Texas Tech football: QB play, O-line, coaching strategy must be solid to beat BYU
Texas Tech has to make life as easy as possible on whichever QB plays
Given how suspect BYU’s defense has been against the pass this year, Tech offensive coordinator, Zach Kittley may be tempted to throw the ball all over the place in Provo. That would be a mistake, regardless of who plays QB for the Red Raiders.
The offensive coaching staff, and specifically Kittley, has to do everything it can to minimize the load on the quarterback’s shoulders. Tech will either have a banged-up Behren Morton, a true freshman in Jake Strong, or a position player, taking snaps this weekend. Relying on any of those options to be your primary means of moving the ball would be foolish.
However, that’s what Tech fans fear might happen after what we saw a week ago against Kansas State. Even after Morton was unable to answer the bell for the second half, Strong was asked to throw the ball 28 times, even though the game was within a 10-point margin for most of the second half.
After that game, Kittley defiantly defended his decision to turn away from his ground game saying that KSU was playing too many men in the box for the run game to be effective. Well, he can expect BYU to deploy a similar strategy this week. Does that mean he will again be shy about trying to lean on Tahj Brooks against heavy fronts? It better not.
Of course, the QB will have to make some plays against BYU. Tech isn’t a triple-option team that can win a game with no pass attempts.
Still, Kittley has to find ways to make throws easier for Morton or reads easier for Strong. If Morton plays with his sprained right shoulder, Kittley has to bring the tight ends and slot receivers back into the game plan and utilize them over the middle of the field where the throws are shorter.
If Strong is the man, Kittley needs to call passes on early downs when throwing the ball is easier because it is unexpected. What’s more, Kittley should add more read-options and utilize more pre-snap motion to make it easier for Strong to decipher where he should go with the ball.
Regardless of how it is done, Tech has to make this a simple game plan for this week’s quarterback. That might mean running even against heavy boxes and doing some things that will help simplify the game for either Morton or Strong.