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Takeaways: Yost discusses Texas Tech's vertical offense, Arizona and more

Offensive coordinator David Yost addressed the media on Tuesday. Here's what he had to say during the media session.

David Yost

- Yost was asked about Alan Bowman's grade from Saturday's performance and said the sophomore talent received a 91percent on the evening.

"Didn't have as many explosives as he had the week before so he kinda ended up in the 'winner's' category for us, which was good. Protected the football – had the one interception and everything. There are some technique, fundamental things we can do to put him in a better position so that doesn't occur and everything. We gotta make sure we're always protecting the football. Did a nice job with that but had a couple of misses downfield on some throws, which is kinda uncharacteristic so that's a focus this week."

- Yost highlighted that Bowman did some good things in checking on plays at the line. He's let Bowman get a little more freedom and options at the line, the most of any quarterback has done since Yost installed this specific offense at Utah State a couple of years ago. One example he used, Bowman changed the play on a second down call to a run after he couldn't read the signal on his wristband during the call. They ended up gaining positive yards and had a third and short to work with.

- Expect Texas Tech to take some shots down the field this weekend in Tucson. Yost said the screens and short-yardage passes will be there but the previous two defenses have dictated his playcalling. This week, they'll face a team that plays a lot of man-to-man while bringing pressure, too, which will open up plays for outside receivers TJ Vasher, Erik Ezukanma, Kesean Carter and the others.

"I think what you find with a team that plays man coverage like that is you're going to take shots. You're going to need to take shots on teams like that. They've probably given up a few more than they expected to in that way ... but they've got guys in the secondary that can definitely make plays on the ball."

- The "TTU tap out" is taken as a pride deal, Yost said. He wants this offense to run teams off the field and force them to tire out. He said they try to keep the tap outs on video and that they actually haven't caught someone on camera tapping out yet but they're working hard to make sure it happens soon.

- Many coaches on this staff before have talked about missing on recruits to bigger programs while they were at Utah State. Yost opened up about how that changes now that they're in Lubbock at a Power Five program in Texas Tech.

"Oh yeah, being at Texas Tech it opens a lot of doors in recruiting for you – being in the Big 12 is definitley a door open for those recruits. They want to play against recruits, just like coaches, trying to go to the highest-level you can. Having that on your shirt, having the Big 12 logo and having that on your business card, they see who the call's from, you definitely get more answers on phone calls. You get more interest that way ... Winning goes a long way, too, and then the relationship you build with the university."

- Speaking of recruiting, here's what Yost looks for in a quarterback:

"Really we kinda go through it. I mean the first thing is – we don't have like a locked in size, ideas but there are certain things – the shorter you get you start to have concerns over what's his release like, those type of things. But we look for a guy that's athletic. He doesn't have to be a true runner with the football but he's athletic enough to help us and be able to do what we want him to do within the pocket and kinda within our run-screen game. His release, 'can I live with it,' because I'm not going to change it. I've done this for 20-something years – they're not going – I mean, Tim Tebow throws the same way when I saw him in high school when he was a sophomore than he does now when he's had a thousand quarterback coaches over the years. What you see is pretty much what you get ... How a kid throws at nine is how he's going to throw at 19 and 29. My one son will probably be a quarterback, one probably won't be. We kinda figured that out pretty quick."

Yost continued and said one of their quarterbacks doesn't even have to be the most talented but can lead a team on a field and manage a game. He added they grade their fastballs, seam balls, etc. and then looks at touchdown to interception ratio and completion percentage, because both don't get better in college from high school with the level of competition.

"We want them from winning football teams but that doesn't always happen. Then it's talking to them ... Most guys you meet you kinda say, 'well, I don't know if he has it.' Some you meet and say, "oh, I know he's got it,' and then some you'll meet and go, 'I know he doesn't got it.'"

Yost discussed sitting down with Washington State head coach Mike Leach and discussing Leach's philosophy of the two most important QB attributes being accuracy and decision making. Yost added to that by saying it's accuracy and how much space a QB needs to set-up and throw.

"So much of what they do is from the neck up. Now they have to have the physical ability to play the position, enough arm strength to be good at it, enough athleticism for us to throw on the move and outside the pocket. But, you don't have to be a Lamar Jackson athlete to be a good quarterback. You don't have to have Dan Marino's release and arm talent to be good quarterback. There's a lot of different ones that direction but accuracy is a huge one because I've never made a guy more accurate and I've never made a guy better anticipating the throws ... so much in college football is about anticipation when throwing the ball."

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