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The 3-2-1: Camp winds down, the picture for Tech becomes clearer

RELATED: Takeaways: Red Raiders preparing for Week 1

The Red Raiders will begin their first week of game prep on Monday with next Saturday's opener against Stephen F. Austin looming on the horizon. That means that the team's preseason camp will come to a close this weekend, and the Texas Tech staff is solidifying just what this 2016 team will look like.

We dive deeper in this week's edition of The 3-2-1.

THREE THINGS WE LEARNED

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1 – The two-deep is locked and loaded

Kliff Kingsbury noted after Thursday’s practice that he – along with the rest of the football staff – now knows which players have locked in either a starting job or primary backup role, as the two-deep has largely been set to begin the season.

That means that Kingsbury and his assistants have found the group they feel the most comfortable trotting out there to get things kicked off against the Lumberjacks, and now game prep can really get going. A few position battles may still rage on into the season, sure but, for the most part, the top two players at each position have been determined.

And while the coaching staff knows, fans will have to wait eight more days.

2 – Battle for center “a dead heat”

There has been quite an intriguing shuffle going on with the offensive line as of late. Texas Tech offensive line coach Lee Hays has been swapping and sliding his starting five around quite a bit due to center Tony Morales missing some time due to injury earlier in camp. Now Morales is healthy, but he’s got legit competition for the starting role in the form of Paul Stawarz.

Stawarz has had a great camp according to both Kingsbury and several players, and he’s done well enough to challenge Morales for the starting role. According to Kingsbury, it’s totally even right now, and both players are taking turns with the starting unit.

We’ll see who comes out on top, but this is one of the bigger unexpected developments from camp.

3 – Camaraderie of the team encourages Kingsbury

Say what you will about the amount of talk coming from within the program about strength and conditioning coach Rusty Whitt's offseason program and impact on the team culture, but the fact that players and coaches continue to talk about it should say something.

That culture change has certainly had some level of effect on team chemistry as well, something Kingbsury brought up on Thursday when asked for his favorite development of the group.

“I think the camaraderie of the team," he said. " I think it is a very selfless team. A lot of guys pushing each other, holding each other accountable. A lot of cheering for each other instead of cheering for the other one to fail so that they could move up the chart. That’s been the fun part for me.”

And Kingsbury isn't the first to bring this up. Heck, his three upperclassmen at Big 12 Media Days were talking about it in July.

Make of it what you will, but if you're a Red Raider fan, this should be an encouraging development.

TWO QUESTIONS

1 - How does Tony Morales' health factor into the success of the offensive line?

Look, it's no secret at this point that Morales, as previously mentioned, has been dinged up through fall camp and has an unfortunate history with injuries. The unfortunate reality is that the former four-star prospect has been hurt more than he's been healthy during his career to this point.

Now, as a sixth year senior, it appeared he would get his chance to shine as the team's starting center. And that may still happen, but injury flare ups in fall camps are going to give everyone some pause.

So, now they have Paul Stawarz directly competing with him for the starting job, and Baylen Brown has been trained as an emergency center just in case he's needed.

The question now becomes about how much Morales' health will effect the success of this unit. Is he a key cog? Can Stawarz step in and be an effective member of the starting five? We won't know until we get a few weeks into the season.

2. Who's the fourth cornerback in the rotation?

Kingsbury made note on Thursday that he felt Thierry Nguema, D.J. Polite-Bray and Paul Banks were currently the three corners this defense could count on as the top options. Justis Nelson, the team's starter at nickel, doesn't necessarily count toward the group even though he can play corner if needed.

David Gibbs certainly likes to rotate corners in and out during games, and with three for-sures at the moment, who becomes that fourth to make it a solid two-man rotation on the left and right side? It will likely be a true freshman at this point, which makes sense.

But is is Douglas Coleman? Is it Desmon Smith? Sounds like no one is quite sure as of yet.

ONE PREDICTION - Texas Tech's leading receiver won't emerge until the Kansas game.

We've talked about the depth and talent of this wide receiving corps ad nauseam over the last few months. The races across the board at every spot in the two-deep have been close. Things have been so close, in fact, that you might as well say the Red Raiders have eight starting-quality receivers that could end up rotating in and out on a fairly regular basis, especially early in the season.

That's what I don't think anyone will have a clear cut idea of who the top dog is going to be until the team hits the Kansas game in late September. Different players will flash a certain week, so much so that you'll probably pick one or two players as the front runner for the title of top wideout after the first two games.

But it's not about a game or two. It's about consistency, and you have to string together good performances for weeks at a time to be considered that.

How will Pat Mahomes spread the ball around with so many mouths to feed? That's the big question right now, but said mouths will decrease in number as consistency is discovered.

Whoever finds that consistency will be your top receiver, and it won't happen through the first few games.

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