We've been doing that for a long time together."

Gaines to Bounce Back. SS J.J. Gaines is a guy that Texas Football thinks that can bounce back this year after an injury-plagued 2013:

FS J.J. Gaines, Texas Tech- Gaines was on his way to posting solid numbers last season when a mid-season shoulder injury ended his sophomore campaign in Lubbock. Now a junior, the Irving Nimitz product will anchor a depleted defensive secondary that lost several key seniors in the offseason. In order to keep their place in a strong Big 12 conference, Gaines will need to be in good shape.

Also on that list is Jameill Showers, the quarterback for Texas Tech's second opponent at UTEP.  Showers said that he has a "personal vendetta" to settle against Texas Tech and Kingsbury because Kingsbury was his quarterbacks coach and chose Johnny Manziel over Showers.  Whatever it takes.