Texas Tech 49 - Ole Miss 45

[DarkMinion]

Holy freakin shiat....Tech was down 37-29 in the 3rd, rallied back to win, INT by our SS to clinch the win.

Our QB (B.J. Symons) passing: 44 of 64 for 661 yards and 6 TDs (1 INT).  He has broken the Big XII single-game passing record in two consecutive weeks, and has passed for 1962 yards and 16 TDs with only 3 INTs.  That's about 490 yards per game!

Too bad our defense sucks, but they made some key stops, forced Ole Miss to kick 6 field goals, and of course the late INT to clinch the win.  God damn if we can just find some defense...think of it...

[Hazard]

If I may I'll comment on your defensive dillema, granted that of course this is all just my opinion and my understanding. If I'm not mistaken I believe only one or maybe two of your linebackers runs a sub- 4.5 40. Throughout the NCAA nearly all the successful teams have linebackers who all run sub 4.5's. The other thing I see happen with Tech is the front four. The tackles are good and they tend to do their job fairly well however the ends lack the speed and strength to make an effective push to the quarterback. Without this pressure from the DE's a quaterback has all day to get rid of the football. The problem of the DE's is of course directly linked to the linebackers because, since they lack speed as well, they cant be brought up to put the pressure on either. Thats just my two cents.

[DarkMinion]

Eh, you're off on this.  Our ends are good, our tackles are what is bad.  One of our ends is probably one of the best ends in the Big XII, but our tackles are young and inexperienced.

You're off on the LB speed thing too, granted one of our LBs is pretty damn slow, but the others are fast.  As far as all LBs running a sub 4.5...maybe you're thinking of DBs?  Because you'll only find 1 in 100 LBs in the NFL that run sub 4.5, and they're always outside LBs.  The average speed for an outside LB is around 4.6 and for middle LB it is around 4.7.

We have speed and experience at safety, our free safety runs a 4.19  , and our SS is one of the best in the Big XII.  But we have no experience at corner, we have plenty of speed, but they are very inexperienced as far as D1 football goes.

You wouldn't believe how many freshman start on our defense.  I am willing to venture the only one that is ready to play D1 ball right now is our MLB, who is a quick, hard-hitting headhunter.  (true FR)

[Hazard]

I was personally fairly impressed by the D Line as individual players... but if they cant work together they'll never get anywhere. I heard something on ESPN that stated that all Florida State linebackers run sub-4.5 40's and the same is true for most of the UF and Miami LB's, I believe. The thing Tech seems to lack is that special someone. Something lacks that would make the team click.

[Grok]

He's correct. ... here are the 40 times for FSU players running 4.5 or better:

http://floridastate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=110263

Unfortunately the times are from last year.

LB   M.Boulware   4.36
RB   G.Jones   4.43
WR   A.Boldin   4.49
QB   C.Rix   4.41
CB   S.Samuels   4.41
TB   N.Maddox   4.49
WR   PK.Sam   4.44
WR   C.Thorpe   4.27
LB   K.Pope   4.43
RB   R.Reynolds   4.49
WR   L.Sam   4.36
ROV  J.Carter   4.5
CB   R.Brown   4.47
WR   T.Gardner   4.26
RB   L.Booker   4.49
CB   L.Smith   4.47
ROV  C.Osei   4.5
?    J.Hetzel   4.5
?    M.Tatum   4.49
D.Willliams   4.46
CB   B.McFadden   4.44
RB   W.Reid   4.49

I'm looking for 2003 results.

[DarkMinion]

Our only impact players on D right now are:

Soph FS Vincent Meeks 6'0" 189 4.19
Senior SS Ryan Aycock 6'1" 209 4.41
True FR MLB Brock Stratton 5'11" 235 4.55 (before you say he's too small, he's exactly the same size as Zach Thomas)
Junior DE Adell Duckett 6'4" 265 4.61

We are not very deep at the D-line, the other DE starter is a redshirt FR (6'4" 258) Seth Nitschmann who played freakin safety in high school, so he's pretty fast.

Our DTs are green, both starters are redshirt FR: Ken Scott 6'2" 307 and Chris Hudler at 6'3" 309.  We have good size, but our backups are not that good...

Our backup DE's are a true FR (6'2" 252) Keyunta Dawson out of the storied Evangel Christian Academy HS in Louisiana, and a small DE (6'1" 230) Marquis Turner who is really only put in for pass rushing.

Backup DTs are a junior...Patrice Majondo-Mwamba at 6'4" 303, and soph. Fred Thwreatt at 6'3" 320 out of another storied program, Lee High in Midland, TX.

Like I said, we have great size at the DT position, we just have no experience, and we are pretty ok at the DE position, Duckett is a playmaker, already has a few sacks and an INT returned for TD, and Nitschmann is coming around.

As far as our other LBs, the other starters besides the MLB I mentioned are senior OLB Mike Smith at 6'3" 245, he's big but he's pretty slow, runs about a 4.7.  And the other starter is OLB Fletcher Session who is emerging as a big run stopper at 6'1" 228, he has great speed, runs a sub 4.4.

I already mentioned that our safeties are playmakers, but our CBs are very green...just like our DTs.  And inexperience at corner can really hurt you.  Right now our starters are a true FR also from Evangel Christian Academy at 5'11" 185 (4.4 speed), and a senior former walk-on, Marcus Boyd at 6'2" 201 (4.5).  Boyd is experienced but honestly he's not that good, and personally I think he got a courtesy start in non-conference play, he was pulled last night and I doubt he'll be starting again.  Right now we are pretty deep at CB, just not much experience.  It will be interesting to see who'll be starting at CB at the A&M game.

Next game: Texas Tech vs. Texas A&M, big rivalry game, will be nationally televised on Fox Sports at 9pm CST on Saturday.