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What's next for Texas Tech football o-line with Vinny Sciury, Hunter Zambrano down?
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- What's next for Texas Tech football o-line with Vinny Sciury, Hunter Zambrano down?
Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire believes depth in the offensive line will be among his team's strengths this season.
Not that he wants to test it right off the bat.
But two position battles on the offensive line are on hold at least for this week with Hunter Zambrano and Vinny Sciury not practicing at the moment. Zambrano's down with a lower-back problem, McGuire said on Tuesday, Aug. 5, after the Red Raiders ' first workout in full pads. Sciury's been dealing with an intestinal issue.
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Both are expected back next week: Zambrano on Monday, Aug. 11, McGuire said, and Sciury possibly by Monday as well.
Their being idled for a few days wouldn't ordinarily matter much except both missed nearly all of last season after season-ending surgeries and are set to contend for starting jobs: Zambrano against redshirt freshman Jacob Ponton at right tackle and Sciury and Will Jados at left guard.
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"It's tough, like anybody, no matter whether it's a hamstring or a lower back or anything," McGuire said, leading into a story about Lou Gehrig. "We all know the story of how one of the greatest baseball players of all-time became one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. You can get Wally Pipp-ed in a hurry."
Zambrano was medically released in the last week of spring practice. Sciury was back on the field for the start of summer conditioning workouts in June.
"If they were really young players," McGuire said, "I would kind of have a little bit more panic about those guys, but since they've played a lot, and when they were going before they were out — they've missed the last two practices, maybe three — they looked good. Like, I felt good, they felt good about where they were at.
"There is a lot of competition, though, and so when you're missing practices, there's somebody in there that's going to take advantage of you missing practices."
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Sciury opened last season as Tech's starting left guard, but suffered a torn knee ligament in the second game. Zambrano joined the Red Raiders in January as a transfer from Illinois State, where he was shut down after the second game last season. At the time, it had been publicized that he missed nearly the entire 2024 season to have hip surgery.
Zambrano said during the team's local media day on July 30 that he'd undergone three surgeries between April 2024 and April 2025. He had core-muscles surgery in April 2024, surgery to repair torn labrums in both hips and on his nasal passages in September 2024, and at the same time, a tonsillectomy in late April this year.
"My core muscles that were attached to my pelvis on both sides were pretty much torn off, and both my hip labrums were torn," Zambrano said, "And so that's what I've been playing with for the last three years and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse and worse."
Reflecting on his surgeries at the end of July, Zambrano said he felt, "Much better, much better. I feel like I've been put back together."
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Given that the Red Raiders aren't desperate at their positions, both players need time on the field in August to win starting jobs before the season opener.
"It's always good to be part of spring ball," Zambrano said. "You're learning a new system and offense and everything. I was there every day in practice watching, learning and understanding, and I was able to do (individual drills) and stuff like that. It's a little bit of a process to get back.
"Now I've had the summer, and now fall camp's really what's important."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Two key linemen missing early camp time with Texas Tech football
