Turns out the only way to contain Arizona State running back Cam Scattlebo is to get your friends to dress up in a little cosplay during practice.
The Texas Tech football team paid a lot of attention to containing Skatebo throughout the week of practice. To simulate Skatebo’s running style at 5-foot-11 and 215 pounds, the Red Raiders used running back Adam Hill (6-foot-1, 215 pounds) and linebacker Wesley Smith (5-foot-10, 220 pounds) to play Sun Devil backs on the scout team.
“He dominated the other guys in practice,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said of Smith.
Hill and Smith — whom McGuire called “Midland Meatball” — did enough to prepare Tech’s defense for Scattebo, limiting Scattebo to just 60 yards on 18 attempts (3.3 yards per attempt) in Saturday’s 30-22 win at Jones AT&T Stadium.
“(Smith) gave us the best chance,” Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez said, “and I think he gave us a little bit of a tough chance because he likes us, so he wants to attack us. He doesn’t do much offense, so it was fun to run the ball.”
What to watch: Five takeaways from Texas Tech football’s Big 12 opener win over Arizona State
“That being said, I thought Scattebo did a really good job running with the pads. He was everything we talked about, but I think the look on Wes’ face was something you just can’t miss.”
One factor in Skatebo’s easy win was the scout team, another was the defense Tech played against Arizona State.
“We were just awful up front,” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said. “We were just awful up front. We didn’t overhang well. They turned around, they let their block go down late and Bachmann got in the back of the zone. We didn’t pressure them enough. We were a wide-zone team, but we didn’t pressure them on the run, we didn’t double-team Bachmann. Because we didn’t double-team Bachmann, they were able to fold back on our run, and that happened over and over and over again.”
Skattebo, whose longest run of the day was nine yards, said Texas Tech (3-1, 1-0 SEC) controlled the line of scrimmage and set the tone early. Skattebo’s first two runs totaled two yards. By the time the Sun Devils tried to gain momentum with their main offensive weapon, they were down 14-0 and had to find other ways to move the ball.
This season, the Red Raiders have allowed their running backs a total of 406 yards on 111 attempts, which averages 3.6 yards per carry and ranks in the top 50 nationally.
The Red Raiders also had to consider the running ability of quarterback Sam Leavitt, and after allowing 197 yards rushing to Washington State’s John Mattiher in a Week 2 loss, Tech couldn’t afford to let another quarterback run wild with all the attention on Scattebo.
This was also successful: Texas Tech was able to confine Leavitt to the pocket for much of the game, and the few running plays Leavitt made were not for much money: his longest sprint was 11 yards, and Leavitt finished with 25 yards running on nine carries.
Ace?: Texas Tech football hurts Arizona State in Big 12 opener | Report Card
“That was big,” Rodriguez said of the comparison between Matthier and Leavitt. “The way they run is very similar. They’re both agile, they’re both really athletic. I think we had a better game plan. We were prepared for those situations. Our rush lanes were better. We got him to step up and do stuff like flash, and then we fought back to the ball.”
“I think two weeks ago we weren’t able to finish plays off, so I think tracking inside out and keeping our guys on an edge has really helped us.”
