Analysis (sort of)!

• Most of you that are here either watched the game or went to the game. I would like to give a shout-out to Damion (sp?) who said hello, so thank you!
• I’ll mix some of my personal stuff with the game itself because life is short. Youssouf and I left the house around 5:30 and hit the road. We arrived in Lubbock about 6 hours and aside from fighting the wind half the way through the trip, it was great. We arrived in Lubbock around 11:45 and walked to the stadium. the outside was really nice, there was a ton set up for kids and families.
• The game started with what was probably first team offense against first team defense. Two or so plays into the game, Tyler Shough throws an interception. I absolutely hated that for him as well as the 2nd pick.
• The defense was really terrific. From what I could tell, the defense was coming at the quarterback from multiple spots and the defense was poppin’. That’s what the kids say when things are going well. From the front four to the linebackers and the secondary. I didn’t pay a ton of attention to particular players, but the defense seemed significantly more cohesive and there were fewer open gaps in the defense and very few big plays. You sort of wonder if the defense was as vanilla as the offense (something McGuire said that they would do) as that did not seem to be the case.
• There was also some real edge to the defense. They celebrated 3rd downs and they knew they had the offense in a bad spot multiple times.
• The offense, well, this is maybe going to sound like a cop-out, but there’s a chance that the offense is/was always going to be behind the defense because the offense is predicated on the offense, and particularly the quarterback having to be so important in terms of making decisions on a play-by-play basis. Last year’s offense was largely unchanged (according to the quarterbacks last week) once the play was called into the huddle. Now the quarterbacks are expected to call in and out of plays. What you probably saw in that second play of the scrimmage was Shough making the wrong decision.
• The volume of passes that Shough took implies that he’s the likely starter. I’m good with that and I sort of trust Kittley to make the right decision (as if I have options). This is one of those things where I think that the volume of reps that Shough has in his career is what put him over the top in terms of starting. the mere number of reps gives him an advantage. Donovan Smith is a talented passer, but he lacks the reps and the same thing with Behren Morton. Smith’s arm is definitely as strong as Shough’s and Morton has to work on zip a bit, but he’s great at recognizing when to drop and run. McGuire said that he didn’t necessarily want the quarterbacks to run as it didn’t help the offense or defense, so maybe Shough tried too much not to do that?
• And that may be the kicker with the offense, which is that with the offense is going to be a bit behind the defense given that Kittley wants to do and what he wants to empower the quarterbacks to do, it does make a bit of sense. Would I prefer that the quarterbacks not struggle? Yeah, but if I had to guess, that’s probably what happened. And my comp of what I think that Shough will be is Nic Shimonek, he’ll be better than what you remember, but not perfect.
• The other key for me was that the defense was good up and down the defense. Normally there’s a pretty significant drop-off between the 1’s and the 2’s and I don’t know that I can remember that happening much.
• Before the game the 2022 signees were recognized before the game and that was new for sure. They were on the field and there was a rolling graphic recognizing them as well.
• Brady Boyd, Blake Bedwell, Nehemiah Martinez, Cam’Ron Valdez, Myles Price, were names that I remember thinking that they played well on offense on Saturday.
• There was no replay on the video board and I haven’t had time to watch the scrimmage, so I can’t say for sure who the players were that did well, particularly on defense, but as a group, they seemed to play well and cohesively.
• After the game, fans just sort of hopped the fence and went on the field. Youssouf really wanted to do that so we did. We went down to the North end zone where he took a photo on the double-t. After that we walked to go get him a new hat as he didn’t have a hat that he liked and that’s easier to buy in person rather than online.
• After we got done shopping, the 1st baseball game was still happening and we were given tickets for the 2nd game so we had some time to kill. We decided to go try to buy some cleats as Youssouf had a pair for about 3 months and already has put a hole in the toe (he plays soccer and football in them). Believe it or not there is a cleat shortage in this world, or at least in my experience. There were no options on Friday when I went to try to buy him cleats where I live. We went to the Academy on 19th (nothing), the Nike store (nothing), and finally found 1 pair that fit him at Cardinals.
• After we got done, we made it around the 3rd of 4th inning of the 2nd game and stayed to the end. We were lucky enough to get an opportunity for Youssouf to get onto the field, so he absolutely loved that. Youssouf is a ball of energy and he never stops and he decided to try out a slide since he’s on the field and he realized that doing that in shorts is not advisable. Luckily, he didn’t burn his leg so that was good for him. He also decided to do a front flip on the double-t so he was loving the experience.
• After the baseball game we went to Ike’s and decided to eat outside. It was a lovely night and the meal was good. Yoyo demolished his hamburger and I destroyed my meal as well.
• By the time we got done, we checked into our motel around 9 at night and I was pretty well spent. That was a long day, but was a great day. Youssouf thanked me many times for the trip so that was very sweet.
• We got up and left a shade after 5:30 on Sunday morning as we had to be back in Kaufman by 2:00 for an afternoon soccer game for Yoyo. We made it home by 11:30 with only 2 stops. I always take the 84 to 180 and go thru Roby, Anson, Albany, and Breckenridge route rather than take I-20. There’s a store that I always stop in Albany that makes fresh food and they had some breakfast burritos that were great.
• It was a very fast but terrific weekend.

Have had a ton of fun. pic.twitter.com/t8MtHDuzAn

— Seth Jungman (@SethJungman) April 24, 2022

Thoughts on the first half ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/zv7UQrvzP3

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) April 23, 2022