Non-Transcript: Abilene Christian vs. Texas Tech

We’re here and it’s in-season non-transcript time, complete with just sort of embracing something I absolutely made up, which is the non-transcript. This is an hour of YouTube-ness and I just did the non-transcript for head coach Joey McGuire. Tim DeRuyter and Zach Kittley spoke as well, but I just don’t have time to do all of that. I am sure you understand.

I do want to note that the Availability Report (below) is actually in the game notes, so that’s pretty great that you don’t have to guess who the injuries are each week.

– Texas Tech Game Day Link
– Texas Tech Game Notes (PDF)
– Availability Report:

OUT FOR SEASON
Dylan Spencer So. OLB Knee

OUT FOR ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Charles Esters III Jr. OLB Thigh
Javeon Wilcox R-Fr. DB Knee

QUESTIONABLE FOR ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Quincy Ledet Jr. Sr. DL Lower Leg

Knows Keith Patterson since 2003, when he was at Tulsa and McGuire was at Cedar Hill. ACU has played well in games like this, expecting ACU being ready to play. On offense, have 9 of 11 were at a group of 5 school, know 6 of them. Expecting Patterson to be very involved on defense.
Caleb Rogers at right guard and right tackle. When put out the depth chart, could have had a lot of “or’s” on the defensive side. Feel good about the right side ,think all 3 will rotate. When we did the mock game it was Davion Carter and Caleb and scrimmage it was Ty Buchannan and Rogers. Blanchard and I have talked about the expectation of the offensive line being the position group where we freak out if there is not a set 5, and as long as we have 76 the chemistry is there. I expect all 3 of those guys to play and play equal.
Do plan on playing Will Hammond 4 games this season. Feel good about where he is at. Expect Cam Brown to play every Saturday in some capacity, feel good about that room.
Love Trey Cleveland, is a big play receiver made huge catches and can stretch the field. Nehemiah Martinez and was very explosive. Tough to tackle and physical. Hut Graham, need to know where he is at and could see some gadget plays through him. Other guys I have met, but those 3 are the 3 I really know.
Patterson is an odd-stack guy, like TCU and Iowa State. We haven’t been watching a ton of ACU on offense because they have a new offensive coordinator, he was top 10 in passing and offense. It’s going to be a good test.
On kicker, imagine Gino Garcia will go out first, Reese Burkhardt had a good spring and fall. Expecting Gino will go out and Reese will get the next one. Could put “or” on both of those.
On defense there are 7 positions to put “or’s” on nose guard don’t care about Quincy Ledet, De’Braylon Carroll and James Hansen. On DT Dooda Banks, Jayden Cofield and Trey McAlpine, don’t care who goes out there. Same thing with Harvey Dyson and Isaac Smith, that’s the beauty of the defense. Hope that 22 to 30 guys playing on the defensive side of the ball.
On defense, we’ve played well at home. Should defend this stadium and the fans are part of that. When they see the south end zone see it they are blown away. It is beautiful and even more in a night game. It is really impressive.
Game 1 is hard, will see a tempo offense, air-raid qualities, he was with Dana at one point and Houston and West Virginia. Will see a lot of similarities with Washington State and North Texas.
Key to the season is quarterback health. It is important that Behren Morton understands to throw the ball away when he is supposed to. Best I’ve seen in pocket presence and stepping up. We’ve talked about on defense hitting the quarterback and turning the ball over. Need to play well early. Need to get off to a fast start. Can’t be 3-3 after 6 games.
I understand that to keep my job I have to win games. I hate losing, Debbie hates losing more than I do. The pressure from me is all internal. Disappointing the players and not being more prepared. I don’t know how much more pressure someone else can put on me than I put on myself. Talked to Phil Bennett, have never been around a team with better captains. Grant Teaff was here, Bookbinder is his granddad, told him that I’ve never had a group with better leaders and with that you have a chance to have a special team.
Tahj Brooks will be the 1st one to tell you that winning the Big 12 is the most important thing, but also breaking the rushing record and that’s really important. He’s a security blanket for us. Probably haven’t talked about him as much, but he’s a bell-cow, will set up play-action pass and have more vertical threats, and that’s something that Behren does well. First time to turn him loose since the Cal game.
I think every kid who I’ve coached will tell you that they are mine. We’ve had good camps with NFL guys and have stayed in contact with them. Year 3 should start to show off depth, the defense and tight end room. Wide receiver it is the deepest it has been, could put more players on here. Feel good about the roster, should have this type of depth.
What will make this season successful is starting the season off well, focus on going 1-0, but if you look at the first 7 games, 2 are on the road against good teams and need to do a better job early on the road. But need to play meaningful games in November, and I don’t mean bowl eligible, that should be the floor, meaningful games is in the hunt for the Big 12 Championship.
Ben Roberts was thrown into it last year, he was the constant every week, he’s had a really good spring and fall camp. It is fun to play with Jacob Rodriguez because he takes so much off of Roberts, Jacob will wear the green dot and that allows Roberts to just play.
We have grown as a staff and instead of focusing on how it looks winning games, it is about winning games. Our staff meeting yesterday, how many people watched the SMU Nevada game and they saw this and that and I said that they missed all of it, SMU found a way to win the game. Pat Mahomes said that they were probably not the best foootball team last year, but found a way to win. The growth of me and the coaching staff, which is that we are able to adapt and win games tough games, need to be the staff to win that game.
Nehemiah Martinez had a good first year, but being banged up last year. When guys leave, sometimes you want more and more touches and time in the game. And when he started looking about who was coming back, we had a lot of guys coming back. Even on the defensive side of the ball, when they want to get on the field, they may want more snaps. Sometimes it ends up good for them but think he will get lots of time for ACU and hope he has a great season except for Saturday.
Two days for Javeon Wilcox and maybe a week and a half with Charles Esters, we’ll see next week. Feeling really good about Quincy Ledet.