Oklahoma State

Texas Tech at #24 Oklahoma State -09-25-14

STILLWATER, OKLAHOMA-

The Ghost Limb

On the night of November 8, 2008, I found myself sitting in the Jones amongst a small, but passionate contingent of orange-clad Oklahoma State Cowboys fans. They weren't very happy to be in Lubbock, and while some bemoaned their team's performance, others headed toward the exits after Tech went up 56-20 on a Shannon Woods touchdown reception. 

I remember sitting there in my cold seat, thinking that Texas Tech was going to absolutely abuse the rest of the teams in the Big XII South and compete for not only a Big XII Championship, but possibly the National Title itself.

Fast forward six years...

Texas Tech hasn't beaten Oklahoma State since 2008 and is an unnerving 4 for 20 against former Big XII South teams since the beginning of the 2009 season. That may seem bad, and it is, but a big reason for Tech's irrelevance in conference play is its lack of consistency across the board. In the same timeframe that programs such as Baylor and Oklahoma State have solidified their place within the conference and attained double-digit winning seasons, Texas Tech has gone through three head coaches, at least five defensive coordinators, and multiple offensive and defensive philosophies and schemes. In short, Texas Tech has struggled to recruit and keep Big XII defensive talent due to a revolving door of coaches and defensive strategies. These issues have also affected the offensive talent Tech has brought in but to a much smaller extent. If anything, Tech still somewhat enjoys the distinction of being an offensively geared football team.

It feels like Texas Tech should be able to take care of business against team like Arkansas and Oklahoma State but the reality is that the program is probably at least another year away from fielding a complete defense. Like I said before, the main reason for this is because your best defenders are either young, JUCOs, or both, and have been thrown into the fire out of necessity. Tech hasn't done the job it has needed to do in developing high school talent and has needed to rely on JUCO projects and hopeful impact freshmen. Kingsbury isn't a grizzled veteran, he's a calculated gamble that looks to pay off for Tech in the longterm. However, this distinction doesn't lend itself to immediate results.

The bottom line is that the previous coaching staffs haven't done Tech's current defensive situation any favors, and while I don't particularly enjoy watching our true freshman DBs get abused, the fact that they are even playing reminds me that they are the best we have and will ultimately benefit from this.

It feels like Texas Tech should be where Baylor and Oklahoma State are in the CFB discussion but they aren't. It's going to take time and consistency, neither of which Tech has benefitted from over the years.

My "10 takeaways" from last night:

1. Penalties/ Dropped passes- Hindsight is 20/20 and it's never a good idea to look back and ponder what could have been, but the sheer number of dropped passes and penalties by Texas Tech players probably contributed more to a 10 point defeat than anything Oklahoma State was doing on their side of the ball. Texas Tech accounted for 16 penalties for 158 yards. Ab-so-freakin-lute-ly ridiculous, fixable, but ridiculous. To make things worse, just about every Tech receiver had at least one horrendous drop, had the catch been made, a large gain or even a touchdown would have been made. When you're dead last in penalties, on the road, and not playing particularly well the last thing you need is to further hinder your production with untimely drops. Help your QB out and catch the ball, hell, help your team out and not commit senseless penalties. /rant
2. Mike Smith- Lost in the commotion of Ombré uniforms and whether or not Webb is the GOAT or a scrub was the debut of Mike Smith as Texas Tech's defensive coordinator. On one hand, the defensive line played about as well as it has four games into the season. The linebacking corps similarly had a decent game, it seems that an emphasis was placed on angles, and tackling effectively. On the other hand, Tech's DBs were abused by OSU's Dax Garmon time after time. The OSU QB pretty much used the NCAA 14 approach to offense and just threw it deep for huge gains. While the DBs looked lost, or even confused at times it's easy to forget that Smith is dealing with a group largely composed of underclassmen. Overall, Smith's base defensive plan seemed similar to what Wallerstedt had been using thus far. What I noticed the most, however, was the energy level and excitement Smith brought to the defense. I won't get my hopes too high but the last guy I saw get that excited for his defensive players was Ruffin McNeill. 
3. Davis Webb- I hope Texas Tech fans don't have to find out the hard way that you don't know what you're missing until it's gone. I find it somewhat ironic that Webb was injured on a play in which he made the extra effort to attain the first down only for his first down scramble to be called back due to a penalty. Don't mind all the bitching and complaining coming from supposed red & black diehards; Webb really wasn't the reason Tech lost this game. On any team in the Football Subdivision the starting quarterback is probably the one player that receives way too much blame when things are going wrong, and also the one player that receives way too much praise for when they're going right. Don't get me wrong, Webb had some throws he probably wished he had back, and while It still seems like he's trying too hard to make a play there were plenty of times tonight where he actually did only for the receiver to drop the ball or let it bounce off their chest. I'm not really sure how that is a QB issue, or if people are actually questioning his tenacity or skill, it's hard to make completions when they repeatedly get called back for holds or are dropped altogether. Webb needs to do his job and nothing more, just as his receivers and backs need to do theirs and nothing more. 
4. Dylan Cantrell- Call him Mr. Hands, because this dude makes some truly acrobatic catches. Tech is lucky to have him and will benefit from using the Sophomore receiver further after the loss of similar possession-type receivers in Eric Ward and Jace Amaro from last year's team. 
5. Mixed bag- I'm not entirely inclined to feel like Tech's loss to OSU is some kind of moral victory. However, I don't think that it can be overstated that the team fought, on the road, against a Top 25 team, this same team that took reigning champions Florida State to the edge (albeit, with their starting QB). On the other hand, it really is hard to ignore all of the penalties and dropped passes, nonexistent defensive depth, and possible injury to arguably your most important player in Webb. I guess if I had to, I would put it this way: I expected a much worse loss, a loss in which Tech wouldn't have been in a competitive game against OSU going into the second half. While none of that happened, the game was far from clean and Tech wasn't nearly as competitive as they could have been. It's weird, but I'm not even mad.
6. Minor gripe- Oklahoma State, just stop. Stop using our hand signs (it's Guns Up, not Pistols Firing), and get your own mascot that isn't a knock off of the Masked Rider.
7. Looking forward- Kansas State, next Saturday in Manhattan at 6pm. I see an improvement through Tech's first four games so it is my hope that it carries on into the game against the Wildcats. 
8. Underrated- Having a proven, albeit young, commodity in Davis Webb as your quarterback. Patrick Mahomes is a talented dude but it was obvious from the first snap he took that the speed of the game was a lot to process. I've stated before that this team will only go as far as it's QB lets it, we need Webb to be healthy. 
9. Overrated- Underarmour's specialty uniforms for Texas Tech. I've held my tongue a lot because I really do enjoy UA's sideline and fan apparel, my closet is littered with their products. However, UA's attempt at specialty uni's is getting downright ridiculous, and ugly. The best alternate look that Tech has had the past few years came in the game against Arkansas. 
10. MVP(s)- Justin Stockton and DeAndre Washington continue to add a dimension to the Texas Tech offense that had been missing for a few seasons. This, as well as Davis Webb's protection through four games have come as a result of the offensive line. Once a blaring weakness, the line has been bolstered and achieved somewhat of a cohesion. The penalties need to be worked on but it's good to see this unit improve.