The Match Ups
| Texas Tech Pass Offense vs. Kansas Pass Defense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| Not that the offense really ever stumbled, but they did play much better against Iowa State. The freshmen receivers all stepped up and the lone senior, Jakeem Grant, played incredibly well, despite sitting out for much of the second half. It appeared that the offense didn’t miss a step. QB Patrick Mahomes is tied for second in the nation in total offense, 411.5 yards a game, along with Treyvone Boykin. That’s pretty good for a sophomore. Grant leads the team with 44 catches and 648 yards, but after that, the passes are as evenly distributed as you might think. After Grant, it’s going to be a cumulative effect and the great thing about Mahomes is that no matter the situation, you better be ready to catch the ball because you never know when he’ll throw the ball your way. The offensive line rebounded nicely against Iowa State (sans the penalties) and they’ll need more of the same finishing out the season. | |
| Kansas | |
| The best player in the secondary may be freshman Tyrone Miller, Jr. (6-0/180) at cornerback while the other cornerback, Brandon Stewart (6-0/171), made 20 tackles thus far this year. Miller though, already has 40 tackles on the season, including 2 passes broken up. At safety is Tevin Shaw (5-11/198) is at one safety and Fish Smithson (5-11/190) (yes, Fish) and Michael Glatczak (5-10/173) are your safeties. Smithson leads the team with 45 tackles on the year and has 3 passes broken up. Kansas hasn’t been very good defending the pass and give up 300 yards passing a game and they really haven’t played that many teams that like to throw the ball all over the place, but there you are. It’s all interrelated, but Kansas is 103rd in sacks and Texas Tech has only allowed 2 all year. That’s pretty good. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Texas Tech |
| Texas Tech Rush Offense vs. Kansas Rush Defense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| The Texas Tech running game very much got back on track, although it was more as a result of big plays rather than grinding out those yards. Texas Tech averaged 8.42 yards a carry against Iowa State on just 31 carries. That’s amazing and as fun as it was, I think the line could do a better job of the 5 yard gains and not the 40 yard gains. I think having the ability to do that week-in-and-week-out in the Big 12 will win this team some games down the stretch. You might say that being unable to pick up a critical first down against TCU was what cost the team that game. The big yards are great, but those play to play yards are important too. | |
| Kansas | |
| Starting with the line, Kansas starts arguably their best players on the ends as Ben Goodman, Jr. (6-3/253) and Anthony Olobia (6-5/240). Goodman already has 3 tackles for a loss and 3.5 sacks on the year to go along with 23 tackles, while Olobia is a JUCO transfer (I think Texas Tech was after him) and has 10 tackles on the year and 1 tackle for loss. Those players bookend Corey King (6-1/295) and Daniel Wise (6-3/280). Wise is just a freshman and has 12 tackles on the year while King has 6. I believe that Kansas employs a nickel back rather than a third linebacker, so their two starters at linebacker are Marquis Roberts (6-1/220) and Courtney Arnick (6-2/210), although Joe Dineen, Jr. gets a lot of reps at linebacker as well. Much like the passing defense, the rushing defense isn’t much better, allowing over 250 yards a game on the ground. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Texas Tech |
| Texas Tech Pass Defense vs. Kansas Pass Offense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| It’s not as bad as the rush defense, but as of now, Texas Tech is allowing over 283 yards a game in the air and that’s good for 110th in the nation. The defense was better because of turnovers and it seems that this is how Texas Tech will be able to win on defense moving forward. I don’t think that Kansas has a ton of match-up problems, but just like last week, even on simple slant routes, they end up going for 35 yards and a touchdown even though Texas Tech is in man coverage. Yes, the player got picked a bit, but I get the feeling that step 1 is get them lined up correctly and step 2 is minimized the big plays (focusing on turnovers is a given). This team is getting burned by the big plays and that’s the worst part about watching the defense. I don’t know who to pick here as both the Kansas offense and the Texas Tech defense are both pretty bad. I’m leaning to the Texas Tech defense because they have shown the ability to make some impact plays and those have been fewer for the Kansas offense. | |
| Kansas | |
| It appears that true freshman Ryan Willis (6-4/211) is one of the few quarterbacks remaining, but from the reports from last week, he was okay. It may be worth it to just throw him into the fire and hope he comes out okay. It’s been mentioned that he’s got decent arm strength and he’s got nice size, so we’re about to find out how much he can improve in a week. The receivers are Tre’ Parmalee (5-10/175), Steven Sims Jr. (5-10/170) and Bobby Hartzog, Jr. (5-11/189). Parmalee is the best of the bunch, but he was out last week. Kansas only passed for 158 yards against Baylor. Parmalee, if he plays, has 15 receptions for 242 yards and a touchdown while Patrick has 15 catches for 135 yards. The only other receiver who is in double-digits in terms of receptions is Steven Sims, Jr., who has 11 for 134. Ben Johnson (6-5/230) is the tight end he’s more of a blocking tight end, although he does have 8 receptions for 48 yards. The Kansas offensive line has given up 13 sacks, which is 83rd in the nation. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Texas Tech |
| Texas Tech Rush Defense vs. Kansas Rush Offense | |
| Texas Tech | |
| The rush defense is 124th out of 127 teams and allowing 284 yards a game on the ground. It would be very disappointing if Kansas even came close to that, but at this point, I’m not sure what to think. Kingsbury mentioned this week that he continues to be impressed with Breiden Fehoko and Branden Jackson. The effort is there, but the plays are not. Gibbs also mentioned that LB’s D’Vonta Hinton and Dakota Allen are also making plays, but they’re also missing quite a bit as well. Consistency is the key and the defense isn’t there just yet. | |
| Kansas | |
| The offensive line is relatively experienced, starting junior Jordan Shelley-Smith (6-5/296) at left tackle and down the line is senior Bryan Peters (6-3/300) at left guard, Keyon Haughton (6-2/284) at center, junior D’Andre Banks (6-3/302) at right guard and freshman Larry Hughes (6-7/281) at right tackle, the lone youngster of the group. At running back is junior college transfer Ke’Aun Kinner (5-9/186) and De’Andre Mann (5-9/205). Kansas only averages 130 yards a game on the ground and also out last week (and maybe this week) was their leading rusher, Ke’aun Kinner. Montrell Cozart was the second leading rusher at quarterback and the next guy up was De’Andre Mann, who has 100 yards on 26 carries on the year. Taylor Cox (5-11/206) ended up receiving most of the carries against Baylor, so I’d probably expect the same thing. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Push |
| Texas Tech Special Teams vs. Kansas Special Teams | |
| Texas Tech | |
| The special teams are fading quickly, and this is mostly a notation about the return games. The kickoff return group is 89th overall and the defense is 85th. I know that there have been some injuries to that group, but there is yardage won and lost on returns. The same thing can be said for punt return defense, which is 74th overall and punt returns, which is 99th overall. Despite the return games not being up to par, I do think that the kickers have been outstanding, whether it is Taylor Symmank or Clayton Hatfield kicking off or Symmank punting. That’s been about as solid as you could get. The kickers have only had 6 opportunities, but they’ve made 5 of 6 on the year and still haven’t missed an extra point. Texas Tech is letting Hatfield and Michael Barden both kick extra points. | |
| Kansas | |
| Matthew Wyman (6-1/218) is your kicker and kickoff specialist, although Nick Bartolotta (5-6/190) has kicked more field goals on the year. KU is 102nd in kickoff returns and 76th in kickoff defense. Not exactly great. Eric Kahn (6-5/204) is your punter and Kansas is 124th in net punting and 87th in punt returns. | |
| ADVANTAGE: | Texas Tech |
The Tally
Texas Tech has a pretty clear advantage here and the only real question is how well Kansas can run against a pretty rough Texas Tech defense. I’d love to see Texas Tech just flat out stop Kanas on offense.