Texas Tech football CB Brice Pollock discusses adjustment to new team
Texas Tech football cornerback Brice Pollock transferred from Mississippi State to Tech in January. He was previously coached by Tech’s Darcel McBath.
The Texas Tech football team’s cast of defensive backs going into next season could be lumped into three tiers: There are six returnees from the two-deep, including starters.
There are five veteran newcomers who started at their previous programs. And there are several young players soon to begin their second and third years with the Red Raiders, having learned some college football, added muscle and eager for their chance.
“It’s made everybody a little bit more locked in,” Tech cornerbacks coach Darcel McBath said Monday. “Meetings are pretty intense. Everybody’s fighting for a seat in the front row. Everybody’s taking notes.
“When we get in practice, everybody wants to go first. But when they get their opportunity, everybody wants to make the most of it. And that’s what it’s supposed to be.”
It’s commonplace in college football for teams to have returning starters and a group of young players developing in the system. But after finishing next to last in the FBS in pass defense last season, Tech coach Joey McGuire felt compelled to hit the NCAA transfer portal hard for help in the secondary. The Red Raiders added four cornerbacks and a safety.
That could be a little off-putting for cornerbacks such as Maurion Horn and Macho Stevenson and safeties such as Chapman Lewis, Brenden Jordan and A.J. McCarty, all of whom were starters or top backups last season.
“They’ve done a good job,” McBath said of the returnees at corner. “That’s what we designed it to do is to create competition so that you can get the best out of yourself. That’s what it’s about, and they’ve handled it well.”
The Red Raiders’ sixth of their allotted 15 spring workouts is scheduled for Tuesday.
The transfer-portal cornerbacks who joined the team in January are Brice Pollock from Mississippi State, Dontae Balfour from UNC-Charlotte, Amier Boyd from Texas-El Paso and Tarrion Grant from Purdue. Of that group, Boyd was least heralded, having made only eight starts in three seasons at UTEP.
But when asked which player had shown the most growth so far, McBath named Boyd first.
“He is really taking off,” McBath said. “He’s got this understanding of what we want to get done, what I want to get done in the room and how we want to play.”
Asked to elaborate what’s made Boyd stand out, McBath said, “Elite quickness and instincts. He has that. He’s gained like 10 to 12 pounds already. He’s getting stronger by the day, but his instincts and how to get to the ball, how to make plays on the ball, getting his body in the right position. And then his transition skills are elite.
“I’m fired up to see where he’s going to be four months from now, because the little time that I’ve had with him, he’s gotten so much better, so quickly.”
McBath said right behind Boyd are Balfour and Pollock. He said Pollock, who he coached previously at Mississippi State, is the most consistently physical player in the group. Pollock was a full-time starter for the Bulldogs as a sophomore last season, making 10 pass breakups and an interception.
Balfour spent two seasons at North Carolina and two at UNC-Charlotte tying the 49ers’ school record for single-season PBUs (11, twice) and setting the school record for career PBUs (22).
“Dontae’s been great,” McBath said. “He wanted to be coached hard, so I coach him extremely hard, and I love the kid because he responds every time. He’s not a kid who backs down from anything. … You’ll see him after practice, every practice, getting extra (work) because he wants it that bad.”
One of the transfers with the biggest pedigree is safety Cole Wisniewski, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound sixth-year player from FCS power North Dakota State. He was a consensus FCS first-team all-American in 2023 when he was credited with 92 tackles and made eight interceptions, tying school and Missouri Valley Conference records.
“Most of the reps Cole takes are usually how you want it done,” safeties coach Rob Greene said. “Within our room, I think Cole and B.J. (Jordan) have played the most probably, in terms of the two safeties deep, and they do a lot of the things you expect vets to do … with their stance, their eyes, their footwork.”
Greene said his best communicators on the back end, based on their experience, include Wisniewski, Jordan and A.J. McCarty.
The group of young up-and-comers at safety includes 2024 signees Peyton Morgan, Malik Esquerra and Oliver Miles, all of whom played a little last year while maintaining their redshirt status.
“There’s a lot of guys in that room that have very high ceilings, and we’re working to get to that every day,” Greene said. “It’s just making your best rep happen more often and eliminating some of your worst reps.”
This story has been updated to correct the day of Texas Tech’s next scheduled spring football practice.
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