I was able to talk with both assistant coaches Kevin Curtis and Darrin Chiaverini this week.
Darrin Chiaverini
Both of Chiaverini’s units played well this week, but it was his outside receiver group that really shined. The leading pass-catcher from the Arkansas game was Z-receiver Reginald Davis who posted 5 catches for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns on Saturday. Chiaverini commented on the performance by Davis against the Hogs.
“I was really proud of him as a coach. He had a really good camp and a lot of people weren’t talking about him; he’s been in this offense for awhile and he has been in this system. He is doing what I expected him to do. He made some big plays in the game, beat man to man and what not on a straight out route, and it was fun to watch him play. I was excited for him.”
Even with the strong showing against Arkansas, Davis has had his ups and downs throughout this season but the light really seemed to turn on for the junior receiver last week. Chiaverini was not surprised by the performance from Davis.
“I expect him to play like that every week. He has that ability. He has some of the best speed in the Big 12 Conference, he’s got good ball skills, and he is a smart football player. He just has to consistently expect that from himself. That is the biggest talent for Reg, he has to make sure he expects it from himself instead of me expecting it from him.”
As a unit, Chiaverini was very complimentary of his group this week.
“I was proud of them; they played well and blocked their butts off. I had people telling me and texting me and calling me telling me how good they blocked; both the outside guys and the inside guys. We are getting great effort and we gotta keep getting great execution and keep catching the football and being sound in our technique, and if we do that, we will be hard to stop.”
One of the highlights of the game was IR Jakeem Grant taking a pitch from Mahomes in the back field, pulling up and throwing the ball deep to a wide-open Reginald Davis for a 72-yard touchdown strike. Chiaverini said it was the best throw Grant has had all week. He really loved the tight spiral and hitting Davis in stride. He was excited about the execution of the play by both players.
In the week one win against Sam Houston State, Tech’s leading receiver was Devin Lauderdale who caught 8 passes for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns. Lauderdale has been mostly absent from the stat sheet these past 2 weeks and didn’t record a pass on Saturday. Chiaverini thinks it is a huge testament to the strength of the receiving core for a guy like Lauderdale to not catch a pass and still have the offense fire on all cylinders.
“I think it shows that we have talent at the outside position. They are doing what they are expected to do. What Lauderdale has been doing all year is what I expect of him. What people don’t give number 6 credit for is that he blocks just as well as anyone on the team. He was our best blocking receiver of the week; he had three knockdowns and tons of effort plays. I was proud of 6 even though he wasn’t getting the ball thrown to him as much. They are doing what I am expecting them to do.”
Another interesting note is that the offense has been able to hum along this year despite being without arguably their best receiver from the spring and fall camp in Dylan Cantrell. Cantrell has missed all 3 games this year due to back spasms.
“It’s been tough. The hardest thing is for Dylan, though. He had as good of camp as anyone here. He is working hard to get back on the field, he is a great kid, and when he is healthy, he will be back out there.”
Chaiverini talked about the injury status of the player and his availability come Saturday…
“We’ll see. He is day-to-day.”
Chiaverini’s special teams unit had a fairly solid game on Saturday with the only notable error being a missed FG from Michael Barden late in the game. Chiaverini said missed field goals are a part of football and the important thing is having a short memory. Chiaverini’s confidence in Barden is far from shaken.
Throughout the entire season Chiaverini’s ST unit has looked stellar. He chalks that up to better recruiting and adding better players to their different units.
“We are getting better players. Scheme is scheme and everyone runs scheme, but it you keep improving your roster then the special teams units will get better. They are being coached well, but they are playing hard. If you play hard, good things will happen to you. I’m pleased with the way they have performed, and we are going to keep getting better.”
Kevin Curtis
Coach Curtis’ DB group will be experiencing the most change in offensive philosophy over these past two weeks after going against a predominant running team to an air-it-out type of offense in TCU. Coach Curtis shared his thoughts on the TCU offense going into this week.
“It’s on to the next. Once we landed in Lubbock, we were thinking about TCU and onto the next. We get the chance to face an offense that is similar to the offense that we face every day in spring and two-a-days. We see something very similar every day. We just have to do what we are supposed to do. Every defense that we run, every guy has a responsibility, and every guy has a technique, and we just have to execute our defense and our assignment. We just got to execute our defense, execute our assignments, and we will have a chance.”
Curtis said the key to stopping a team like TCU is knowing your job and doing your job and that’s it. From SHSU to UTEP to Arkansas to TCU, if you know your job and do your job and play sound football, you will have success.
“We are going to do what we do and that’s it. We got to know our job and do our job and that’s it. Every week we can play sound. Yes we are facing a great opponent, but we are going to know our job and do our job.”
Coach Curtis shared his thoughts on the playmakers they will be facing from the TCU offense this week.
“They are very skilled. The trigger man, the running back, the wide receivers, they are very skilled. They have guys who can make plays; we have our hands full, but we will be ready. We have been practicing and preparing for them and we will be ready when the ball kicks off in Jones stadium.”
Even though the DB’s weren’t called upon in pass coverage as much, one player on the defense really stood out and that was Jah’Shawn Johnson. Johnson recorded 16 tackles, a tackle for loss, and forced a fumble on Arkansas’ final drive en route to Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honor. Curtis was very complimentary of Jah’Shawn and some of the other players from his DB unit.
“I was very impressed with Jah’Shawn. He won defensive player of the week and did some good things. He shows a lot of heart; he plays with a lot of heart. You’re glad that he is on your team,” he said. “I thought Tevin did some good things too. As a whole, I thought the defense made some plays when they needed to. Were we clean? No, but our guys played hard. Good effort makes up for a lot of mistakes. We are going to play hard, continue to play hard, and execute and be ready for this week.”
Just like Chiaverini and the offense, Coach Curtis has had to deal with not having his best player in Nigel Bethel as well. Bethel, like Cantrell, has yet to play a game this season. When asked about the status of Bethel going into TCU, he deferred to the Head Coach.
“That’s a Coach Kingsbury question.”
What’s the game plan going to be like going against an offense like TCU?
“Every game we always want to create turnovers. We really feel like if we create turnovers and get the ball back to our offense we are going to have a chance. We are going to try and create turnovers; play sound defense and create turnovers.”
Darrin Chiaverini
Both of Chiaverini’s units played well this week, but it was his outside receiver group that really shined. The leading pass-catcher from the Arkansas game was Z-receiver Reginald Davis who posted 5 catches for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns on Saturday. Chiaverini commented on the performance by Davis against the Hogs.
“I was really proud of him as a coach. He had a really good camp and a lot of people weren’t talking about him; he’s been in this offense for awhile and he has been in this system. He is doing what I expected him to do. He made some big plays in the game, beat man to man and what not on a straight out route, and it was fun to watch him play. I was excited for him.”
Even with the strong showing against Arkansas, Davis has had his ups and downs throughout this season but the light really seemed to turn on for the junior receiver last week. Chiaverini was not surprised by the performance from Davis.
“I expect him to play like that every week. He has that ability. He has some of the best speed in the Big 12 Conference, he’s got good ball skills, and he is a smart football player. He just has to consistently expect that from himself. That is the biggest talent for Reg, he has to make sure he expects it from himself instead of me expecting it from him.”
As a unit, Chiaverini was very complimentary of his group this week.
“I was proud of them; they played well and blocked their butts off. I had people telling me and texting me and calling me telling me how good they blocked; both the outside guys and the inside guys. We are getting great effort and we gotta keep getting great execution and keep catching the football and being sound in our technique, and if we do that, we will be hard to stop.”
One of the highlights of the game was IR Jakeem Grant taking a pitch from Mahomes in the back field, pulling up and throwing the ball deep to a wide-open Reginald Davis for a 72-yard touchdown strike. Chiaverini said it was the best throw Grant has had all week. He really loved the tight spiral and hitting Davis in stride. He was excited about the execution of the play by both players.
In the week one win against Sam Houston State, Tech’s leading receiver was Devin Lauderdale who caught 8 passes for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns. Lauderdale has been mostly absent from the stat sheet these past 2 weeks and didn’t record a pass on Saturday. Chiaverini thinks it is a huge testament to the strength of the receiving core for a guy like Lauderdale to not catch a pass and still have the offense fire on all cylinders.
“I think it shows that we have talent at the outside position. They are doing what they are expected to do. What Lauderdale has been doing all year is what I expect of him. What people don’t give number 6 credit for is that he blocks just as well as anyone on the team. He was our best blocking receiver of the week; he had three knockdowns and tons of effort plays. I was proud of 6 even though he wasn’t getting the ball thrown to him as much. They are doing what I am expecting them to do.”
Another interesting note is that the offense has been able to hum along this year despite being without arguably their best receiver from the spring and fall camp in Dylan Cantrell. Cantrell has missed all 3 games this year due to back spasms.
“It’s been tough. The hardest thing is for Dylan, though. He had as good of camp as anyone here. He is working hard to get back on the field, he is a great kid, and when he is healthy, he will be back out there.”
Chaiverini talked about the injury status of the player and his availability come Saturday…
“We’ll see. He is day-to-day.”
Chiaverini’s special teams unit had a fairly solid game on Saturday with the only notable error being a missed FG from Michael Barden late in the game. Chiaverini said missed field goals are a part of football and the important thing is having a short memory. Chiaverini’s confidence in Barden is far from shaken.
Throughout the entire season Chiaverini’s ST unit has looked stellar. He chalks that up to better recruiting and adding better players to their different units.
“We are getting better players. Scheme is scheme and everyone runs scheme, but it you keep improving your roster then the special teams units will get better. They are being coached well, but they are playing hard. If you play hard, good things will happen to you. I’m pleased with the way they have performed, and we are going to keep getting better.”
Kevin Curtis
Coach Curtis’ DB group will be experiencing the most change in offensive philosophy over these past two weeks after going against a predominant running team to an air-it-out type of offense in TCU. Coach Curtis shared his thoughts on the TCU offense going into this week.
“It’s on to the next. Once we landed in Lubbock, we were thinking about TCU and onto the next. We get the chance to face an offense that is similar to the offense that we face every day in spring and two-a-days. We see something very similar every day. We just have to do what we are supposed to do. Every defense that we run, every guy has a responsibility, and every guy has a technique, and we just have to execute our defense and our assignment. We just got to execute our defense, execute our assignments, and we will have a chance.”
Curtis said the key to stopping a team like TCU is knowing your job and doing your job and that’s it. From SHSU to UTEP to Arkansas to TCU, if you know your job and do your job and play sound football, you will have success.
“We are going to do what we do and that’s it. We got to know our job and do our job and that’s it. Every week we can play sound. Yes we are facing a great opponent, but we are going to know our job and do our job.”
Coach Curtis shared his thoughts on the playmakers they will be facing from the TCU offense this week.
“They are very skilled. The trigger man, the running back, the wide receivers, they are very skilled. They have guys who can make plays; we have our hands full, but we will be ready. We have been practicing and preparing for them and we will be ready when the ball kicks off in Jones stadium.”
Even though the DB’s weren’t called upon in pass coverage as much, one player on the defense really stood out and that was Jah’Shawn Johnson. Johnson recorded 16 tackles, a tackle for loss, and forced a fumble on Arkansas’ final drive en route to Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honor. Curtis was very complimentary of Jah’Shawn and some of the other players from his DB unit.
“I was very impressed with Jah’Shawn. He won defensive player of the week and did some good things. He shows a lot of heart; he plays with a lot of heart. You’re glad that he is on your team,” he said. “I thought Tevin did some good things too. As a whole, I thought the defense made some plays when they needed to. Were we clean? No, but our guys played hard. Good effort makes up for a lot of mistakes. We are going to play hard, continue to play hard, and execute and be ready for this week.”
Just like Chiaverini and the offense, Coach Curtis has had to deal with not having his best player in Nigel Bethel as well. Bethel, like Cantrell, has yet to play a game this season. When asked about the status of Bethel going into TCU, he deferred to the Head Coach.
“That’s a Coach Kingsbury question.”
What’s the game plan going to be like going against an offense like TCU?
“Every game we always want to create turnovers. We really feel like if we create turnovers and get the ball back to our offense we are going to have a chance. We are going to try and create turnovers; play sound defense and create turnovers.”
