These are subjective position grades. The grading criteria is a reflection of (1) the collective players' performance that make up each position group, and (2) the expectation that I had for each position group coming into the season. For example, if our OL had been average to above average, they would almost certainly have an A grade.
The Murray State game is almost completely disregarded.
Where am I way wrong? What grades would you give using my criteria (or whatever scale you want to use)?
Quarterbacks
Almost all of the graded snaps are coming from
Donovan Smith. This one was more difficult than I thought. My expectations for this group were high. Because I envisioned a healthy Tyler Shough and Donovan Smith being used in situations that fit him perfectly. That hasn't been the case, obviously. Shough -- who apparently won the job by such a wide margin that Kittley said he and McGuire didn't even discuss who would start -- was knocked out after only 18 plays. I'm not really sure we ever get him back. I understand we're saying he will, but the guy had a metal plate put in his upper dorsimus a couple weeks ago. As a result of all that, Donovan has played the meaningful snaps, save for a few against NC State's prevent defense.
Our QBs have a collective passing grade that is second worst in the conference behind K-State. That seems bad.
Donovan & Behren attempted 80 passes beyond the line of scrimmage against UH & NC State. 6 were intercepted. Almost 8% of your non-lateral passes being intercepted is not good. That's so bad it's almost unsustainable.
Donovan & Behren combined for 0 for 13 against NC State & UH in passes that traveled 20 or more yards through the air. We simple have not been able to connect on deep passes, although a few (2?) have drawn pass-interference penalties.
There is strong evidence -- both from watching the games, coaches talking to the media, listening to people close to the program -- that some of the OL issues are a direct result of our QB play. Donovan isn't seeing things quick enough. There's also a few checks at the line of scrimmage he made that McGuire's critiqued (while also mentioning Kittley needs to do a better job). Overall, the mental side of this position has not been a positive.
Donovan won a game against UH with his legs. That's worth something.
With all that said, it should also be noted just how much we are asking of this position right now. By its very nature, Kittley's offense is demanding on QBs. It's also fair to wonder if Kittley needs to adjust some to account for (1) him not having Bailey Zappe doing special things at the line of scrimmage & (2) him not having a 23-year-old Tyler Shough that's taking 3 hours of basket-weaving online. I'm not saying to take away responsibility from Donovan -- I'm only saying that the sheer weight of that responsibility is being considered in this grade.
Not only is the scheme itself demanding, the on-field results dictate even more being put on the QBs' shoulders. Against UH, a 4-man pressure was absolutely blitzing our OL. Against NC State a spread-offense-stopping wizard was either rushing 6 or, on about 75% of snaps, dropping 8 guys into coverage. Those two matchups wouldn't be that big of a deal if we had any consistency running the football with traditional hand-offs. We have not.
So, the result has been Donovan, a young-ish QB, going up against defenses that are dropping 7-8 guys in coverage, while most of the runs he checks into aren't working, despite the light boxes. He's then throwing in obvious passing situations against 8-man coverages or, in the case of UH, with Derek Parish 3 feet up his ass.
I guess what I'm saying is... it's been hard to be the QB at Texas Tech the last 2 games.
That's not to excuse Donovan at all. He's contributing to the problems, for sure.
QB GRADE: C-
Offensive Line
Players Considered:
Weston Wright, Caleb Rogers, Landon Peterson, Dennis Wilburn, Monroe Mills, Jacoby Jackson.
There are 53 offensive lineman in the Big 12 with 98 or more offensive snaps (98 was used because that's how many Weston Wright has played). Here's where our guys rank:
Wilburn (35th)
Mills (36th)
Wright (40th -- with half of those snaps against Murray State)
Peterson (44th)
Jackson (46th)
Rogers (49th)
That seems... bad.
The destruction of Caleb Rogers against UH was particularly disturbing. But maybe the most frustrating development has been the mostly-anemic run game. I'm not an OL specialist. It's nearly impossible for me to discern whether it's scheme, running back, or OL play that's causing those problems. But we've had 1 designed run against P5 teams that went for more than 15 yards. A lot of that is blocking related.
Dennis Wilburn at 60.6 has the highest grade on run blocking snaps per PFF, with Caleb Rogers the lowest at 48.8. For reference, we had 3 OL higher than a 60 run-blocking grade last year (Deaton, Wright, Storment).
Pre-season expectations factor in heavily here, though. I did not have high hopes for this position group. A guy many considered to be a sure-fire starter (Cole Spencer) was lost for the season. A guy we brought in to win an interior spot (Cade Briggs) lost the job to a walk-on. The expected transfer battle between Ty Buchanon and Monroe Mills for right tackle never actually took place due to injuries. The consensus among any Texas Tech football fan was that this position group would be an issue. And for the most part, they have.
Additionally, I've heard it enough from the coaching staff the last few weeks to know that not all of the pass-protection issues are the OL's fault. If you listen to the coaches, some of it is Donovan and some of it is Kittley. The fact that they are playing with a young QB, in a new scheme, and against what appear to be solid to good defenses is helping their grade here somewhat, although it's not going to get any easier moving forward....
OL Grade: C
Running Backs
Sarodorick and
Tahj only ones being considered here.
This is where high pre-season expectations is factoring in to hurt a grade more so than any other position group. If you haven't noticed, our inability to run the ball in early downs scares the hell out of me. I think it's pretty important to get that fixed, which would place Donovan in better situations and give our opponents' edge rushers some hesitation.
Having watched all of our snaps several times, though, effort is not a problem. Both these guys run hard. Really hard. And they look hard to tackle. They have caught the ball well and ran after the catch just fine, too. I have a strong inclination to blame our woeful running game on anyone but these two . But they're going to get downgraded for it nonetheless.
They also seem to have a ways to go in pass protection. Whether it's a mental slip up (Sarodorick last Saturday) or physically getting beat (Tahj a few times), they need to do more in our collective effort to keep Donovan upright.
RBs Grade: C+
Wide Receivers
Players Considered:
Jerand Bradley, Myles Price, Loic Founji, Nehemiah Martinez, Xavier White, Brady Boyd, Trey Cleveland, JJ Sparkman
I almost didn't consider Sparkman. He hasn't played much. It's really just been Loic, Cleveland and Bradley on the outside. Nehemiah, Xavier, & Myles on the inside. And Brady Boyd as kind of a utility guy.
This is such a difficult position to grade. Network television cameras show these guys about 10% of the time they're on the field. If cameras only showed guys running routes, instead of the line of scrimmage, I wonder how many sacks the casual fan would blame on them instead of the OL?
I'm also not sure what my pre-season expectations were for this group. They weren't terribly high. Definitely not has high as
@T. Beadles, who perpetually believes "everything is fine at WR." The guy with the most targets (Jerand) against both NC State & UH is classified as a FR. We have multiple first-year transfers and former walk-ons contributing (Xavier, Nehemiah, Boyd), although that's not always a strong indicator of talent issues at this position compared to other spots like QB, OL, DBs. We were also told by numerous people close to the program that this room would lack a guy that could "really take the top off of a defense." Having thought about it some, I guess I had pretty average to below average expectations for this group.
With respect to production, against UH / NC State, the guys listed above were targeted 72 times. They have 41 catches for 474 yards. However, about 25% of those yards have come on the 3 TD plays Kittley decided to call against UH (Nehemiah / Price) & NC State (Price). There have been some good, really competitive catches along the sidelines. Some of them in massive situations in the UH game. But those are generally 7 - 10 yard gains. There haven't been any contested catches downfield by this group, but also not a lot of opportunities for them, which may or may not be their fault.
I'd be curious to know what others would grade this group because I'm struggling.
WR Grade: C+
Tight Ends
Players Considered:
Mason Tharp & Henry Teeter
My expectations were probably a little too high for this group coming into the year. I liked what each brought physically. But they have, to my eye, been largely non-factors in our offense through 3 games. I don't think that's necessarily all their fault by any means.
Against UH & NC State, our TEs were targeted 6 times. They have 4 catches for 32 yards, with most of those yards coming from Tharp being really tough to tackle after the catch against NC State. The Baylor Cupp injury hurts because he was factoring in somewhat in the running game. Strangely, Teeter went from over 30 snaps against UH to just 8 snaps against NC State. He hasn't been targeted once. Not sure what that development could mean, if anything.
I'm going to have to give this group an incomplete grade. We just haven't seen them do much. Maybe the biggest impact they have had on a game was when Donovan tried to force that redzone throw into Tharp against UH and it was picked off. It's not good that, when thinking about the TE room in general, that's the first play that comes to my mind.
TE Grade: Incomplete
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