During Monday’s weekly press conference, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said he shuffled quarterbacks too much against Oklahoma State, adding that he should have stuck with starter Taylor Potts.
“I probably should’ve kept Potts in the game,” he said. “I should’ve played him the whole game.”
Potts had thrown two interceptions by the end of Tech’s fourth possession, when OSU led 7-3.
That prompted Leach to insert Steven Sheffield in hopes of sparking the offense. It was Sheffield’s first action since injuring his left foot during a 31-10 win against Nebraska on Oct. 17.
Sheffield led Tech to a touchdown and 10-7 lead after throwing an interception on his initial drive, but he sputtered in the second half. OSU linebacker Patrick Lavine picked off a pass and returned it 21 yards for a 24-10 lead that proved too much for Tech to overcome late in the fourth quarter even with Potts back in the game.
“I don’t need to mess with a bunch of shuffling around,” said Leach, who acknowledged that the last time he fumbled through quarterbacks in this particular manner was with Chris Todd and Graham Harrell in 2007.
“I should’ve just kept Graham in,” he said. “There were several series that I played with Chris Todd, not to take anything away from Chris Todd. Part of it is you want to give a guy perspective, but there’s a disruption to it too. I got a little fancy with that. That would probably be the last time.”
Some fans were disappointed at Leach’s decision to play Sheffield just because of his injury, which didn’t look completely healed considering how much he was limping.
Prior to the game, Sheffield couldn’t even run out of the locker room in conjunction with the team unless he paused and skipped to keep pressure off the foot.
After the game, Leach said he didn’t know how much of Sheffield’s limping was because of a remedial shoe.
But players were impressed with Sheffield’s will to make a play. On one occasion, Sheffield scrambled to avoid traffic and ended up pitching the football to running back Baron Batch, who made a play.
“To go out there on a broken foot that says a lot about a guy,” linebacker Bront Bird said. “If you could tell, his shoe looked like a clown shoe. It was like a size 16 with all kinds of padding inside and stuff like that. So he is hobbling around. I have a lot of respect for that guy for what he did and if he has to do it again this week we fully support him and if not we fully support (Taylor) Potts.”
Leach didn’t say whether the decision of who starts against Oklahoma on Saturday will be made at gametime, which has been the norm in recent weeks.
“You never know, there may be,” he said. “We got five to pick from, so hang on.”
Leach on Pats play
Leach has been known to go all-in and see if his offense can convert on fourth down, regardless of field position.
So it came as no surprise that someone would ask him his thoughts on the most talked about fourth down call in recent NFL memory.
New England coach Bill Belichick and the Patriots led Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 34-28 late in the fourth quarter. Yet on fourth down, positioned deep in their own territory, the Patriots try to convert the first and run the clock. But they come up short and Manning leads the Colts to a 35-34 win with a touchdown pass to receiver Reggie Wayne with 13 seconds remaining.
So what was Leach’s assessment?
“I didn’t see it,” he said. “I don’t know the situation. It probably was a good call. The people closest to the situation made the call, (Bill) Belichick and his staff. If Belichick and his staff cared what I thought or anybody else thought about it, we would have been asked earlier in the week or asked to their meetings.
“I would doubt that they regret going for it. They may have wished they called a different play or executed differently. I doubt they regret doing it.”
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