Familiar scene for Texas Tech's Will Jados vs. Kent State
Texas Tech left guard Will Jados will be in a familiar scene when he lines up against Kent State– he played against them his last four years at Miami (OH). The 10th game of the Redhawks’ season in 2024 featured a matchup with the Golden Flashes. Jados gets to see KSU a lot sooner this go-round.
“Last year, I think they had a completely different program in terms of a lot of the players they had,” Jados told the media Tuesday. “They were still a good team. The MAC is interesting where every team kind of has the opportunity to beat somebody. The amount of upsets we’d seen in my four years at Miami was crazy. They run a pretty similar defense and I’ve known they’ve always gone that tempo offense. I think it’s going to be pretty similar in terms of what I’ve seen against them, but you never really know this early in the year.”
The Miami (OH) transfer’s connections to Kent State are close to home
Jados is 3-1 against Kent State in his career, winning each of those in a row. It was his freshman year the Golden Flashes got the best of him, 48-47 in overtime. Growing up relatively close to Kent State, Jados said he knows several people who have lived in that area. Oddly enough, his connection to Kent is much deeper than just some acquaintances.
“Funny enough, my wife is actually in a master’s program online at Kent State,” Jados said. “That is kind of a connection that I have, recently. I just know a bunch of people that lived in that area of Ohio. I’ve personally only ever been up there one time before we started playing them. Ohio is a lot, it’s not an eight hour drive to another city like it is here in Texas. That’s kind of a big change… I think my wife being there is a pretty decent connection.”
Left guard not a familiar scene for Jados
It was a learning process for the fifth-year senior Jados in his first game as Tech’s left guard. In his time at Miami, Jados shored up the left flank at tackle. His transition inside was carefully thought out since he arrived in January. With so much experience banked at left tackle, Jados finally got to experience the new feel in a game.
“It’s different, like every position on the o-line has got their unique aspects to it,” Jados said. “At tackle, you’re more on an island with more athletic, twitchy dudes. On the inside you’ve got stronger, lower to the ground, heavier guys that are going to be different looks in pass pro and run blocking slightly different. Overall, it wasn’t that bad of a transition.”
