Texas St. Bobcats Offense vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders Defense

TEXAS TECH DEFENSE VS. TEXAS ST. OFFENSE

Like Tuberville, it's tough to figure out what to expect from Texas St. offensively. we do know that Franchione is an offensive coach, despite what you saw happen at TAMU. The problem for Texas Tech in prepapring for Texas St. is that they have not named a starting quarterback yet, although the San Marcos Record blog, Cats Cradle, thinks that it will be Shaun Rutherford. Rutherford is the dual-threat quarterback that was a receiver at Blinn Junior College and has converted to quarterback at Texas St. I'd also add that Rutherford wasn't much of passing threat during the spring game. Nothing big and nothing down the field, so I don't think you're going to see the Texas Tech secondary be tested very much down the field and it's going to be imperative, as it will all year, that the safeties keep the plays in front of them.

Also noted in the same linked article is that the Texas St. offensive line will be young, exclusive of the four senior starters:

The Bobcats are young on the offensive line. Outside of four senior starters, Texas State has two freshmen and redshirt freshmen listed on the two-deep. If D.J. Hall and Jon Vernon go down, Jackson Costello and Zach Crawford will need to mature quickly.

I don't know how much the heat will play a factor in this considering that Lubbock will cool off to a comfortable 93 degrees during the day and 65 at night. Texas St. has practiced in the heat as much as Texas Tech has, but perhaps there's an opportunity to take advantage of any players that are substituted and the overall depth at the defensive line. If Tuberville is true to his word, and I think he will be, then you'll see a lot of rotation at the defensive line, and hopefully, there won't be any, if much drop off in terms of talent.

I'm also intently interested to see how the freshmen perform in the defense. Remember, the defense is relatively simple, but can become complicated as a result of stunts, twists, etc. from the defensive line. Tuberville mentioned that he wanted to play 50% and I'm fine with that as there's no reason to show too much right now against Texas St. I think that as the season progresses, you'll see a full implementation of the defense. The one thing to keep in mind is that with a lot of young or new players playing, that I do think there's something to not over-whelming them in the first game. The speed of the game, no matter the opponent, will be different. Let them focus on the basics and I think the staff will take a step back next week and see which of the young players adjusted and made the right plays in regards to the call that was made.

Now it's up to you fair reader.  Tell me what you think the important matchups are from the Texas Tech defense vs. the Texas St. offense.

**** I realize that we're dealing with 2010 statistics and TSU's FCS numbers and that to compare the two aren't entirely accurate or fair, but it's one week and next week, we'll be dealing with real numbers from the 2011 season.