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Texas Tech Football Notebook: Matt Wells Discusses Florida International

Football
Seth C

Texas Tech Football Notebook: Matt Wells Discusses Florida International

Soccer practice means that I can’t do the non-transcript, but I can summarize head coach Matt Wells from his presser yesterday.

Head Coach Matt Wells:

  • Look at those drives, they were 4th downs and can be hard to stop, just play better on 3rd and long. We were good on 3rd down, but on 3rd and long we allowed it to get to 4th and short for SFA.
  • The play of the defensive line as the game wears on, we get stronger and the depth at linebacker and playing 6 linebackers. They’ve stayed fresh. We allowed 2 long drives and gave up 6 points. Handed them 16 points, when you do that you allow a team to stay in the game for a while, which is our fault and their credit.
  • No update on SaRodorick Thompson.
  • Tahj Brooks spends time studying the ball, he picks up pass protection and catches the ball well out of the backfield. He’s a very good practice player. Very consistent young man.
  • Running back for FIU Devonte Price, he’s big, 215 and 220, runs behind his pads, the tackles are big and athletic. They look strong on tape, good o-line in front of him. They’ve rotated 2 or 3 backs and given him a break.
  • On the offensive line, everything is correctable, need to do a better job of communicating twist games and pass protection. Will work real hard on this week.
  • We started fast, but didn’t continue it. Quite frankly, it is playing better on the o-line and not missing assignments. Just spotty and sloppy.
  • The goal this summer is to be undefeated at Jones Stadium, that’s the next step, two steps out of the way. They beat Miami 2 years ago, they are well-coached and play the game well in all 3 phases. Probably heightened on the way we played on offense and special teams on Saturday night.
  • Defense has 2 good corners, 2 active linebackers, good guys up front. Their top 22 look big and athletic. They have a good tight end and 2 dynamic wideouts and a quarterback that is accurate, plus the 3 running backs. They do good stuff, they have our attention, they are very good.
  • We just need to play more plays to get more receivers the ball, they are all capable, we’re just not getting enough snaps. We are getting it to Erik Ezukanma and he’s making plays, when we get into an 85 play game, that will come out and we are comfortable confident in those players.
  • Coach Davis is from NE Oklahoma, but he’s always done a very great job.
  • The penalties are very uncharacteristic of our team over the last couple of years. We want to reduce pre-snap penalties and post-whistle, we had 2, they are uncharacteristic and not allowed, our program is not what our program is about. I don’t think we’ll see them again.
  • We’ve only had 1 punt return issue, we don’t want dropped punts. I think part of that is have to do a better job of hold-up, punters can take you out of that game too.
  • Of the injured defensive backs, they are day-to-day, nothing long-term.
  • I know that we see it across the country, but I’m responsible for 1 program and I take that seriously. We didn’t play well early, we gave them cheap stuff, and gave them 16 points. That doesn’t give me any excuses it happening to other teams. I see it and recognize it, but it is not an excuse not to play better.
  • Not any more opportunities for the tight end in the SFA game than what Tyler Shough mentioned, where teams have to make a choice on who they are cover. We just need to play more plays. I hope it becomes different and we are playing more plays so our players can get more targets.
  • With Demarcus Fields is playing really how he has prepared all offseason, he studies the game and intent on improving, he’s done a great job in the offseason, he’s become more technique sound and he’s playing plays in pressure situations and making plays.
  • That’s the best crowd we had since I’ve been at Texas Tech. When the students roll in at 4 o’clock, they came early they stayed and it was awesome. The rest of the crowd helped us win the game in the 4th quarter. It was a tremendous home field crowed. We have to continue to play well and perform in front of them so that they know they are part of us. We need our help. It was an awesome crowd.
  • Tahj is thick and strong and Xavier White is a slasher and most of the time hits home runs, he got caught, but he was tired from the previous run. They both pass-protect and catch the ball out of the backfield.
  • I have to point to the d-line, depth of the linebackers, it becomes 9 on 7 and we have certainly a huge test this week, easily our biggest test of the year.
  • I hope to talk to Crabtree and it would be good to get him around our guys again.

I ran across these two stats last night, which is that Texas Tech is 7th in yards per play allowed for the defense and 10th in yards per play gained on offense. The defense I would have guessed, but the offense is not something I would have believed to be true. Does this really “mean” anything? No, not really, just interesting more than anything else, but it is indicative that the offense, which has had only half as many plays as they normally have, gains over 7 yards a play when they do have the ball. I’d say that the offense had a “bad” offensive game against SFA as they really never had the ball, but had some absolutely huge plays that skewed the average for sure.

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