Texas Tech with lots to clean up after Kent State beatdown
Texas Tech beat Kent State by nearly 50 points Saturday, but the Red Raiders still have lots to clean up.
The offense scored 27 points in the second quarter. Still, the feel was the Red Raiders left something to be desired in the second leg of the game. This was again amplified when Tech turned it over on downs in the third stanza
“The fourth-and-one that we did not get on our end of the field was very frustrating,” head coach Joey McGuire told the media postgame. “There’s a lack of detail. They brought a MIKE, we’re going to double the down lineman, and they brought the MIKE. So they really turned into one-on-one blocks. I did not think we strained at the level that we need to.
I think some stuff that we’re going to do as far as like, whether we get everybody to a three or four-point stance, when they know we’re running it, we know we’re going to run it. That was one of the most frustrating plays of the game because we didn’t strain. We got beat at the point of attack and that’s why we didn’t get the first down.”
Lots to clean up in the punt return game
In his first game starting at punt returner, Stephenville true freshman Tristian Gentry showed promise on several returns. The problem for Gentry and the Red Raiders were penalties that negated his hard work. These played into parts of the game being sloppier than others. McGuire is trusting special teams coordinator Kenny Perry to get these cleaned up.
“It’s frustrating, we had a couple of big punt returns. Tristian Gentry is electric back there, he’s got so much courage. It’s been a while since we had a guy like that,” McGuire noted. “It’s frustrating because we had a couple of holding calls. I thought the second one could have gone either way. I thought MHP (Mikal Harrison-Pilot) had a really good block and sprung him, but we got to clean that up.”
Some legitimacy to punt return penalties
Kent State’s punting miscues were largely self-inflicted. Snaps were low, two punts were batted on their way out. Even when the punts got fixed, the Red Raiders were unable to capitalize because of the holding calls.
If Tech is going to keep rolling Gentry out to return, the head coach knows the rest of the unit will have to do their job to let Gentry do his.
“I thought the first one was legit, as far as it could have been a couple of them,” McGuire added. “I thought we had a block in the back and a hole. It just goes back to that it is a weapon. We have good returners. We have to do a better job of putting our bodies in position. I know coach Perry will get it coached up and we’ll keep working it because Tristian Gentry is going to be a really good punt returner.”
