Joey McGuire previews Oregon State, highlights areas to improve
After Texas Tech had another explosive day on Saturday with a 62-14 win over Kent State, the Red Raiders now move to 2-0 on the season. With a much-improved opponent coming into town this weekend, head coach Joey McGuire is anxious to see how Tech responds and in what ways this will challenge his team.
The Oregon State Beavers will come to Jones AT&T Stadium on Saturday, and despite the 0-2 start, McGuire expressed how physical their team is and that this will be their toughest game of the season so far. He spoke to the media on Monday to discuss what he expects to see from the Beavers and what his team still needs to improve on for Saturday and as the rest of the season continues.
A big and physical Oregon State team
Oregon State quarterback Maalik Murphy was highly recruited out of high school and has continued to do good things throughout his collegiate career. The junior started his career at Texas, then transferred to Duke, and is now with the Beavers. Murphy is 6'5 234 pounds, one of the bigger quarterbacks Tech has yet to face. Along with Murphy are other weapons on offense and a very physical presence on defense.
"He's (Murphy) big... he's got a huge arm. He can make all the throws. We're going to have to get him off his mark," McGuire said. "They've got a really good running back. He's very impressive. They have a receiver, (Trent) Walker, number seven, that is a big target for them. I think he caught like nine balls in their first game against Cal.
Defensively, they've got an edge, 6'5, he's number 25 (Nikko)Taylor, 265 pounds... big safety number 17. They're going to be a big, physical team. I think they'll challenge us up front offensively, to see how much we've grown, and then they'll definitely challenge us defensively."
Still moving pieces for the offensive line
Illinois State transfer Hunter Zambrano and Vinny Sciury were both coming back from injuries at the beginning of fall camp, going into the first week of the season. With both of those guys being back, both have been getting reps with the backups during the second halves of both of the past two games.
"Vinny is getting back. He played better in game one than game two, but he still played good in game two. Will Jados is playing at a really high level. I feel great about Will. I think Vinny is a guy that can help us at both guards," McGuire said. "Hunter, game one and two, played really well. What we're really trying to do, maybe a little bit with Hunter, is can he also play guard? You know, there's some pressure that he can put on anybody, but I do feel good about those with Jacob (Ponton) and Hunter.
Jacob still is our number one guy, but I do think Hunter is pressing him to make sure that he feels the pressure being the number one guy... I think he's the sixth guy that is playing at a high level to where he deserves to play in the game."
Improvements being implemented on special teams
Some frustrating aspects of the past two weeks for McGuire have been the penalties on kickoff/punt returns, especially when freshman Tristian Gentry had several big returns. Even though it didn't do much damage in the first two games, those will be essential to clean up before Oregon State and when conference play starts.
"It happened once more on the returner. We had it blocked where he should have gone inside. He went outside. And so our returners have to stay on path, that's been a big emphasis for Kenny, on the path that they need to run," McGuire said. "And then us just drilling, drilling those drills more and more and more, you know, and not panicking. A lot of it is when you lose your block, you know, you kind of panic. It's kind of like whenever you see stuff holding calls on the perimeter, you kind of panic… I just want to run past and let the skill guy break off of that block, versus trying to restrict."
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