Good morning, Red Raiders. It was a fun evening at The Jones last night and Texas Tech is now established in the win column, albeit at the expense of an FCS school. 1-2, in my opinion, was the worst possible outcome of the first three games but alas, that is the reality and conference play is looming quite large.
In a game like this one it is hard to take many positives away without also taking them with a grain of salt. Tech won by 38 points. That was what they were supposed to do. Before I dive into my thoughts on the quarterback situation, I want to first recognize a lot of stuff that has been overshadowed by that never ending debate.
My biggest takeaway from this game is going to be the performance of your young players. There were a lot of guys that had been mentioned before or even praised for their performances in camp and a good number of them stood out. Brenden Jordan, who was likely never going to redshirt anyways, has earned his keep through the first three weeks and he played well. There were a lot of guys which we had not seen much that also played solid. I immediately think of Dylan Spencer, who always caught my eyes in practice because of how similar he looks body-wise to Tyree Wilson. Spencer got some pressure and a good push off the edge, specifically on the play where he was mistaken for AJ McCarty. Promising from such a young guy. Mike Dingle got extended run on special teams and defense and he looked great. Dingle was really throwing himself around, trying his hardest to make a play wherever he could. Go back to the tape, I believe his first snap he ran crossfield and jumped on top of the pile. In the defensive tackle room that has been shuffling players like crazy, Trevon McAlpine finally hit the field and he looked good, too.
I was really impressed with the two offensive players that we spoke to after the game, those being Jordan Brown and Tahj Brooks. Brown made plays and his ability to gain yards after the catch was impactful. Brooks finally got the carries he deserved and made the absolute most of them. Kenny Perry spoke after the Wyoming game that a lot of the struggles in that one were his running backs not making the right moves to make defenders miss.
Though the run blocking has looked decent, I am going to chalk a lot of what has made Brooks successful the last two weeks to what he has been able to do when he gets into the open field. McGuire also mentioned last night that Brooks is 225 pounds and they have been telling him to make defenders tackle all 225 pounds of him. You get a lot of good qualities out of Brooks when he is at his best. He is shifty but he is physical and if he continues to get the carries he has earned, the run game will do fine.
Okay, now let me make my assessment on the quarterback situation. I mentioned this last night in another thread, this is still Tyler Shough’s job and that has been confirmed already. So what did I think of Behren Morton? I thought he did a great job of commanding the offense. The arm angles and rip on the ball that he has was prevalent.
It was an underwhelming night from Shough and that is what is going to amplify Behren’s performance even more. Coming off of what we saw last season, Shough looked his best when he was a game manager, when the team was able to utilize the run game effectively and not put him in situations where he had to do too much with the ball. If he is going to succeed and try to win over the Morton faithful, Shough’s timing and his decision making has to improve, both in speed and in quality. Like I said before, everything you can take away from this game has a caveat attached to it and Morton's performance, though good, is not exempt from that.
This kind of tuneup game was exactly what was needed going into what is now a critical game in Morgantown. There is still a lot of work to do but last night was another step in the right direction.
In a game like this one it is hard to take many positives away without also taking them with a grain of salt. Tech won by 38 points. That was what they were supposed to do. Before I dive into my thoughts on the quarterback situation, I want to first recognize a lot of stuff that has been overshadowed by that never ending debate.
My biggest takeaway from this game is going to be the performance of your young players. There were a lot of guys that had been mentioned before or even praised for their performances in camp and a good number of them stood out. Brenden Jordan, who was likely never going to redshirt anyways, has earned his keep through the first three weeks and he played well. There were a lot of guys which we had not seen much that also played solid. I immediately think of Dylan Spencer, who always caught my eyes in practice because of how similar he looks body-wise to Tyree Wilson. Spencer got some pressure and a good push off the edge, specifically on the play where he was mistaken for AJ McCarty. Promising from such a young guy. Mike Dingle got extended run on special teams and defense and he looked great. Dingle was really throwing himself around, trying his hardest to make a play wherever he could. Go back to the tape, I believe his first snap he ran crossfield and jumped on top of the pile. In the defensive tackle room that has been shuffling players like crazy, Trevon McAlpine finally hit the field and he looked good, too.
I was really impressed with the two offensive players that we spoke to after the game, those being Jordan Brown and Tahj Brooks. Brown made plays and his ability to gain yards after the catch was impactful. Brooks finally got the carries he deserved and made the absolute most of them. Kenny Perry spoke after the Wyoming game that a lot of the struggles in that one were his running backs not making the right moves to make defenders miss.
Though the run blocking has looked decent, I am going to chalk a lot of what has made Brooks successful the last two weeks to what he has been able to do when he gets into the open field. McGuire also mentioned last night that Brooks is 225 pounds and they have been telling him to make defenders tackle all 225 pounds of him. You get a lot of good qualities out of Brooks when he is at his best. He is shifty but he is physical and if he continues to get the carries he has earned, the run game will do fine.
Okay, now let me make my assessment on the quarterback situation. I mentioned this last night in another thread, this is still Tyler Shough’s job and that has been confirmed already. So what did I think of Behren Morton? I thought he did a great job of commanding the offense. The arm angles and rip on the ball that he has was prevalent.
It was an underwhelming night from Shough and that is what is going to amplify Behren’s performance even more. Coming off of what we saw last season, Shough looked his best when he was a game manager, when the team was able to utilize the run game effectively and not put him in situations where he had to do too much with the ball. If he is going to succeed and try to win over the Morton faithful, Shough’s timing and his decision making has to improve, both in speed and in quality. Like I said before, everything you can take away from this game has a caveat attached to it and Morton's performance, though good, is not exempt from that.
This kind of tuneup game was exactly what was needed going into what is now a critical game in Morgantown. There is still a lot of work to do but last night was another step in the right direction.
