BY DON WILLIAMS l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Mike Leach labeled what he watched Monday at Jones AT&T Stadium as a good first scrimmage. No question it was a good showing for the Texas Tech defense. The Tech offense still has work to do to arrive at mid-season form.

Only two of Tech’s three touchdowns came after lengthy drives. On six occasions, the offense bogged down inside the 30-yard line and had to settle for field-goal attempts. Plus, there were too many false starts and dropped passes.

“I thought it was pretty competitive,’’ Leach said. “We’ve been alternating workouts, really, as far as who comes out on top. The biggest difference with whoever comes out on top each day is who’s most excited to play. Defense was far more excited today, but I thought a lot of young guys on both sides of the ball showed some promise.’’

Quarterback Steven Sheffield (1) looks for an open receiver while being chased by defenders during a scrimmage on Monday at Jones AT&T Stadium.

Last season, Tech averaged 44.6 points and about 76 plays per game. Monday’s scrimmage ran 120 plays, but the Red Raiders had only two legitimate drives for touchdowns. Both ended with touchdown passes to junior flanker Alexander Torres — a 31-yarder from Seth Doege during the third sequence of 10 plays, and a 14-yarder from Taylor Potts during the eighth 10-play sequence.

After the second TD, Leach kept the ball at the 3-yard line to drill goal-line offense, and Baron Batch bulled into the end zone two plays later.

For much of the afternoon, however, the Tech defense made timely stops in its own end.

“I thought we were excited to play, excited to practice, which is always key,’’ defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said. “I thought the kids did a good job responding. If some bad things happened, they kept playing the next play, which is what coach Leach preaches to the team. I thought we did some things well as a team defensively.’’

Texas Tech receiver Landon Hoefer makes a catch during practice Monday at Jones AT&T Stadium.

The scrimmage format was starters-versus-starters, second-unit players against second-unit players and third-stringers against third-stringers, switching after every 10 plays. With the twos up first, cornerback Taylor Charbonnet intercepted Steven Sheffield on the second play and had a tackle for loss on third-and-3 from the defense’s 47-yard line. Three plays later, it was linebacker Blake Collier getting a sack on third-and-5.

On the second series, starting safety Franklin Mitchem tipped a Potts pass and it fell into cornerback LaRon Moore’s lap for an interception. The offense returned to its own 40, where most series originated, and crossed midfield to the 48 before two touch sacks ended the set. Richard Jones touched Potts down on second down and defensive end Ryan Haliburton from Frenship got him on third down.

The defense got 12 touch sacks with three being credited to end Daniel Howard and two each to tackle Brandon Sesay and Ra’Jon Henley, who was playing end on Monday. Sesay and Henley are cross-training this spring at both tackle and end.

The kickers were a strong suit early on. Matt Williams booted a 43-yard field goal to cap the fourth 10-play set, and on the next two sequences Donnie Carona nailed a kick from 45 yards and Williams made another from 43 yards.

Later, however, Carona missed left from 43 yards and right from 47 yards.

All the field-goal attempts from that range meant the defense was doing something right to stall drives. Sesay broke up a third-down pass from the 28. On a fourth-and-1 from the 26, defensive tackle Britton Barbee put a solid form tackle on running back Josh Talbott for a 2-yard loss. Leach gave the go-ahead for Williams to kick one of his field goals on what amounted to fifth down. Before Carona’s last try, a touch sack by end Sandy Riley put the offense into a third-and-18 situation.

On the last 10-play sequence, the third-team defense made a stand, not giving up a yard after first-and-goal from the 9.

That’s the kind of timely play McNeill hopes to see extended into the fall.

“We’ve emphasized that to the group — turnovers and finishing strong and third down,’’ he said. “We started the (2008) season strong on third down. We want to practice that, and our offense is so tough it’s hard to stop them. We want to hopefully do well on third down.’’

TEXAS TECH SCRIMMAGE STATISTICS
SCORING SUMMARY
Torres 31 pass from Doege (no attempt)
FG Williams 43
FG Carona 45
FG Williams 43
Torres 14 pass from Potts (no attempt)
Batch 3 run (no attempt)
FG O’Conner 26

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Batch 7-16, Talbott 5-14, Jeffers 3-6, Douglas 2-6.

PASSING: Potts 17-31-1—166, Doege 9-10-0—105, Loucks 8-16-1—86; Riley 10-13-0—66; Sheffield 8-12-1—34.

RECEIVING: Lewis 11-125, Jeffers 7-10, Franks 6-66, Kelley 5-24, Zouzalik 4-49, Torres 2-45, Swindall 3-38, Britton 3-29, James 3-28, Reese 2-20, Douglas 2-10, Ward 2-9, Batch 1-4, Talbott 1-2.

TACKLES: Sonier 4 solo, 3 assists, 7; Flannel 1-5-6; Dewhurst 1-5-6; Fehoko 1-5-6; Howard 0-4-4; Henley 0-4-4; Charbonnet 1-3-4; Bird 2-2-4; Taylor 2-2-4; Duncan 2-2-4; Williams 3-0-3; Collier 1-2-3; Harvey 1-2-3; Hunter 2-1-3; Sesay 0-3-3; Davis 0-2-2; Whitlock 1-1-2; Barbee 1-1-2; Foster 0-2-2; Mitchem 0-2-2; Haliburton 0-2-2; Riley 0-2-2.

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