Texas Tech Previews Defending Oregon State QB Braden Atkinson: 'Have to Be Disciplined'
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LUBBOCK — No. 13 Texas Tech will play its second game of the season without last year's defensive play-caller, starting safety Brenden Jordan.
Head coach Joey McGuire said after the Red Raiders' 33-10 season-opening win that Jordan had violated team rules and would be out for the first two games.
The Oregon State Beavers are next up, and they're led by last year's Jerry Rice Award winner – given each year to the best FCS freshman in the country – quarterback Braden Atkinson.
Tech cornerback Brice Pollock spoke to the media this week about how he hopes to adjust to Jordan's absence and Atkinson's attack.
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"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 [Morgan] and Malik [Esquerra] out there. Peyton is a great communicator. I think he knows how to really project his voice out there, too."
Morgan called out the plays for Texas Tech last week, and is expected to do so again in Corvallis for defensive coordinator Shiel Wood, who typically has the strong safety wear the green dot in his system.
Atkinson threw for 376 yards and a touchdown in the Beavers' loss to Houston in Week 1. The touchdown was a 71-yarder, one of his 48 pass attempts for the game.
"I've seen some receivers that can really push you vertical. They're really good at that," Pollock said about Oregon State's scheme. "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."
Oregon State's offensive game plan looked much more explosive in the opener than Texas Tech's after the Red Raiders dinked and dunked their way to a comfortable win against an overmatched ACU.
McGuire explained that, after his Week 1 film review, his Red Raiders should have taken more shots downfield.
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Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood has noticed the Beavers' success when playing aggressively.
"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."
Last season at Mercer, Atkinson completed 268 of 407 passes (65 percent) for 3,611 yards and 34 touchdowns as a true freshman out of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Against the Wildcats in the season opener, the lone touchdown allowed by the Red Raiders was a 98-yard kickoff return.
Oregon State hosts Texas Tech at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday in Corvallis.
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