It's football season! I'll be grinding away, focusing on the football, basketball and future baseball campaigns per usual. I'll be looking to add someone on to the staff to help me out in certain situations but feel free to reach out with your opinions, questions or anything and I'll do my best to address it.
(RIP "The Office" on Netflix come 2021)
Wanted to bring y'all some thoughts and questions I've been wondering about recently on Texas Tech football. If you haven't listened to the Victory Bell's Podcast this week check that out HERE.
I wanted to touch on a few things beginning with this team's kicking outlook that I mentioned in the podcast with AD and Level. During some open practices/spring games/scrimmages you saw plenty of guys step-up and follow through on kicking duties. Were they all good attempts? No. Did some punts get away from you? Yes. Are these two spots Wells finds critical? Yes.
This is an area Wells will take care of but you have to wonder about another possibility of some of these clutch moments not going your way based on the ability of your kickers. This is all speaking off of not knowing what he has up his sleeve or who will be walking on because they'll have plenty from what I've heard. Someone will need to be able to replace Clayton Hatfield who had a career-mark of 85% with only two misses a year ago.
When it comes to your punting and what you lose from Dom Panazzolo is a little under 42 average yards per punt in his two years. His longest punt as a Red Raider being 72 yards as well. He took some time at the beginning to adjust but ended up being great help for you last season with 21 punts inside the 20-yard line and only four touchbacks on 52 attempts.
This year, on the online roster, you'll find only two listed kickers available – Punter Cody Waddell and place kicker Trey Wolff. However, as I mentioned, this will have some additions. The big one – IMO – Austin McNamara. Although a freshman, the kid can punt the ball and was highly recruited. He'll be a big key in special teams coordinator Mark Tommerdahl's system.
He's an All-USA kid who has a big leg and will be able to likely grab that starting spot. His experience of course is his major flaw but like Dom I think he can adjust especially early in the non-con in front of the home crowd.
Moving on, I wanted to discuss the expectations a little bit. This will be brief but I think my overall question will be – how many wins is a "winning" season in your eyes?
You break down this schedule and you can see how this team can easily be a five-win team or even an eight-nine win program. A lot of that will morph once we see this team react and adjust in early games – hence the Arizona game, which could potentially be tough because of the time difference and being on the road. I think you're favored there but it's a solid test for what should be a 2-0 Red Raider team.
Through social media and some early projections you can see that people are expecting another middle of the pack or lower Texas Tech team in the Big 12.
I'm seeing a lot of 5-7, 6-6 projections. I'll drop the poll for y'all and tell me what you think.
Here's my prediction on win totals in gif form:
Seven. I can see you dropping games against OU, Iowa State, WVU, Texas and a wild card against TCU or even Baylor that should be favored your way slightly. Baylor is my question mark out of those two just because of travel back to Waco for the home-and-home. But, I also was flip-flopping between seven and eight wins. That would mean just losing three road games and one at home.
Off-topic thought of the week: I'll be checking out "Midsommar" July 4th afternoon. I've been waiting for this one since seeing the trailer. Let me know what y'all think if you plan on watching. Following that a classic grillin' and kick back night with some fireworks involved. Hope everyone learned their lesson after what happened with Jason Pierre Paul...
(RIP "The Office" on Netflix come 2021)
Wanted to bring y'all some thoughts and questions I've been wondering about recently on Texas Tech football. If you haven't listened to the Victory Bell's Podcast this week check that out HERE.
I wanted to touch on a few things beginning with this team's kicking outlook that I mentioned in the podcast with AD and Level. During some open practices/spring games/scrimmages you saw plenty of guys step-up and follow through on kicking duties. Were they all good attempts? No. Did some punts get away from you? Yes. Are these two spots Wells finds critical? Yes.
This is an area Wells will take care of but you have to wonder about another possibility of some of these clutch moments not going your way based on the ability of your kickers. This is all speaking off of not knowing what he has up his sleeve or who will be walking on because they'll have plenty from what I've heard. Someone will need to be able to replace Clayton Hatfield who had a career-mark of 85% with only two misses a year ago.
When it comes to your punting and what you lose from Dom Panazzolo is a little under 42 average yards per punt in his two years. His longest punt as a Red Raider being 72 yards as well. He took some time at the beginning to adjust but ended up being great help for you last season with 21 punts inside the 20-yard line and only four touchbacks on 52 attempts.
This year, on the online roster, you'll find only two listed kickers available – Punter Cody Waddell and place kicker Trey Wolff. However, as I mentioned, this will have some additions. The big one – IMO – Austin McNamara. Although a freshman, the kid can punt the ball and was highly recruited. He'll be a big key in special teams coordinator Mark Tommerdahl's system.
He's an All-USA kid who has a big leg and will be able to likely grab that starting spot. His experience of course is his major flaw but like Dom I think he can adjust especially early in the non-con in front of the home crowd.
Moving on, I wanted to discuss the expectations a little bit. This will be brief but I think my overall question will be – how many wins is a "winning" season in your eyes?
You break down this schedule and you can see how this team can easily be a five-win team or even an eight-nine win program. A lot of that will morph once we see this team react and adjust in early games – hence the Arizona game, which could potentially be tough because of the time difference and being on the road. I think you're favored there but it's a solid test for what should be a 2-0 Red Raider team.
Through social media and some early projections you can see that people are expecting another middle of the pack or lower Texas Tech team in the Big 12.
I'm seeing a lot of 5-7, 6-6 projections. I'll drop the poll for y'all and tell me what you think.
Here's my prediction on win totals in gif form:
Seven. I can see you dropping games against OU, Iowa State, WVU, Texas and a wild card against TCU or even Baylor that should be favored your way slightly. Baylor is my question mark out of those two just because of travel back to Waco for the home-and-home. But, I also was flip-flopping between seven and eight wins. That would mean just losing three road games and one at home.
Off-topic thought of the week: I'll be checking out "Midsommar" July 4th afternoon. I've been waiting for this one since seeing the trailer. Let me know what y'all think if you plan on watching. Following that a classic grillin' and kick back night with some fireworks involved. Hope everyone learned their lesson after what happened with Jason Pierre Paul...
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