The Lede

GAME THINGS
	Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-5, 3-3)
	Kansas Jayhawks (7-2, 4-2)
	November 11th @ 11:00 a.m.
	David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium | Lawrence, Kansas
	Kansas -4.5
	FS1 | FOX Sports Live
	61, Sunny

The Jayhawks

Kansas is being led by a terrific quarterback, just not the one we thought before the season started:

Bean went through his progressions and delivered balls with pinpoint accuracy. When needed, he stepped into the pocket and avoided the rush. He did everything KU needed him to do and then some.
As KU hung onto a three-point lead (21-18) early in the fourth quarter, Bean delivered Kansas’ knockout punch with one pass.

Bean faked to the sideline as if he were going to run the speed option, then stopped and delivered an accurate deep ball to wide receiver Lawrence Arnold.

Arnold caught the pass just over a defensive back hoping to break it up. He jogged untouched for an 80-yard touchdown.
“It’s just a play we worked on all week,” Bean said. “I feel like all game we’d kind of been baiting them to come down low enough for us to get past them on that play. We did and LJ got behind them. I delivered the ball and he did the rest.”

And it isn’t lost on Lance Leipold how far Kansas has come thus far:

“I believe in what we do and how we go about it,” Leipold said. “Just like these are probably, sometimes gets, very redundant and boring — but at the same time those are things that I think when you do it on a daily basis and you ask your players to do it they become great habits. And there’s things that’ll help us get to where we want to be. And I think it has so far.”
Kansas has a chance to compete for the Big 12 Conference title this year, despite how hard Leipold understands that would have been to believe if it was said two years ago. The Jayhawks can continue to remain in that discussion if they keep playing well. There are only two teams above them in the standings, and those two teams — No. 7 Texas and No. 17 Oklahoma State — are one game ahead of them.

On Saturday, Kansas will welcome Texas Tech to Lawrence. Following that, the Jayhawks have another home game against Kansas State and a road game against Cincinnati. Winning out and remaining in the Big 12 title race will be difficult, but it’s something Kansas has the experience and momentum to get done.

“That’s how this group has worked and developed,” Leipold said, “and a great job the assistant coaches have done.”

In a brief preview of Texas Tech it is noted that Kansas hasn’t beaten Texas Tech since 2019 and the defense will be tested by Tahj Brooks:

1. Kansas hasn’t beaten Texas Tech since 2019. The Red Raiders are 9-1 in their last 10 games against KU and currently ride a three-game winning streak into this game. KU lost 43-28 to Texas Tech last season in Lubbock.
2. KU’s defense will be tested by Red Raiders running back Tahj Brooks. He’s already rushed for 1,037 yards on 5.4 yards per carry, plus seven rushing touchdowns. Texas Tech averages 173 yards on the ground per game.

In looking at the Iowa State game we learn a bit about the Jayhawks:

What’s your takeaway from your team’s performance last week?

Winton: Kansas has proven that it can be a contender in the Big 12 Conference, both this year and into the future as perennial powers Oklahoma and Texas leave for the SEC. The Jayhawks’ win against Iowa State put them tied for second place and a game behind first. While there’s a slim chance that Kansas will make the Big 12 title game, the Jayhawks are firm in contention in just year three of head coach Lance Leipold. The rebuild and complete transformation of the Kansas program is on a much quicker trajectory than anyone expected.

What’s your team’s biggest strength?

Winton: At this point in the season, Kansas’ biggest strength is its resilience. In its last two wins, the Jayhawks have shown a lot of fight. Redshirt senior quarterback Jason Bean was able to bounce back and lead a game-winning drive after throwing two interceptions late in the game against Oklahoma. Kansas showed toughness in a tough road win under the lights in Jack Trice Stadium, with the defense stepping up big and the offense doing enough against a tough Cyclones defense. Leipold and his staff have the players completely bought in, and this team is willing to fight and do whatever it takes to pull off a win.

And biggest weakness?

Winton: The injury bug bit Kansas against Iowa State, especially on the defensive side of the ball. While that unit is much improved from a year ago, it’s still giving up a lot of yards at 416.1 per game. The biggest blow was to junior cornerback Mello Dotson, who is coming off pick-sixes in back-to-back games. Dotson missed all of the second half against the Cyclones, and Leipold said they don’t know his status for this weekend, but he is encouraged by his progress. It also looks like redshirt senior defensive lineman Devin Phillips, one of the anchors of the unit, will be sidelined in some capacity, with redshirt sophomore Gage Keys listed in his place on this week’s depth chart.

The Jayhawks may have a kicker problem:

“We are going to continue to use both (kickers); I think Owen has earned some opportunities,” Leipold said. “I think there’s things obviously with distance and leg strength on longer kicks. We’ll continue to look through that throughout the week to decide who will handle extra points and when we do a short and long field goal situation. I can see us using both.”

Leipold went into detail about Keller’s struggles.

“He’s battled a couple of things health-wise — nothing major, but there’s times we had to reduce his work and do some things,” Leipold said. “Sometimes you compensate, but he’s a very mature young man and he continues to work hard. Though we are all disappointed, we want to make sure we clean that up.

We get a bit from the defensive coordinator about what they think about Texas Tech, this is really detailed and here’s a bit about the offense:

The defense will have to communicate at a high level against Texas Tech because of the fast tempo and the different looks they give a defense.

“I think they do a really good job of mixing that in there and gadget kind of formations and motions and things that they do,” he said. “You’ve got to be on your toes because they’re going to pull some of those things out at any point. Like I said, defensively, you’ve really got to be able to communicate some things and whatever your plan is and to get that stuff done and be on the same page because they certainly challenge you with a lot of those kind of things.”

The Red Raiders

It’s a great week when it starts out with a Q&A with Don Williams of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and someone asks if Zach Kittley is on the hot seat and could be replaced with Dana Holgorsen at the OC (someone go compare the two offenses real quick):

Flash forward to the present: On Thursday night, Tahj Brooks became Tech’s first 1,000-yard rusher in eight years, and that happened because Kittley reconfigured the offense to feature him. Going into the game, Brooks had the fourth-most carries in the FBS this season, and he carried it another 31 times in the 35-28 victory against TCU.

So Kittley has shown adaptability and willingness to adjust the approach to suit the personnel.

Going into the week, Tech ranked 40th of 130 teams in rushing offense, 55th in both total offense and scoring offense and 62nd in passing offense. Those numbers aren’t bad; they just aren’t up to recent history Tech standards, which is a tough monster to satisfy.

If McGuire does change offensive coordinators, Kittley will get a lot of calls quickly. He’s well-regarded in the industry. And I wouldn’t expect Dana Holgorsen back on the Tech sideline.

In a bit of a different direction, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams wrote aout how head coach Joey McGuire admired Lance Leipold who has not had issue with calling out other programs for tampering. Williams’ article starts out by getting into this past summer when Emmett Jones was hired by Oklahoma and that the Sooners were then after Jerand Bradley, which McGuire said in the article that he didn’t think that ever happened, maybe just internet rumor.

Speaking to his own position, McGuire continued, “And so anytime if I ever have hard evidence to totally 100 percent prove that somebody is tampering, then I’m going to give it to you (the Avalanche-Journal). I’m going to give it to the NCAA. I’m going to give it to everybody.

“What’s happening is, there’s a lot of young coaches that know that it’s going on and they might have evidence, but they’re also scared to bring it out because they’re worried about they’ll get blackballed in the profession.”

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese does his preview and here’s his bit on when Texas Tech passes the ball:

When Texas Tech football passes
A healthy Behren Morton changes the complexion of the Texas Tech offense. Not only was the sophomore far more efficient in his return against TCU, he also utilized the middle of the field, trusting his shoulder to make tough throws down the field. He’ll be going against a Kansas secondary that has had its highs (holding Oklahoma to 171 yards through the air) and lows (allowing 336 to Oklahoma State) in the last few weeks. The Jayhawks have nine interceptions on the year. Ra’Mello Dotson has three of those.
Advantage: Kansas

Stats

The thing that’s most interesting to me is that Texas Tech’s stats, especially the offensive stats, have baked in them stats from Jake Strong, who I get was doing his best, but the offense was pretty terrible. I think the offense is much better than what you see on paper. Giese notes that he thinks that the pass defense for Kansas is better than Texas Tech’s ability to pass and that’s just not true given the stats and Texas Tech should have a pretty big advantage there. Rushing the ball, it’s closer to even, so for those of you expecting Tahj Brooks to have a breakout game. The one thing missing from the offense is explosive plays.

As far as the Kansas offense is concerned, they are damned elite and they have a significant advantage here so it will be big for the defense to keep the Kansas offense in check. A tough task.

Advanced Stats:

Texas Tech Offense vs. Kansas Defense:

Texas Tech Defense vs. Kansas Offense:

Odds and Ends

Only one, but very important, odd and end.

Texas Tech soccer earned a No. 2 NCAA seed and hosts Florida Gulf Coast University tonight. If you are interested in the NCAA bracket, then you’ll see that if Texas Tech gets past FGCU, then they’ll play the winner of No. 7 Princeton or Michigan. I cannot think of a better way to spend a Friday night. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese has a terrific profile on Hannah Anderson, who has been one of the leaders of this team.

“She’s that kid,” Stone said earlier this year. “She’s her, I guess as you would say. She plays great defense. She’s our leader, our captain. …We’re getting every bit of that fifth-year senior bonus bump with her performances and I couldn’t be happier for her. She’s worked really hard to be in this position.”

MATCHUP: No. 2 Texas Tech (15-1-4) vs. FGCU (12-4-5)
DATE: Friday, November 10, 2023
TIME: 6 p.m.
TOURNAMENT: NCAA Tournament First Round
LOCATION: John Walker Soccer Complex (Lubbock, Texas)
WATCH: ESPN+

Game Prediction

The line started out at Kansas -3.5 and is now at -4.5 with 56% of bets coming in for Texas Tech. I actually think this is basically a pick’em if Morton plays the whole game and is healthy (which he apparently is as healthy as he’s been all year). I also think that the difference between Kansas and Texas Tech is that they’ve had excellent quarterback play. Jason Bean transferred from North Texas and he wasn’t expected to be the guy, but he’s become the guy. I think about all of the games this year that could have turned out differently with better quarterback play and Morton changes the equation for me. I’ll take those points and against my better judgement, I’ll take Texas Tech.