BOULDER, Colo.—Give Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell a little time and he’ll make a defense look foolish.
Hit him early, though, and he’ll get antsy. At least that’s been Colorado’s experience.
The Buffaloes rattled Harrell last year in a 30-6 win in Boulder. Colorado applied the heat, leading to three interceptions and Harrell’s brief benching.
“We were hitting them pretty good,” said Colorado cornerback Terrence Wheatley, whose team travels to Texas Tech on Saturday. “You could see he didn’t want to get hit like that again.”
Colorado (4-4, 2-2 Big 12) is well aware of what Harrell can do if there’s no pass rush bearing down on him. The Red Raiders (6-2, 2-2) have the top-ranked offense in the country, and Harrell is leading the way by throwing for 443.5 yards a game.
“We need to get into his head and not just let him sit back there and pass it like he is playing a video game,” Wheatley said. “It looks like he is just sitting back there throwing darts. If we create some pressure, hit him a few times, hopefully that will rattle him a little bit. You can’t just sit there and let him get comfortable.”
Harrell has thrown at least four touchdown passes in six games this season. He also had a 646-yard game against Oklahoma State earlier this season, the fourth-best single-game passing performance in NCAA history.
However, No. 13 Missouri was able to bottle up Harrell and the Texas Tech offense last week in a 41-10 win.
Red Raiders coach Mike Leach said it wasn’t so much what that the Tigers did, but what Texas Tech failed to do.
“I hate to dash everyone’s hopes, but it’s not a case of the other guy got fooled or there was secret stuff installed at the last second,” Leach said. “Missouri executed better than we did. Missouri did its job better. We were too busy being frustrated about missed early opportunities. That doesn’t serve you at all.”
Harrell chalked up the loss to the Red Raiders offense simply being out of rhythm. Even on an “off” afternoon, they still amassed 388 yards of offense.
“No one feels like anything’s wrong,” Harrell said. “We got beat last week. That’s just part of the game. I think everyone knows that there’s nothing wrong. We don’t need to go in and try to change anything, try to fix anything. We just have to go out and make plays, and we didn’t do that last week.”
Last season, Texas Tech never got on track against the Buffaloes as coach Dan Hawkins picked up his first win at Colorado. The team snapped a 10-game losing streak in the process.
The Buffaloes defense forced five turnovers and held the Red Raiders’ potent offense scoreless until midway through the fourth quarter.
“They kind of expected us to lay down last year,” Wheatley said. “We didn’t and it was a little bit of a shock to the system for them. Hopefully, we can do it again.”
Wheatley knows it won’t be an easy assignment, though. Not with freshman receiver Michael Crabtree as Harrell’s primary target. Crabtree leads the nation with 11 catches and 165 yards receiving a game.
“For a freshman, it’s almost not even fair watching him on film,” Wheatley said. “He’s just good.”
On top of that, he’s frustrated. Crabtree has been held without a touchdown the last two games.
“I think we’re all frustrated,” Harrell said. “It’s not like Crab played worse than anyone else. We all just missed on our opportunities (against Missouri).”
The talk has started on the Colorado campus. Could the Buffaloes, who finished with two wins last season, be marching toward a bowl game? Freshman quarterback Cody Hawkins gets asked about the possibility all the time by fellow students. The Buffaloes are two wins away from becoming bowl-eligible.
They beat fourth-ranked Oklahoma earlier in the year and gave No. 12 Kansas all it could handle last Saturday before the Jayhawks held on for a 19-14 win.
“Everyone has done an awesome job just focusing on the next game and nobody has made any plans,” Hawkins said. “I mean, regardless of what bowl game you go to, I don’t think anyone has made any plans to go home for Christmas. We’re just trying to win football games and whatever happens, happens.”
Hawkins has had a chance to study film of his counterpart and is quite impressed with Harrell.
“If you aren’t on top of your game, he is going to make you pay because he executes everything he does very well,” Hawkins said.
That’s why the Buffaloes are hoping to get some pressure on him.
“We just want to get in his head a little bit, knock him around a few times and let him know that we’re here,” Wheatley said.
