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Which Texas Tech football linemen are best technicians? Top maulers? OC offers input
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- Which Texas Tech football linemen are best technicians? Top maulers? OC offers input
Which Texas Tech football offensive linemen are the best technicians? Which one or more stand out for brute strength and potential to be a mauler in the run game?
Tech offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich gave some answers that aren't necessarily surprising ― and others that might be.
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Offensive tackles Howard Sampson and Jacob Ponton impress Leftwich as being good technicians of their craft. They have no choice, he added, going against touted new edge rushers David Bailey and Romello Height , transfers from Stanford and Georgia Tech , respectively.
"They're going against real guys — I mean, two of the best edge rushers in the country, every day, on both sides," Leftwich said on Thursday, Aug. 14. "If your technique isn't good, you can get exposed quickly. I think those guys have gotten a lot better, just from that competition and having to elevate their play."
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Height said Ponton, a redshirt freshman, is measuring up.
"Young Ponton, he's challenged me a lot," Height said. "He's gotten so much better since I've got here. He's picking up on my moves, and I'm like, 'Good rep, Ponton.'"
Leftwich worked every first-team offensive lineman into the discussion.
"From a mauler standpoint, you think of Will Jados, just a big body who's been playing left guard for us," he said. "You get him and Howard on that left side, you can really move bodies.
"The right guard, Davion Carter, kind of does it all, really. You wouldn't expect it from him. He's 5-10 — maybe 5-11 on a good day — but he's a technician and he's strong. He uses the leverage to his advantage, and then I think Sheri (center Sheridan Wilson) has had a great fall camp as well."
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Projected right tackle candidate Hunter Zambrano, though back in action, has missed several preseason practices with a lower-back issue. That, coupled with his missing nearly all of spring practice recovering from surgery on both hips, has given Ponton nearly all the first-team work since March, plus opened the door for D'Anthis Upshaw, a redshirt freshman walk-on from Irving.
"From a technician, too, a guy that I think's had a great fall camp, made huge strides, a young guy, is D'Anthis Upshaw," Leftwich said. "He's stepped in and he's been going as our (second-team) left tackle pretty much all fall camp. I think he has a really high ceiling and has really been buying in to the coaching. You can see his technique's improved a ton."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Mack Leftwich rates which Texas Tech football linemen have best traits
