Yost talks fast-tempo offense, utilizing a tight end and more
Offensive coordinator David Yost has been one of the biggest hits during this coaching search, if not the biggest. He brings in experience with NFL quarterbacks and don’t forget about the hair. Here’s how his first media session in Lubbock went down.
- Right off the bat Yost was asked about his hair. He said the biggest comparisons he gets is to Jeff Daniels in “Dumb and Dumber,” which he isn’t too proud of, along with Owen Wilson, a surfer and Sunshine from “Remember the Titans.” In the end, though, Yost said he’s heard it all from his own fan bases and opposing fan bases. He did get a perm once, but his wife will not allow that again. It’s not naturally blonde either so he’s going to have to score big on a stylist in town to get it bleached when needed. “It helps me in recruiting. Everybody remembers me.”
- Now that that’s over with, time for football talk. Yost said he knew a lot about Texas Tech from his time in Missouri. He coached Chase Daniel there, which he said was angry and playing with a chip on his shoulder because Texas Tech didn’t offer or recruit him.
- Yost said he trusts coach Matt Wells a lot and knows what he’s getting every day with him. Whenever it was decision time and time to move his family he said it was about how well he knows Wells. He said it’s about how Wells is understanding on any given day, whether that's on a random Tuesday or after a tough outing the night before in Sunday practice. Second, he said Wells is allowing him to surround himself with guys he can grow off of and place on the staff in order to succeed.
- Yost is familiar with Red Raider QB Alan Bowman. Yost said he was able to see a lot of quarterbacks when he was on staff at Oregon with Bowman being one of them. He had a guy committed at the time and was looking for the next class. He worked out Bowman twice, once after he was hired, then in the spring in Grapevine.
The best part about Bowman is how he is off the field, according to Yost. He said they both have chatted football already and Bowman actually picked him up from the hotel on Saturday morning.
"He came over and picked me up at the hotel this morning, drove me to the complex. Which is completely NCAA legal. I can't give him rides, but he can give me rides."
Yost on Bowman: "He's kind of a football junkie. I think he's going to fall right into that and be a guy we can put a lot on and give him a lot of responsibility and let him go out and make us look good."
- Yost said his offense will operate with a fast tempo, which will be the team’s DNA. He said he’s going to take the things he learned from Oregon when it comes to communication on the field to operate as fast as possible.
- Expect his offense to slow down too, though, to execute a spread offensive style when it wants to. He added what he learned at Oregon, Washington State and Missouri leads to his system with assistants throwing in their own stuff as well.
- Yost said Donta Thompson is the type of body he’s going to be looking for in a tight end, which he alluded to as making their style of the Air Raid different.
"We're a zone team and a gap team. We run both of those ... We use a tight end in our offense. That's probably the biggest change in some of the other people that run the Air Raid ... so that’ll be a little bit different ... We like to run the ball downhill ... A tight end is vital to our stuff and he's probably as vital in our run game as our pass game."
Yost said by using a tight end it gives them a solid front six to work off of. However, the tight end will be able to split out as a receiver as well. Expect more visits to occur with those type of high school guys while Yost recruits.
- Yost said he’s going to be coaching off of what he sees. He wants to execute on six things thousands of times instead of the opposite. He wants to be able to not coach off of expectations, either.
- He hasn’t had time to truly evaluate his offense but Yost knows he has a ton of weapons already on the roster. He said Bowman will be a great catalyst but there’s a slew of players who can be key in this offense just by getting the ball in their hands and making plays – one of those is WR Antoine Wesley, whose future is undecided.
“We were texting last night. He’s going to be back on Monday for classes but also to come by and say hi to us. We got to meet all the other guys last night but we’re super excited about that and what we can do with him (if this is the best thing for him.) We want him here and everything and if he has an opportunity to be a first-round draft pick, guess what, that’s a great opportunity. I’ve had guys do that. So whatever is best for him (is what we’re looking forward to, especially if he’s here.)