Red Raider Gridiron | In the Beginning, We Were All Getting Screwed Up

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET, SWEET WIFE! | Big shout-out to my wife as it's her birthday today!  

POST-PRACTICE NON-TRANSCRIPT | The video can be found here and we're back to the choppy video, which is that it plays for about 3 to 5 seconds and then stops.  It's great for a guy like me trying to type out a non-transcript, but about the 11 minute mark, I had to give it up because it was a pain to sit through that.  There was another 3 or 4 minutes of Glasgow that I didn't write because I couldn't stand it any more.  Anyway, here we go.

Head Coach Tommy Tuberville | After a good scrimmage Saturday, the young guys are getting better.  Still need to get better in playing shape.  Added some things on offense or defense.  Still have a long ways to go before the first game.  Starting to work more on our kicking game.  We got better as the game wore on, different level of intensity.  Defense got tired, which was expected considering how much we expected of them.  Great for WR Bradley Marquez, school is paid for, don't know about the money, but signing bonues is great.  I'm proud for him and his family, 100% behind him.  Football and baseball is fine, but it's tought to add another sport other than baseball.  Go do baseball on June and July, he's a 12 month athlete, not as physical as football.  Still almost 3 weeks away from first game, stay healthy, beat up in a couple of places and try to get as much out of our practices as we can.  We won't be as physical in our practices, but do a lot of reps in order to keep everyone healthy.  Have to do what you have to do as far as conference realignment.  QB Michael Brewer looked good, had the most completions, but also the most mistakes.  That's expected, he's gotten a lot better, his arm is stronger, and he was a little sick the first couple days of practice and took away a bit from his strength, but Saturday was his best days since he's been here.  I was impressed with how he threw the ball. 

Offensive Coordinator Neal Brown | Think two-a-days it is setting up a mentality, liked two short practices, a lot more team than what we've been getting and I thought our kids reacted well.  This morning, the weather was nice, but the continued the concentration.  QB Seth Doege played well, not as well as he needs to for us to win the way we want to win, but I'm happy with where we are at.  He's worked very hard, he's improved a lot since the spring and he's improved a lot since the summer, not just on the field, but also in the film room.  Marquez signing, doesn't mean anything, I'm happy for the kid, any time someone gets drafted that high, we're excited for him, we encouraged him, we thought it was a good idea, once in a lifetime.  It would have been nice for him to play for Coach Spencer, but can't blame the kid.  He is a good athlete, he can really run, he was drafted based on his speed, he's got good upside in baseball, has some skills to work on, he has to hit better, but he's a great athlete and has done as well as any of the 1st year guys.  Doege hasn't done it under the lights, like Potts and Sheffield did last year.  I really like this group, more energy and more speed, more depth and more competition than we did last year and all of last season.  Really excited about coaching this group.  WR Darrin Moore is practicing really well.  WR Tramain Swindall has been good, the move outside has been positive.  IR Austin Zouzalik and IR Cornelius Douglas has been good.  IR Alexander Torres looks healthy, we're excited to get him back.  Would put Marquez at the top.  RB Eric Stephens and RB Aaron Crawford are ahead of the freshmen, RB DeAndre Washington, RB Kenny Williams, RB Ronnie Daniels, they've all shown flashes, but they change spots every day and really over the next couple of days, they will be big tell-alls as to who will play this year.  Potential to redshirt, only so many snaps, and whoever is at the bottom of that competition will redshirt.

Defensive Coordinator Chad Glasgow | The more practices we get, we went about 15 periods, so we got another hours worth of work is a good thing and being out in the heat is good.  We're playing faster with some things.  We've had our defense in since the 4th day of practice and now we're going back over things and we're starting to play faster and continue to get more reps.  CB Sawyer Vest has competed his tail off every day and I bragged on Sawyer the other day and he went out and picked a ball off.  We will play how we practice.  We're excited about the young players that are there, it's a completely different look than in the spring.  The young guys have done everything we've asked them to do.  We're still making some mistakes, but they are trying to do the right thing and play the way we want them to play.  We've got to continue to win the one-on-ones, still need to be in better shape, we went 180 plays and some guys got tired and they were young players, but some of those young players are going to have to play.  Hopefully, we are not playing guys 65 plays a game.  We need someone to step in and play 15 plays a game.  There are probably 4 or 5 newcomers that will play significantly and we've got to get them ready to do that.  SS Jared Flannel is a tough kid, a great kid, his nickname is pajamas, but it's been fun having Flannel back out here, was only released the last half of spring.  He is a solid #2 behind Bullitt.  No one job is secure, continue to judge and grade.  FS Pete Robertson has been playing behind FS D.J. Johnson, but we want to get him as many reps as possible, he's doing more work there, the first time he's played on defense, he's somewhat a QB on defense, need to continue to help him grow up.  We've told the kids from day one, we don't care who steps up and we've had some young kids who are trying to do that.  Some of the seniors, DT Donald Langley, but we have to continue to improve.

There is so much more after the jump.

NOTEBOOKY | LAJ's Don Williams (not really one notebook, but spread out over three different places: notes from after practice, Doege shows progress and supporting Marquez's decision) and RRS.com's Mike Graham.  Again, most of this stuff you can find in the non-transcript.  LAJ's Williams did have an article on FS D.J. Johnson and CB Tre' Porter continuing to start.  Johnson talks a bit about making calls:

"In the beginning, we were all getting screwed up," Johnson said, "because I’d be giving a call while the linebackers were giving a call, while the D-line was talking, while the strong safety was talking, and they won’t hear the call.

"What we’ve worked on is I’ll wait a moment, let everybody get their call so I can give the final call, so I can make sure I’m heard. That’s the biggest transition is communication."

As you may remember, the secondary's call is completely independent of the defensive line's call, which is what Johnson is talking about here.  Porter also talks a bit about the defense:

"In order to really master the defense," Porter said, "you’ve got to know how to do it. TCU does it very well. I respect them for how they play the calls. But we’ve got to put our own tweaks and turns to the defense to make interceptions and be like TCU."

Williams also notes that Porter will play the "boundary" corner, which is the corner on the short side of the field.  Says that he still wishes he could play safety, but is playing cornerback because of injuries.  Here's Porter:

"I like safety," Porter said, "because in this defense safeties get the advantage, get the most interceptions. But corner is a man-to-man thing. It’s iron on iron to see who prevails over the top."

OFFICIAL SITE LINKS | We continue to meet the two-deep with D.J. Johnson (watch via YouTube) . . . here is a notebooky sort of article . . . OC Neal Brown continues with tweets, this one for the players who played well during the scrimmage:

Top guys from the scrimmage on Sat: S.Doege, M.Brewer, D.Moore, T.Swindall, B.Marquez, D. Edwards, C.Douglas, A.Torres, 1st OL.

And this one for yesterday's morning practice:

Top guys this morn: K.Williams, T.Swindall, D.Washington, M.Okafor, D.Gallington, J.Keown, L.Waddle, A.James, S.Doege, J.Karam, M.Brewer.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND BIG 12 LINKS | I don't know if this is surprising or not, but Baylor WR Josh Gordon has left the team.  He was one of the players passed out in the Taco Bell with a bag of marijuana and was suspended for one quarter for the Texas Tech game.  I thought it was a half, but was corrected int he comments and this story affirms that Art Briles knows how to punish players . . . Pre-Snap Read's Paul Myerberg says that the Texas Longhorns are the #18 team in the nation (there ain't no way in hell that UT is the # 18 team in the nation.  I promise.) . . . . SI.com has their Big 12 Conference preview and there's really not much, if any Texas Tech news, but here it is . . . It's Big 12 Week at Dr. Saturday to keep checking it out through the week (I'll post any links that specifically deal with Texas Tech.) . . . K-State has their own network, which is just an online network and it's the same thing that Texas Tech has (i.e. RaiderVision) . . . per CT's Dave Matter, the Missouri Tigers have lost their starting left tackle for the past 3 years, Elvis Fisher, with a torn patellar tendon (this absolutely stinks for Mizzou and hope that Fisher recovers better than ever) . . .