Enough quarterbacks to go around: Texas Tech football still plans to deploy 3 at once

As Texas Tech quarterbacks Tyler Shough, Donovan Smith and Behren Morton continue to heal from assorted injuries during an off week, Tech coaches continue to talk about putting all three on the field at the same time in formations known only internally.

Will it be a staple feature or even a regular component of the offense? That seems unlikely.

On the other hand, Tech coach Joey McGuire has mentioned it several times dating to the preseason, still does, and it seems clear the Red Raiders have worked on it more than a little.

When asked Wednesday by the A-J about how many plays can be run from the three-QB package, Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley said, "It can kind of be endless, because the beautiful thing about the quarterback position is they know what everybody else does. We can put those guys at receiver and mess with the defense that way a little bit. They may think a double pass is coming or whatever.

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"We went into it with five plays, into game one, but with our tempo package and being able to line up in different formations, those guys know everything. So we could really get to hundreds of plays, in theory, out of it. I don't necessarily know if I want to do that, but we could."

Several times this season, Tech has put two quarterbacks in the game at the same time. Usually, that came with Smith at quarterback and Morton inserted at receiver or even flanking a tight end. In Tech's 41-31 loss Saturday at Oklahoma State, when Morton started at quarterback, Smith lined up in the slot on two plays.

Often, the quarterback in at receiver shifts from his initial alignment or goes in motion.

Shough's clavicle injury in the first quarter of the first game put the three-QB plan on hold indefinitely.

Asked if a specific one of the three primarily lined up at quarterback and the other two elsewhere in the special package, Kittley said, "We kind of mixed it up and gave them different roles, so maybe not every person is repped at each position, but they know it all and could easily rotate through."

Early in Texas Tech's Mike Leach era, Leach borrowed a seldom-seen formation that Steve Spurrier ran under the moniker of "Emory and Henry," the school a young Spurrier had watched use it. The offensive tackles on each side of the line split out into three-player pods, putting a big blocker apiece with two eligible receivers. That leaves three interior linemen, the quarterback and a running back in the middle of the formation.

Defensive players confronted with that look have to think quickly, and depending on they react and line up, the offense has multiple play possibilities.

Leach called it the "Ninja formation." Alas, the Red Raiders deployed it only a few times, never for a big play.

Making the defense think quickly no doubt is what McGuire and Kittley have mind. The two quarterbacks not lined up behind center can be "all over the place," Kittley said.

"They can line up at receiver, at tight end, in the backfield, running back," he said. "We can shift them and motion them and put them in all different facets out there."

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Who's to blame?

Texas Tech's 23 sacks allowed are fourth most in the FBS this season. Offensive coordinator Zach Kittley said from self-scouting video review this week, fault for seven or eight would be assessed to players not on the offensive line. Some of the sacks, he said, were the result of a quarterback not throwing on the first read or on time or on the failure of a running back or a tight end in pass protection.

Oklahoma State had four sacks Saturday against Tech. Kittley said two of the four weren't the fault of the offensive line.

"Those guys are playing a lot of snaps," Kittley said. "We played 104 snaps last week. That's tiring on an offensive line. Proud of those guys, and they're going to continue to get better as well."

Cornering the market

Texas Tech cornerbacks Malik Dunlap and Rayshad Williams and Texas cornerback D'Shawn Jamison lead the Big 12 with seven pass breakups apiece.

Four of Dunlap's breakups came in a loss at North Carolina State, and five of Williams' breakups came last week at Oklahoma State. Two of Williams' five came on second- and third-down plays from the Tech 17-yard line, forcing the Cowboys to settle for a field goal in the third quarter.

"Both those guys still have to continue to work on their fundamentals," Tech defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter said. "They're a little up and down at times.

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"I think they've done a decent job in their man coverage. The throws we gave up on Saturday, we're right in position. We've got to do a little bit better job at the line of scrimmage to maybe throw some timing off, but I thought they both competed really well."

Williams and Dunlap both are listed at 6-foot-3. DeRuyter, in his first year on the Tech staff, inherited that rare size for the position. He said he's never had two tall cornerbacks at once.

"Every now and then, you find a guy that's got some length and can run and flip their hips like those guys," he said, "but to have two of them is special.

"I think (defensive backs) coach (Marcel) Yates is doing a really nice job in drilling those guys to work on their fundamentals to get their feet right, to get their eyes right. They've got a lot of natural talent because of their length. We've just got to get them to use that a little bit more."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football still plans to deploy 3 quarterbacks at once