The spring chapter of Texas Tech’s 2023 session has almost been fully written. The Red Raiders remain diligent in improving throughout the period. After practice on Thursday, inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder, along with newly minted ILB Jesiah Pierre spoke to the media. Here are the takeaways from the pair:
Josh Bookbinder
On the difficulty of filling the gaps left by Krishon Merriweather and Kosi Eldridge:
“Percentage wise, those starters Krishon and Kosi probably played, I would say, at least 70 percent of the snaps last year at inside linebacker. So obviously, there’s a void there but as a program we recruit and develop. You know, we’d like to think we’re developing guys like last year and continuing developing in the offseason, in the spring, and we got another period of time in the summer and in fall camp to keep developing. We’re just trying to get those guys to stack days.”
On younger players who are taking more reps:
“Ben Roberts is a guy that’s stepped up and taken a lot of reps for us, Ben’s a redshirt freshman. And then the other young guy taking a lot of reps right now is Wes Smith. He’s from Midland, he actually played special teams quite a bit last year, did not redshirt and this will be his sophomore year.”
On Jesiah Pierre’s transition to ILB
“Jesiah played a lot of snaps outside last year. Naturally he was an inside backer so moving him to inside backer he had an idea of the defense. So you get some experience but getting some depth there at inside backer with Jesiah has been big… . Just physically, Jesiah is a bigger guy and I still think his body is making the transition from outside to inside… He’ll continue to do a great job with the strength staff, nutrition, all that.”
On how the position change happened:
“It was a good transition when I was talking to (coach Joey) McGuire about it. Because McGuire got here whenever the old coaching staff left and he saw me play inside linebacker in practice. He knew I was an inside linebacker but I was willing to do anything to help the team so I moved to outside linebacker. It was a smooth transition and he was excited about it, I was excited about it. The defense coaches were excited about it. It’s just really taking it one day at a time and building that trust with coach Bookbinder and really understanding the defense as a whole.”
On the difference between his play in the first half versus second half of 2022:
“It was more of a man in the mirror thing for me, really understanding myself like off the field. There was a time like that. Yeah, I made plays here and there in the first half of the season but obviously it was the second half (that was better). But for me it was really just a character growth that I had to step in and sacrifice certain things. You had to change certain things, your ways and how you did before like whether I was training, how I was sleeping, eating, nutrition, all that other stuff, how you study and I realized a certain amount of stuff I had to change. Coach McGuire has said it a million times, in the team meeting Bookbinder says it a lot, even (coach) Ah You said it, you just got to look yourself in the mirror and see what you’re doing before you get on anybody else. I really took accountability of that and looked myself in the mirror. I tried to take account of my actions and the way I could change to help better the team and let God handle the rest.”
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