Takeaways: Texas Tech OC David Yost talks Baylor, Jett Duffey’s progress

Offensive coordinator David Yost will lead the offense into Waco with momentum riding behind them after a big win over a ranked Oklahoma State program.

Here’s what Yost said to the media on Tuesday afternoon.

Yost continued the conversation this week about QB Jett Duffey’s game against Oklahoma State where he threw for 424 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for a touchdown. The big game led to him being named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week.

Duffey graded out at a 91 percent against the Cowboys, according to Yost. The pressure is always on though as Yost explained the negatives. He said for as many positives as Duffey had, there were as many negatives – negatives such as missing a check down, a throw here or there.

“Our numbers were a little bit higher in that way than we’d like it to be but it’s stuff we can correct, and stuff he can work on,” Yost said. “That’s the positive side to that but really a nice job controlling the game, being in control, executing what we were calling. He did a nice job in protecting the football, especially.”

Yost said Duffey’s confidence has risen now that he’s comfortable with the reins in his hands. Yost added that was something he is starting to see consistently from Duffey on the practice field.

RG Jack Anderson is out for the year with an injury, which is a real thorn on the side for the Red Raiders this injury-plagued season.

However, Yost praised his offensive front for being able to step up against Oklahoma State without one of the top projected guards in the nation in Anderson.

Weston Wright and Casey Verhulst rallied together to keep the right side of the offensive line strong next to Terence Steele at tackle. Steele did see time at right guard because they wanted their best five on the field at once, according to Yost. But, he said they didn’t see issues in play from Wright, who eventually moved inside for the remainder of the game with Steele back at tackle.

“We lost Jack, which was kinda tough, and I think they kinda rallied together,” Yost said. “They d id a great job in protection Run game wise I think we were a little more spotty than I think we’re capable of doing. We had more negative runs in that game than what we had really in any other game this year. We have to eliminate that ... We’ve been really good at keeping ourselves out of third and really long situations, which we’ve only had six in five games. The problem is we haven’t converted any of those six yet so we have to do that but I’d rather have that many than have to convert a bunch of them.”

- Yost said the outside receiving success against Oklahoma State was due to the different scheme they saw from the Cowboys compared to the previous four opponents. The Cowboys ran a man-to-man defense rather then the zone coverage they’ve been seeing.

Yost said that was in the gameplan from the get go – to get the ball into the hands of RJ Turner, TJ Vasher, KeSean Carter and so on. He added that 56 percent of the passes caught by the outside receivers resulted in what they categorize as explosive plays.

Yost mentioned that the Cowboys would often use a safety to double up on Vasher which resulted in one-on-one matchups with Carter and others that opened up the game for them.

- Xavier White, the Lubbock native that was an up-and-coming player to watch at inside receiver, is out for the season with an upper body injury that required surgery.

In his place behind Dalton Rigdon and McLane Mannix – Xavier Martin, who is still taking reps with the quarterbacks as well.

“X. Martin is our number three QB, he’s our number three H and he might be the number three guard,” Yost said jokingly. “He’s in my meetings, he’s meeting with Luke Wells. He does a great job in practice ... He’s kinda the Swiss army knife for us at multiple positions.”

The Baylor Bears host the Red Raiders with a new national ranking and a 5-0 start to the season under Matt Rhule.

Yost said Rhule’s defense will be the biggest threat they have seen so far when it comes to getting to the QB. However, he said his front five excels at protecting whoever is taking the snap. He expects this game to be won in the trenches and behind the lines as Baylor primarily operates in a zone scheme.

“Defensively, they’re doing a great job this year,” Yost said. “They’re doing a great job at eliminating explosive plays, which is what we try to predicate so much of what we try to do on and they do a great job on their back end with their secondary staying on top of things, not giving you a lot of one-on-one shots ... Upfront, the three d-linemen that they start with are as disruptive as we’ve seen ... They’re by far the most productive defensive ends we’ve seen this season as far as getting to the quarterback so it’s a good challenge. We’ve been pretty good at protecting the quarterback and they’ve been the best in the league at getting to him so it’ll be – it’s kinda both team’s strengths right now to see which one can get their job done.”

Yost said they’ll try to keep everything underneath based off of the Baylor scheme. He re-emphasized the tackling ability of the Baylor secondary. The challenge will be able to create explosive plays away from just calling straight vertical go routes.