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Notebook: David Yost, Keith Patterson review win, look ahead to TCU

Texas Tech snapped its losing streak with a win over West Virginia and even closed the contest out convincingly from the start in Morgantown. The Red Raiders finally clinched that elusive road victory but the journey remains to become bowl eligible. Next up – TCU in Lubbock.

Here are the notes from David Yost's and Keith Patterson’s availability following Monday’s practice.

David Yost

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- Yost started things off by discussing QB Jett Duffey’s play against the Mountaineers. He said the junior dual-threat graded out in the mid-90s after protecting the football very well and controlled the game.

- With Matt Wells announcing the redshirt being used on Alan Bowman and Maverick McIvor, Yost said Duffey is probably naturally more relaxed than he already was as the starter but made it clear that the last three games have shown that Duffey is in control of the offense. “He’s gone out of his way to be the vocal guy on offense.”

- Right now, here’s the QB depth chart: Jett Duffey, Jackson Tyner and Maverick McIvor, who is still needing reps since he’s missed since two-a-days. McIvor’s Monday was his first day in command of the offense at points in practice and was rusty as expected. Yost said during the offseason McIvor was working his way to be the next guy up before his foot injury. The goal is to get him back into the groove and maybe, if the situation presents itself, have him see some game action.

The decision making process on when to play McIvor depends on different variables: A) The situation of the game, whether they’re in control of things or B) is it need base to where he needs to go in and help them win. That all depends on how practice goes. Wells will discuss the situation with Yost but he said the ultimate decision is up to the head coach.

- Yost said West Virginia didn’t really make any changes in the second half despite Texas Tech not utilizing the middle of the field on offense. He said “it was probably us more than anything else ... We just didn’t hit those ... They were still playing the stuff ... We called it a little different in the second half in the situation when you’re up 25 to start the second half – the only way they’re getting back in that is if we do something to help them then we were trying to be smart with it.”

- Yost commended his offensive line for handling the tough West Virginia defensive front, which recorded eight sacks against Baylor the week prior. Yost said they took the offensive line a step back and made things simple for them to execute. Yost said Weston Wright and Dawson Deaton stepped up on the front five for them. He said Deaton’s year has been tremendous but Wright just showed out for his best game of the year so far.

- Yost is dealing with a few injuries including one with SaRodorick Thompson at running back. Ta’Zhawn Henry took the bulk of the work against the Mountaineers but Yost expects Thompson back in practice sooner rather than later this week.

- Moving on, Yost said TCU is sound on defense as it always is. He mentioned the Horned Frogs have simplified things recently with injuries on defense but still present a four-down linemen scheme that the Red Raiders haven’t seen in some time. The goal is to hit on explosive plays that TCU has been stingy allowing. They’re getting people behind the sticks because of their front’s ability to get behind the line of scrimmage. The challenge will be executing against them and not getting in long third downs.

Keith Patterson

- The defensive line’s ability to create pressure with only three players helped the Red Raiders in winning the numbers game against the Mountaineers, which led to help in the secondary. That was a challenge the defensive staff made with the Broderick Washington, Tony Bradford, Eli Howard and the rest of the pass rushers. The counter to that is they could send multiple guys at once, too, to keep the opponent off-balance and that turned into nine tackles for loss and two sacks this past Saturday.

- Patterson said the various causes for moving people around in the secondary, like injuries and experience, holds a team back when it comes to developing fundamentals consistently which can lead to some of those big plays. Patterson said aggressiveness was the key in West Virginia’s five trips down to the red zone where the Red Raiders stopped them four times.

- He broke down Doug Coleman’s NCAA-leading eighth interception by saying that’s what they’re trying to do every game – create a population around the ball on every play and make something happen. Part of it was Coleman’s instinct and talent but most of it was created by being aligned correctly, especially the linebackers. In his opinion, Coleman would’ve scored if he would’ve broke free into West Virginia territory. He added that Coleman had three interceptions in his career prior to this season but now has those eight – three away from the school record held by Elmer Tarbox who had 11 in 1938. Coleman is currently tied for second in program history with John Thompson who picked off eight passes in 1951 and Tracy Saul who did the same but in two different seasons in 1989 and 1991.

- Patterson said TCU’s offense is very athletic at receiver and will force the Red Raiders to make open-field tackles. He said TCU freshman QB Max Duggan is an ultimate competitor. He expects this game to go down to the fourth quarter just like every other game.

- Patterson was pleased by his defense for holding the Mountaineers to 51 yards rushing, although the goal was to hold them to fewer than 50. He said that made West Virginia one-dimensional. He wanted three takeaways and they got four. But, the one biggest mistake that’s still not fixed is the home run plays.

- Patterson said fundamentals and alignments will be a huge emphasis this week as it was last week.

“The thing that was probably the most discouraging ... obviously ... is the vertical passing game. We just got to fix it and to me it’s technical, fundamentals and putting yourself in a position to be sound vertically ... I think the biggest difference was those didn’t go for touchdowns and really the game came down to four takeaways and 80 percent in the red zone.”

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