Behind the enemy line: Arizona vs. Texas Tech
Taj Brooks rushed for 551 yards through five games. (Photo by Annie Rice (USA Today Sports))
After getting upset, no. Last week at Utah 10th, Arizona State returns home under the lights to face Texas Tech with an 8pm MST kickoff. Both teams have a combined record of 7 wins and 2 losses, but have continued to lose on the road.
This is the first time since the Border Conference days that these two programs will play conference games as members of the new Big 12. At one point, the two were rivals, and now this game could be rivals again. This new conference.
To get you ready for the game, we reached out to RedRaiderSports.com to talk to staff writer Jarrett Ramirez about the Red Raiders program for an inside look ahead of the Arizona vs. Texas Tech game .
How has the Red Raiders’ defense created turnovers this season?
JR: It’s a strange story, but honestly, a lot of it can be attributed to pure luck and the creativity of defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter. Two of the three interceptions against North Texas came from balls that bounced off UNT players’ hands, but that was partly luck. There was certainly some creativity involved in the interceptions of Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt and Cincinnati’s Brendan Thorsby. DeRuyter has been very good at using stunt schemes along the defensive line this season to create the appearance of a pass rush, and it worked on the interception. This pass rush was weak to say the least, and De Ruyter’s ability to put them into different looks to trip up opposing offensive lines worked like a charm. Of course you can’t exploit something like that, but when he uses stunts like that, it’s the root cause of pressure on the QB and interceptions and bad balls on the back end.
