welcome to another edition of the gridiron report i'm jared johnson and this is a special edition of the gridiron report it's my main takeaways from texas tech head coach matt wells's weekly gameweek presser he had his press conference monday morning previewing the red raiders match up with oklahoma state which is uh set now it was they were uh a six day selection meaning basically the tv networks wanted to see if oklahoma state beat oklahoma or not needless to say they did not they got smoked by their rivals in the bedroom series and so texas tech and oklahoma state will play at 11 a.m saturday in stillwater the red raiders coming off the bye week after beating baylor that that comeback victory in the fourth quarter they beat baylor 24-23 so they got a little bit of rest uh they were able to kind of reevaluate some things and coach coach matt wells talked about oklahoma state and and you know i asked coach just what stands out about the cowboys and he you know of course he pointed to their defense the cowboys though they didn't really show it against oklahoma a lot of teams get blown out by the suitors uh year in and year out and uh the defense has been good this year i mean it has that's the first thing you have to say about oklahoma state and texas tech certainly is going to have their hands full then you have all the weapons that oklahoma state's had for a while uh you get a look at spencer sanders you know obviously he got hurt against oklahoma you know what his availability will be and then you know the back of quarterbacks what they're going to bring how different the game might be with them um but you know chuba hubbard one of the best backs in the big 12. tyler wallace one of the best receivers in the country so tech's gonna have their hands full they're double digit underdogs again but they've beaten they've beaten uh the cowboys each the last two years despite being double digit underdog so they know what's in front of them um they know they're gonna have their hands full but i think they're prepared for this matchup it's gonna be i think it's gonna be interesting game because tech coming off the bye week oklahoma state coming off the emotional loss to their rival you know the recipe there is there for an upset so uh another thing that stood out from the press conference not really a whole lot of updates other than he can coach wells confirmed eli howard is still day-to-day with the knee injury um you know mcnamara is a guy obviously you'd like to have him back he's one of the best punters in you know in the conference if not the country but jonathan garabay did a really good job i don't think it's sustainable i think he'll his leg will wear out but for this game or even for the rest of the season with two games left you gotta believe that especially coming off the buy that garabay can could pull double duty if mcnamara is not able to go um because obviously he was you know special teams player of the week for the conference and the player of the game jonathan garabe i mean those four field goals including the walk-off kick and i think he averaged almost 50 yards a punt in his five punts so i mean he was a he was the star of the game for you last time he played so i think you feel really good even if mcnamara can't go there but then you know thomas leggett you're starting safety you have to see you know if he plays just how effective he is there um and then adrian frye uh coach will's confirmed he's a full go he was against baylor he's not getting as much playing time but which is still kind of a mystery but um [Music] but he's he's healthy so those are the biggest you know coach wells updated some injuries last week but those were the biggest updates um you know obviously keyshawn carter last week that the news that he's out for the season is huge that's disappointing but they have three other guys there miles price uh dalton rigdon and then mclean mannix has been a full full go too so you have three guys at h at your squad receiver there you feel good about uh speaking of the the win last season that was probably it was the win of the season was texas tech's upset oklahoma state in lubbock and coach wells was asked what were the keys to that and what do they need to do again he said the fast start was huge get out to an early lead he thought both lines really uh played well but they also created five turnovers i mean getting a fast start and creating five turnovers i mean you you take that every game for no matter the opponent so that's that's what they're looking to do is to step up the game in the trenches and get up to that fast start which we haven't really seen a whole lot this this season we've seen some obviously in the texas game but uh you'd like but then even that game they trailed at halftime so it'd be nice to see what the red raiders can do with a little bit of a lead uh as coach about uh well before i even proceed anymore i gotta say quarterbacks remains the same uh allen bowman is getting the first snaps but both quarterbacks alan bowman and henry columbia are going to play against oklahoma state so that's that's something to watch you know i did a story on them and they've been remarkably similar in terms of the statistics they produce i mean almost exact same completion percentage you know very similar yards per attempt and yards per completion touched i think columbia's touched down to interception ratios a little better that's the only difference but they're really it's really similar and the russian yards you think would be in heavily in colombia's favor and it's really not because he's taking a lot more stacks than bowman has so i think obviously columbia brings a little bit of a running element but those guys are remarkably so like it's unbelievable it's uncanny how similar they are no matter so no matter who plays um expect similar results i guess is the way to say it um just get to go with whoever's hot i asked coach wells about the freshman um because that's something that's really if you take a step back and look in the season a positive is that or i guess you could probably spend it negatively but uh a lot of true freshmen are playing for texas tech right now and they're playing well actually so that's positive and as coach will said you know with the blanket waiver um it's not cost them any eligibility they didn't have to like just play four games to redshirt i mean everybody um is or all of them are still gonna be freshmen next year so that's great they're getting valuable experience and uh but they're playing well and and as coach will said it's not just they're playing them to get them experienced for the future they need them to play now and step up and make plays and they are so nothing huge or earth shattering coming coming from out of this uh media availability from coach willis this press conference but uh you know obviously big game they have two games left starting uh with oklahoma state in stillwater 11 a.m saturday so if they can get one or both of these wins that would be huge in terms of momentum for the off for the off season this team has had a rocky season but i think it's you know like i said when at least split if not win both of these games that would be huge for uh you know on the recruiting trail just in terms of momentum for this program so with that i want to thank you for watching and until next time