Marlon Williams and Bront Bird have always been easy to spot on the Texas Tech defense.

Bird’s the tall linebacker with the long hair poking out the back of his helmet. Williams, outgoing and high-spirited, is the defensive player most likely to get the crowd going at a critical moment, throwing in a few body gyrations to accompany the public address.

Texas Tech linebacker Marlon Willams (39) has had lots of chances to celebrate so far. He leads the team in tackles, as well as having five stops behind the line, a sack and an interception. (Geoffrey Mcallister / Ap)

There are more reasons to pay attention to them this season.

Through two games, they’re being used in more ways and making more plays than in the past, trying to progress from solid to standing out.

Tech’s linebackers are the position group that’s done the best job of turning its play up a notch.
“The big key is making sure you finish plays when your number’s dialed,’’ defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said. “You see a lot of people rush the passer or get a chance to make a play in the backfield, and they just about get there. They’ve done a good job of finishing plays.’’

Williams, the senior from Pflugerville, and Bird, the junior from Odessa Permian, are 1-2 on the team in tackles. But from Williams and Bird, middle linebacker Brian Duncan and Duncan’s backup, Sam Fehoko, the Red Raiders have gotten seven tackles for loss, a sack, an interception and three pass breakups. A year ago, starters Williams, Duncan and Bird had only eight tackles for loss, three sacks and two interceptions all season.

Williams has racked up a good portion of that. The 6-foot, 220-pound weak-side linebacker has made five of his 16 tackles behind the line, picked off a pass and logged a sack.

Describing Saturday’s 55-10 victory against Rice, he made it sound simple.

“You could see them get flustered easy, or if you gave them a look they may not have seen, a lot of times they didn’t know how to (adjust) to it,’’ he said. “With us having experience, we saw that and adapted. We gave them different looks and moved people around. It helped us come up with some big plays.’’

McNeill is showing a more creative side in using his linebackers, especially Bird. The 6-foot-3, 236-pound strong-side ’backer is spending more time walked up on the line of scrimmage or rushing from the team’s joker position, which roams around before the snap to keep pass protectors guessing.

From an alignment standpoint, McNeill said, “You haven’t seen him in the first couple of years do what he’s doing now.’’
The Raiders spent little time in their base defense against North Dakota and Rice. McNeill said he hasn’t changed philosophies; his personnel at linebacker has just gotten older.

“There’s no need to blitz or move a guy here or there if he’s not able to execute the fundamentals,’’ McNeill said. “The better they’ve gotten with fundamental execution, now that enables us to do some more things with them. It just takes time. The longer we’re here, the more guys are in the system, the more things we can do with them.’’

McNeill called Bird “one of the smartest football players I’ve been around,’’ and says Williams is “a guy you can make adjustments with mid-stream during a game.’’

Bird doesn’t have to come off the field much — McNeill said he’s capable of playing in most substitution packages. That wasn’t always the case.

McNeill said Bird wasn’t ready during his freshman and sophomore seasons to handle the variety of spots he’s being asked to play this year.

Naturally, Williams and his teammates love being given more ways to get after opponents.
“That is what Coach Ruff wants us to do — attacking, never letting up and going after them every play,’’ Williams said. “If you keep attacking somebody and keep beating them down, they will start backing down and get lax and not want to fight anymore.’’

Bird, who hasn’t been available for interviews since the season started, said in preseason camp that a battle-tested defensive line is making the job easier. That carried over against Rice, when the front four had five of the team’s six sacks.
“The tackles are holding these double teams, and (blockers) can’t come off on us,’’ Bird said. “It’s allowing our linebackers to run free on a lot of plays.’’

College football
Who: Texas Tech at No. 2 Texas
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Royal-Memorial Stadium, Austin
Records: Tech 2-0, Texas 2-0
Last game: Tech 55, Rice 10; Texas 41, Wyoming 10
Last meeting: Tech 39, Texas 33 last year in Lubbock
TV: ABC (channel 28; Suddenlink Cable channel 8)
Line: Texas by 16½