Texas Tech spring practice

[Eric the Red]

Leach gives equal time to QBs

 

 

When spring football practice began, Texas Tech listed its top three quarterback candidates alphabetically. Then senior Cody Hodges, sophomore Phillip Daugherty and redshirt freshman Graham Harrell each got one-third of the action during the first two workouts.

 

It will stay that way again today, head coach Mike Leach said, with each of the three getting significant time during the 10:30 a.m. workout.

 

In years past, at times when it was a three-man race at quarterback, Leach would give the most experienced candidate half the snaps and allow the other two prospects to take the other half on alternate days.

 

"Now I've got them all cluttered together,'' said Leach, who has divided the snaps equally so far. All three can make a sales pitch: Hodges has been in the system for four years, and that worked to the benefit of his two predecessors. Leach has spoken often of Daugherty's superior arm strength, though Leach thinks accuracy and decision-making skills are more important. Harrell played in a similar offense in high school, presumably shortening his learning curve.

 

"I think Cody's got a level of poise and experience, and I think he couples poise and experience pretty well,'' Leach said. "I think Graham has improved dramatically. I'm not sure that Graham, at times, isn't the most accurate of the guys. But I also think he's trying to pull things together quickly.''

 

Of Daugherty, Leach said: "Every day, he'll make two or three throws that kind of dazzle you, that not everybody can make.''

 

Daugherty was odd man out last spring and fall, being limited to mostly scout-team work while Sonny Cumbie, Hodges and Robert Johnson did battle. For all his arm strength, Daugherty hasn't been a serious candidate in the past.

 

"I think it's just having guys with experience in front of me has been the main thing,'' Daugherty said. "I'd say I'm more prepared now. I've been here two years, so I guess along with time comes experience.''

 

No one has more of that than Hodges, who was the top backup last season while Cumbie passed for 4,742 yards.

 

"I've looked forward to this,'' Hodges said. "I was looking forward to last spring, too. That competition didn't go like I wanted. This is my last shot, and I've got to make the most of it.''

 

A year ago, Cumbie made the most of his last shot. Though he didn't have a big pile of credentials, Cumbie never gave an inch and carried himself from the start as if he expected to be the starter.

 

"I feel like that, but it's something I want to earn,'' Hodges said. "I don't expect coach Leach to give it to me. That's the way I was raised. You earn everything you get.''

 

Hodges said he considers himself lucky that's been in the program long enough to have witnessed a couple of prolific passing seasons from Kliff Kingsbury and one each from B.J. Symons and Cumbie.

 

"I feel like if I can be a combination of all three of those guys,'' Hodges said, "then I will emerge to be a great quarterback. To have the poise that Kliff had, the cockiness and attitude that B.J. had, how he wasn't afraid of anything, and then to have Sonny's work ethic. If I can do all three of those things, hopefully we can get Tech into the Big 12 championship and win it.''

 

Harrell, who spent the fall working with the scout team, says he welcomes having Leach scrutinize his every move, now that he's getting his turn with the starters and the top backups.

 

After throwing for more than 12,000 yards in high school and 167 touchdowns, he hardly finds Tech's offense overwhelming.

 

"Not at all,'' Harrell said. "We probably had more plays in the playbook at Ennis (High School) than we do here. There's not as many plays as people believe. We run a lot of plays out of different formations that make (the same play) look like a totally different thing.

 

"Coming from Ennis to here was almost like staying in the same offense.''

 

Now Leach is trying to decide whether to have one quarterback sit each day to maximize the reps of two - which he's done in the past - or chop up the snaps among three, which he doesn't like either.

 

"Part of it is I haven't been very decisive,'' Leach said. "On one hand, I wanted to give them (extended time) - that was the idea of last year, to give them a long run in some drill. But the thing I didn't like about that was somebody didn't run (7-on-7) or team (period).

 

"Now they're on shorter runs, but they do both each day.

 

"I don't know if that's the way to do it. I debate that all the time: Shorter run, but every day? Longer run, but not every day? I'm not comfortable with either one, really. That's why you've got to get it narrowed down.''

 

don.williams@lubbockonline.com t 766-8734