AFTER SLUGGISH START, RED RAIDERS GET CRACKING

Taylor Potts needed only two starts to do something Graham Harrell never did in his prolific Texas Tech career – throw seven touchdown passes in a game.

Tech’s new quarterback threw three of his seven TDs to high school teammate Lyle Leong in a 55-10 rout of Rice Saturday night at Jones AT&T Stadium. The Tech record for single-game touchdown passes is eight, held by B.J. Symons. Harrell, even though he set the major-college career record with 134 touchdown passes, never threw more than six in a game.

“I had no idea what the record was,’’ said Potts, who has topped 400 yards passing in both his starts. “I knew I had six at one point. I told Detron (Lewis), ‘I’m going for eight,’ once I got seven. Didn’t get the last one.’’

Tech (2-0) looked much better in week two than it did in week one, a hopeful sign as the Red Raiders get ready for next Saturday’s early Big 12 Conference opener at No. 2 Texas. Tech finished with 560 yards, sacked Rice quarterbacks six times and punted only once for the second game in a row.

After a hit-and-miss first half, which ended with Tech leading 14-3, the Raiders went into two-minute offense mode and rolled it up. Potts threw three TDs in the third quarter and another on the first play of the fourth.

Tech coach Mike Leach said the Raiders are still too streaky, but a 41-point second half makes him optimistic.

“What I did like is there was a real long streak the second half,’’ Leach said, “so perhaps that’s a sign of consistency to come. I hope.’’

Two recent developments that made Tech coaches fret began to work themselves out. Inside receiver Tramain Swindall, after his recent demotion to the scout team, joined the starting lineup and looked like he did last season when he debuted with 46 catches in a backup role. Swindall (six receptions, 123 yards) caught 30- and 26-yard touchdown passes in the fourth quarter.

The first gave Potts seven scoring passes, one short of the school record Symons set in 2003 against Texas A&M, Leach didn’t give him a chance at it. When the Raiders got the ball back leading 48-10 with 7:48 left, backup Steven Sheffield came on and chunked the other TD pass.

A week ago, in a 38-13 victory over North Dakota, Potts fell into a pattern of throwing off his back foot and flung three interceptions. This time, he wasn’t picked off and finished with 456 yards on 36-for-57 passing.

“I thought the second half he played really well,’’ Leach said. “He kind of led by example as far as really good tempo. I thought the first half was full of good intentions. Then the second half, we had a lot better tempo as a team – not just offense, but defense and special teams, too.’’

Rice (0-2), coming off a 44-24 loss at UAB, was overmatched for the second week in a row. The Owls not only struggled on defense, but allowed quarterbacks Nick Fanuzzi, J.T. Shepherd and Ryan Lewis to be constantly harassed.

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Story courtesy of www.redraiders.com