Coach Kliff Kingsbury opened Texas Tech's pre-game press conference talking about the Arizona State Defensive Coordinator Phil Bennett. If that name sounds familiar, you may remember him from his time at Baylor.

"Coach Bennett has his philosophy what he does, the type of coverages he's run. He's had a lot of success with it," Kingsbury said.

From 2013 to 2016, Coach Kingsbury had a lot of offensive success against the Baylor Defense, scoring an average of 43 points against Bennett's Bears.

When talking about the running game, he mentioned trying to get a feel for everyone in week 1.

"We wanted to get everybody as the game went, get everybody some touches and see how they played, and we have confidence in four or five of those guys carrying the football, which is good." Kingsbury said. "Good to see them do it when the lights are on. But I could see as the games go on, people getting fewer touches."

There's a good chance those carries will start to pile up for Desmond Nisby and Justin Stockton. That's not to say that Texas Tech will only use the two backs.

Coach Kingsbury also talked about the difference in the 2016 contest between Texas Tech and Arizona State.

"I think just getting dominated in the field position area. I think we started five drives inside our 7-yard line, turned it over twice, had a safety, a bunch of things you can't do on the road against a good football team and win, but I think more than anything, they dominated us in special teams and the field position battle," he explained. That position battle will be a key this week.

Also a key this week is stopping Kalen Ballage and the Sparky Formation.

"I think we've taken a long, hard look at that," Kingsbury said, "I think after last year, the problems that gave us we've definitely had some focus on that, and hopefully we can do a better job of slowing that down this season."


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