The Texas Tech football team will finish its non-conference schedule with another contender from the Football Championship Subdivision against UMass at 6 p.m. Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium.
UMass (2-1) won the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship in 2007, one year after reaching the national championship game.
Tech coach Mike Leach said this is another one of those top-tier programs from the FCS - the Minutemen have 12 players who transferred from FBS schools and a 25-4 record against FCS schools since 2006.
With Tech studying the wrong tape against Eastern Washington and playing against a unique pistol formation at Nevada, the Red Raiders could be going on another blind date.
"They are a team we don't see much of, we don't know much of," Leach said. "Outside of the fact that we know they have had quite a lot of success. I know going into this season they thought they could win the whole thing, so we'll see. We now have enough games under our belt that we can draw a little more from the games they have played this year."
Leading the Minutemen is 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior quarterback Liam Coen, a 2008 Walter Payton Award candidate who has started all four years. He holds more than 30 total passing records, winning 31 of his 40 starts.
In a pro-style offense that likes to establish the run game, Coen has a 166.4 passer rating, totaling 826 yards and nine touchdowns while giving up one interception in three games.
"First off, his greatest strength has always been his knowledge not only with what were trying to get done, but what people are trying to do with him," UMass coach Don Brown said. "He's really ready for the challenges in front of him. He knew how important his senior year was gonna be. You put all those things together and you got a complete player."
Coen and quarterback Graham Harrell actually share a few career records that span both college divisions.
Out of all active quarterbacks with at least two seasons played, Coen leads the nation in career passer rating with 153.53, while Harrell is fifth with a 151.07 rating. In career active touchdowns, Harrell is first with 97 and Coen sits second with 75. While Harrell is first in completions and passing yards among active quarterbacks, Coen is fifth and seventh, respectively.
"(Harrell is a) tremendously accurate passer," Coen said. "(He) gets the ball out very quickly. Not a lot of people try to blitz him because when they do, he gets the ball out so fast to those wideouts, that it's tough to blitz him and get any pressure on him."
Harrell will face one of the toughest secondary units in FCS, led by senior preseason All-American cornerback Sean Smalls and All-Conference senior Courtney Robinson.
However, on a defense that returned eight players and led the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring defense and total defense, the Minutemen have been dismal defensively this season.
While the secondary ranks fifth in passing defense, UMass's strength from 2007 ranks eighth in total defense and 11th in both scoring and rushing defense.
After watching film, Tech center Stephen Hamby said the UMass defense throws a lot of different looks at the offensive line throughout the game.
"They are like Missouri; they blitz and twist," he said. "They aren't the type of team you expect to come and play. They are going to throw a lot of unexpected stuff at us. With this type of team, they could throw anything out there."
Tech's running game, led by Baron Batch and Shannon Woods, will try capitalizing on a porous rushing defense that allowed 338 yards in a 52-38 loss to James Madison last week.
With Tech's run game averaging 135.7 yards per game, Brown tagged Tech's offense with a rare opinion, saying "they'll keep you honest with the run game."
"If you get too wrapped up in the pass, their running backs are excellent speed guys with great quickness," he said. "Shannon Woods and Baron Batch especially (are) excellent players. They'll slip in there and hurt you with the zone schemes if you just completely defend one side of the ball."
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