Texas Tech is back in action on Saturday as Cincinnati comes to town for the first time since 1968.
The 3-1 Bearcats possess the 23rd best offense and 90th ranked defense in total offense and total defense coming into the weekend, which should prove to be a stout test for the Red Raiders on Saturday.
How are the Red Raider coordinators expecting to be attacked by Cincinnati? Offensive coordinator Zach Kittley and defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter broke down what they're expecting this weekend, seemingly a bigger test than Arizona State posed.
"Oh, these guys, they probably have more weapons," DeRuyter said of the Cincinnati offense.
"You look at an elite tight end like (Joe) Royer, (Xzavier) Henderson, the receiver, he's one of the top receivers in the conference. The two backs, you've got to start there, you know, (Corey) Kiner and (Evan) Pryor, big time backs. Overall, they're running for right at 200 yards and throwing for another 270 and that's big time efficiency. And so they challenge you, not only in the run game, but they use the run game to set up their down the field throws."
The Bearcats mostly run the ball in wide-zone concepts, where Kiner is able to utilize one of his best traits, putting his foot in the ground and accelerating downhill with extreme quickness.
It will be up to the Red Raiders defensive end group to find a way to bounce Kiner and Pryor back inside the tackle box, setting good edges and showing similar effort to the ball that helped contain Cam Skattebo of Arizona State on Saturday.
"Anytime it's gonna be a wide zone team like this, it's critical that you do a great job setting edges," DeRuyter said. "They're going to be an inside zone team and an outside zone team, primarily. They're going to create additional surfaces, through motions, and they do a great job of shifting, motioning, trying to get your eyes off and get guys misfitting gaps. When they do those backs are explosive enough to take advantage and make huge play."
Henderson is a former teammate at Florida of Texas Tech receiver Caleb Douglas and has scored three touchdowns this season, posting 326 yards on 24 receptions through four games this season.
Offensively, the Red Raiders are going to face a similar defense as to what Abilene Christian and North Texas have shown Tech, a three-down, odd-stack, one-high safety structure.
The Red Raiders obviously had strong days against those looks, scoring more than 50-points in both matchups alongside a 100-plus yard effort from Tahj Brooks in both, but it will be a massive challenge against the Bearcats.
"It's kind of one of those things, man. It's good for us. We've seen it a lot, we practice against a lot. You know, it's very similar to ACU and North Texas, clearly," Kittley said. "And so we've got some stuff that we like against it and we've had some success at this year and those two games, but at the same time, you know, they're going to be gunning for those concepts and some of those things that we've ran, so we've got to do a good job of coming up with the game plan."
Cincinnati has a pair of very good defensive linemen in 0-tech defensive tackle Dontay Corleone, who was a pre-season All-American, and defensive end Eric Phillips, who has posted 3.5 TFLs and three sacks to this point in the season.
"Yeah, man, they're really good," Kittley said. hey're really physical up front, man, and that, that nose guard is a pre-season All-American, I think he weighs like 325 pounds. Man, I mean, he's a load in there. And 97 (Phillips) man, edge rusher, he plays his tail off. Man, he's a really good football player.
