Texas Tech Thursday Morning Football Notes - He's Developing Edition

by Seth C on Apr 17, 2008 6:17 AM CDT in Football Comment 0 comments

Texas Tech Football:

Pretty cool stuff, ESPN did a roundtable with their college football insiders, Tim Griffin, Ted Miller and Heather Dinich (who by the way is pretty cute, and who doesn't love a cute girl talking a little football?) as Texas Tech gets some love, and a little jab about the scheduling. Here's Part One and Part Two.

LAJ's Don Williams feature article is on redshirt freshman left tackle Mickey Okafor. Okafor is subbing in for last year's all-world left tackle Rylan Reed, here's Leach on Okafor:

"I would say Mickey Okafor has gone more reps than any other player on the team in the spring,'' Tech coach Mike Leach said. "All of which is good, all of which he needs, all of which he's developing and performing well under.''

That's some pretty high praise from Leach, but offensive line coach Matt Moore points out his biggest flaw:

"He's got real stiff hips,'' Moore said. "That's one of his biggest shortcomings is flexibility. He's got real quick feet and is real athletic. He just has a hard time getting into a bent-hip position. Everything's from a lean. That's what we have to work on all the time. But (his) long arms and great feet kind of overcome the balance side of it.''

Snip

"All he had last year was a redshirt, which meant from a reps standpoint in this offense he was very, very limited,'' Moore said. "So he came out and he started off a little raw, but he's just such a big guy - long arms, strong, got good feet - he won a lot of battles just from effort and the physical standpoint.''

Okafor also has high expectations for himself, as he acknowledges that Reed is on the comeback trail and if Reed takes Okafor's spot, he wants to take someone else's spot. He wants to start. Good stuff, as always.

In Williams' Red Raiders Football Notebook the biggest note is that McKinner Dixon is switching from the rush end to the other side (competing with Jake Ratliff, Daniel Howard and Brandon Sharpe), but Williams throws in this interesting bit about Brandon Sesay:

The plan is for blue-chip signee Brandon Sesay to be plugged in at left end, where returning starter Jake Ratliff, Brandon Sharpe and Ryan Haliburton have been working this spring.

"We'll watch it and move them around,'' McNeill said. "None of those guys are cement. We know they're ends. We'll get down eventually where they could be left or right.''

Williams also notes that Julius Howard is continuing to make plays.

In Williams' blog, Raider Rants, he notes that both Batch and Woods had a good day competing for the starting running back job.

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