It was a busy day at the football training facility, as the Texas Tech football team hosted another open media spring practice this afternoon. Offensive Coordinator Zach Kittley addressed the media after the pads came off, and had plenty to say about the state of the offense and what has stood out to him the most so far.
Key Points:
- Kittley began by applauding both the coaching staff and the players for buying into the same "football culture" that Head Coach Joey McGuire brought to Lubbock. The young guys are working hard, and although they still have lots of aspects to work on, Kittley notes that the progression he has seen offensively has been phenomenal.
"A lot of the offense, what we're doing schematically, we're really on the right trend moving forward."
-Nate Floyd, a backup defensive back last season, has switched to WR under Coach Kittley.
"Nate's just a great athlete, a great young man, just trying to find a way to get him on the field ultimately. We're running a lot more than these guys kind of have been in the past...he's fresh legs. He kind of mentioned us actually first when I got hired here about maybe moving over, or even trying to do a little bit of both. Nate came over two days ago, and he's been doing a really good job so far."
-The quarterback room remains an open competition heading into the first spring scrimmage, as Tyler Shough, Donovan Smith, and Behren Morton all take equal reps in practice.
"You know, clearly they all have certain traits that differ from each other. But the room is great. I love that room. They all get along great. We're a big family in there and it's gone really well so far."
-Kittley on Saturday: "This Saturday in our scrimmage, they're all going to get first-team looks. Ultimately when we get to September, who's going to be the starter? We're looking for once again, we got to find a leader you know, who's gonna win us the most games. And then as far as the statistics and some of that stuff, we got to able to move the chains, complete the football and not have turnovers. Those are the kind of things I'm looking for."
-Kittley loves how close the offense has been this spring, and can't wait to see how they play together on Saturday.
"It's great. We have a lot of fun once again. We're out here all day together. We do a lot of walkthroughs and some of those things. Once again, I feel like we've got a very unselfish football team. Guys just love being around each other and we have a lot of fun out here when we're together. It's been a lot of fun so far. I'd say this is probably the most bought in I've seen a full football team."
-On how the coaching staff has meshed together under McGuire, Kittley explained that McGuire is the "boss", sets expectations, and the coaching staff follows those expectations.
"I've been a lot of part of a bunch of different staffs where maybe it's offense versus defense or you know, maybe you see these guys in this building all day every day and you never see them outside of the building. It couldn't be any different here. We're full staff, camaraderie, going to dinner, meeting each other's families, all outside the building, it's come together great. That's a huge part of success, in my opinion too of what we're going to do, because we spend a lot of time in that building together so you better like each other."
The first official scrimmage will take place this Saturday, April 2nd.
