The Texas Tech football team, picked to win the Big 12 and ranked No. 13 this week, is favored by 26 1/2 points in the program's first trip to Oregon State.
To the extent there's suspense about the matchup in Corvallis, this is a key reason: New Oregon State quarterback Braden Atkinson won the Jerry Rice Award last year as the top freshman in the FCS, and the transfer from Mercer made his FBS debut last week by throwing for 376 yards in a 33-20 loss at Houston.
"Confident in the pocket," Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood said on Monday, Sept. 7. "Able to see down the field. Didn't let the rush affect him. Kept his eyes down the field. Made some really good throws kind of in tight spaces. … And then did a nice job with ball placement down the field."
Tech (1-0) and Oregon State (0-1) square off at 6:30 p.m. CDT Saturday, Sept. 12, at Reser Stadium. Tech beat Oregon State 45-14 last year in Lubbock, and the Beavers changed coaches after the season. They're now led by JaMarcus Shepard, the assistant head coach to Kalen DeBoer the past four years at Washington and Alabama.
Atkinson was a North Carolina all-state quarterback at Rolesville High School. As a freshman last year at Mercer, he passed for 3,596 yards and 34 touchdowns. That included eight 300-yard passing games and a school record 533 yards against Virginia Military Institute.
Last week at Houston, Atkinson completed 29 out of 48. That included a 71-yard touchdown to Jesse Legree, a freshman from Baltimore who finished with 5 catches for 136 yards.
"I've seen some receivers that can really push you vertical," Tech cornerback Brice Pollock said of his Oregon State video study. "They're really good at that. Pretty good quarterback. He knows how to stand in there and make good throws. We're just going to have to be disciplined — a lot of unbalanced, a lot of tricky formations. (Against) things like that, we've got to trust our keys and trust our technique."
Senior safety Brenden Jordan is missing Tech's first two games for a team rules violation. However, in a season-opening 33-10 win against Abilene Christian, the Red Raiders gave up only 119 passing yards and nothing longer than 18 yards. That was with Peyton Morgan and Malik Esquerra, two first-time starters, at safety.
Jordan has been the Tech defensive player designated to take in-helmet communication from co-defensive coordinator Rob Greene since the beginning of last season. With Jordan out, Morgan has added that duty.
"Brenden's like my partner in crime," Pollock said, "so it's been a little different having him not out there, but I've been getting real used to Peyton and Malik out there. Peyton is a great communicator. I think he knows how to really project his voice out there, too."
Oregon State had six pass plays longer than 20 yards and five in the range of 14 to 19 yards.
"And they got to them all different ways — vertical stuff down the field, some post/wheel actions and then just some underneath stuff that became explosive plays," Wood said, "so we'll have to be on it this Saturday in terms of making sure we're detailed in our coverage and some of the more challenging patterns that they throw at you."
Houston sacked Atkinson four times. Tech sacked ACU's John David Black three times, 2 1/2 of those coming from Kent State transfer Jamond Mathis in his first game as a Red Raider.
"We thought we did good," defensive tackle Mateen Ibirogba said of the defensive line as a whole. "We had a lot of plays we made. We worked together. I felt like we're this close to really figuring it out. What we want to improve is just really getting the communication (down) and getting the extra push in pass rush."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football gears up for Oregon State passing attack
