Another week of Texas Tech spring football is in the books and the Red Raiders are seeing steady improvements in the session. One of the groups with the biggest focus has been the offensive line. O-line coach Stephen Hamby, along with Rusty Staats, Cole Spencer and Dennis Wilburn spoke to the media Thursday. Here are the takeaways:
Stephen Hamby - Offensive line coach
On how the players who changed positions are doing in their new roles:
“Pretty comfortable, honestly in my opinion. Caleb (Rogers) looks really good over there at right tackle. Monroe (Mills), he’s already played left tackle before so it’s easy for him to make the switch back. He’s gotten really strong, Caleb is trying to get stronger too. This offseason was a really, really big deal for us at the tackle position.”
On mid-year freshmen Daniel Sill and Kaden Carr:
“The two mid-years have shocked probably everybody here. I kind of saw that when I was on their home visit. Daniel Sill from College Station, he’s an immediate impact. He’ll be a freak. Right now he’s a baby fawn falling all over the place, but when he actually gets his hands on you, it’s a good sight to see. Kaden Carr is a complete meathead. He is a block, so once he smokes you in the chest it’s like a grown man. So what’s it going to be? Molding him to take the kind of anger out of him and then focus that into like the punch instead of going wild. So their impacts have been really cool, because then we got three more kids that are coming in and they should make a dynamic inside also.”
On if the team will have 10 players comfortable with getting game reps:
“I hope so, because that’s a healthy offensive line at the Power Five level. Coming from here, playing in here, and then going to a Group of Five and then coming back here, you’re not always going to have 10. You should have 10 that can play at all times, so that’s the biggest thing. It’s the ‘Next man up’ where if somebody does go down, there is no blinking and it’s not ‘Oh let’s change the schematic of the whole offense.’ It’s ‘You should be able to do that and you’ve been waiting for this time.’”
Rusty Staats - Center
On if there were any differences in the offense from WKU to Tech:
“Basically, it’s the same things. I think they had a few different things with their verbiage that was different. Like on a play two years ago, we used to take this step and now we kind of do this instead. But no, it’s basically the same thing… It was really easy, I walked in, I know what we sat down the first day and figured out what I didn’t know and nailed that out. I knew about 98 percent of the offense.”
On having Hamby’s trust given Hamby’s playing days at Tech:
“It means the world. Playing center is a tough position. You gotta get five guys going all the same way. Hamby obviously has to trust somebody that he knows is going to be able to lead everybody and make sure everybody’s on the same path. It means a lot to me that he obviously wanted me to come here and be the center for Texas Tech.”
Cole Spencer - Left Guard
On being involved in the locker room in 2022 despite being injured:
“I tried to be as involved as I could. And it was hard for those first couple of weeks just because the timeline of like when I had to get everything taken care of. But as the season progressed I just tried to help those guys more and more.”
On difference in learning the offense now that playing in it:
“It’s way easier. I already have the advantage because I came with coach Hamby from WKU. So it’s almost the exact same thing we ran there. I already had a pretty good grasp when I got here. But just being able to refresh myself being back out there running it is way easier than just sitting in a classroom.”
Dennis Wilburn - Right Guard
On the position change from center back to his normal position:
“I’m not gonna lie, I feel good. Because like coach Hamby mentioned, like he said, it takes more stress off me and I can just be more aggressive. And that’s really my thing. I like to hit people. I like being aggressive so moving from center to guard really freed me up to do that.”
On adjusting to the new players coming in, both transfers and signees:
“It’s not really that hard for me, honestly. If you come into the room, I’m automatically looking at you as family, so I’m bringing you in everyday. You know we’re all good. I want to hangout with everybody in the room like, ‘Man come hang out, stop being ducked out.’”
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