Texas Tech football notebook

Busy special teams

Texas Tech special teams coach Clay McGuire has a lot going on right now.

After Tuesday's practice, McGuire said walk-on kicker Matt Williams and freshman kicker Donnie Carona are kicking right now, with Carona most likely to be placekicker again.

McGuire went on to say he won't know much more until the next practice.

"(Tech) coach (Mike) Leach really stresses what we do on Wednesday's practices is good enough to do on Saturdays," McGuire said. "That's kind of what we're looking (at). Wednesday is kind of the magic day for us to see where we're at and make a decision from there."

Williams, a transfer from Tarleton State who had not played football since high school, nailed a 30-yard field goal in a promotion for free rent during Tech's 56-14 win over UMass at Jones AT&T Stadium on Sept. 20.

Williams kick cleared the uprights with ease, prompting Tech coach Mike Leach to give Williams an opportunity to be on the team. It took Williams four weeks before he was cleared to play this weekend against Kansas.

"He's had three or four weeks now to really get back in shape and he's doing a good job," McGuire said. "He's a confident kid, he's real smooth. He's looked good so far, so we'll see how it goes."

On Monday, Leach said senior kicker Cory Fowler was no longer be placekicker, but did not say anything about freshman left-footer Donnie Carona regaining his starting spot.

Fowler replaced Carona after the freshman had a crucial extra point blocked against Nebraska after Tech's only score in overtime. Then Fowler had two extra points blocked against Texas A&M, with one getting returned for the Aggies only two points of the second half.

Earlier in the week, special teams player Jared Flannel said the kickers were working on their trajectory by kicking over blocking dummies that were held up high by other players. So far, McGuire said none of the attempts have hit the blocking dummies, so the trajectory issues could be getting improving.

"Right now our problem is the trajectory of the ball, so we're doing everything we can to get those guys to get the ball up as fast as they can," McGuire said. "I think that really helps. It's kind of an unrealistic look, but if we can do it over that, we can do it in a game."

LaCour an emergency option

Punter Jonathan LaCour was an accomplished kicker at Kingwood High School in Kingwood, where he handled kicking and punting duties. Coming into his freshman year of college, LaCour became only the second high school kicker along with Alex Reyes to receive a scholarship from Leach.

McGuire said if it comes down to it, LaCour could end up being placekicker, but he added that he would rather not let that happen.

"Right now he's a last minute option," McGuire said. "He can do it. He's done it in the past. He was a good kicker in high school. He still does it pretty well."

McGuire said LaCour really needs to worry about getting his punting game going again. In 2007, LaCour was 23rd nationally and second among freshmen punters with an average of 42.6 yards per punt on 29 punts. This season, LaCour has punted 13 times with an average of 31.5 yards per punt.

McGuire said that average is "not acceptable for him and not acceptable for us."

"Right now we need him to get his punting going like he did last year," McGuire said. "We want him concentrating on that and only that."