The Texas Tech Red Raiders have seen some rather shocking improvements on the defensive side of the ball from last year to this year. There’s a lot that can be discussed there with regards to the personnel on the field, but one of the biggest reasons that the Red Raiders are thriving on that side of the ball has to be attributed to the addition of Shiel Wood to this coaching staff.
Wood, previously the defensive coordinator for the Houston Cougars, has taken one of the worst defenses in the country and turned it into one of the best. And you really don’t need to dig too far into the stats to try to see how much things have improved in a year-over-year form.
Right now, the Red Raider defense is allowing just 11.2 points per game while giving up just 258.9 total yards of offense per game. A season ago, Texas Tech’s defense was getting scorched for 34.8 points per game and giving up 460.2 total yards of offense per game.
So, yeah, safe to say that things are much better than they were last season.
Texas Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood shares his thoughts on what it’s been like to improve the Red Raiders defense
When asked at a press conference about his thoughts on the significant improvements made on the defensive side of things, Wood pointed to what his focus has been on.
“All we’ve focused on is this collection of people on this team and this year’s team,” Wood explained. “Anything that’s happened in the past has been irrelevant to our approach and our process. We wanted to try to put together the best staff that we could, the best roster that we could for this year’s team.”
And I, for one, appreciate that. I suspect that there are plenty of Texas Tech football fans who are grateful for that as well.
“I think we did a nice job of doing both of those things,” Wood continued.
Yeah, that’s safe to say. When you’re regularly smothering opposing offenses, you’re doing a good job.
“The guys have bought in, worked hard, and so it’s been a lot of fun to be a part of this process that we’ve gone through and I’m excited that we still have ball games to play.”