Andy Mitts and Albie Shore discuss how the Texas Tech Red Raiders defense can try to slow down the Kansas Jayhawks offense.
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00:00 Texas Tech's defense, what do they do to try to contain the triple headed, you know, rushing
00:05 attack of Devin Neal, Daniel Hyshaw and Jason Bean?
00:10 And while at the same time not allowing Jason Bean to, you know, just chuck the ball down
00:14 the field to Quentin Skinner or Lawrence Arnold for, you know, 80 yards at a time.
00:19 Yeah, they're gonna do what I do every Sunday, pray.
00:24 And that's it.
00:25 The episode's over.
00:26 No,
00:27 I mean, so I run defense, we're middle of the pack, we're a decent, decent run defense,
00:34 but we've gotten gash and anybody who's seen Texas Tech Kansas State game knows we've gotten
00:38 gash.
00:40 And so and unfortunately, that's probably the fast running back we played this year
00:43 and guess who's faster.
00:45 So but so I think one thing we'll do one thing that we have done and it has been good is
00:51 it will be tough to not only run up the middle, but for Jason being to have any breathing
00:58 space up the middle is because our D tackles, both Jaylin Hutchins and the mayor Tony Bradford
01:05 are really good D tackles.
01:08 That is basically not just some of the the heart of our D line, but I would argue the
01:13 heart of our defense.
01:14 Both of those guys are really, really good up the middle.
01:17 And it's been tough for other teams to run anything up the middle.
01:20 Problem is it's been a lot easier from the run off the edges, right?
01:23 Those those the A gaps have been tough, but the B gaps have been easy.
01:27 The B and the C gaps now to write off those tackles.
01:30 And so that's where I think unfortunately, especially for a guy like Devin Neal, that's
01:35 where he likes to run.
01:36 He's a downhill runner, he likes to come right off of that tackles ass and really get up
01:40 the field right there.
01:41 And so I think that's where the change that we've recently made with CJ basketball and
01:45 now being a strong safety that can kind of come right up on the line there is going to
01:49 be helpful in that scenario.
01:50 I do think CJ basketball is going to be more prominent in the run game, the run defense
01:55 to be able to try to stop Devin Neal as much as possible.
01:58 Squeeze down guys like Myles Cole and Steve Linton in that rushing attack and have some
02:02 of that outside pressure from both basketball and Tyler Owens.
02:04 I think that's going to help.
02:05 It's going to be necessary.
02:07 If I'm the Kansas offense, I'm using Jason Dean's legs in this game.
02:10 Because I watched Kansas State and I said they can't stop that.
02:13 I watched Wyoming and the same situation happened in the Wyoming game.
02:17 We could not stop that mobile running back.
02:18 So I'm saying I'm using the read option and using Jason being legs.
02:24 And so if I'm Derruder that knows that if I'm coached the router to counter that is
02:29 the best thing we can do was using Tyler Owens and CJ basketball and some of our linebackers
02:35 like Ben Roberts off the edge there and say, OK, well, you know, if we can get you off
02:40 the edge, if we can get these guys right here and squeeze down, then force them up the middle
02:45 where our big guys are.
02:48 And a guy like Josiah Pierre right now is questionable for this game.
02:50 He's had injury problems all year long.
02:52 Josiah Pierre was killing it at the beginning of the year.
02:55 If he's able to play in this game, that's huge.
02:57 We just got Jacob Rodriguez back.
02:59 He's a big boy.
03:00 He's able to play and he should be able to play in this game as well.
03:03 That is the best way, in my opinion, to mitigate the running game as much as possible.
03:08 On the outsides, our corner, our secondary on the outside is, let's see, we have, like
03:17 I said, interceptions wise, we haven't been great.
03:19 We can be a lot better.
03:20 But again, where there's a secondary that is.
03:27 They are one that you disrespect them, they're going to they're going to make you pay for
03:31 it.
03:32 So Malik Dunlap last year got targeted so many times and eventually by the end of the
03:36 year, he went from a man to target him like Dunlap today.
03:39 And they've been at target Malik Dunlap.
03:41 He got so much better last year and this year.
03:43 I think he's been our our quote unquote lockdown corner.
03:46 He's really been a guy that is really shut down aside.
03:49 And we expect that from Rayshard Williams.
03:51 Rayshard Williams really struggled this year.
03:53 He has not been as good as he was last year.
03:55 And actually, he's even got a spot.
03:56 So we've seen Braeden Lux, a transfer senior, come in this year and really kind of take
04:01 on especially last few weeks as he's come back from injury, take on that role of the
04:05 starting quarterback.
04:06 So our secondary is now getting back healthy.
04:09 The agent Taylor Demerson, aka the rabbit, he just had two interceptions in the last
04:13 game.
04:14 He is probably playing as good as he's played.
04:17 And he's been one of the keys of our entire defense for the last two years.
04:21 So I do think the secondary, if we do can squeeze down the run and they're not so focused
04:26 on what was this running back going to come out the backfield like this, and they're just
04:28 won't focus on locking down.
04:30 Secondary can be good.
04:31 I think where the secondary kind of slips up is when they're trying to do two things,
04:34 too many things at once.
04:35 And I think that's part of the problem trying to play a team like Kansas is with the ability
04:39 to do so many different things, you immediately kind of force teams into thinking about trying
04:46 to do two different things at once.