SB Nation - L.A. Reed

Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe :: 11.21.09

Seth C — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:20:20 -0000

Let's hope this happens. ~~I'd love to give credit to whoever did this, if you know, leave a comment.~~ Texas Tech alum Brian Crowell gets credit for the photoshop skills. Thanks to Brian for the foreshadowing.

Senior Day: LAJ's Don Williams writes that on previous senior days, the Red Raiders have made it count. The first 2 paragraphs were pretty good:

Texas Tech tackle Marlon Winn started the week reminding teammates the added significance of today’s regular-season home finale against Oklahoma. It’ll be the last trip down the tunnel at Jones AT&T Stadium for 19 Red Raiders seniors.

"He said it (Sunday) night: ‘How would you want to be sent out when you’re a senior?’’’ Tech linebacker Bront Bird said. "’We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing right now. Think about whenever it’s your time, how you want your legacy to be left in the Jones.’ So I think the team’s going to rally around that.’’

Injuries Hurt Red Raiders and Sooners: LAJ's Don Williams runs down the injury situation for both teams and reminds me that the only significant injuries that Texas Tech suffered that year was DT Rajon Henley for 3 games and G Louis Vasquez and CB L.A. Reed for 2 games. I could spend quite a bit of time going over the injury situation this year, but it's certainly been significant.

Howard Has No Limits: FWST's Dwain Price features DE Daniel Howard, who fellow teammate LB Bront Bird feels that Howard isn't as known and opposing linemen should know about him:

"Maybe he’s not as tall as the other guys, or as strong, or maybe not even as fast, but he makes up for that in effort, that’s for sure," Red Raiders linebacker Bront Bird said.

"I’m not sure what [opposing offensive linemen] think of him, but I know they better respect him. He causes havoc off the edge, I know that much."

Here's Howard on coming to Texas Tech:

"I got recruited by the rest of the schools around here to play linebacker, and Tech was the one that came in and told me, 'You’re going to play defensive end.’ I said, 'OK,’ because everybody else told me I was too small [to play defensive end], I wasn’t fast enough and I wasn’t tall enough, and I think as a defense we’re making statements because we’re all those guys."

Go read the whole thing, it's worth your time.

Oklahoma Sooner and Big 12 Links: Crimson and Cream Machine with 5 keys to beating Texas Tech . . . NewsOK's David Ubben with the weekly blitz package . . . NewsOK's Jake Trotter writes that the Sooners might need some magic today . . . NewsOK's Berry Tramel writes that the Sooners have struggled on the road . . . the Tulsa World with 3 storylines for today's game . . . FWST's Mike Jones with a look at RB DeMarco Murray and WR Ryan Broyles are playmakers . . . LAJ's Adam Zuvanich wirtes that the OU defense is one of the best in the Stoops era . . .

Game Tonight: Lamar Cardinals vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders
Time: 7:00 p.m. :: Location: United Spirit Arena, Lubbock, Texas
Preview and Game Day Thread: Scheduled for 6:00 p.m. post

Stressing Defense: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that head coach Pat Knight is stressing defense:

Skeletons dance across the backs of the Texas Tech men’s basketball players. The frightful figures are printed on their T-shirts, but they carry a message coach Pat Knight hopes rattles his team this season: Play to the bone.

"It’s a fighting term: it means you have to fight to the end, until that final bell goes off," Knight said after the Raiders’ 94-75 win against Northwestern State on Thursday. "Look at boxing, how many guys lose it in the 12th round, get knocked out because they’re playing it safe or just think they have the fight won."

And Knight was not happy with the first the first half of the game against Northwestern St.:

"It was going back to the same old BS as last year: not guarding people, trying to out-gun the other team. You might be able to do that against some teams in the preseason, but you’re not going to be able to out-gun Texas and Kansas."

5 Things // Biggest Questions Heading into Fall Practice

Seth C — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:00:32 -0000

Five Things is a handful (i.e., five) of thoughts about a single topic. Hopefully, discussion ensues.

Biggest Questions Heading into Fall Practice

Practice is mere days away (Saturday actually) and I thought that it might not be a bad idea to ask what are my biggest questions heading into fall practice. These are obviously my biggest questions, but I'd like to know what's bothering you as we start the season?

1: Who will play left tackle?

I think we've discussed the options ad naseum, but it appears that the two options will be reshirt freshman Terry McDaniel (6-7/335) or junior Chris Olson (6-5/296). From my very untrained eye, I think McDaniel is ready to be the guy this year, but I can understand, especially with some early games against difficult opponents, that Olson may be the safer option. McDaniel has all-conference talent, right now, but there's no doubt that Olson knows the blocking schemes backwards and forwards, perhaps better than anyone on the team as Olson is prepared to play a number of positions this fall if he doesn't lock into the left tackle spot.

2: Who will step up as the third and fourth receiver options?

Looking back in past years, the top four receivers usually account for about 69% of the yardage and 72% of the touchdowns in the Texas Tech offense. A lot of this talk about fifth and sixth guys stepping up sounds nice, but history tends to lean towards four guys. Right now, we're looking at Ed Britton at the split end, Tramain Swindall and Detron Lewis at the inside receivers and a mix of Jacoby Franks, Alexander Torres or Lyle Leong at the flanker position. I'm pretty comfortable with thinking that Detron Lewis is more than capable of being the lead guy and I'm slightly torn that as to whether or not the second guy is going to be Britton or Swindall, but I'm thinking that Swindall has a break-out year. That means Britton has to be the guy that steps up the consistency of his game. He's great at a lot of other things that make this offense click, but the dude needs to catch four to five passes a game. That leaves the flanker position completely up in the air, at least right now. And don't get me wrong, I'd love to see guys like Austin Zouzalike or Cornelius Douglas or someone else get some burn at any receiver position, but history is not on their side.

3: How quickly will the inexperienced safeties adjust?

It's not a stretch to think that Cody Davis is going to be pretty damned good for quite some time. He has good size, not great speed, but all you hear about the defense rave about with Davis is his ability to take good angles making tackles. If anything, this somewhat demonstrates his ability to understand how the game is played. I must say that I'm a bit concerned about Davis' counterpart, Franklin Mitchem, only because he's really not getting the same type of recognition that Davis is. Mitchem didn't do anything during the spring game to make me think that he couldn't play, but he didn't stand out either. If it's not Mitchem, then you can look for one of the freshmen defensive backs to make a splash, and if I had to guess right now, it would be Will Ford or Terrance Bullitt.

4: Will Ruffin McNeill be more creative in his defensive philosophy?

This is the $64,000 question, isn't it? I think Ruffin is at a crossroads with the defense and he's slowly but surely building it into what he's envisioning, which is lots of speed, and then some extra speed, just in case. The lone remaining position that needs some upgrade is the linebacker spot, and there are guys that have speed, but they haven't quite yet cracked the top three spots . . . yet. And although this bit is focused on the linebackers, I think there is something to be said about how the defensive line and the defensive backs are athletically and how McNeill perhaps changes scheme to be more aggressive. This is going to be a big spring for guys like Bront Bird and Marlon Williams. They're going to need to step up and make some plays, all over the field, if they're going to keep their jobs on a full-time basis. That means moving sideline to sideline, and McNeill has recruited guys that can do this in Brandon Mahoney and Dion Chidozie. That's not to say that guys like Sam Fehoko, Tyrone Sonier or Blake Collier are positioning themselves to be right in the mix as well, but the philosophy is changing, it's just a matter of time.

5: Will a second cornerback step-up?

Another defensive back question, and much like the safety position, there's the incumbents and then there's the freshmen. Last year, the hasty L.A. Reed experiement failed, for a variety of reasons, but mainly because he couldn't stay on the field. Brent Nickerson struggled to keep receivers in front of him, which I think is one of McNeill's big tenants in playing his defense. During the spring, it was a neck-and-neck-and-neck race between Nickerson, LaRon Moore and Taylor Charbonnet. I'm almost at the point that I know what Nickerson can do and I know what Moore can do, but I'm getting to the point that I'd like to see more out of Charbonnet. I know that he's a bit undersized, however, he has put on about 15 pounds since last fall and is up to 175. That's respectable and if speed is his biggest attribute, then perhaps that speed can be a bit of a neutralizer. Then again, if none of those three can step up opposite Jamar Wall, then perhaps you see one of the freshman back here. Maybe Yashua Williams is the best choice, and D.J. Johnson is probably too raw at this point.

5 Things // Defensive Players Who Must Improve in 2009

Seth C — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:00:12 -0000

Five Things is a handful (i.e., five) of thoughts about a single topic. Hopefully, discussion ensues.

Defensive Players Who Must Improve in 2009

There are a ton of factors that go into a team improving, but I thought that it might be good to take a look at both offensive and defensive players who need to improve their game for Texas Tech to have a successful 2009. This is going to sound more critical than it actually is, but the truth of the matter is that the Red Raiders need these players to step up their games.

Join me after the jump for a look at the defensive players who must improve in 2009.

1: DE/DT, Rajon Henley

Henley was injured for a good chunk of the 2008 season, and as a result, his 2008 season statistics seem very pedestrian. Only 10 tackles, 1.5 sacks and TFL, and this is your starting left defensive end. With Brandon Williams going to the NFL, McKinner Dixon declaring for the NFL Supplemental Draft, the current grade questions surrounding Brandon Sesay and Jake Ratliff graduating, there's a fairly substantial loss (or potential loss) in the ranks of defensive ends. It's strange to me (and I fall into this category) that Texas Tech fans are depending so much on a guy who, admittedly injured, only managed 10 tackles for the entire year.

What Henley does have going for him is a track record prior to 2008. As a junior in 2007, Henley had 45 tackles, 4.5 sacks and 7.5 TFL. That's what Henley is capable of as a full-time starter, and if Texas Tech can get similar production from Henely in 2009, then I think the Red Raiders will be okay at the end position.

2: DT, Chris Perry

For my own safety, I probably shouldn't pick on two defensive linemen, but I had great expectations for Perry, who found his way to Lubbock a little differently. Perry, originally signed with the Miami Hurricanes, decided to transfer to be closer to home and was given a reprieve from the NCAA and was not required to sit out a year due to normal transfer rules. Perry did play last year, relatively speaking. In 2008, Perry registered 7 tackles, 1 TFL and 1 sack. Of course Perry only saw action in 7 games.

Perry is certainly talented, and in fact, he was a Rivals 3 star and Scout 4 star recruit coming out of high school. The talent is there, but the word is that when Perry arrived at Texas Tech he was not quite physically ready for Big 12 play. I'm incredibly hopeful that Perry and strength and conditioning coach Bennie Wylie got to know each other intimately during the 2008 season and during the summer of 2009 and he's ready to burst onto the scene.

3: CB, Brent Nickerson

Nickerson is one of those incredibly frustrating players to watch. I know he has the athletic ability to play cornerback, but there were too many times last year where I felt like he got behind a receiver. I can't say that I'm privy to everything that's going on in Ruffin McNeill's defense meetings, but I have to believe that one of his tenants is not to get beat deep. Granted, part of the problem may be the safety not getting beat deep either, but Nickerson has his responsibility as well.

There may have been a couple of things that were working against Nickerson, the first being that he wasn't the full-time starter at the right corner spot, which initially went to L.A. Reed. Reed was injured, and then somewat back, but never made the impact considering his potential. The big statistic for me is the passes broken up, which was only 2 for the year, for Nickerson. For comparison purposes, Jamar Wall had 11 and Darcel McBath had 7. The numbers play this out, but there just weren't enough times that Nickerson was busting up a play, and that's a big part of playing cornerback.

Right now, Nickerson, along with Taylor Charbonnet and LaRon Moore, are battling for that right cornerback job. There are pluses and minuses with all three of these guys, and then you have the six freshmen defensive backs arriving in Lubbock looking to take someone's job.

4: LB, Bront Bird

I have a feeling that I may catch some flack for this pick, in part because it's tough to look at Bird's numbers from last year and complain very much. Bird was 4th on the team in tackles and 4th on the team in tackles for a loss. The biggest problem I have with Bird is that there were games where he would absolutely disappear (1 tackle vs. TAMU; 0 tackles vs. Texas; 2 tackles vs. Baylor). Granted, much of this can be attributed to match-up problems, i.e., Bird may not be quick enough to cover certain opponents due to match-up, and that's at the heart of the problem for me. Bird, while wonderful at certain things, has almost gotten to the point due to the increase in size where he's not able to be as versatile as I had hoped, especially because he was a safety coming out of high school. This may be a pipe dream, but the one thing that I'd love to see change on this defense is more speed at the linebacker position. I have a feeling that McNeill is headed that way and as mentioned above, it's hard to complain with the production of the three starters, Brian Duncan, Marlon Williams and Bird, but with the evolution of spread offenses in the Big 12, the more speed that you can have on the field, no matter position, I think the better you are. In fact, if you take a look at the linebackers from the 2009 recruiting class, the two commitments at linebacker that are in Lubbock are Dion Chidozie and Brandon Mahoney, both guys that can fly up and down the sidelines. I'm afraid that because of Bird's increase in size, he is a step slow to be useful in pass coverage and as more teams pass, especially in the spread offense, that's his fate.

5: DE/DT, Brandon Sesay

I hesitated putting Sesay's name here, but there's not doubt that he belongs here. There was a ton of hype following Brandon Sesay from junior college and whether this is a case of Sesay adjusting to a major college conference level or play, or adjusting to a new position, defensive tackle, but 8 tackles and 1 sack for the entire year just isn't going to cut it. Sesay is an absolute physical specimen at 6-6/278 and I think that McNeill made the right call last year, moving Sesay to defensive tackle, especially considering the overall depth at the defensive end position last year (Brandon Williams, McKinner Dixon, Jake Ratliff, etc.). But this year is a bit of a different story. With defections, graduations, and dismissals, Sesay becomes an integral part that defensive end rotation.

This spring, Sesay wasn't at spring practices, he was in the classroom working on his school work. If we can assume anything about Leach, it's that he will give you plenty of opportunity to get your grades up and if a guy is off the team, Leach won't hesitate to announce the move and go forward. Sesay did play in the spring game and finished the day with 3 tackles and 2 sakcs. I get the feeling that Leach wanted to keep Sesay motivated.

With that being said, Leach hasn't made any announcement, and I think it's safe to say that so long as Sesay working on his issues, then he'll be dressed and ready to play in 2009. There's no doubt that with Sesay's attributes, he's got visisions of NFL contracts dancing in his head, and he should. He's that type of talented, but the only way to prove to NFL draft folks that you're worthy of a pick (8 tackles and 1 sack will not do it), then be the guy this year. There's going to be opportunity to play and it's up to Sesay to prove it.

Previewing Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss: Secondary

Seth C — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:00:05 -0000

SECONDARY

Player	Ht/Wt	Class	Position	Tackles	Passes Defended	Interceptions
Jamar Wall	5'10"/195	Jr.	CB	59	10	2
L.A. Reed	6'2"/212	Sr.	CB	19	3	0
Brent Nickerson	6'0"/195	Jr.	CB	26	1	0
Darcel McBath	6'1"/196	Sr.	S	70	7	6
Daniel Charbonnet	5'11"/203	Sr.	S	55	6	5
Anthony Hines	6'1"/222	Sr.	S	30	4	0
Jordy Rowland	6'1"/196	Sr.	S	27	3	0
Franklin Mitchem	6'2"/201	So.	S	15	0	0
Marshay Green	5'9"/170	Jr.	CB	29	6	1
Cassius Vaughn	5'10"/185	Jr.	CB	40	3	2
Dustin Mouzon	5'11"/175	Sr.	CB	22	1	1
Marcus Temple	5'9"/181	Fr.	CB	16	1	0
Jamarca Sanford	5'10"/200	Sr.	S	80	0	0
Kendrick Lewis	5'11"/192	Jr.	S	78	6	4
Johnny Brown	5'11"/207	So.	S	27	0	0

Texas Tech

Darcel McBath plays offense?
Nah, he just likes interceptions.

If there's one thing that this group improved upon from last year, it's the turnovers. Granted, a number of the interceptions were early in the year, the fact that this group, as a whole has been better at creating turnovers, so much so as this year's group is on the plus side of turnover margin, something that hasn't happened in the previous 2 seasons.

In fact, for the year, the Red Raiders had more interceptions, 17, that touchdowns given up, 16. That's a pretty amazing statistic and a testament to the progress this team has made defensively. And one other thing, this team had at least 1 interception for all but 3 games this year. Turnover and play making machines.

The passing yards given up can be deceiving, Texas Tech is giving up 238.08 yards a game through the air, which is 91st in the nation, but good for 3rd in the Big 12. I think that says a little something about the Big 12 offenses, or rather offenses in the big 12 in general. They are just simply prolific.

I don't know if it's fair to say that the offense begins with one safety or another, Daniel Charbonnet or Darcel McBath and it's probably fair just to think of them as being 1.A and 1.B. in terms of importance for this team. I thought McBath did an outstanding job later in the year, displaying his athletic ability that I thought we all knew that he had, but we didn't get to see until later in the year. D. Charbonnet was/is the guy that no one thought was going to be anything special, but has turned into an all-conference player. To me, they are both absolutely integral in stopping both the run and the pass. McBath led the team with 6 interceptions for the year, 3 of those coming against Kansas while D. Charbonnet had 5 for the year, 3 of those against SMU and 1 very important one against the Longhorns.

At cornerback, L.A. Reed was supposed to be the starter from the beginning of the season, but injuries kept Reed sidelined for the beginning part of the year, which slowed his development. Brent Nickerson stepped in nicely, although he had his rough spots, most cornerbacks do, but thought he did a good job for the most part.

If you had asked me to name all of the cornerbacks that have logged significant time this year I would have surely said more than the 3 listed above, but amazingly, Ruffin McNeill relied on his deep group of safeties to help in the sub-packages.

Anthony Hines, Jordy Rowland and Franklin Mitchem each have good size, speed and experience. I think that's by design as McNeill would rather have versatile guys who can play and cover multiple positions.

Mississippi

Jamarca Sanford makes you close your eyes.

The Rebels have a little strange in their pass defense thus far. When the Rebels limit opposing teams in the passing game, they win, when they don't . . . they lose.

In Ole Miss' 8 wins, the Rebels have only allowed teams to pass at 6.1 yards/attempt, gained 12 interceptions, given up only 6 touchdowns and allowed a passer rating of 102.63. In their 4 losses it's a completely different game as Ole Miss allows 7.9 yards/attempt, only intercepted 2 passes, given up 8 touchdowns, and allowed a passer rating of 156.84. Keep in mind that of Mississippi's 4 losses, 3 came against competent passing teams in Wake Forest, South Carolina and Alabama (questionable). The other loss was Vanderbilt, which only passed for 71 yards for the game so that tended to throw off the averages a bit, although Vandy was wildly successful passing the ball when they did (a 152.20 passer rating).

Perhaps the most interesting thing as I looked up players and stats for Ole Miss was the relatively size of these guys. All of them are under 6 feet, although, quite a few of them are close, and there should inherently be some advantages for the bigger/taller Texas Tech receivers (Crabtree, Lewis, Swindall, Leong and James).

Back to the Ole Miss secondary, the Rebel secondary is mostly comprised of cornerbacks, almost the exact opposite of the methods attempted by Texas Tech. Sanford and Lewis have a majority of the tackles and interceptions and the 4 cornerbacks, Green, Vaughn, Mouzon and Temple have all logged significant time, although Green and Vaughn are the primary corners. Considering that Texas Tech will go 4-wide and I would imagine that the linebackers will see some time, Mouzon and Temple will be tested early and often.

Conclusion:

Another tough matchup to decide and as we've discussed before, this type of look at each of the units tends to favor one over another because the conferences where they play. I mentioned above each teams' passer ratings and pass defense and Ole Miss ranks 61st in pass defense (PD) and 44th in pass efficiency defense (PED). Texas Tech ranks 91st in PD and 67th in PED. Texas Tech is worse in PD than Ole Miss, but is ranked 3rd in the Big 12, while Ole Miss is better, but ranks 11th in their conference.

Team	PED (Conf. Rank)	PD (Conf. Rank)
Texas Tech	127.46 (3)	238.08 (3)
Mississippi	118.91 (8)	209.83 (11)

Again, it's tough comparing apples to oranges, but statistically, Ole Miss has been better defending the pass, and although these numbers don't necessarily play this out, there are some numbers that I've found that I hope to post later in the week regarding Texas Tech struggling to stop the pass.

I'm giving the nod to Ole Miss, but again, it's close.

Previous Matchups

Quarterbacks :: Running Backs :: Receiver :: Offensive Line :: Defensive Line :: Linebackers :: Secondary :: Special Teams :: Coaching

Matchup	Advantage
Quarterback
Running Back
Receivers
Offensive Line
Defensive Line
Linebacker
Secondary

Poll

Who do you favor in this matchup of secondaries?

Texas Tech

83 votes

Mississippi

41 votes

124 votes | Poll has closed

Report Card: SMU v. Texas Tech

Seth C — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:56:40 -0000

Offensive MVP: Baron Batch

Defensive MVP: Daniel Charbonnet

Special Teams MVP: Taylor Charbonnet

QUARTERBACK
B	A much better performance by Graham Harrell, at least in my opinion. I thought he looked sharper this week than he has in the past, although I understand Leach's criticisms of Harrell, he's not quite on target yet, but I trust Leach to correct that problem. No interceptions, although there were a couple of balls that easily could have been intercepted, one coming to mind was the pass that hit the SMU defender in the back. As far as good numbers are concerned, Harrell finished with 8.7 yards per attempt, which is very good. Five TD's puts Harrell ahead of Kingbury all-time at Texas Tech. I'd still like to see Harrell not force the deep pass, just take what the defense gives you and the deep stuff will happen. I especially don't like it when you're down at your own 2. Get out of your endzone and get some positive yards. I thought Potts looked pretty sharp and the one thing that I try and watch with Potts is how long does he hold onto the ball, and last night he seemed to get rid of it much quicker than in past year. That's a sign that he's making quicker decisions and he's making good decisions (6 for 7 for 95 yards). It would have been nice to see him lead the team for a touchdown that last scoring drive, but I'm not complaining. I thought he looked sharp.
RUNNING BACK
A	This is the best I've ever seen the running game. As a group, Batch and Woods averaged 6.7 yards per attempt, had 27 carries, and if you're asking me, the offense looked so much better against SMU, in large part because of the outstanding running game. Batch had 98 yards on 10 carries and 1 TD. Batch seems to do a better job of breaking off for longer runs, a trend that's been true for the first 3 games. Out of the backfield, Batch accounted for 5 catches and 71 yards, for a 14.2 yard per catch average. Shannon Woods was running with attitude (my wife even noticed) and he seemed genuinely excited to be able to break out a bit. Woods finished with 86 yards on 13 carries for 6.6 yards per carry and 2 receptions for 47 yards. That's a very productive day by himself. I like where this is headed and I just hope Leach & Co. continue to feed the ball to Batch and Woods from here on out. Aaron Crawford did not play last night due to a turf toe injury .
RECEIVER
C	A strange game for the receiving corp. As a group, they missed more balls than I can remember and that usually just doesn't happen with this group, they're usually pretty sure-handed. Other than Michael Crabtree (8 receptions for 164 yards and 3 TD's), Detron Lewis (5 receptions for 86 yards and 1 TD) had the best game, but after that, no receiver did much to impress. At halftime, Leach said that he didn't have an X-receiver who could catch a ball, which is Britton and Todd Walker. With Lyle Leong in the doghouse, and Leach disappointed with his regular X-receivers (Britton and Walker), expect to see Rashad Hawk (4 receptions for 44 yards) and Tramain Swindall (4 receptions for 31 yards) continue to emerge and start taking away some playing time from the veterans. This is the second game in a row where Eric Morris (5 receptions for 25 yards) has had trouble getting open. It would be nice to seem him get on track.
H-BACK AND TIGHT END
C	Adam James caught 1 pass, late in the game, for 16 yards. I would like to see a more power running game when Texas Tech goes to the H-Back/Tight End Set, and this may be a criticism of the staff more so than the players, but if Texas Tech is going to utilize the set, then run the ball. I recall using the set on the last play of the 2nd half, where Harrell threw incomplete to Crabtree, and then at the end of the game, where we couldn't punch it in the endzone. Would like to see some improvement there.
OFFENSIVE LINE
A	Only 1 sack and 180 yards rushing. That's pretty good, of course the sack resulted in Harrell coughing up the ball. Vasquez let his man go and I guess he wasn't sure that Harrell had dropped back that far. Other than that, there were some really nice plays by the line. On Batch's touchdown run, Brandon Carter pulled and just unloaded on an SMU defender, allowing Batch to romp 43 yards for a touchdown. Reed played most of the game and I imagine the staff is trying to stretch him out a little bit before conference play.
DEFENSIVE LINE
B	As a group, I thought they did some really nice things. McKinner Dixon (7 tackles, 1 sack) was dominant and I thought they did a good a job of controlling the line of scrimmage. Daniel Howard (3 tackles, 1 sack) saw a ton of playing time, mostly standing up as a rusher. SMU only rushed for 61 yards on 23 carries, so I'm pleased with that effort. Colby Whitlock, Rajon Henley, Brandon Williams (2 tackles) and Richard Jones (1 tackle) didn't show up much in the box score, but they allowed the linebackers and defensive backs to make plays. I would like to see this group get a little more pressure, and I'm tempted to blame the gameplan more than the players. Rushed 4 almost all game long and I didn't see much in terms of blitzes or pressure from other points of the defense. Bottom line, this group did their job.
LINEBACKER
B	A pretty quiet night for the linebacking group. Brian Duncan (5 tackles) led the way, but this was a game where the linebackers weren't going to be too heavily involved. Marlon Williams (3 tackles) and Bront Bird (1 tackle) were a bit off statistically, but again, with so many pass attempts and the defensive line stuffing the run these guys weren't going to get much action.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
A+	I'm going to have a hard time complaining about the defensive backs. The player of the game was Daniel Charbonnet (2 tackles, 3 interceptions and 1 pass break-up) as he was around the ball all night long. You love to see that from your strong safety. We also saw Darcel McBath (5 tackles, 1 interception and 1 pass break-up) show some of the athleticism that we knew he had and probably should have had 2 interceptions on the day. Jamar Wall (3 tackles, 1 interception and 3 pass break-ups) redeemed himself from two subpar weeks with an outstanding performance. A very quiet night for Brent Nickerson, who didn't break into the boxscore, but that's a good thing. I didn't even notice him yesterday, which means that the quarterback never looked to his side or his receiver was covered up. L.A. Reed (3 tackles) was responsible for the lone touchdown, but I'm willing to cut him some slack as this was his first game back after nursing a injury the last two weeks.
SPECIAL TEAMS
B	Uggh. I'm still willing to stick with Donnie Carona (1-2, 35 yard make and 44 yard miss; 4-5 extra points; 8 kickoffs and 2 touchbacks). I see improvement, but he's still got a long way to go. I think Leach sees the improvement too, and he knows that Carona has the most potential and the more he works out his kinks here, the better Texas Tech will be in conference. Kickoff coverage limited SMU to 20.3 yards per return and the punt return, there was only 2 punts for Texas Tech for the game, resulted in -1 yard return. Taylor Charbonnet stood out last night on punt coverage. LaRon Moore (1 KO return for 25 yards) and Jamar Wall (1 KO return for 28 yards) were good returning kickoffs. While the Eric Morris (2 KO returns for 38 yards) had a nice 29 yard punt return, who was hit trying to return another punt, was solid. Jonathan LaCour (2 punts for a 45 yard average), the forgotten one, had a good day as well. I'm grading up here because I see improvement.
COACHING
B	Offensively, I thought Leach did a good job of taking advantage of a poor SMU run defense and thought it was great to see 24 rushing attempts. I like that Leach wants to see Harrell improve on his play, but I'm still not too worried, though I will be in two weeks if Harrell doesn't return to his 2007 form. Defensively, I would have liked to have seen a little bit more, but perhaps McNeill is waiting to for conference play to show his hand. D. Howard was utilized more this game than in previous games and that was an attempt to get some pressure on the SMU quarterback without having to change things up too much. Still, I'd like to see some safety blitzes or a linebacker streak up the middle of the opponents' line to pressure the quarterback.

SB Nation - L.A. Reed

Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe :: 11.21.09

5 Things // Biggest Questions Heading into Fall Practice

Biggest Questions Heading into Fall Practice

1: Who will play left tackle?

2: Who will step up as the third and fourth receiver options?

3: How quickly will the inexperienced safeties adjust?

4: Will Ruffin McNeill be more creative in his defensive philosophy?

5: Will a second cornerback step-up?

5 Things // Defensive Players Who Must Improve in 2009

Defensive Players Who Must Improve in 2009

1: DE/DT, Rajon Henley

2: DT, Chris Perry

3: CB, Brent Nickerson

4: LB, Bront Bird

5: DE/DT, Brandon Sesay

Previewing Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss: Secondary

SECONDARY

Texas Tech

Mississippi

Conclusion:

Previous Matchups

Who do you favor in this matchup of secondaries?

Texas Tech

Mississippi

Report Card: SMU v. Texas Tech

B

A

C

C

A

B

B

A+

B

B