 "Photo: Caity Colvard")
Texas Tech football fans will get their first look at the Red Raiders with the 2007 Red-Black Spring Game 1:00 p.m. Saturday at the Jones AT&T Stadium.
Tech coach Mike Leach said he feels the Red-Black game will give his players a last chance to improve before the summer offseason.
"I think it'll be more, just have them continue to work and get in the best position they can to work through the offseason," Leach said. "One of the most important things in spring is to put guys in a position to where they know things, they learn things, they develop skills, so that as they get into the offseason after spring football, that they can continue to work on them, and hopefully come into camp as good as they can be."
As the offseason comes closer to an end, there are many new faces, new player combinations and new possibilities for position battles.
Wide Receivers
The wide receiver position may turn out to be a matter of who will play rather than who will start.
The receiving corps lost standouts like Jarrett Hicks, Robert Johnson and Joel Filani, who combined to catch 26 of Tech's 39 touchdowns passes in the 2006 season. Junior L.A. Reed, redshirt freshman Michael Crabtree and sophomore Edward Britton are among the players expected to have the chance to fill those shoes.
In both scrimmages, Reed combined for seven receptions, 83 yards and one touchdown. Crabtree grabbed seven catches for 131 yards and two touchdowns in the second scrimmage, while Britton snagged three catches for 68 yards and a touchdown in the first scrimmage.
Reed said he treats every opportunity to step on the field like it is a game.
"With me, I try to take practice as the same thing as game situation," Reed said. "To me, the only thing that changes is that you (have) more people watching - just got a couple fans out there - so it's not really a big difference to me; it's just another opportunity to make plays live."
Running Backs
The Red-Black Spring Game will feature running backs Kobey Lewis and Shannon Woods as part of Texas Tech's potent Air Raid offense.
Lewis and Woods have strived for improvement this spring, giving Tech a chance to use the two running backs as a committee for the 2007 season. In the first scrimmage, Woods carried the ball four times for 22 yards, while Lewis had six carries for 21 yards. Woods and Lewis were the only backs to carry the ball in the scrimmage.
While Lewis will be looking to contribute on offense in the 2007, Woods will be looking to improve on his performance from the 2006 season in which he rushed for 926 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Lewis said he approaches the Red-Black Spring Game more as a game situation than just another practice.
"Every time we have one of our scrimmages, I think of it like a game," Lewis said. "You (have to) go out there and produce. It's not practice (anymore); everything is just a game-type situation, so you just (have to) go all out."
Quarterbacks
Graham Harrell is projected to be the starting quarterback for the beginning of the 2007 season, but redshirt freshman Taylor Potts has split time with Harrell on the first team this spring.
Harrell said he has been working on increasing his arm strength. At times, after practice the quarterbacks put a trash can in the corner of the end zone and attempt to throw a football into it to work on accuracy.
"As you get older, your arm strength kind of tops out at some point, but I think we've gotten better there and accuracy for sure," Harrell said. "You know we've thrown a lot of balls, so right now is probably not the best time to judge that."
Harrell started all 13 games last season completing 67 percent of his passes for 4,555 yards, averaging 350 yards per game through the air and 38 touchdowns.
In the first scrimmage of spring practice, Harrell completed 19-of-23 pass attempts for 282 yards and three touchdowns. Potts went 12-of-16 and 98 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
In the second scrimmage, Potts completed 15-of-18 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns, while Harrell went 16-of-25 for 120 yards and no touchdowns.
Redshirt freshman Steven Sheffield could see some playing time Saturday and senior Ryan Rowland is no longer on the team after leaving the team to concentrate on his academics.
Cornerbacks
At cornerback, senior Chris Parker may have the right side locked down after being named to the All-Big 12 Second Team after recording 50 tackles and two interceptions in the 2006 season.
Brian Mitchell, Tech's cornerbacks coach, said Parker is unavailable for the spring game, and junior Marcus Bunton, who played in all 13 games last season while recording 11 tackles, should get plenty of playing time Saturday.
The left cornerback position is up for grabs after the departure of Antonio Huffman who finished his college career at the Insight Bowl in December. Sophomore Jamar Wall and transfer De'Shon Sanders are among the leading candidates to replace Huffman.
Wall played in 11 games last season with 12 tackles, and Sanders recorded 28 tackles and two interceptions in seven games for City College of San Francisco.
In Saturday's scrimmage, Wall recorded three tackles, second only to sophomore linebacker Ryan Hale.
Mitchell said it is a tight race for the left cornerback position and Wall has the edge over Sanders at the moment because of his experience in the system.
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