Yesterday was the first day of practice and with that, we have media availability. I’ve done the non-transcript with head coach Matt Wells, but not the players (although the video is embedded below). Let’s go.

Brief personnel and injury, may be some carryover from February.

Out for spring: Riko Jeffers, Malik Dunlap, Xavier Martin, Xavier White. All are post-op surgeries.

Limited: Dawson Deaton, JJ Sparkman, and Nelson Mbanasor. Nelson and JJ are progressing. Next week will get more contact for them.

Medical Scholarship: Troy Bradshaw and Demarcus Marshall.

As far as today, it’s good to be back out there. Really good offseason, and really good work from our guys. Strength gains for a lot of guys. The offseason is where you learn and teach discipline and it was quiet, low drama, just gaining weight and changing bodies. 11 transfers and freshmen, with Dunlap the only one not practicing. high energy and competitive. Much better than last year. Lined up and communication. Glad where the offense started today. Going to hold off on predictions until next week. Helmets today and tomorrow, no evaluation on o-line or d-line just yet. The quarterbacks and DB’s, we’re further ahead, the standard of practice and how we play is ahead of last year.

I like the lengthy and that combined with speed and athleticism makes a better football player. Our job is to bring competitive depth to every meeting room, the coaches are to teach and demand. We’re going to continue to bring competitive depth here. These guys are going to be throw into the fire. Marquis Waters has some maturity, it is slower for him and he is going to be a contributor, Rayshad Williams is going to contribute, Malik Dunlap when he gets out here, he’s every bit of 6’3″ and the three guys on offense they are all young, Jed Castles and Mason Tharp and Jerand Bradley, they are tall and they can play the game.

Have a handful of scholarships left, a DB, a linebacker, a freshman or sophomore, we’re old at linebacker, and then potentially an o-line or d-line. Could even be another outside receiver. We’ll evaluate these guys, guys that have the right culture, are football junkies, just like every transfer, the weight room and just are football junkies, are so proud of the guys who have changed habits.

Demarcus Fields is one of the biggest testaments, just the accountability, and the weight room, he’s come back and improve his individual draft grade, #23 is going to have a big year and can’t wait to watch him play.

Significant in terms of verbiage and signals, there are some concepts that carry over, we did have versions of the air-raid and that’s what Sonny coached, this is not that though, we’re going to tailor it to what we have and what we do well and what our players do well. Sonny will do a great job of blending our strengths.

Really good, Sonny is a pro and has good energy, he is an alumni, he is Texas Tech through and through, he had a referee out here, I asked if he knew Sonny, and he said he refed when he played. Our quarterbacks are going to be very fundamental.

Eron Hodges and Ashton Washington, Ashton has Texas roots and brings a unique perspective from a graphics perspective, she is going to be a great addition, Eron spent time at Ohio State and Purdue, he’s high energy and does a great job of relating and engaging with recruits, has a hand in the multimedia aspect, glad to have them part of the team.

To set the standard of how we play at Texas Tech, how we define it through effort and being fast and physical on offense, has to be upheld by me, measure with results. Really it is how we play the game. As we wrap up spring, we come together as Red Raiders, how we inspire and encourage, but we won’t lower that standard and that’s hard.

I tend to lead towards leadership, Fields, Eric Monroe, the linebackers, Jacob, Riko, Schooler, Bradford, Josh Burger had a good offseason and pushing himself into a leadership, Dawson, SaRodorick and EZ in terms of leadership, I thought they did a nice job. Body transformations, Mason Tharp gained 19 pounds, he did everything he was asked to do, Behren is at 190, those two guys made good strides in terms of freshmen.

Ezekiel, his dad Garrick McPhearson, I coached Emmanuel at New Mexico back in the day, Ezekiel played baseball in the minors and ran out of time and that dream, he wanted to come to our program and so outside of the facial characteristics, he works hard and cares and will be fun to watch his progress, but has not played football in a long time.

Burger played at right guard and at center, not sure if he got reps at right tackle, T.J. Storment played left tackle. With Dawson being limited, we’re going to rotate that up, Clayton Franks, Weston Wright, maybe Caleb Rogers, let all of those guys have a shot at snapping, this is a tough situation, a zero nose guard, setting the blocking and will rotate the centers around this spring.

No process, Guns Up baby, that’s easy. Utah State is a special place and Craig Smith is a good friend, that’s a good program, was wishing Beard luck, but that is a program that prides itself on being a tough team.

Here is the player video.

Day ☝️ in the 📚 pic.twitter.com/CLBNEMx81M

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) March 16, 2021

Dime pic.twitter.com/eWt0sIXQAN

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) March 16, 2021