April 21, 2008

Lubbock, TX (UWIRE) -- Texas Tech coach Mike Leach believes his football team needs some more work after Tech's annual Red-Black game Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium, so he told the players to expect another scrimmage today in the last spring practice.

Leach lamented his first team offense and first team defense, adding that he was pleased with some of the younger players, as well as the second teams on both sides of the ball.

"(The first team was) just soft, bad effort, distracted with their nose in the newspaper," he said. "I don't know. (They) want to go see their little girlfriend and eat a fish sandwich under a shady tree, I don't know what their problem is. Maybe bad coaching, I don't know."

Even with a scoring error that missed several sacks and an interception late in the game, the black team - the defense - earned a 29-23 victory after recording nine sacks and three interceptions.

"I was pleased; there were some rough spots in there," defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said. "Our offense is hard to stop, we don't try to scheme our guys. I was pleased with the progress, I was pleased with the efforts of the kids, I was pleased with the fact that sometimes we had some adversity hit, and we battled through that."

The offense went 7-of-26 on third downs and 2-of-13 in the first half - a sign of continued growth by the defense that had been displayed in the last few scrimmages during spring practice.

Going up against an offensive line that was missing guard Louis Vasquez, the defensive line made the backfield its own personal playground for virtually the whole game.

Tackle Richard Jones led the game with three sacks, ends McKinner Dixon and Daniel Howard added two each, while Colby Whitlock and Chris Perry earned one as well.

"We just tried to come out here and prove a point," defensive tackle Rajon Henly said. "Tech is known for offense. We like when the offense scores 70 points a game, but this year we're trying to make a change on offense and defense."

Whitlock got the game started on the opening drive, sacking quarterback Taylor Potts for a loss of eight yards to force a punt.

On the next drive, Graham Harrell led the red team to inside the 20-yard line, but Fehoko recovered a fumble off a botched snap, and the defense went on to hold the offense from scoring a touchdown during the next three possessions.

Late in the first quarter, Harrell connected with Michael Crabtree, who escaped from De'Shon Sanders and sprinted into the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown. It was Crabtree's only touchdown of the game on six receptions and 54 yards.

Harrell, who threw for 209 yards and an interception on 17-of-29 passing, credited the defense for playing with a higher level of intensity and taking advantage of what seemed like a sedated offense early on.

"There's no question we looked sluggish at times," Harrell said. "We had our ups and downs. We had some good drives, had some really bad drives. That's the way it goes. It's encouraging to see the defense doing well."

Potts threw for 178 yards on 29-of-38 passing while getting sacked five times, and Stefan Loucks scored the final touchdown of the game with a pass to Blake Kelly to finish with 80 yards on 9-of-13 throwing and one interception.

Near the end of the first quarter, with Harrell under center, the offense was called for two consecutive holding penalties, and Fehoko made the situation worse with an interception on the first play of the second quarter.

A 38-yard field goal from Cory Fowler gave the red team a little life going into the second half.

Receiver Detron Lewis, who had 93 yards on seven catches, said he felt the offensive rhythm return in the third quarter.

"Leach got on to us, then we all just had to pick it up," said Lewis. "After halftime, when he told us to pick it up, I think we all picked it up as a whole, and we executed."

With a six-yard scamper into the end zone, sophomore Aaron Crawford made the score 20-17 just before the fourth quarter, but a turnover on downs, four more sacks and the interception by Wallace extended the defense's lead to 28-17.

On the ground, redshirt sophomore Baron Batch led the game with 47 yards on 15 carries, while Crawford picked up 45 yards on seven carries.

Batch was involved in a key series during the first half. With a first and goal from the six-yard line, he was handed the ball four consecutive times but failed to score a touchdown, turning the ball over on downs.

"Defensively, we're just trying to raise the bar every practice," middle linebacker Marlon Williams said. "Every time we come out here, we try to do better. We just really harp on making plays, not almost making plays, not being a step off, being that inch that you need to make every play. (Saturday) we just put the finishing touches on doing that."

(C) 2008 Daily Toreador via UWIRE