Rat-a-tat-tat on defense.

Dallas Morning News’ Ryan Mainville has 5 key takeaways from Texas Tech’s win over Florida International:

Ground Raid
The Texas Tech running back room was one of the deepest position groups on paper heading into the 2021 season. The most notable member was the leading rusher from the previous two seasons — SaRodorick Thompson. The group was only bolstered with shifty backs in Tahj Brooks, Myles Price, and Chadarius Townsend. Three games into the season, the offseason hype has come to life on the field. The validity of the run game only increased in this game. Brooks had another strong showing, running the ball nine times for 47 yards. The Red Raiders had three other backs attempt at least two rushes, including Thompson who made his first appearance of the season. Another important element is the usage of Shough’s legs. Although he hasn’t been used in many designated runs, Texas Tech ran a handful of run-pass options in this game which could definitely be utilized more in the future.

New for RedRaiderSports’ Randy Rosetta also has 5 takeaways from Texas Tech’s win:

Play-action game was a welcome sight

Tech offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie regularly dialed up play-action looks for quarterback Tyler Shough and it was effective. The Red Raiders sputtered on their first series, so when the third one commenced, Cumbie got his crew comfortable by pounding away on the ground with Xavier White and that opened some doors. Once the FIU defense had to focus on the running game, Shough took advantage with effective fakes and found open receivers with the extra time afforded by the play call. Leaning on play-action makes a lot of sense for an offensive line that has proven strong at run-blocking but has had struggles in pass protection.

RedRaiderSports’ Ben Golan has reactions from the high school visitors from this past weekend. As an aside, I was listening to something with Matt Clare, also of RRS, said that he wouldn’t be surprised if there were 10 or so high school commits.

Inside the Red Raiders’ Joe Yeager with some Yeager shots and tidbits with this at the end:

Ever since Wells was the head coach at Utah State he has always done “family dinners” where the coaches and their families all get together for dinner. It’s good for the kids to see their dads doing what they’re doing [football practice] and understanding why they’re away from home so much. At today’s family dinner it was just like old times with the little Cumbies throwing footballs to little Filanis.

The official site has this week’s preview and I don’t think there’s anything new in there. I would say that as I’m thinking about everything, I believe that Texas Tech is pretty darned healthy going into conference play.