Defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter spoke to the media ahead of this weekend's matchup against No. 7 TCU after his defense’s worst performance of the season against Baylor this past weekend.
With an even more talented Horned Frog bunch on the horizon, DeRuyter spoke about what his defense must do to improve this weekend and what he’s seen from TCU so far.
“They do a lot of really good things that are balanced, mixing in the run, pass or doing with some tempo,” DeRuyter said. “But you know, comes down to fundamental football and in our guys hopefully we'll learn you know, when we've gotten to get engaged adjustments what we got to do to communicate that and get it taught during the game.”
Leading that group is breakout quarterback Max Duggan and DeRuyter spoke about the TCU quarterback on Monday.
“I think he’s playing with a lot of confidence,” DeRuyter said. “Veteran guy, he’s seen a lot of different defensive schemes and he knows where to go with the ball.
One of Duggan’s best weapons is Quentin Johnson, who is likely headed to a first-round selection come late April. DeRuyter spoke about the challenges of containing him and an extremely strong TCU receiving core.
“Have you seen him? That looks like Megatron,” DeRuyter said. “He's making it really hard on opposing defenses because if you single a lot, he uses the body., but the problem is they’ve got three other receivers that you need to double and you start doing the math and you run out of guys.”
The weapons for the Horned Frogs don’t end there as Kendre Miller, the star running back for TCU, is having another great season. DeRuyter spoke about his hope to not have a repeat of what Tech fans saw from him last season in the Jones.
“I think 33 does a really nice job,” DeRuyter said. “If you're light in the box, which at times you need to be in order to defend the pass with all their speed, 33 runs through tackles and then takes the top off of a lot of people and has explosive runs. So, it's a concern.”
On the other side of the football, offensive coordinator Zach Kittley spoke about his offensive line and alluded to the fact that there will be some position battles there this week.
“It'll be kind of a big rotation kind of moving through the week for those especially the tackle positions,” Kittley said. “You know, we're also getting Monroe back this week and I mean, huge for us, but we're going to ask the competition out there. And, you know, we'll kind of see how that goes.”
Despite the constant carousel in the quarterback room, Kittley echoed his confidence in Behren Morton after the rough outing against the Bears over the weekend
“Yeah, I mean, I think if you look at every quarterback in history, these games happen, especially you know, young quarterbacks and in some of their first starts,” Kittley said. “And Behren, you know, he's, he's positive. And you know, we had 24 hours to let that one go. It's over and so we're going to look forward to TCU. So, he's going to be just fine. I have no doubt there.”
