College Football expert Phil Steele joined the Tech Talk radio show to talk Big 12 football and was also asked a few questions about Texas Tech during the segment. Steele is a very knowledgeable guy and was very honest in his answers, nothing too groundbreaking, but still brought up some good discussion points. Below I transcribed the interview where he talked about Texas Tech.
The first question asked of Steele was in regards to the relative inexperience of the quarterbacks listed on his second through fourth teams with Seth Russell on the second, Patrick Mahomeson the third, and Mason Rudolph rounding things off on the fourth team. Here is what Steele at to say in regards to Mahomes and the Tech offense.
“If Mahomes beats out Webb for the starting job, I like his mobility, he had less interceptions than Davis Webb, and Texas Tech’s offense will be explosive as usual. You expect Texas Tech to be up there, last year was a little bit of a down year for them, but I think when you look at that offense and that receiving core plus the offensive line, I think he will have a big year.”
Steele chose Oklahoma State as being the most improved team in the Big 12 this upcoming season and said that if OSU would’ve finished with a losing record last year, they would have been his pick has the most improved team in the entire country. In regards to Tech though, he gave his expectations for Tech’s bottom next year and what their ceiling could be in relation to wins and losses.
“Bottom I would say would be a second straight losing season which doesn’t happen very often in Lubbock and that would probably be something like 4-8 or 5-7 would be the very bottom. Now the ceiling I think could be pretty good. You look at the offense, two solid quarterbacks in Mahomes and Webb,DeAndre Washington is a guy who actually rushed for a 1,000 yards –Texas Tech hasn’t had a 1,000 yard rusher since 1998—so that’s a nice place to start there. The receiving core ranks as one of my top units in the country and then the offensive line with Le’Raven Clark at left tackle, I rate them as the number 14 offensive line in the country. I just look at this offense, and I see that it is a top 10 offense, which Texas Tech fans are familiar with, it happens almost every single year, but I clearly see it happening this year. Last year the problem was the defense, it was horrific at times, I mean 513 yards per game, 41.3 points per game, but up front they have some players. I like Pete Robertson, he led the Big 12 in stats last year with 12, you gotBranden Jackson at the other defensive end spot, BreidenFehoko at defensive tackle, the true freshman, I think he could come in--he was in for the spring--and have a big time impact on the inside and all of a sudden they are a lot tougher up front. Their linebacking core is not as veteran as it was last year, but they do add in Ohio State transfer Mike Mitchell who was my number 10 rated linebacker coming out of high school. He is very physically impressive, he can run, and he has got a little bit of a nasty streak to him. I think he could definitely have a pretty good year. Then that secondary, if the front seven creates a little bit of havoc up front, they won’t have to cover for very long and could have a stronger year and you can basically say the whole entire secondary is back, all seven guys who drew starts last year return to the lineup. As long as that defense comes around, they got a new defensive coordinator in David Gibbs, David Gibbs when he was at Houston the last two years led the FBS in takeaways at 73 takeaways the last two years which has been one of Texas Tech’s problems last year. They were minus 13 in turnovers, in fact, that has been a problem the last three years, each year double digit turnovers. In my turnovers equals turnaround article it says that teams usually have a better record next year after that, so add that all up and I can see Tech getting to perhaps 8 or even 9 wins if you put your glasses on and say hey, I am a pure optimist here and we will win all the games, but I think the final result will fall somewhere between those two.”
Steele threw out a turnover stat in his last answer that kind of showed the relationship between turnovers and the number of wins for a program. He was then asked if he would say that turnovers were the number one indicator of success to flip the script on a losing season or was there another category. This is what he had to say about turnovers and Tech.
“Yes. In the first magazine I wrote—this is the 21st edition this year—that year the first article I wrote was turnovers equals turnaround and I went back and looked at the last five or six years of college football and said that teams that benefit from double digit turnovers usually turnaround and have worse record the next year, and teams that have the misfortune of having negative double digit turnovers one year usually have a stronger record the next year and every year that has come true to form at least 70-75 percent of the time. Texas Tech went against the grain a little bit last year and coming off a negative double digit turnover year actually had a weaker record this year, but it is highly unlikely that it will happen four years in a row so I think that will get corrected especially with better quarterback play.”
According to his All-Big 12 teams, Steele believes Trevone Boykin is the best quarterback in the league followed by Russell, Mahomes, and Rudolph. Those are Steele’s thoughts on who the best quarterbacks are next year, but who does he believe will have the better career between Mahomes, Russell, and Rudolph?
“With Baylor’s quarterback Seth Russell, he is a junior, so he is going to have two years as the quarterback. With Mahomes, if he wins the job, he is going to have three years as the starting quarterback and with Rudolph he got in there too. I’m going to go ahead and say this, as far as passing yards go, I’m going to go with Mahomes having the most career yards passing. Rudolph is more of a mobile threat, so as far as total victories, I’m going to go with Mason Rudolph out of Oklahoma State.”
You can check out the full podcast here: http://www.doublet1043.com/content/...rview-Phil-Steele/sVlOJAnYRkulZIr8VP7ZeQ.cspx
And the full All-Big 12 team here: http://www.philsteele.com/All_Conference/2015/2015 Preseason/Big12.html
Phil Steele’s annual college football magazine comes out on July 1st this year.
The first question asked of Steele was in regards to the relative inexperience of the quarterbacks listed on his second through fourth teams with Seth Russell on the second, Patrick Mahomeson the third, and Mason Rudolph rounding things off on the fourth team. Here is what Steele at to say in regards to Mahomes and the Tech offense.
“If Mahomes beats out Webb for the starting job, I like his mobility, he had less interceptions than Davis Webb, and Texas Tech’s offense will be explosive as usual. You expect Texas Tech to be up there, last year was a little bit of a down year for them, but I think when you look at that offense and that receiving core plus the offensive line, I think he will have a big year.”
Steele chose Oklahoma State as being the most improved team in the Big 12 this upcoming season and said that if OSU would’ve finished with a losing record last year, they would have been his pick has the most improved team in the entire country. In regards to Tech though, he gave his expectations for Tech’s bottom next year and what their ceiling could be in relation to wins and losses.
“Bottom I would say would be a second straight losing season which doesn’t happen very often in Lubbock and that would probably be something like 4-8 or 5-7 would be the very bottom. Now the ceiling I think could be pretty good. You look at the offense, two solid quarterbacks in Mahomes and Webb,DeAndre Washington is a guy who actually rushed for a 1,000 yards –Texas Tech hasn’t had a 1,000 yard rusher since 1998—so that’s a nice place to start there. The receiving core ranks as one of my top units in the country and then the offensive line with Le’Raven Clark at left tackle, I rate them as the number 14 offensive line in the country. I just look at this offense, and I see that it is a top 10 offense, which Texas Tech fans are familiar with, it happens almost every single year, but I clearly see it happening this year. Last year the problem was the defense, it was horrific at times, I mean 513 yards per game, 41.3 points per game, but up front they have some players. I like Pete Robertson, he led the Big 12 in stats last year with 12, you gotBranden Jackson at the other defensive end spot, BreidenFehoko at defensive tackle, the true freshman, I think he could come in--he was in for the spring--and have a big time impact on the inside and all of a sudden they are a lot tougher up front. Their linebacking core is not as veteran as it was last year, but they do add in Ohio State transfer Mike Mitchell who was my number 10 rated linebacker coming out of high school. He is very physically impressive, he can run, and he has got a little bit of a nasty streak to him. I think he could definitely have a pretty good year. Then that secondary, if the front seven creates a little bit of havoc up front, they won’t have to cover for very long and could have a stronger year and you can basically say the whole entire secondary is back, all seven guys who drew starts last year return to the lineup. As long as that defense comes around, they got a new defensive coordinator in David Gibbs, David Gibbs when he was at Houston the last two years led the FBS in takeaways at 73 takeaways the last two years which has been one of Texas Tech’s problems last year. They were minus 13 in turnovers, in fact, that has been a problem the last three years, each year double digit turnovers. In my turnovers equals turnaround article it says that teams usually have a better record next year after that, so add that all up and I can see Tech getting to perhaps 8 or even 9 wins if you put your glasses on and say hey, I am a pure optimist here and we will win all the games, but I think the final result will fall somewhere between those two.”
Steele threw out a turnover stat in his last answer that kind of showed the relationship between turnovers and the number of wins for a program. He was then asked if he would say that turnovers were the number one indicator of success to flip the script on a losing season or was there another category. This is what he had to say about turnovers and Tech.
“Yes. In the first magazine I wrote—this is the 21st edition this year—that year the first article I wrote was turnovers equals turnaround and I went back and looked at the last five or six years of college football and said that teams that benefit from double digit turnovers usually turnaround and have worse record the next year, and teams that have the misfortune of having negative double digit turnovers one year usually have a stronger record the next year and every year that has come true to form at least 70-75 percent of the time. Texas Tech went against the grain a little bit last year and coming off a negative double digit turnover year actually had a weaker record this year, but it is highly unlikely that it will happen four years in a row so I think that will get corrected especially with better quarterback play.”
According to his All-Big 12 teams, Steele believes Trevone Boykin is the best quarterback in the league followed by Russell, Mahomes, and Rudolph. Those are Steele’s thoughts on who the best quarterbacks are next year, but who does he believe will have the better career between Mahomes, Russell, and Rudolph?
“With Baylor’s quarterback Seth Russell, he is a junior, so he is going to have two years as the quarterback. With Mahomes, if he wins the job, he is going to have three years as the starting quarterback and with Rudolph he got in there too. I’m going to go ahead and say this, as far as passing yards go, I’m going to go with Mahomes having the most career yards passing. Rudolph is more of a mobile threat, so as far as total victories, I’m going to go with Mason Rudolph out of Oklahoma State.”
You can check out the full podcast here: http://www.doublet1043.com/content/...rview-Phil-Steele/sVlOJAnYRkulZIr8VP7ZeQ.cspx
And the full All-Big 12 team here: http://www.philsteele.com/All_Conference/2015/2015 Preseason/Big12.html
Phil Steele’s annual college football magazine comes out on July 1st this year.
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