Red Raider Gridiron | Barr Out for Year; the Tennis Ball Machine Survives

Post-Practice Presser:  Head coach Tommy Tuberville spoke after practice yesterday and here's the non-transcript:

Tommy Tuberville:  DE Aundrey Barr was operated on his knee and will be out for the year.  Hope to have him back for the spring.  Everyone else will be full go for this week.  Have a good game plan and need to get ready  for this week.  Had to do some repair work on him, but not an ACL.  CB Will Ford, S Franklin Mitchem and ILB Sam Fehoko are all practicing.  Have made moves on defense for injuries.  Still an option to take off the redshirt and unless we feel like we're in a bind, we're not going to do it.  CB Tre Porter gets himself out of position a lot, he'll play right, then left and he's just young.  Plays hard and play swreckless.  Will play nickel and dime.  Is playing a position for a third year player.  For OSU QB Brandon Weeden to come back and get his degree, that's the most important thing and it's a good rule for older players to be able to come back.

So it appears that Ford, Mitchem and Fehoko are back.  In LAJ's Don Williams notebook, he also mentions that DT Bobby Agoucha will return this week, which is good, but there's no mention of fellow DT Myles Wade.  I hope he's back.

For those of you looking for replacements for Barr, it's going to be a short list.  Tuberville didn't give any clues as to the "who", but he did  say that the defense is making moves to account for the injuries.  So if you guys and gals had to guess, who might this be?  Barr is listed as OLB Brian Duncan's backup.  ILB Tyrone Sonier can play multiple positions and I would also think that perhaps ILB Bront Bird could fill in a few plays as a pass-rusher.  Tuberville sounds hesitant to take off a redshirt for just a handful of plays, so I'll take DE Jackson Richards and DE Dartwan Bush off the list.  Maybe DE Christopher Knighton? 

Also wanted to mention in the above-linked notebook, it now looks as if freshman OL Beau Carpenter will keep his redshirt on this year:

With the team’s starting offensive line gaining some momentum and continuity the last three games, coaches have changed their minds about using true freshman Beau Carpenter. They’ve expected since the end of spring to play him, but now they want to redshirt him, coach Tommy Tuberville said.

The plan is to get through the second half of the season with seven playable offensive linemen — the starters, plus Chris Olson and Terry McDaniel.

Working Out Dropped Passes:  LAJ's Don Williams writes that the Texas Tech receivers are trying to work out the dropped passes.  Williams details how QB Taylor Potts intentionally threw to WR Jacoby Franks, after dropping an earlier pass, to get Franks back into the game.  OC Neal Brown said that not having drops are important to this staff:

"We’ve done a lot of extra ball drills," Brown said. "You can’t make too big a deal of it, though. If you make too big a deal of it, it ends up being like the catcher (who struggles) throwing it back to the pitcher. They start thinking about it. You want it to be natural."

And for those of you who were curious if the tennis-ball machine survived the turnover, yes, yest it did:

"They (catch tennis balls) every day they lift," Brown said. "I think they lift three days a week, so they do it then, and during the offseason they do it. And during preseason camp, every time we have a walk-through they catch tennis balls, and that’s once a day."

Congratulations:  Congrats to OLB Brian Duncan being added to the Chuck Bednarik Award Watch List and congrats to QB Taylor Potts for being added to the Maxwell Award List.  Congrats to Duncan and Potts!

Oklahoma St. Cowboys Links:  Dawg Sports' T. Kyle King listed OSU vs. TTU as one of the games of interest list . . . Cowboys Ride For Free opines that one of the reasons for the bend-but-don't-break defense employed by DC Bill Young is to give the offense a bit of rest . . . per the DMN, OSU head coach Mike Gundy is wary of Texas Tech OC Neal Brown . . . the NewsOK looks at some of the receiving possibilities if the starters are injured . . . per NewsOK, OSU QB Brandon Weeden celebrates his 27th birthday . . . per NewsOK, OSU WR Justin Blackmon is doing some good work, helping a fan deal with cancer . . . DT's Mike Graham profiles Weeden . . .

Big 12 and National Links:  SB Nation's BlogPoll was released yesterday . . . Big 12's Wendall Barnhouse with a Big 12 notebook . . . Football Outider's Brian Fremeau weekly look at college football . . .