Football is really right around the corner and now that Texas Tech has held their Big 12 Media Days, it seems a bit more real. If you are like myself, you can read the entire Matt Wells transcript:

There’s a lot to unpack, and of course you don’t necessarily need me to do that, Wells talks about the receiver group, including Kaylon Geiger will be an outside receiver, he says that the quarterback group is the deepest he’s had, talked a bit about Sonny Cumbie, and then he gets to the defense. I should mention before moving on that Geiger will probably be a significant addition in the return part of the game.

Wells talked about how the linebacker group needs to be the strength as well as the line:

Q. What would you identify as the main obstacle to playing better defense in years one and two? And how do you see your team resolving that issue in the next season?

COACH WELLS: I think we made a lot of progress from year one to last year, from ’19 to 2020 in our defense. If you look at the Big 12, just in the Big 12 games, we improved from really not very good in 2019 to okay in a lot of areas last year. But we need to make a jump again this year.

And I think the strength of that defense will be our linebackers. Riko Jeffers, Colin Schooler, both those guys had draft grades and chose to come back as super seniors. Khrishon Merriweather, Brandon Bouyer-Randle and Jacob Morgenstern have all started, so we’re old at linebacker. We’ve added a few transfers in the secondary. DaMarcus Fields is back. And so that will be a unit that I know, just internally in the locker room, we’re going to rely on that unit on the defensive unit early in the season.

We’re older there. We’ve got returning guys. We need to play well. They know it. But the strength of that will be those guys in the middle, those linebackers and their veteran leadership.

And the secondary room has to be better as well:

Q. Wondered if you could speak to Cameron Watts and the rest of your secondary, and the importance they’ll play this year.

COACH WELLS: Secondary, when I mentioned our improvement from 2019 to 2020, that was a big area was the secondary. I think it was led by hiring Derek Jones, and then moving our D coordinator, Keith Patterson to secondary to coordinate. You mentioned Cam (Watts) from Union, right down the road from you. You mentioned him. We’ve got some other guys from Oklahoma on our team.

But the improvement of that secondary, I think, will be another key this year for us to take another step forward. I mentioned DaMarcus Fields who had a draft grade, another super senior who chose to come back. We’ve added Muddy (Marquis) Waters from Duke, a transfer; Reggie Pearson from Wisconsin — both those guys are safeties; Malik Dunlap from NC State; and Rayshad Williams from UCLA; Adrian Frye returns, who is a veteran; we’ve got two young guys in and two guys in Nate Floyd and Kobee Minor. That will be an area that we have made improvements but we’ve got more improvement to make. But I’m looking forward to watching them.

Wells also talked about winning one-score games and the need to win those games. I don’t know that we truly learned a ton, especially for fans that follow things closely, but I’d say that we know that Erik Ezukanma and SaRodorick Thompson are progressing towards healthy and likely to play in the Houston game, so that’s a positive.

I’m also running a bit out of time (partly because Youssouf had a basketball game last night).

San Antonio Express News’ Nick Moyle: Texas Tech’s Matt Wells still searching for stability at QB

Waco Tribune’s Brice Cherry and John Werner: Big 12 media days notebook: Longhorns’ Sarkisian lacking in ‘magical fairy dust’

Dallas Morning News’ Scott Bell: Why Matt Wells is optimistic about Texas Tech’s chances at improving recent QB struggles

CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee: Takeaways from Big 12 Media Days 2021: Steve Sarkisian’s task at Texas, Mike Gundy’s mullet and ‘horns down’

Don Williams gets to ask the first question of the presser.

Your wholesome content from day two of Big 12 Football Media Days:

The instant change in Matt Wells’ facial expression the minute he realized who was asking the first question of his press conference. pic.twitter.com/CznyN2zs2y

— Eric Kelly (@EricKellyTV) July 16, 2021