8/10/2016 football Edit

Takeaways: Texas Tech holds first contact practice of camp

Will McKay • RedRaiderSports

Editor

After working in the Lubbock sports media for the last six years, Will has grown into one of the most trusted Texas Tech football, basketball, and baseball insiders in college athletics.

The Red Raiders held their third practice of the fall on Wednesday afternoon, the first practice in which the pads went on and contact was allowed. While there was no post-practice media availability, the press was allowed to watch the first 20 minutes of action.

- There have been some rumblings that the battle at Y-receiver between returning starter and junior Ian Sadler and sophomore Jonathan Giles was heating up. That seemed to be confirmed at Wednesday's practice, as Giles took reps with the first-team unit and made a nice grab to keep the offense rolling along in an early 11-on-11 period. This will be a position battle watch closely as Texas Tech gets deeper into preseason camp and the early portion of the season. Giles may be gaining real ground here.

- The auditions for the left guard starting spot continued on Wednesday, as redshirt freshman Madison Akamnonu got the first-team reps at the spot during Wednesday's early 11-on-11 period. If you recall, redshirt freshman Cody Wheeler earned the reps on Monday's practice.

- A number of the tailbacks in the Red Raiders' backfield got reps with both the first and second string offense early on in Wednesday's practice. That includes true freshman Da'Leon Ward, who had a nice run off the edge for 10-plus yards and a first down with the second-team unit, fighting off a defender in the process. It's going to be hard for Ward to break into the running back rotation as a true freshman but it appears he's certainly getting looks early in camp.

- Senior X-receiver Devin Lauderdale has made a nice catch to begin two of the first three practices so far this August. He did so again today, catching a route near the sideline and taking it for a 20-plus yard gain. While Derrick Willies looks to be the starter at X right now, Lauderdale is certainly going to try and reclaim his job.

- Defensively, the Red Raiders went exclusively into a nickel package for the opening 11-on-11 period, meaning one linebacker left the field in favor of another defensive back. In these packages, senior corner Justis Nelson was playing the nickel role. The other two starting corners today were Paul Banks and Thierry Nguema. It's still early on in camp, however, and this will be a unit where many different players likely see the field with both the starting and second string unit.

- In this nickel packages, Texas Tech's starters at safety were Jah'Shawn Johnson and Keenon Ward. D'Vonta Hinton and Malik Jenkins started at linebacker. The first-team defensive line was manned by rush end Gary Moore, defensive end Kolin Hill, defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko and nose tackle Ondre Pipkens.