Texas Tech: KU ‘has great defense’

Lubbock, Texas ? Senior linebacker John Saldi was all over the field for Texas Tech, applying pressure and delivering punishing hits. But he had trouble taking much credit for the biggest play of a 30-17 victory over Kansas University.

Saldi picked up Brian Luke’s errant pitch in the end zone and was rewarded with six points.

“They just happened to bring it my way,” Saldi said. “I haven’t scored a touchdown yet, so it was cool for me to be able to do that.”

For that, Saldi can be eternally grateful to Luke, whose rough night contributed to the Jayhawks wasting another strong game from Jon Cornish and the blitzing defense.

Texas Tech came into the game averaging 66.3 points per game against a nonconference schedule even weaker than KU’s.

“Kansas has a great defense, and they deserve a lot of credit for that,” senior quarterback Cody Hodges said. “It seemed like they had guys everywhere.”

Hodges completed 34 of 52 passes for 333 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted once and sacked five times.

When the Red Raiders (4-0) opened the game by doing whatever they pleased on a 12-play, 80-yard drive, it looked as if the Jayhawks’ defense would be in for a long night. Wrong.

“We came out that first drive, and things looked real crisp,” Hodges said. “I thought things would just snowball after that.”

Texas Tech, which has outscored the opposition 63-0 in the first quarter of this season’s games, took a 20-0 lead into halftime, but couldn’t do as much offensively in the second half.

“It is disappointing we had only two touchdowns and all of the field goals,” Hodges said. “I would rather have an ugly win than a pretty loss.”

Junior defensive lineman Ken Scott wasn’t in the mood for nitpicking the Red Raiders’ victory.

“You can’t beat a Big 12 victory,” Scott said. “It is always good to see our guys have big hits. It really unites the defense. We were really well prepared for this game, and there was nothing unexpected.”