Written by an optimist, supporter of Kirby and Kliff, and graduate and lover of all things Texas Tech.
I think that today's game is a perfect example and microcosm of what Coach Kliff Kingsbury's time at Texas Tech has been. His playing days were exciting, fun and amazing and he will always be one of my favorite players and Red Raiders. He is a good and honorable man that has represented our school with class, and done everything well for our school as a Head Coach but the one that matters most and that he will be judged and remembered by-- win! This was just one game and we have a whole season to go so we really don't know what will happen yet. Therefore, I will hold my comments in this post to only this one game.
The good:
K Clayton Hatfield was 2-2 FG and 3-3 XPt and looked healthy and steady. His FGs were 25 and 41 yards and there were no Kickoffs kicked out of bounds. He will be a strong performer for our team this year and for that I am thankful.
I really enjoyed our opening 10 play 90 yards TD drive. I like the tweaks to the offense and the catch that TJ Vasher made to extend that drive may have been the best catch that I have ever seen. He was almost parallel to the ground, face-up, when he caught the ball with all 6'6" stretched out in his right hand, turned in the air now face-down, secured the ball to his body and then hit his foot inbounds before landing on the ground. AMAZING! He is special. We get him again next year as he is a Sophomore but he will play in the NFL. He is a freak. McLane Carter didn't look "special" but he did look in control.
Da'Leon Ward is as advertised: 17 rushes 90 yards 5.3 avg 2 TD; 2 rec 5 yards 2.5 avg
He is skinny but man does he run hard!
For a True Freshman QB playing Ole Miss at NRG Stadium in his first college game and already down 17-7 when he came in, I thought that Alan Bowman played okay. At times he looked like a freshman and Kliff's frustration showed. You can tell why McLane started ahead of him and by him being next up it doesn't look good for Duffey but he did manage to lead us to scores on 4 of 8 possessions until the 4th Q when we turned it over on downs on all three possessions. He finished:
29-49 59.2% 273 yards 1 TD 0 INT; 4 rushes 16 yards 4.0 avg 0 TD
The kid throws a pretty ball as seen on the TD pass to Ja'Deion High from the back of the end zone camera view. Tight spiral and great touch. He will grow, improve and be a good QB1, maybe sooner rather than later if McLane Carter really is hurt. Bowman must do things quicker as that seemed to be what frustrated Kliff most.
I thought we'd get around 34 points today so 27 wasn't a big surprise to me and having 0 turnovers in fact, winning the turnover battle (-1) was good. UT transfer Bonney forced the fumble and Eli Howard recovered. Too bad we couldn't get another one when we needed it.
Two sacks today: Broderick Washington Jr and Tony Jones
The bad:
47 points
In total, the four presumed defensive back starters about three weeks ago missed all or some of today's game: CB Octavious Morgan, S Jah'Shawn Johnson, CB Desmon Smith (Targeting: EJECTED), and S Vaughnte Dorsey (Targeting: EJECTED). A game where the opponent has what many believe to be the 1st WR drafted by the NFL this year and two other WRs expected to be in the NFL is not when and where you want to be missing defensive backs and starters.
Part 2 - defensive backs accounted for four of our five personal foul, 15 yard penalties today: Desmon Smith, Addison (on special teams), John Bonney and Vaughnte Dorsey. The 5th personal foul was transfer WR Seth Collins. If/when Kliff is fired, personal foul penalties will be a major player as it speaks to the discipline of our football team. Collin's most likely cost us 7 points as it set up first and goal from the 17 instead of the 2.
RB Scottie Phillips is the first 200 yard rusher at Ole Miss since 2010. He scored his 2 TDs on 104 yards between the two carries. Please stop telling us that Gibbs needs to be HC.
Ole Miss scored points on 9 out of 13 possessions (not including kneeling on the last play of the game)
94 yards Kickoff Return TD
Offense was conservative; we knew that it would be somewhat due to QB and scheme change
Defense was terrible
Special Teams-Kicker is back, Punter was meh, KR TD
It seems as if we are always missing something ~or~ that at other times the ingredients are present but the stove and oven or broken ~or~ we buy a new stove and oven but the fridge went out and our ingredients spoiled so we have to go back to the store.....
Okay, Let's go get Lamar this week!
I think that today's game is a perfect example and microcosm of what Coach Kliff Kingsbury's time at Texas Tech has been. His playing days were exciting, fun and amazing and he will always be one of my favorite players and Red Raiders. He is a good and honorable man that has represented our school with class, and done everything well for our school as a Head Coach but the one that matters most and that he will be judged and remembered by-- win! This was just one game and we have a whole season to go so we really don't know what will happen yet. Therefore, I will hold my comments in this post to only this one game.
The good:
K Clayton Hatfield was 2-2 FG and 3-3 XPt and looked healthy and steady. His FGs were 25 and 41 yards and there were no Kickoffs kicked out of bounds. He will be a strong performer for our team this year and for that I am thankful.
I really enjoyed our opening 10 play 90 yards TD drive. I like the tweaks to the offense and the catch that TJ Vasher made to extend that drive may have been the best catch that I have ever seen. He was almost parallel to the ground, face-up, when he caught the ball with all 6'6" stretched out in his right hand, turned in the air now face-down, secured the ball to his body and then hit his foot inbounds before landing on the ground. AMAZING! He is special. We get him again next year as he is a Sophomore but he will play in the NFL. He is a freak. McLane Carter didn't look "special" but he did look in control.
Da'Leon Ward is as advertised: 17 rushes 90 yards 5.3 avg 2 TD; 2 rec 5 yards 2.5 avg
He is skinny but man does he run hard!
For a True Freshman QB playing Ole Miss at NRG Stadium in his first college game and already down 17-7 when he came in, I thought that Alan Bowman played okay. At times he looked like a freshman and Kliff's frustration showed. You can tell why McLane started ahead of him and by him being next up it doesn't look good for Duffey but he did manage to lead us to scores on 4 of 8 possessions until the 4th Q when we turned it over on downs on all three possessions. He finished:
29-49 59.2% 273 yards 1 TD 0 INT; 4 rushes 16 yards 4.0 avg 0 TD
The kid throws a pretty ball as seen on the TD pass to Ja'Deion High from the back of the end zone camera view. Tight spiral and great touch. He will grow, improve and be a good QB1, maybe sooner rather than later if McLane Carter really is hurt. Bowman must do things quicker as that seemed to be what frustrated Kliff most.
I thought we'd get around 34 points today so 27 wasn't a big surprise to me and having 0 turnovers in fact, winning the turnover battle (-1) was good. UT transfer Bonney forced the fumble and Eli Howard recovered. Too bad we couldn't get another one when we needed it.
Two sacks today: Broderick Washington Jr and Tony Jones
The bad:
47 points
In total, the four presumed defensive back starters about three weeks ago missed all or some of today's game: CB Octavious Morgan, S Jah'Shawn Johnson, CB Desmon Smith (Targeting: EJECTED), and S Vaughnte Dorsey (Targeting: EJECTED). A game where the opponent has what many believe to be the 1st WR drafted by the NFL this year and two other WRs expected to be in the NFL is not when and where you want to be missing defensive backs and starters.
Part 2 - defensive backs accounted for four of our five personal foul, 15 yard penalties today: Desmon Smith, Addison (on special teams), John Bonney and Vaughnte Dorsey. The 5th personal foul was transfer WR Seth Collins. If/when Kliff is fired, personal foul penalties will be a major player as it speaks to the discipline of our football team. Collin's most likely cost us 7 points as it set up first and goal from the 17 instead of the 2.
RB Scottie Phillips is the first 200 yard rusher at Ole Miss since 2010. He scored his 2 TDs on 104 yards between the two carries. Please stop telling us that Gibbs needs to be HC.
Ole Miss scored points on 9 out of 13 possessions (not including kneeling on the last play of the game)
94 yards Kickoff Return TD
Offense was conservative; we knew that it would be somewhat due to QB and scheme change
Defense was terrible
Special Teams-Kicker is back, Punter was meh, KR TD
It seems as if we are always missing something ~or~ that at other times the ingredients are present but the stove and oven or broken ~or~ we buy a new stove and oven but the fridge went out and our ingredients spoiled so we have to go back to the store.....
Okay, Let's go get Lamar this week!
