The game originally was scheduled for Sept. 4.

“This move gives our program national exposure early in the season,” Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said in a statement released by the athletic department. “It also gives us the opportunity to kick off coach (Tommy) Tuberville’s era in front of a national audience.”

So far, Tech has two games set for a national telecast: the SMU game and the Sept. 18 home game against Texas, which will be a 7 p.m. kickoff on ABC or ESPN.

Mike Leach and Texas Tech dug their legal trenches deeper Friday after a week of pretrial investigations and viral Internet videos culminated in a vitriolic new round of finger-pointing.

Lawyers on both sides of the escalating lawsuit claimed the upper hand after a week’s worth of sworn testimony from several of the case’s key players.

The coach, who now lives in Key West, Fla., gave a brief but emotional statement to reporters after his six-hour deposition Friday.

“We’ve had 10 incredible years here,” Leach said with moist eyes. “I had a really good day today. What can I say? It’s 10 years.”

District Judge William Sowder ordered the two sides attempt a settlement through mediation, which was recessed in early February until an unspecified later date. A gag order kept both sides from commenting on negotiations.

Sowder has set an April 23 deadline for the two teams to file their preliminary discovery findings. He has also scheduled a May 14 hearing on the university’s request for sovereign immunity, which could shield it from the lawsuit as a state entity.

But any talk of a possible out-of-court settlement took a back seat this week to a trickle of pretrial discovery developments that has both camps maneuvering for a courtroom showdown.

“That’s my view,” said Leach attorney Paul Dobrowski after Leach’s deposition downtown. “Certainly, we’re preparing for trial.”

A pair of newly released videos from last season has further inflamed the situation. Leach’s attorneys claim Tech purposely leaked the videos of Leach angrily chastising the team’s poor performance after the Baylor game through a profanity-infused post-game locker room rant.

Tech is denying any motive or design in releasing the videos, which were obtained by at least two media outlets via an open records request and posted online the night before Leach’s deposition.

His testimony also came a day after a Tech Chancellor Kent Hance underwent his own deposition. Charlotte Bingham, a Tech official who conducted an early investigation into Leach’s treatment of the player, testified on March 5.

Leach’s team
After the deposition, Dobrowski told a room full of reporters they dealt a heavy blow to the university’s case on Thursday when Hance confirmed Craig James personally wanted Leach fired.

Dobrowski said this, when told to the board of regents, factored inappropriately on the university’s decision to fire the coach.

“I think that we know, and they know, that our case has gotten substantially stronger by virtue of the discovery process,” he said.

Tech’s team
Dicky Grigg, an Austin-based lawyer for Tech and former Tech football player, countered Dobrowski’s statements, saying the university, not Leach, gained legal footing during the depositions.

Grigg said Leach admitted in his deposition to reacting to James’ concussion by telling a trainer to put the player in a “place so dark that the only way he knows he has an (expletive) is to reach down and touch it.”

“What this language shows is that his intent was vindictive, not therapeutic,” Grigg said. “Leach himself admitted, under oath, that he has never treated another student athlete with a brain concussion in the manner that he treated this young man.”

More subpoenas
Additional evidence gathering has also come from a far-reaching burst of subpoenas filed by the Leach team in recent weeks. One has gone to Frenship Independent School District for records involving the enrollment of his successor’s children.

Another went to Spaeth Communications, a public relations firm representing Craig James, who is scheduled to testify in Lubbock today.

In an earlier filing, according to court documents, Tech’s attorneys referred to Leach’s subpoenas as “a fishing expedition.”

“They call it a fishing expedition,” said Leach attorney Ted Liggett. “I call it a search for truth.”
The videos

Leach’s team also took aim Friday at Tech’s release of the videos — recorded by the university’s athletics department for possible promotional footage — as they rippled throughout blogs and news Web sites. The footage shows an angered coach criticizing the team for a mediocre performance against Baylor in late November.

His attorneys suspected foul play in the timing of the videos’ release.

“We submit that that’s no coincidence,” Dobrowski said. “Texas Tech knows the deposition yesterday of
Chancellor Hance and Ms. Bingham’s last week went poorly for them … therefore, they’re trying to smear Mike with videos that, quite frankly, are irrelevant.”

Although Grigg agreed the videos are irrelevant, he said had no choice but to release the videos after
receiving an open information request for them.

“We had no option but to release them, under law,” he said. “Now, who told the media about them? I don’t know. There were over 100 people, obviously, in the team room after the game.”

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Mike Leach, Texas Tech’s former football coach, is in downtown Lubbock today testifying under oath about the events that led up to his firing in December. Sitting in on the deposition are Leach, his attorneys, Tech President Guy Bailey and several members of the university’s legal team. Leach did not comment to reporters as he entered the deposition room at about 9 a.m. The A-J will continue following this story.

Hardly overlooked was the fact Brewer’s grandfather, Charlie Brewer, and his father, Robert Brewer, are former Texas Longhorns quarterbacks.

But in coming to Lubbock, Michael Brewer won’t necessarily escape his standard bearers.

In 1999, Charlie Brewer, a Lubbock High legend, was named the quarterback on the A-J All-City All-Century football team and to the South Plains’ Top 100 Athletes of all-time list.

“I’ve seen all of his old photos and his old playbooks and his ring,’’ Michael Brewer said. “He loves Lubbock, thinks it’s a great town. He’s really fired up that I’m going to be at Texas Tech.’’

Still just a junior in high school, Michael Brewer already has a lot in common with his grandfather: Just as Charlie Brewer quarterbacked Lubbock High to a 13-0 state championship season in 1951 — the first of back-to-back titles for the Westerners — Michael quarterbacked Class 4A Lake Travis to a 16-0 state championship season last year.

Brewer, who said he is 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, posted attention-getting statistics last season for the Cavaliers. He threw for 4,450 yards on 256-of-367 passing, and his touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio was 43-7.

That won him 10 scholarship offers, the others coming from Texas, Baylor, Kansas, Arizona State, Clemson, Tulsa, Rice, East Carolina and Auburn. But Brewer’s first offer came from Tech in week six of last season.

“I was interested right off the bat,’’ he said.

He promptly visited campus the week of the Tech-Texas A&M game. After the Red Raiders’ coaching change, Brewer visited again for a junior day.

“When I visited, it was everything I expected and more,’’ he said. “I kind of fell in love with Lubbock and Texas Tech, and I’m real excited to be a Red Raider.’’

Brewer plans to graduate high school in December and enroll at Tech in January.

After Tech fired former coach Mike Leach, Brewer said new head coach Tommy Tuberville and offensive coordinator Neal Brown came to watch him throw and confirmed his scholarship offer remained in place. He didn’t need much time to warm up to the new coaches.

Brewer said among the pluses to joining Tech is that Brown’s offense is similar to what he’s been running at Lake Travis.

“I’ve briefly seen just a little bit of film on some of the stuff they’re going to be running,’’ he said. “It’s a really fast-paced, no-huddle, hurry-up offense. Running the ball. Throwing the ball all around the field. Rolling out. Running the quarterback — not a lot, but just enough.’’

Brewer also seems well-suited for Brown’s offense in the latter regard. He carried the ball 114 times for 615 yards and 23 touchdowns last season.

“I’m a pass-first and then run-second guy,’’ he said. “But if necessary, I can run the ball.’’

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Brewer completed 256 of 367 passes for 4,450 yards and 43 touchdowns last season, throwing seven interceptions. His Class 4A team went 16-0, scoring 50 or more points in 11 games. Brewer also rushed for 615 yards and 23 touchdowns on 114 carries.

He is a grandson of Charlie Brewer, who quarterback Lubbock High’s 1951 state championship team, and a son of Robert Brewer, a former Texas quarterback who scored the winning touchdown in the 1982 Cotton Bowl.

Michael Brewer is listed at 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds.

He also had been recruited by Tulsa, Texas, Rice, Auburn, East Carolina, Baylor, Kansas and Arizona State.

While many Tech fans were angered by the December firing of Mike Leach, others are warming up to his replacement. Speaking Tuesday to a crowd of about 700, Tommy Tuberville got hearty applause when he vowed to win multiple championships for the Red Raiders.

“I think it speaks volumes that the place was sold out,” Seim said of Tuberville’s “Lubbock Welcome” sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, Tech Alumni Association and the Red Raider Club. “I think people are kind of over the transition that we went through back in December and early January and have accepted and recognized the fact that we’ve got in coach Tuberville a coach that is in the elite status of college coaches in America.

“I told my wife, I’m going to actually go to the spring game, and I’ve never done that.”

Tuberville told the luncheon crowd at the Memorial Civic Center that he didn’t come to Lubbock to win six or seven games a season.

“We know how to win championships,” he said. “You can just imagine here the excitement when we do win … because we’re going to win a championship. We’re going to win maybe two, maybe three, maybe four. It just depends on what the good Lord wants us to have.”

Tuberville devoted much of his talk to what the community could do for the football program and vice versa.

“Whatever happens over in that stadium on Saturday will benefit you, the businesses of this town, the people of this community,” he said. “It will bring people here. Millions of dollars will be brought into this community because of the success.”

Tuberville, who was part of three national championship teams in eight years as a University of Miami assistant, said that school received enrollment boosts of 15 to 18 percent after each title. He said, then, that Tech football would do its part to help achieve Chancellor Kent Hance’s long-term goal of 40,000 enrollment.

In return, Tuberville said the team needed to see Red Raider banners in the community and bumper stickers on cars.

“You will be amazed how that helps when we bring recruits to this community, to see the excitement not just in the football program, not just in the field house, not just around campus, but in the community,” he said. “You will prosper from this.”

Seim said he thinks the business community is excited by Tuberville’s presence.

“I think the entire university is going to benefit greatly,” he said, “and as the university benefits the entire area will benefit.”

Steve Uryasz, head of the Red Raider Club, said the RRC has received hundreds of requests for Tuberville to speak across the state, too many for him to do them all. Uryasz said he’s looking to see where coordinators and assistants could be used to help out in speaking engagements.

In cases such as Tuesday, he said the Red Raider Club is making an effort to combine requests into one bigger event when it makes sense.

“He’s done a really good job of pulling everybody together,” Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said. “I think people like what he has to say about his plan, about what he’s going to do with the team. I think people appreciate his being accessible to go out and visit and talk to different groups, civic clubs, alumni. I think he’s been received really well.”

On other topics:

• Tuberville said he spent about three hours recently talking with former Red Raiders coach Spike Dykes, whom he described as a long-time friend. Though the purpose was not to pick up dinner-speaking tips, Tuberville tickled the crowd a few times, a quality for which Dykes was renowned.

Joking about the unseasonably cold, wet winter he’s experienced in Lubbock, Tuberville cracked, “At least the wind never blows here.”

He said Tech athletic chief of staff Craig Wells “told me, next week (the weather) is going to start getting beautiful. That was three weeks ago.”

• Tech is in the process of adding display and trophy cases to the team’s football building.

“We already had that funded – and built – before he came,” Myers said. “But they’re just now putting them in. It’s going to be nice to showcase the football history. It’s like he said: It’s all about recruiting.”

• Tuberville urged fans to show up on April 17 for the spring game, an event that Leach often downplayed as no more important to him than any other practice. Tech plans to charge $5 for adults to attend this year.

• Tuberville wants to rev up the players’ pre-game arrival at the stadium. In recent years, Tech invited fans to greet players as they made the short walk from the Football Training Facility to Jones AT&T Stadium, though the idea didn’t really take off.

Tuberville envisions the players being dropped off a quarter-mile out and passing through the tailgaters or Raider Alley area west of the stadium.

“I’m not here to change a lot of things,” he said. “I’m here to make it better. I’m here to help you. I’m here to help Texas Tech, and I’m here to win a championship.”

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Ellison coach Buddy McBryde said Hocutt is 6-foot, 258 pounds and has been timed at 4.6 seconds for the 40-yard sprint.

“He’s very big, very athletic, an extremely strong player,’’ McBryde said.

Hocutt played inside linebacker in a 4-4 defense and fullback in a wing-T offense. Ellison coaches started him on both sides of the ball, though not at the same time.

McBryde said Hocutt played most of last season at linebacker, averaging six solo tackles per game, but moved to fullback for the last three games. In those three games, McBryde said Hocutt rushed for about 70 yards against Belton, about 110 yards against Killeen Shoemaker and 180 yards against College Station A&M Consolidated.

McBryde said Hocutt was brought up to the varsity for the last six or seven games of his freshman year. As a sophomore, he was named defensive newcomer of the year in the district. Those two seasons, he was a teammate of Daniel Cobb, who signed with Tech last February and redshirted in 2009.

Next season, Ellison coaches plan to use Hocutt at fullback.

The Eagles finished 4-6 last season.

McBryde said Texas, Oklahoma State and TCU also had shown interest in Hocutt, but Tech was the first program to offer him a scholarship.

“What he liked about them that impressed them was they faxed us the offer and that kind of was a surprise to him, and wanted him to call,’’ McBryde said. “But then they mailed another one with a hand-written address. That seemed to impress him. As soon as he got it (Monday), last night he committed.’’

Oral commitments are non-binding.

Hocutt is the second recruit to pledge to the Red Raiders for the February 2011 class. The other pledge is from Lakeland, Fla., wide receiver Javares McRoy, whose brother, Ben McRoy, signed with the Red Raiders last month.

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That’s what Tuberville told a roomful of mostly high school coaches during a weekend West Texas Football Clinic session in Lubbock. That’s something he plans to do at Texas Tech, just like at every stop he’s made the last two decades.

“The one thing you have to have to be successful and to win championships is you have to play good defensive line,” the new Tech coach said. “That doesn’t mean you have to have great players.”

Not surprisingly, then, the Red Raiders’ new coach also has strong convictions about how to prepare and deploy his defensive ends and tackles. Next season, he plans to have the Tech D-linemen keying off the snap of the football — not the offensive line movement — attacking the line of scrimmage while aiming for penetration two or three feet beyond and running hard to the ball.

“If it’s third down and 15 or third and 1, our defensive line is going to play the same technique,” he said. “We’re going to be attacking the line of scrimmage, getting depth, making plays.”

Nothing that sounds too radical — former Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill also preached an attacking style — but Tuberville said it was not exactly conventional wisdom when Jimmy Johnson took that approach to the University of Miami, and then the Dallas Cowboys, in the mid-to-late 1980s. Fronts that read and moved down the line of scrimmage were more the norm.

Johnson’s winning two Super Bowls with the Cowboys, Tuberville said, helped the concept of attack-style defensive front gain acceptance.

With that as a foundation, Tuberville has adopted and adhered to many principles since. Some might seem subtle from the stands, but Tuberville stressed them to his coaching audience as vitally important:

Such as:
-Defensive linemen will take their key from first movement of the football.

“The biggest key when you’re playing defensive line, that I’ve found over the years, is so many people look at the guy in front (of them),” Tuberville said. “If you talk to any really good defensive lineman who has been around it for a while, the first thing that they will key is the football. They want to move when the ball moves, not when the offensive lineman moves. I think that’s the biggest key to defensive line play is, when that ball moves, you’re gone.”

-If that means not being square to the line of scrimmage before the snap, so be it. Tuberville said defensive linemen who square their shoulders to the line pre-snap seldom key the snap of the football.

“Most of the time when you play a team that keys the football, you will see a tilt, a little bit of a tilt to the shoulders of the defensive linemen,” Tuberville said. “We tell our defensive linemen to get to a position where they can see the ball.

“If they’re turned, a noticeable turn, that’s fine. But you get to where you can see that ball move, because we don’t want you moving when (the offensive lineman) moves. They have the advantage when that happens.”

-Many defensive linemen are coached to keep their shoulders square to the line of scrimmage, in part to defend bootleg action. Tuberville said he doesn’t worry about giving up the occasional bootleg.

“We want our defensive ends and defensive tackles to be flying to the football,” he said. “It goes back to one thing: Don’t worry about size. Worry about (having) guys that can run. Your defensive linemen will make more plays by doing this when the ball goes away than when the ball comes to them. If it goes away, these guys will have a great opportunity to make a play, because they are hauling butt down the line of scrimmage.

“One thing we always tell our defensive linemen: We’re forcing the ball, but we’re not worried about linebackers being free and trying to keep blockers off of linebackers. We want them to make the play first.”

-Tuberville’s defensive linemen will use an elongated stance and line up as tightly as possible to the line of scrimmage — not one foot or two feet off. Behind them, it’s a different story.

“If you play an attacking-style front defense, you have to play your linebackers deep,” he said. “I think that might be the biggest mistake people make is if you’re an attacking front that you play (linebackers) 2 to 3 yards off the ball and then, really, they have no chance.”

What Tuberville’s defenses do is deploy the linebackers with their heels 5 yards off the ball. Then they don’t step laterally unless the ball goes laterally, such as on a toss sweep.

“Our first step is always downhill with the play-side foot,” he said. “After that, we don’t coach them. We just tell them, ‘Run to the football.’ The one thing you don’t want to do if you’re playing an attacking front is over-coach a linebacker.

“If you’re going to coach anybody, coach those D-linemen. Coach them to key the ball and get their butt upfield on the snap of the ball.”

Tuberville has said about half of Tech’s defensive package will be based out of a 3-4 and half will be based on 4-3. Either way, he said, the techniques won’t change. Tech’s front men will play gaps, not head-up on blockers — much like they’ve done in the past.

Though many 3-4 proponents prefer a massive noseguard and bigger defensive ends and inside linebackers,
Tuberville says he doesn’t obsess over height and weight specifications.

“You don’t have to have the prototype big guys if you play a Jimmy Johnson-style defensive front or, really, the defensive front that we’re going to play here,” he said.

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Tech is increasing season-ticket prices by $14 and $19 in most sections of Jones AT&T Stadium for next season. That will be for a six-game home schedule that includes three Big 12 Conference games. In 2009, the Red Raiders had a seven-game home schedule that included four Big 12 games.

Craig Wells, athletic department chief of staff and senior associate athletic director, said the increase is necessary to give all the university’s sports programs a chance to be competitive.

Texas Tech's Alexander Torres pulls down a pass from Taylor Potts in front of Oklahoma's Dominique Franks Saturday afternoon. Tech beat OU 41-13 at Jones AT&T Stadium. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

“Facilities, salaries for coaches, staffs, everybody — all those expenses have gone up,’’ Wells said. “For us to (be competitive), we have to take advantage of where we have a chance to increase revenues, and football tickets is one of those places.

“We realize there’s a point to where you just can’t go higher anymore. We are hoping that we’re not to that point. What we hope is that the increase is small enough that everybody will understand that all we’re trying to do is stay competitive.’’

In an attempt to keep games affordable, Tech will offer season tickets for $149 in all six new sections that opened last season on the northeast and northwest corners of the stadium. Those sections comprise about 6,000 seats.

The $149 season ticket with no add-on fees is an attempt to revive the idea of the $99 season ticket that Tech offered starting in 2002. Since then, Tech officials said last year was the first time no season tickets were offered for less than $200.

“What we hope is we’re opening up a brand-new door for people that have not been able to come because of financial reasons,’’ Wells said. “That $149 ticket for six home games in the Big 12 is unheard of. I daresay
there’s not a season ticket much cheaper than that, if any (in the Big 12).’’

Tech has moved its game with Baylor to the Cotton Bowl as part of a two-year agreement between the Red Raiders and the Bears to play in the Metroplex. The 2010 game was Tech’s home game, but the Cotton Bowl matchup will require a separate buy; it’s not included in the season-ticket package.

Tickets for the Tech-Baylor game are $90, $60, $40 and, for students, $25.

Depending on location, season tickets to Tech home games have gone from last year’s prices of $225, $330 and $385 to new prices of $239, $349 and $399. That’s not including personal seat license fees ranging from $100 to $300 on the $399 season ticket.

Red Raider Club donations ranging from $100 to $350 also are required to purchase season tickets in 21 of the stadium sections.

Tech was the last Big 12 school to implement donor-based seating when it did so in 2003. Last year, 12 stadium sections were put under donor-based seating for the first time.

PSL fees and Red Raider Club donation requirements are unchanged from last year, and no new sections have been annexed for donor-based seating, according to senior associate athletic director Steve Uryasz, who heads the Red Raider Club.

Uryasz said the Red Raider Club remains about $3 million a year short of donations being able to cover scholarship costs for all Tech athletes: The scholarship tab last year was $6.4 million, of which the Red Raider Club covered $3.5 million.

Tech officials say their football season-ticket prices remain cheaper than other places in the Big 12.

“Based on last year, we’re still in the bottom half (price-wise),’’ said Dave Welsh, assistant athletic director
for ticket operations. “And our prices haven’t changed enough where I think that would be dramatically different.’’

The opening of the six new stadium sections will trigger the conversion of Section 14 in the lower-level northeast corner from a season-ticket location to student seating for 2010. The idea is to keep the percentage of the stadium allocated for students — a little more than 20 percent — in the same proportion.

While it will increase student seating to about 12,600, it will displace about 700 paid tickets — about 100 accounts — in Section 14, Welsh said.

Tech’s season-ticket base dropped from a little more than 41,000 in 2008 to a little more than 39,000 last year, figures that include the roughly 12,000 student seats.

One other significant change for 2010: The spacious United Spirit Arena lot will be converted from free to paid parking on football game days, and free parking will move to a similar large lot west of the Tech Health Sciences Center and north of the John Walker Soccer Complex.

A paid shuttle bus service will run from the free lot, as it has in the past, Wells said.

Uryasz said prices to park in the USA lot haven’t been set, but Tech officials believed they needed to make it paid parking to cover expenses such as security, trash pickup and portable toilets.

To park there next season, fans will be able to buy up to two spaces, for a vehicle and a tailgating spot, on a season or individual game basis, Uryasz said.

Uryasz said Tech will add security at the USA lots and curtail an issue that’s cropped up in the past with some fans roping off an excessive number of spaces.

“I think people out there do want a level of organization, a level of structure, because we have had some problems out there with some fan behavior issues,’’ Uryasz said. “Our goal is to, No. 1, create a great environment for our fans and, No. 2, make sure it’s as safe as we possibly can have it.’’

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It’s not as if his playbook is Webster’s Dictionary thick to begin with. Speaking Saturday at the 28th annual West Texas Football Clinic, the new Texas Tech offensive coordinator said next year’s Red Raiders might need to know as few as a dozen plays — three or four runs and six to eight pass routes.

“We’re not trying to recreate the wheel,’’ Brown said later. “We’ll decorate those plays up by motioning and doing some things like that, but we’re going to be pretty simple in our approach.’’

As philosophies go, it’s not a radical departure from former Tech coach Mike Leach, who believed in drilling his players in a small package of plays and then running them with ruthless efficiency on fall Saturdays.

Brown and new Tech coach Tommy Tuberville say they’re smart enough not to do away with what worked so well for Leach. Brown told a roomful of coaches at the Holiday Inn Park Plaza that his four-point philosophy includes playing fast, being simple and detail oriented, throwing to set up the run and getting the football to playmakers in space.

Differences?

-The Raiders will use some empty-backfield formations, something Leach almost never did. Brown said he used empty sets three to five plays a game in his last job — offensive coordinator at Troy University, which finished third in the nation in total offense last season.

“It wasn’t a deal where we got in it and stayed in it a bunch, but we definitely will utilize it some,’’ he said.

-There might be plays in which the Raiders line up with four receivers bunched to one side, with running back Baron Batch stationed in a pod behind three wideouts.

-Tech quarterbacks will be allowed to switch from one play to another at the line of scrimmage, but won’t have the broad latitude that Leach gave them.

“Part of (the reason), he was here a long time, and those guys were on the same mind frame,’’ Brown said. “The guys we have at quarterback are smart, but I want to be careful about putting too much on them. I want them to be playing and not thinking. I don’t think either way’s wrong. There’s just different ways to do it.’’

In what Brown described as “the triple option,’’ Taylor Potts or Steven Sheffield would come to the line with three possibilities: Throw a quick screen to the three- or four-wide side; throw a slant, an out route or a fly pattern if there’s one-on-one coverage to the other side; or — if the linebackers empty out — run a quarterback draw.

“Checking’’ will consist of choosing between one run play and one or two pass plays or vice versa.
“They’re not going to have the whole playbook to check to,’’ Brown said. “It’ll be, ‘You can check from play A to play B, but not to all of them.’ ’’

-Leach seldom used motion, but Brown will incorporate it a little bit more.

“We won’t be a huge motion team either,’’ he said, “but we’ll have a wrinkle or two of motion each week. It’s not going to be a deal where we’ll motion every play.. I don’t believe in that either.’’

-In the Leach era, announcers and opposing coaches made frequent reference to the offensive line’s wide splits. Brown said the usual line splits at Troy were about 3 feet, the ones Tech has used at about 4 feet.
Now he guesses they’ll be somewhere in between.

“We’re going to be as wide as we can and still be able to run the zone,’’ he said, referring to the Raiders’ bread-and-butter rushing play.

Brown said he hasn’t decided yet how to send in plays. Leach flashed hand signals to the quarterback, who then referenced a playlist in his wristband.

Brown said he won’t use a system that Troy used at times in which all 11 offensive players looked to the
sideline at the line of scrimmage.

“We won’t do that here,’’ he said. “The skill guys may, but the O-line won’t.’’

The decision has been made to keep the same terminology Leach used, partly because Brown started his playing career at Kentucky when Leach was offensive coordinator there. Brown said the terminology he learned then and calls the Raiders made last year were identical.

“I feel like I’m in a time warp and I’m 17 years old again learning this offense,’’ he said. “I may have a flashback every once in a while where I call (a play) what I did at Troy, but we’re going to keep the same terminology.’’

Some of Brown’s offensive goals include running at least 75 plays per game — he said Troy twice reached 100-plus snaps last season — and taking care of the football. To the latter end, the last thing the Raiders will work each practice will be ball security. And there’ll be reminders beyond that.

“You’ll see ball-security signs in every one of our meeting rooms,’’ Brown said.

A little more than 500 coaches registered for the annual clinic. It concludes today with presentations by Brady High School coach Glen Jones at 9 a.m. and Bushland coach David Flowers at 10:30 a.m. They led their teams to state semifinal and state final appearances, respectively, in 2009.