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Tech (1-0) vs SMU (0-1)– Recap

After the Appalachian State upset, Arkansas State’s performance against UT and some other closer than expected games out there on Saturday (except for the Fight North Texas Eagles, this ain’t 5A football anymore…) I’m sure some of the Red Raider Nation faithful were a little bit more concerned heading into the season opener in Dallas.

Well… it’s still SMU. What an absolutely dominating performance by Tech on Monday afternoon. Over 550 total yards, and shockingly 470 through the air. Defense gave up 260 yds, but only 109 on the ground. And the special teams pretty much looked like the old Wes Welker days.

Biggest stat of the game though is the turnovers. With Harrell winging the ball around to 11, read that again 11, different receivers, they all were wearing Tech jerseys. Not one interception. And on the other side of the ball, three takeaways by the Tech D. Swarm by god is back. If you got the chance to see, two of these interceptions were classic tip drill interceptions by heads up plays.

THE GOOD: You could easily give this one to Graham Harrell for his incredible performance, but I won’t. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Michael Crabtree (redshirt freshman, 6-3, 222lbs.). Get to know him. For his first game, Crabtree had 12 receptions for 106 yds and 3 TDs. He’s young, so you can expect to see him have his ups and downs here, but maybe we’ve found the next Go-To receiver that will compliment and help open up the field for Amendola.

THE BAD: It would be pretty pathetic and way to close to a certain Lubbock Avalanche Journal writer that I can’t stand to try and find a lot bad with this game. My only problem is the continuous slow start by the Tech offense. Leach has been adamant that he likes to feel out defenses and see how they line up, but it would be nice to see the Raiders hang at least 21 pts in the first quarter just once. And not against a D-1AA NonBCS whatever their calling themselves this year team. 

THE LET’S KEEP AN EYE ON THIS BEFORE IT BITES US: This could have gone in the BAD category, but I’ll give the guys a pass. There were way too many dumb mistakes by the offense for them to win a Big 12 conference game. SMU’s stadium was nowhere near a loud stadium and Tech still jumped too many times. And in the first half Harrell had a few delay of game penalties that looked bad.

Finally, Harrell was locking in on receivers and not going through his progression enough. If you look at just the stats, you may think I’m lying. But there were several times when after the snap Harrell looked not just at one side of the field over the other, but he chose his receiver from when he play was called and that’s where he went. As my good friend, college football die-hard and bless him Horns fan The Bearden Wonder put it, maybe he could lock on a receiver against SMU. They aren’t athletic enough to break on the ball. I hope that’s true, but I have concerns that this could be what lead to the 1^st Quarter Missouri debacle last year.
 

A great opening performance by Tech to start the season. Look for UTEP preview later this week. I see another pounding by Tech coming. GUNS UP!!!