Thursday Takeaways: DeRuyter talks defense ahead of first scrimmage

On Thursday, the Texas Tech football team held its fifth practice of the spring. After the practice defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter was made available to the media.

Ahead of the first scrimmage of the spring, DeRuyter talked about what he wants to see from his defense.

“We’re going to have missed tackles, it’s the first time we’re going to tackle live,” DeRuyter said. “I want our guys running their butts off to the ball. I’d love for us to go at the football and take the ball away”

DeRuyter elaborated and said that turnovers are a large part of the Red Raiders plan to win this season.

“Big thing for plan to win is ‘take three,’ we work takeaways every day,” DeRuyter said. “We’ve got to tackle well, run to the ball well, and hopefully get some takeaways.”

DeRuyter said that senior linebacker Krishon Merriweather has continued to be impressive and has stepped up to a leadership role.

“I think Krishon has done a really nice job of leading,” DeRuyter said. “Practicing hard, being the guy that’s not afraid to put himself out there to make plays and show guys how we need to practice.”

DeRuyter spoke positively about senior linebacker Tyree Wilson and compared him to 2022 NFL Draft first round hopeful and former player under DeRuyter, Kayvon Thibodeaux.

“Well Kayvon is a guy that, you know, has a similar skill set to Tyree,” DeRuyter said. “I think Tyree can have that kind of an impact in our defense that KT (Thibodeaux) did in our Oregon defense.”

DeRuyter closed the availability by mentioning where he believes where the defense is and how much of the defense the players have learned to this point.

“We’re about where we need to be, we’ve got probably about 80 percent of our install in,” DeRuyter said. “I think our guys are picking it up pretty well.”