Brian Borland will get his defense ready to face Texas Tech, who has a completely different style of offense compared to what they saw at Iowa State.
Texas Tech is 12th in the nation in plays per game and they like to line up and play fast.
The good news for the Kansas defense is they have seen this pace before from teams like UCF, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
“The same as a couple other recent teams, Oklahoma, Central Florida, they play extremely fast,” Borland said. “They move the ball all over the place, make your defense play sideline to know they've got a good perimeter throwing game.”
The Red Raiders will use a spread offense to open up the running game. They feature running back Tahj Brooks, who is second in the Big 12 averaging 115 yards a game.
“They do a lot of RPO throws, which is a challenge all the time because you’ve got to defend the running plays,” Borland said. “They make it tough because they have a really good running back. I think he's one of the top two or three in the country in forcing missed tackles, which is always a concern for our team. You've got to have good numbers and things to really defend the run, but then you've got to be able to rally to the perimeter pass, too.”
Another boost to the offense is the return of quarterback Behren Morton. Texas Tech lost their top quarterback Tyler Shough early in the season. Morton was the back-up but had game experience. As a junior he threw fort over 1100 yards including 300-yard games against West Virginia and Oklahoma State.
Morton missed time with an injury but returned to lead Tech to a win last week over TCU.
“I think he's a really good player,” Borland said. “I think he's a quality starter in the conference. He does a really good job. He's a good-sized guy that can run the ball, that knows what to do with it within their offense. I think he does a really good job of managing, making good decisions and things like that. We got our work cut out for us. He's a good ball player.”
The defense will have to communicate at a high level against Texas Tech because of the fast tempo and the different looks they give a defense.
“I think they do a really good job of mixing that in there and gadget kind of formations and motions and things that they do,” he said. “You’ve got to be on your toes because they're going to pull some of those things out at any point. Like I said, defensively, you've really got to be able to communicate some things and whatever your plan is and to get that stuff done and be on the same page because they certainly challenge you with a lot of those kind of things.”
The defense will get a good look preparing for the Texas Tech offense based off a good week of practice. They will go against their own defense during the week who can give as many formations and shifts as any team in the country.
Borland said they can learn a lot from Andy Kotelnicki’s schemes and what he throws at them in practice.
“Yeah, it's like that,” Borland said. “Probably our offense would be even more so, but I think we have to try to defend that stuff every day and spend time talking about and working it out. I feel like as much as anybody, we should be prepared for those things, and we are. But you still have to recognize it and then have 11 guys do the same thing if you're going to do something. So, you’ve got to still be great communicators and doing that. So, that's the tricky part.”
- OLB
- PRO
- APB
- WR
- ATH
- RB
- WDE
- CB
- ATH
- WR