After the Red Raiders 16-13 win over the weekend in Lawrence over No. 16 Kansas, Texas Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley and defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter turned the page on the win, recapping clutch performances from their units.
Setting up the 28 second drive was a red zone stop, the third of the day, which included the earlier goal line stand from the Tech defense.
“Well, I'm really proud of our guys just how they did a great job getting lined up to all the variety of things that Kansas presents,” DeRuyter said. “They communicated well, for the most part, we have, you know, a couple times we didn't there. It wasn’t the calls; it was the guys playing physical and understanding what they were trying to do and then playing with confidence.”
The stops were a buck from the trend as the Tech defense struggled to get off the field this season, something that was almost automatic last season, especially down the stretch.
“Quite frankly, we had not played great in the red zone this year,” DeRuyter said. “So, it was great to see. Three times, the ball got down, making them kick twice and then get a turnover on downs the other time. You know, it gave our guys a lot of confidence, being able to stop a really good offense.”
The Red Raiders were helped out by some quality clock management during the final moments with a timeout after a 2nd & Goal run from the Jayhawks which helped keep enough time on the clock to drive down the field.
Kittley walked through the final drive, using a familiar air raid concept to drive down the field in three plays.
“Yeah, same play call back-to-back-to-back. It was the old school air raid Y-Cross play,” Kittley said. “Behren did a good job to get through the read to get that ball to (Jerand Bradley) on the first one. He thought they were playing cloud coverage on the other side and he was going to fire the hole shot to Coy (Eakin). Then went right back into that same play tempo to it.”
Quarterback Behren Morton is very confident in the concept, and it showed with his strong read through the play to get it to Jerand Bradley on the opening play of the drive.
“Yeah, he's not 100% but he's definitely getting better,” Kittley said about Morton’s health. “I've got to get him to not take some shots that he takes at times. But he's getting better man. And again, I think you're just going to continue to see him rise and rise. I've said it before, I think like, especially if you look forward to next year, having a full spring here as a starter, going in and some of those things, he'll just continue to get better.”
Tech would eventually win on a chip shot field goal from Gino Garcia, setting up a date with UCF where the winner becomes bowl eligible in 2023.
DeRuyter will have his hands full with the UCF offense where John Rhys Plumlee leads the way as a dual threat quarterback that has been excellent for the Knights since his return to action in mid-October.
“I don't know how you stop it. People have a hard enough time trying to slow it down,” DeRuyter said. “They've got really good skill. They've got a really good scheme. What they've been able to do is make guys miss in space and they've got guys are going to really run. You've got to get 11 guys seeing where that football is and then have great efforts to the ball.”
On the other side of the ball, the Red Raiders will be facing a run defense that has struggled this season on the macro-level, but just shut down one of the premier running backs in the nation in Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon III.
“Structurally, they're very kind of similar to what we just saw with Kansas, you're gonna see a little bit more of a four down front multiple coverages in the back end,” Kittley said. “They're gonna fly downhill and you know, I think they played a little bit different against Cincinnati with a running quarterback than they did they would play probably against us.”
