Raider Red Nation

I've Moved

2006-11-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

I'm proud to announce that this blog has now moved to DoubleTNation. Go see for yourself.

Tuesday Before Oklahoma State

2006-11-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

It's hard to focus on football considering the current circumstances regarding Coach Knight, and there's really not too much as far as articles are concerned as most papers are concerned with last night's most recent incident.

Nevertheless, DMN's Tim MacMahon delves into why Tech has lost it's recent half-time leads against UT. Leach believes that it is first downs and yards that win games, not running out the clock by running the ball. Leach goes so far as to say that running the ball can lead to losses more so than trying to throw the ball. Specifically Leach says:

"That's not the only way to maintain a halftime lead," Leach said. "All this crap about you line up tight and run it up the middle, that's a bunch of baloney. Quite frankly, I've seen more teams lose leads that way than sustain them."

Leach still believes that the refs caused the loss against UT, and part of me wants to believe this, however, as I said at that time, there are always times the shoe is on the other foot. Additionally, Leach mentions that the loss to OU was a result of good defense and sustained offense. Overall, really good stuff by MacMahon.

At the LAJ, they also focus on the lack of 3rd down production. Don Williams goes a little bit further and notes that not only does Tech not do well with 3rd down offensively, they are also 76th in the nation at giving up 3rd downs defensively. Once again, I believe that Setencich has done about all he can do and it may not be a bad idea to look elsewhere after season's end. I just don't see the improvement from year to year and there appear to be so many mental mistakes.

Bob Knight and Michael Prince

2006-11-14T17:41:00.000-08:00

I love Bob Knight. I always have. As a child I remember that 1987 Indiana national championship team and that was the first year that I really paid attention to sports. After saying that, understand that I am obviously biased, but not because Knight's at Tech, but because I've always appreciated the way that he coaches the game. I really do not believe that Knight intended to hurt Michael Prince, I think he intended to get his attention. In this case, there's a really fine line between violence and trying to lift up someone's chin and it may be nearly impossible for me to make that distinction without offending someone who believes the action was violent. The action itself was direct and hard, but it's not like it was an open fist slap or a shove in the chest. I think people will make their decisions based upon their previously conceived ideas of Knight. Just like any perceptions we have about individuals, we know that those perceptions are based upon some sort of history which we've all filed away in our own personal filing cabinet. For some of you, your filing cabinet may be much bigger than other individuals.

The DMN has an article up and the AP via Yahoo has an article. The LAJ has an article focusing on AD Myers and Michael Prince's parents.

Regarding the game itself, here's the boxscore and a story from the LAJ. It seems like Knight is settling into a rotation that includes, Valentine (remember, he's only 5'-6"), Burgess and Rivzic.

Here's the video and you can make a decision for yourself:

Game Day Thread: Gardner-Webb v. Texas Tech

2006-11-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

Go Raiders . . .

Monday Notes

2006-11-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

There's little news on football today, the official Texas Tech website has a press-release/notebook of this weekend's game. That's it.

The Tech basketball team has a game against Gardner-Webb, a team from the Atlantic Sun Conference. I've watched a lot of basketball in my day, but I've never heard of Gardner-Webb. Jeff Walker of the LAJ has a nice write-up about tonight's game.

Since this weekend may be the last game for a lot of the seniors, I'll make some sort of effort later this week to grade their performance for their college career.

Texas Tech 79 Sam Houston State 64

2006-11-12T05:38:00.000-08:00

In better news, Coach Knight got his 870 career win with a 79 to 64 victory over Sam Houston State. That leaves Coach Knight 10 shy of Dean Smith's record.

A DMN article here, a FWST article here, and the LAJ article (the best of the bunch) here. Without having seen any of these guys play, I have really high hopes for Valentine and Burgess. I really want Rizvic to be our answer in the post.

Texas Tech 24, Oklahoma 34

2006-11-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

Turnover, bad bad defense, and an offense that just couldn't find anything in the 2nd half. That's what happened.

Let's go by offense and defense:

Graham played okay. I thought in the first half he was absolutely incredible. He found open receivers and was able to move the offense down the field efficiently. In the second half, I don't know if it was a little bit of extra pressure or some other coverage quirk that I haven't picked up on, that caused his ineffectiveness. Harrell has played so much better than he did earlier in the season, but Harrell has got to start making his own adjustments at half-time.
The offensive line continues to play well, but it seemed like when we needed to protect Harrell the most that it simply didn't happen. I was very impressed with this unit as a whole for more than a majority of the game. They picked up the blitz, the stunts and just about everything else, but there was that one play in the 2nd half where I believe an OU linebacker came from the extreme corner, and leveled Harrell. I don't think we can blame that on the line as much as we have to credit OU's defense. Harrell was definitely more harried in the 2nd half, but it wasn't enough to cause the offensive meltdown.
Shannon Woods played really well. When there were holes he found them and really kept the OU defense honest, when he got the ball, but 8 rushes is not enough. Leach has got to feed his running backs a little bit more. I promise, it will help the entire offense. I think that Leach really doesn't trust Woods to create like Henderson did last year. Woods takes what is available, but he just isn't as explosive.
I thought the wide receivers played well, but there were times that I really wanted them to make plays. Hicks sat out again and I really believed that his presence would be an incredible help to this offense. Filani does not have the true speed to stretch the field against OU and we really lacked that deep threat again. Leach said last week that Harrell made some plays by making those deep passes to Filani, this week, there wasn't that deep threat and OU did a really good job of keeping everything in front of them.
The special teams were acceptable, but we have got to make our field goals. Granted, we wouldn't have won the game, but missing field goals can kill momentum. There was no wind, just the yips. I would also like to point out that we have got to have a more explosive kick-off return duo. Morris and Woods is good, but why put Woods out there? Why not Britton and Batch. They were incredibly explosive in high school and probably have the potential to break something big.
Penalties. It wasn't the number (7) that hurt us or the yardage (51), but the timing of the offensive penalties. Going from a 42 yard field goal to a 47 yard field goal. Most, if not all of the penalties were on the defensive side of the ball.

Defense:

Crucial penalties. There seemed to be just too many pass interference penalties. These guys practice against a spread offense, I don't understand how we can be so inept at not committing penalties.
Big plays. OU is down to their 3rd and 4th string running backs, we know that to do anything they are going to have to throw the ball. I simply do not understand how Johnson can get so wide open. I also completely don't understand how Kelly was left all alone, in single coverage (see any Sweed comments from the UT game) with 20 seconds left in the first half. I really don't understand why, it just doesn't make sense. At some point, players are at fault for not making plays, but we've gotten to a point this year where Setencich has got to take some of the blame for the lack of people even being anywhere close to a wide receiver at the end of a half. It's flippin ridiculous.
The defensive line played well, but you could tell that at the end of the game they were a little gassed. I think that as a group, they are getting better at pressuring the quarterback, which only bodes well for next year.
The linebackers should simply not show up, because they really don't do anything productive. Their one job would have been to contain the 3rd and 4th string running backs, but Brown running for 41 yards for a touchdown is unacceptable. It's not this particular time that causes worry, it's the fact that it happens time after time, game after game. I literally cannot remember any linebacker making any significant play or tackle. This has got to be a position of concern next year.
As I said above, the secondary has got to do a better job of keeping guys in front of them. However, the most embarrassing part is the fact that Johnson was be so wide open. I started laughing at that point because it's happened too many times during the season. Someone has completely blown their coverage. The secondary had better figure things out real soon because OSU's Bobby Reid is a much better passer that Thompson and OSU has really been putting some points on the board in recent weeks (sans the UT game). This could be a real offensive show. To give the secondary credit, the interception return by Huffman was a thing of beauty, we don't see enough of that, but it was incredible. We also had an incredible interception, that was taken away because of a roughing the passer penalty.

We had this game, if we simply could have done something on the offensive end in the second half. It seems like these past few weeks that Leach has not made the adjustments during half-time that he previously made. The opposing teams are doing a better job of adjusting to Tech and it's really frustrating. I expect the offense to put up a touchdown in the second half, that's not a ridiculous thought.

One other thing, Leach is going to have a really tough decision at the end of the year, and it will be what to do about Setencich. Last year he did an admirable job, but this year, he's kept with guys who can't make plays (i.e. see all of the linebackers, especially Tillman), this team seems to always have a problem with making tackles, and we give up way too many big plays. If Leach wants to continue to keep his job, he may have to find a defensive coordinator who can make his players make the smart play.

Game Day Thread - Texas Tech v. Oklahoma

2006-11-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

Go Raiders . . .

I think you'll be able to listen to the game here.

Saturday Morning Preview - Texas Tech v. Oklahoma

2006-11-11T04:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry there were no post last night.

Coach Leach really enjoys twisting the knife from last year's loss, and honestly, I think it's funny. I have to believe that we all, no matter which team you root for, can agree on most calls and it wouldn't surprise me if Leach is just trying to stir things up a bit with his comments about last year's Tech v. OU game.

Brian Davis at the DMN has a preview up and predicts an OU victory, 31 - 20.

Don Williams at the LAJ has a nice article and preview of the game.

USA Today mentions that Harrell must handle a top level defense for Tech to win and I agree.

The Chron has a preview up with no prediction on the outcome.

The EN's Tim Griffin predicts an OU 24, Tech 14 game.

Please note the at the Houston Chronicle article mentions that Tech has been bowl eligible for 7 straight years and the San Antonio Express News article claims that Tech has been bowl eligible for 14 years. I guess both are right, but perhaps the Chron article meant to state that Tech has been bowl eligible for the 7 years that Leach has been a head coach.

John Miller of the FWST writes a nice article on Shannon Woods. Leach points out that Woods has been Tech's most consistent performer of the year and I too believe this. Granted, I don't think that Woods is as explosive, but he's still pretty special.

Finally, Tim MacMahon of the DMN writes about Coach Knight, the need for our JUCO players to assimilate fairly quickly and of course, the catching the record.

Thursday Night

2006-11-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Let's get the basketball out of the way first.

Coach Knight talks about how to remedy the USA national team (thanks from TrueHoop).

The DMN has a quick feature and a small article about the upcoming basketball team. MacMahon thinks that Knight won't get his win to break Dean's Smiths record until the regular season begins, and with the addition of 4 JUCO's, he's probably right.

Now onto football.

Hicks is expected to play and although no one has come out and said it or asked Coach Leach if it was his intent all along to keep Hicks out of the Baylor game to make sure he was ready for the OU game, I think it's true.

The LAJ has an excellent Q & A regarding the impressive group of freshman this year. The article also mentions the expansion of the stadium, however, this was the first I've heard about any potential plans for expansion. Don Williams also writes about the excellent job the offensive line has done all year. It's true, overall, I think they've done an excellent job, but that doesn't make me any less worried about OU's defense. I really don't think that Tech has seen a team as big and as fast as OU all year. I keep having flashbacks to the TCU game where it seemed that they just got to the quarterback so much quicker. By the way, this article quickly points out that Harrell has done a much better job of recognizing the blitz and getting rid of the ball so much quicker. He's also done an excellent job of just stepping to one side or another to avoid the rush.

After a couple of days off, Tim MacMahon gets back into the swing of things and has two Tech related articles. The first being about the disparity that OU seems to have against Tech's offense. Leach acknowledges that despite the fact that he was at one time employed by OU, OU does not have any more or less advantage than any other team who has seen Texas Tech for the last 7 years. The second article by Brad Davis focuses on the OU secondary and the rags to riches story for them this year. Obviously, last week, McGee isn't going to test any secondary so it's hard to tell how much they've improved.

ESPN has these numbers on Harrell in the last two games in what appears to be Between The Numbers weekly article: "1,002: While we're on the topic of ridiculous passing numbers, Texas Tech's Graham Harrell apparently has gotten a feel for the Red Raiders' offense. Harrell has thrown for 1,002 yards in the past two games. That's more than Air Force and Navy have thrown for combined all season and equal to Louisiana-Lafayette's season total."

Wednesday Notes

2006-11-08T17:31:00.001-08:00

In Elmira, New York, WETM is predicting a Tech victory this weekend 27 - 24, and if you like stats, then you'll love this article. Elmira, New York, for those of you who are curious is located here and the Elmira area doppler radar. Elmira, New York, awesome.

Strange, no articles from the DMN. I guess I should resign myself to the idea that the DMN will only do articles as needed or if they are playing Texas.

The LAJ has the 2007 Texas Tech Red Raider football schedule as we are now playing hated rival Northwestern State. By the way, there's an article about Patrick Allen on texastech.com, but didn't think it was appropriate to link it here.

Travis Cram of the Daily Toreador details the offensive woes the Red Raiders have had in recent past with OU.

Olin Buchanon of Rivals.com believes that the Texas Tech - OU match up is the game of the week and I tend to agree. Although I think it is absolutely delicious the situation that Fran has gotten himself into in College Station. Fran has a lot of pressure to win out and it starts against Nebraska.

The Tulsa World's Dave Sittler has decent perspective about Leach and how he has the reputation to run up the score. Personally, I really think that this is a tired sports argument, you never let up on the pedal during a game, it's just not worth it. There will be days that you're on the other end of the stick, but you try to make sure that this doesn't happen, but you can't tell kids not to play. That seems to be real prohibitive getting players to play hard for you. Although I think it's important not to taunt or show up players, play with class, and I think that Tech did last week, so there shouldn't be any issues.

That's all of the football news for today, unfortunately.

Coach Knight is to receive the 2006 Pete Newell Award, here are the details:

"Knight will accept the award from Pete Newell prior to the start of the Texas Tech-Stanford game, the first game of the 2006 Pete Newell Challenge, which is set for Sunday, Dec. 3, 3:30 p.m., at HP Pavilion in San Jose. In the second game of the 10th-anniversary doubleheader, Nevada, ranked No. 24 in the Associated Press preseason poll, meets Cal."

Wednesday Notes

2006-11-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Before Oklahoma

2006-11-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Tim MacMahon of the DMN and John Miller of the FWST both note that Jarrius Jackson has be reinstated to the team. This is great news for all, but please pay attention to the detail of both articles. The DMN article doesn't have near the detail that the FWST has. So if I had to click on one or the other, then click on the FWST article. by the way, I especially like this quote from Coach (Pat) Knight: "We just decided we had to do something drastic," Knight said. "He loves basketball so much. We thought taking that away from him would get his attention. He could have [reacted negatively], but he took care of business." It's nice to see Jay react positively to a potentially bad situation.

On to football, for two straight days, there are no football articles from the DMN. I guess there's no news.

Wait, hold on, the FWST has a notebook by John Miller with a couple of interesting notes, especially this quote about Harrell and his past three week performance: "During that span, Harrell has thrown for 1,370 yards on 108-of-154 passing with 13 touchdowns and only two interceptions. He's rebounded nicely from a mid-season slump to move up in the record books." Think about this, that's a season for some quarterbacks and as I said after the Baylor game it seems like things are slowing down for him the game is coming to him. Obviously, it will be a huge test for him against OU as he probably hasn't seen a defense like theirs all year. It will be an incredibly interesting match-up.

What's the perfect motivation for the other Tech wide receivers to step it up these last two games? How about being mentioned in USA Today yesterday and in SI today. Filani, Johnson and Hicks are all auditioning for jobs next year and right now, despite my displeasure with a number of Filani's drops earlier in the year, he's leading the pack.

Don Williams of the LAJ wrote a notebook with some good quotes from Coach Leach, but this one is my favorite. When asked about the fact that the last few opponents against OU haven't thrown the ball he had this to say: "They slam into one another,'' Tech coach Mike Leach said. "I'm not going to lie to you: I said, "Geez, I wish somebody would throw the ball so I could see how this looks, so I could draw some comparisons or something."

He's right, it would be nice to see how OU might play a team like Tech, but the best they'll have to go on is from last year. The problem with that is there is entirely new personnel, which means that a team can do different things.

The LAJ notebook also mentions that the OSU v. Texas Tech game will not be televised. Road trip to Lubbock?

Don also has a really nice write-up about OU being very motivated to play this year.

Monday Notes

2006-11-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

We'll start with the somewhat fun items of the day. Joel Filani was nominated as the USA Today player of the week for week 10, with 8 catches for 212 yards and 3 touchdowns. The EN believes that the tortilla toss as the 11th best Big XII tradition, but notes that students have been removing bleacher seats and passing it around the stadium. That doesn't sound real constructive.

My favorite stat of the Baylor game: 6 penalties for 60 yards. Such a significant improvement over previous games, especially the UT game, where the personal fouls and other assorted penalties killed Texas Tech.

Don Williams writes a really nice article about the road ahead, a particularly difficult road. With OU on the road this week and a greatly improving OSU at home next week, the task seems daunting to have a winning record at the end of the year. We had folks from the Insight Bowl and the Independence Bowl on hand for the Baylor-Tech game, and it's a nice thought that we're being considered, but it should be far from everyone's mind. Interesting quote from Filani about how Baylor decided to cover Tech:

Filani said the Bears' cover-two and cover-three schemes made him think he could have a good game. "We knew the middle of the field and also the outside corners would be kind of open,'' he said, "so we just tried to take advantage of that. Also, Shannon ran the ball well, so that opened things up for everybody.''

The one item that I haven't seen mentioned, although that doesn't mean that I haven't missed it was that despite Hicks was held out of last weeks game, perhaps Leach thought that he should take the chance that Hicks would not be missed against Baylor, and that we would certainly need him against OU. OU's defense will cause several problems this weekend, not to mention the fact that OU will be seeking revenge for last year's game. The other part that really worries me is the fact that OU has the potential to run all over Tech and Tech did not get much practice against the run against Baylor. Leach had to take his chances, let's hope that he was right about that.

I hope everyone saw he half-time interview with Coach Leach where he was asked about the fact that Harrell has so many attempts in the first half and whether or not he was worried about Harrell's arm falling off. I will not get the quote even close to being right, but it was something to the effect of, "I didn't know he had thrown so many times. I guess we'll have to watch out for that in the second half. Have a happy half-time." Genius. Pure Genius.

Saturday Morning Roundup

2006-11-05T05:27:00.000-08:00

We have a couple of offerings from the DMN, Tim MacMahon writes that Baylor tried to give Harrell multiple reads by switching up coverage throughout the game. Leach noted that Harrell made the right decision and audibles time after time. It's really slowing down for this kid, at least against Baylor, we'll see against OU. The notebook doesn't have any earth-shattering news.

The FWST's John Miller has a nice write-up on the game, where Leach admists that it was the big plays that won the game for Texas Tech.

I'm still away from home, so more to come later.

Baylor 21, Texas Tech 55

2006-11-04T16:12:00.000-08:00

Some early notes from today's game:

Incredible pressure against a redshirt QB. I really thought that this was the key to victory. Szymanski was sacked 6 times, but he had a ton of pressuer all day long. The other wonderful thing was that it only took the 4 down linemen, very few blitzes.
Harrell was very impressive. The one interception was bad. He threw it into double coverage. Other than that excellent job. I thought that Filani played the role of Hicks as he sat out today's game. Filani stretched the field and did it show up in the box score.
Shannon Woods finally got the touches I'd like to see him get. 10 rushes and 8 receptions. Honestly, in a win like this I'd like to see more rushes than 19, but that's being a little picky.
The offensive line played very well. Harrell seemed to have plenty of time to make all of the necessary throws, especially all of the deep throws. I've always thought that despite the offense is a spread offense, the real key is stretching the field.

I'll be able to post quite a bit more once I'm at home.

Baylor v. Texas Tech - Game Day Thread

2006-11-04T05:16:00.000-08:00

Go Raiders . . .

I won't be at home for the game, but I think I'll have internet access where I'll be and post after the game.

Saturday Morning Preview - Baylor v. Texas Tech

2006-11-04T04:55:00.000-08:00

Where to start. . .

The LAJ has a Tale of the Tape, which continues to be uninteresting. However, Don Williams writes another nice article about secondary coach Brian Mitchell and how he got to Tech.

In the DMN preivew, Tim McMahon picks Tech to win today and thinks that the biggest matchup is Szymanski v. the Tech secondary.

Tim Griffin of the EN believes that Tech will win 34 to 17.

Finally, the FWST has a generic preview of today's game.

As for me, I think that so long as Tech cleans up some of the things that bothered them last week then Tech shouldn't have a problem with securing a victory. Most notably, no big passing plays.

Tech needs to keep the Baylor WR's in front of them for the entire game. There's no reason to allow anyone to get deep.
Continue to get pressure and make plays from the defensive front. This is a redshirt freshman QB learning a complicated system. We know how difficult that can be.
Do not allow the offense to step off the pedal.
Run the ball. The more time we can keep the Baylor offense off of the field, the better position Tech is in to win this game.
Turnovers. To make this an easy game, we need 3 turnovers.
Have fun. Have fun. Have fun.

This shouldn't be a difficult game. It's my hope that Tech does not play down to it's competition and really takes control of this game. There can be no letdowns from last week. Last week was over.

Baylor 20, Texas Tech 42.

Friday Night

2006-11-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

We have one early preview from the Waco Tribune, which is purely a Baylor preview, nevertheless, I have a feeling that we have some names to key our eyes on as the game is played. Much of this game depends upon Blake Szymanski to continue what Bell was doing throughout the year. I'm a little worried that Tech won't get the pressure on him that could really turn the game in Tech's favor. I'd also like to see Tech really run the ball, control the clock, etc. However, I realize that you are what you are, and I don't want Texas Tech straying too far from what we do well. Let Harrell loose.

My favorite article of the day is from Tim McMahon where he writes about the Baylor offensive assistant coaches who learned the offense from Tech over the past two years while coaching at West Texas A&M.

In the LAJ notebook there's some interesting news:

1. I was beginning to wonder about Chris Cunnigan, a WR from Wills Point, which is not far from where I live. Apparently he's leaving the team, which is a little disappointing as I seemed to remember him being a pretty nice recruit. I never even heard him mentioned in the WR mix throughout the year. His leaving the team is not a discipline problem, but it's always strange when a player leaves during the middle of the football season.
2. Leach is not worried about the running game. Neither am I. I think we have talented running backs, but we could probably stand to get them the ball a little more despite Leach's protests.

Don Williams of the LAJ writes a nice article about the progress of the Red Raider freshmen. The players I'm most excited about next year are obviously Crabtree, the way the coaches talk, he's going to be special. If LB Brian Duncan has speed and can tackle, then I'm excited about him. I also think it's really smart for Tech to get more defensive players some time on the field. Depth is a good thing, I'll have to keep an eye on Ward, Jones and Henley, maybe they'll get some time this weekend.

Previews tomorrow morning.

Thursday Night

2006-11-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

A small update regarding the three players arrested and charged with burglary, two of the three have been kicked-off the team, Dimitri Lott and Rashad Hunt. Apparently they've have problems with Hunt before this most recent incident. Apparently Julius Howard had a small roll in all of this and he will remain with the team.

Since we still have very little news otherwise, here's an article about the new Baylor QB, Szymanski, and another one here.

Tim Griffin and Jimmy Burch are both predicting a Tech victory.

That's about it. Seriously.

Just in terms of a future insight about myself. I have absolutely no desire to really delve into Lott and Hunt being kicked-off the team. I've never really liked the legal side of sports, from labor negotiations to players in off the field/court trouble. Obviously, if a player who is in trouble with the law is affecting the play of the team then it probably deserves comment. However, I really like my sports to be about sports. I know that this is a little naive and I'm burying my head in the sand about the reality of sports and the way it will interact with the real world, but it's not my favorite thing to write about. Obviously, it's never good when people are arrested, and I think as fans we really hate it when our team is in trouble. I am usually a "glass half full" type of fellow so I tend to err on the side of caution when talking about a player who is in trouble. Let the facts come out and we'll know whether or not he's done anything wrong, but there's no reason to speculate.

I won't give the Jarrius Jackson dismissal much talk other than to say this leaves Tech with very few options at guard. Apparently we have two JUCO's who have some point guard skills, Charles Burgess and Benny Valentine (who stands only 5' 7") but both attended Howard County JC. Obviously, someone will have step up and score for the Raiders.

Wednesday Notes

2006-11-01T18:37:00.000-08:00

Well, there's really nothing out there to post. To satiate everyone's need for content, we'll talk a little about Baylor. Given their situation Baylor has had a very successful season. They have not been expected to do much and I think they've overachieved despite the fact their record may not indicate this. Offensively, they play a similar style to Texas Tech and defensively, I couldn't say. I wish I could say, go here and read all about Baylor, but there's nothing out there that's free. There is this article about Bell becoming a coach since he can't play, but that's about it.

The only thing of interest is a EN preview of the Texas Tech basketball team, which seems a little silly since our leading scorer was dismissed from the team.

Let's just hope that we get something new tomorrow.

The Hits Just Keep on Coming

2006-10-31T19:52:00.000-08:00

Today, Jarrius Jackson, the leading scorer of the Big XII was dismissed from Texas Tech's basketball team for academic reasons. Knight apparently has left the door open for his return stating that if he does what he's supposed to do then he'll be back.

On one hand, I really think that's great. We all have certain standards that we have to abide by and for whatever reason Jackson did not. On the other hand, it's going to be a long season.

In better news, at 9:21 p.m. the Texas Tech notes for today's DMN were posted. Since Baylor's quarterback, Shawn Bell, went down with a knee injury last week. In a strange exchange, Leach doesn't necessarily believe that Bell is done, but he'll try and review tape on the new starting QB. Huh.

Tuesday Before Baylor

2006-10-31T17:57:00.000-08:00

Bad news, three Tech players were arrested and charged with burglary. I'll let you read about the details on your own. You always hope it's not true, but the circumstantial evidence in the newspaper article seems to be pretty clear about the situation.

Tim MacMahon writes a nice article about the Tech wide receivers and the current size and projects the younger wide-outs. Reed and Reese are already pretty good players and I wonder what kind of skills Crabtree will bring to the table. The key of course is to continue to recruit those big and fast wide receivers.

The FWST has a Tech notebook, noting that the offensive line did an excellent job against UT and once again, there are the obligatory complaints by Leach, which I assume are the same quotes from Saturday. Here, Leach mentions that Harrell had the best half he's ever witnessed against UT.

Monday Notes

2006-10-30T17:10:00.000-08:00

I hate blaming referees, I really do. Typically, within a given game it all evens out. Some calls go one way and some go the other. But there were so many plays that were affected by the referees. I talked to a UT fan on Sunday morning and his comment was UT seemed to get the benefit of more than a couple of calls. Don't get me wrong, I know that sometime this season, the shoe will be on the proverbial other foot, but this was an opportunity to completely turn around what has been a less than stellar Texas Tech season so it hurts a little more (enough to not want to write about it all day Sunday). Wrapped up in all of this is Leach voicing his concern about some of these calls. If he doesn't defend his team then he's not doing his job, and he deserves an explanation on some of those calls. It's a tight rope to walk and any fan of any team would expect their head coach to be upset. Despite all of this, I'll post the article which addresses the bad calls here and here and ignore them from this point forward. We all remember the Tech v. OU game last year, right?

Defense:

I thought this before the game, that we can't tackle and we are a bad defense. We are. We played great for the first quarter, but after that I think we all saw Tech's true colors. We cannot tackle and we let UT just grind it out almost the entire 2nd half.
We should have all been on the same page. Under no circumstances should Sweed be left to go 1 on 1 against anyone. It's a bad matchup for just about anyone, but especially against this defense. That touchdown to Sweed in the corner of the endzone never should have happened as he never should have had single coverage all night long.
There are times to go for the ball, make a play, try to intercept a pass, but you also have to know if you've got a safety behind you. On the touchdowns by Shipley and Cosby, we never should have let them get behind us. We were playing to win, I don't know why the idea of "bend but don't break" was not being preached to every player. We should not have given up the big play and we did almost all night long.
Kellen Tillman is horrible. I have never seen a linebacker take such a poor angle as he did in trying to catch McCoy as McCoy scrambled for a touchdown. Not only did he take a bad angle, but he gave up on the play. Tillman is a bad player and had another personal foul penalty. What also bothers me is that Tillman cannot catch McCoy. I'm not saying that I expect every player to be able to catch any quarterback, but McCoy does not have great speed and if nothing else, you would expect a linebacker to, at the very least, hold their own against most quarterbacks. Tillman cannot.
Despite big plays given up by the secondary, which is a lot, I thought they played pretty darn good.
The defensive down linemen played pretty good, but I'd still like to see a little more pressure on the quarterback. I understand that it takes special players to do this, and we don't really have but one (Dawson), but it helps everyone if we can get a little more pressure.
I thought it before the game and I still think it now, if Tech was to give up 200 yards rushing it was going to be a long day. They did and it was.

Offense:

I thought Harrell played incredibly poised. For a kid who was under fire for throwing bad interceptions, which he did, he was incredibly calm. When there was pressure he side-stepped the rushing linemen and was able to get off a pass more times than not. He took a sack, but that's okay, we just don't want the bad turnovers.
Harrell really spread the ball around nicely, almost every receiver was involved.
I still wonder what we're going to do next year when Hicks, Filani and Johnson are all three gone.
Amendola was more involved than I've ever seen him. Did anyone catch him giving a forearm shiver to one of the Griffin brothers. Don't think that Amendola didn't have him in his sights from the beginning. Amendola was laid out pretty good by one of Griffin brothers in the first drive of the game.
Shannon Woods should be used more often during the game. He can be a weapon, he's catches everything thrown at him and he's a pretty good runner. I think part of the lack of a rushing game has something to do with UT still being pretty good, but I put a lot of the blame on Leach for not utilizing him more.
The offensive line did an admirable job. I hardly remember a series where it appeared that the offensive line did not pull their weight. There were some times that their penalties really cost Tech, especially in the second half, but I thought they played pretty good.
Harrell did a really good job of picking up the blitz throughout the game. The times that UT blitzed with effectiveness was not very often. I think at some point UT realized that Harrell was taking advantage of the secondary if they did blitz and they back off into coverage. This is a significant improvement from two and three weeks ago.
All in all, I can't complain about the offense too much. They score enough to win.

Nice article by DMN's McMahon on Harrell's progress. He's maturing before our eyes. I hope we all take notice.

FWST has a nice roundup of this past week's action and looking forward to this weekend.

Off the field and on the court, Rogdrick Craig will miss the entire season with a heart condition. Let's hope this is something that can be fixed, not from a basketball perspective, but from a human being perspective.

Texas 35 Texas Tech 31

2006-10-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

I don't have the energy, despite the fact that I've had time to sleep on it, to write completely about this game. Although we could blame the referees for some real questionable calls, I think this loss comes down to a couple of things. The porous run defense, which simply allowed the UT offense to eat up huge chunks of the second half and the pass defense which allowed too many big plays. Poor angles to ball carriers, we still can't tackle to save our life, etc. I thought the offense played well, but something happened in that second half, UT was able to get just a little more pressure on Harrell and I think it affected him. However, I don't blame the offense for this loss despite some of their misgivings.

Too many mistakes.

Too many penalties (Kellen Tillman needs to never see the field again).

UT v. Texas Tech - Game Day Thread

2006-10-28T05:47:00.000-07:00

Go Raiders . . .

I think you can listen here. I'll post the box score later today.

Box score.

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - UT v. Texas Tech

2006-10-28T05:05:00.000-07:00

Because I missed yesterday I'm attempting to make up some ground with some articles from Friday and all of the previews.

There was a UT v. Tech preview in the USA Today.

Suzanne Halliburton of the Statesman discusses the history between Tech and Texas and the last UT loss was in Lubbock against Tech in 2002. The similarities are a little scary: UT played Nebraska the week before in 2002 and this year and at one point during the UT/Tech game, UT had 8 freshman playing.

A nice preview article from the AP over on Yahoo. Tech says they're more relaxed after last week, we'll see.

Zach Thomas, Wes Welker, and Miami DE, Jason Taylor, all plan to be in town for the game. We so rarely hear about former players coming to the game, but this could be exactly what Tech needs, motivation. I.e., if you work hard you can have this.

This RedRaiders notebook details who might start in place of Vasquez, who still may be injured and further notes the progress of some freshmen linemen. A Tale of the Tape from RedRaiders (honestly, there's nothing special here, other than commenting on each position.)

If I've already posted this article I apologize, but John Miller from the FWST details some of the history between Tech and UT.

DMN's Chip Brown has a preview and an article about today's game and predicts a 31-21 Texas victory.

The Houston Chronicle has a preview here.

Tim Griffin of the EN predicts a Texas 38, Tech 20 victory for Texas. Jeff McDonald goes into some detail about today's game, once again, in injuries for Texas are not an excuse.

Texas Tech's Offense v. Texas' Defense:

This one is all about turnovers for Tech. Harrell must not fumble or throw away this game, literally. I really believe that his game management will turn this game one way or the other.
I'm really curious to see how the Tech offensive linemen will match up the more highly recruited Texas players.
Shannon Woods can change the face of this game, he's not Taurean Henderson, yet, but he's pretty darn close. He catches almost everything thrown his way and he's got a really nice burst out of the backfield. He will be a valuable outlet for Harrell if the pressure gets to Harrell.
I believe that utilizing Hicks as a deep threat will be invaluable. Just let him run and throw the ball to him. Tech must make an attempt to stretch the field and Hicks or L.A. Reed seem to be our best option.
Let's hope the size of our WR's bothers UT's secondary and the speed of Woods bothers their linebackers.

My final prediction: I'm torn. On one hand I read everything about the similarities between this year and 2006. On paper, I believe that Texas is just a more dominant team, obviously, and it would be an incredible upset if Tech was able to pull out a victory. My heart tells me to go with Tech, be a homer, and take a chance. My mind tells me that Tech will make it close, but UT is the better team. To heck with my mind. Texas Tech 34 Texas 28.

Thursday Night

2006-10-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

This and this was two of the three articles on RedRaiders.com. Seriously, this is the second biggest game of the season and that's all we get from them. Amazing. Luckily, we get a mailbag and it had a question about the ninja offense, which is something I had completely forgotten. From what I remember, there are three offensive linemen, a quarterback, a running back and two sets of three wide receivers. Leach explains that this package is dependent upon the personnel of a team, and I guess we don't have the personnel.

Terrence Harris of the Chronicle details the offensive woes this year, rehashing the idea that it was a number of facts, not just Harrell. I do like this last quote from Leach: "I think he's comparable to all of them. There are some things he does better," Leach said. "But it's an adjustment for everybody."

I was going to link the two DMN articles, but thought I shouldn't waste anyone's time. It's not worth it to go to the DMN today and probably not tomorrow. Tim MacMahon was busy writing this article about small-town Texas quarterbacks.

The Statesman has one of the two best articles of today. Cedric Golden was able to talk with Kliff Kingsbury about the trials and tribulations of being a Tech quarterback. Reminding Harrell that he went through the same things.

"I always want to see where his head is when we talk," Kingsbury said. "I went through some of the same deals he's gone through this season — the booing, the discontent from the fans and all the extra attention, when I was a sophomore. I tell him all the time that everything will be all right if you keep progressing."

Jimmy Burch's FWST article discusses the inability of UT to break any big runs, which surprised the heck out of me. Only 3 runs for more than 2o yards for the entire season, and two of those runs came last week against Nebraska. Burch gives Tech a definite chance in light of UT's injured defensive front. We'll see, I'm still not sold on Tech being able to stop the run, but if Tech can focus on this then I like our chances. Burch predicts a close game, UT 34, Texas Tech 28.

Wednesday Notes

2006-10-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

I jinxed myself, or more likely, the press conferences were yesterday and reporters are out of ideas today, thus we are left with very few links.

The DMN has their daily article and it follows along much of what was discussed yesterday, that Leach has inspired/convinced/demanded this team to be more cohesive, which I still maintain, whether Leach forced or not, is a good thing.

The lone article from the LAJ is about Colt McCoy. That's not exactly covering Texas Tech football.

Finally, a new article on Leach's actions and reactions this year in relation to the various wins and losses.

As I continue in my quest to become a better writer and my need to have a little more content for this weekend's game, let's breakdown the Texas Tech defense versus the UT offense.

As I said yesterday, the Tech defense has got to step up. Our linebackers will be heavily counted on to stop the run. Tech has not been very successful throughout the year, granted last week was a good week, but the ISU offense is not that great.
Colt McCoy is the definition of letting his team do all of the heavy lifting. He has not been asked to change the game and he hasn't tried to do so. He's merely done what's been asked of him. Manage the game, let the game come to you. I was able to watch quite a bit of the UT game last week and it's apparent that he can be prone to mistake, like a lot of young quarterbacks can be, but he doesn't make the devastating mistake (two interceptions in a row within your own 20 to be returned for touchdowns). That's all you can ask of a quarterback.
Sweed scares me. He's big and fast and that's a bad combination for any team.
UT is deep at running back, but neither of their main running backs are that big. They are the same type of running back.
Teams have not thrown on Tech because they really haven't needed to. The lack of proper tackling (I can't believe I'm typing that) has lead to lots of other problems, but it has mainly led to Tech being unable to contain certain offices.
Ideally, I'd love to see Tech's somewhat deep defensive line can control the line of scrimmage and the running lanes, allow the defensive backfield to cover the Texas wide receivers. All of this depends on the linebackers doing their jobs. Making tackles and dropping into coverage.
I don't think that this game hinges on the Tech defense, but rather turns on whether or not the Tech offense can control the clock to allow the Tech defense to remain fresh throughout the game.

Tuesday Before Texas

2006-10-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, Tech plays Texas and there are articles everywhere. The biggest problem I have is where to start.

Edit: I am making these comments prior to reading any of the linked articles, or rather, these are my thoughts before being influenced. If Texas Tech can reduce turnovers (how about one) and reduce the mental mistakes/penalties (how about none) then I think that Tech has a chance. Don't get me started, I think that Texas is superior to Tech as far as athletes, and I think that the past has shown that Tech has real problems avoiding those two aforementioned items, however, I truly believe if we can limit those two items then we'll be in the game. We'll go more into some of the keys to the game later, but for now we have articles.

Chip Brown believes that Texas Tech will play UCLA in the Brut Sun Bowl. I don't know how exciting that is, but I'll take any bowl I can get this year. The most interesting items is that he also predicts that Texas will play Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Huh.

MacMahon from the DMN has a well written piece on the lack of togetherness of the Tech team and the new attitude. I like the insight about the players, that this game had essentially become a job, that they players weren't really young guys learning about life (this was a quote from much earlier, but check out the quote in the Statesman notebook), rather they were older guys getting on with life. There are few teams out there who probably really feel like they are on their own, and I have to believe that Tech is one of them. Don't get me wrong, this is not a "woe is me" thing, but more about the location. Tech is in the middle of no where and because of this we've never had the "studs" that so many other teams have had. We've always been the hardluck underdog. Obviously, I hope that this changes, but all these guys have are each other. They have to rely on each other, I like that. The key of course is keeping with it through this week, even if it is a tough loss.

Maybe I've missed it all year or was subscribed to the wrong newsreader, but the FWST has a Tech notebook. The best note is about the new cohesiveness of the team. The most disturbing note is the porous Texas Tech run defense and the well-oiled Texas running offense. My favorite quote from Leach on what Tech did not need to practice on this week:

"We could practice on not getting hit in the back of the head," Leach said. "It's just be more conscious of little things is all we really need to do."

A Statesman Texas notebook along with a short preview of Tech.

The LAJ has much of the same as linked above. Don Williams notes that Tech must reduce the turnovers, as I mentioned above. As I think about this a little more, this kind of key is common sense. The fewer the turnovers then the more likely you'll have the ball to score, but for Tech it's a reality. We really do need to keep the ball and we could stand to control the clock as I am fearful of the Tech defense being exposed for too long.

The Houston Chronicle goes into detail about the UT injuries, which on some level, is good for Tech.

Finally, FoxSports already has a game preview.

Monday Notes

2006-10-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's pretty quiet, although I'm sure that things will pick up as the week progresses, considering all major Texas newspapers follow the Longhorns.

Shannon Woods "lobbies" for more touches. I don't know if he's really lobbying for more touches or if the question asked was whether or not he wished he could see more touches during the game. The obvious answer is yes, he would. I would second this as I believe he can be a game changing running back because of his speed and he has size, or at least more size than you assume.

The DMN notebook has a few interesting tidbits, the most interesting was that Fletcher Session started but did not record a tackle. That's disturbing. You would think that a linebacker would just run into the opposing team's running back at least a couple of times. Also, let's not forget Kellen Tillman. My memory is getting more and more foggy as the day continues and I cannot seem to find this information, but I seem to recall the Tech announcers pointing out a very late and unnecessary hit. That's the second one this year and that Tillman has had a 15 yard penalty. That will cost us greatly against the much better teams. FYI - Texas Tech had 14 penalties for 129 yards. That's not good.

A pick-me-up article from D. Williams, LAJ, about Antonio Huffman, who believes that Tech could be doing this every week.

We have "good news". Good in the sense that Tech will not have to face one of Texas' starters this week, DT Derek Lokey, broke his left leg against Nebraska.

Finally, an interesting exchange between DMN beat writer, Tim McMahon and Coach Leach. Good times.

Texas Tech 42 Iowa State 26 - Recap

2006-10-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

I listened to the entire game and from what I heard, Texas Tech has a fairly easy victory over Iowa State, although there are still a number of questions leading up to the Texas game.

Here's the box score. along with the AP write-up.

Tech was off to the races very early as Harrell lead Tech down the field for the first score to J. Filani for 30 yards. The problem without seeing this game is that I cannot recall if this was truly a big yardage play. My hope that it is, we need to open things up a bit in order to get the underneath stuff.

B. Stratton intercepts a B. Meyer pass, Stratton's first INT of the year, and 35 yards later, Filani has his second touchdown for 7 yards. ISU gets it's own TD and FG and after one Tech 3 and out, Harrell finds Amendola for 41 yards for another TD. The next possession, ISU drives, but is stalled, punts and Amendola and fumbles, this leads to an ISU touchdown. Amendola makes up for it a little later as Harrell finds him for a 9 yard TD, with a 43 yard pass to L.A. Reed being the component that gets Tech down the field.

A big part of ISU's first drive of the 2nd half was a Filani, roughing the punter penalty, which ended up leading to an ISU touchdown and, naturally, Tech responds with a 32 yard touchdown pass from Harrell to Woods. Prior to this score, the game was the closest it had been all day. At the end of the 3rd, Tech seemed to be firmly in control and Filani gets his 3rd TD of the game in the 4th quarter for Tech's only score.

As the DMN notes, Tech was a lot more footloose and fancy free this game. And Don Williams of the LAJ notes that at some points during the game, Tech used a defensive line that consisted of 4 defensive ends. The LAJ notebook goes into a little detail regarding the Ramirez injury, no one knows, and how Tech filled in for the injured OG. Also, this from Harrell in regards to his progressions on offense:

"Coach said, 'Don't concentrate on getting Hicks the ball. Just go through your reads, and let your reads take you to Hicks,''' Tech QB Graham Harrell said. "I think I did a better job going through my reads and getting him the ball when he was open.''

A little bit from an ISU perspective, from the DesMoines Register.

Finally, perhaps the biggest news, in the Big XII media day, Knight's press conference makes the New York Times, and Kevin Durant, UT freshman, thinks he's a rock star.

Texas Tech 42 Iowa State 26

2006-10-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

Initial thoughts:

Too many dumb personal fouls.
Sounds like Harrell looked really sharp.
Also sounds like Johnson droped passes that he probably should not have, but Filani caught almost everything that came his way.
The defense bent but did not break.
A couple of big play touchdown means we're stretching out the offense a little bit.
Woods was good today.

More to come tomorrow.

Texas Tech V. Iowa State - Game Day Thread

2006-10-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

I will be at a wedding tonight and I'm getting this up early. If Yahoo will post the game channel, I'll edit this post.

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - Texas Tech v. Iowa State

2006-10-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

Lots of previews this morning.

The DMN is predicting a Tech victory, they see the most important matchup to be between ISU defensive tackle Curvey and Tech OG Ramirez. Personally, I am beginning to have my doubts about whether or not, one on one, Tech can handle a really good defender. We'll see. Also note that the player who needs to step it up is Hicks. Hicks is playing for the NFL and I'd like to see him a little more serious about getting open. Don't get me wrong, Harrell has a lot to do with this equation as well, but the receivers need to find a way to get open. Here are the staff predictions.

The LAJ game preview link has gone bad, so we have an article from Don about the need for both teams to control their turnovers. Bill Parcells makes usually makes it a point every year to discuss how the team with the fewest turnovers wins 80% (or some ridiculous stat) of their games.

Tim Griffin of the EN is predicting a little more lopsided Tech victory.

The Chronicle has no prediction but a small preview.

ISU is getting prepared for the pass, and rightfully so. Tech has got to get their passing attack underway for them to have a chance.

Small Des Moines Register preview with article about aforementioned DT Curvey.

My prediction: I still don't have a lot of confidence in the offense, yet I'm going to predict that Tech will score 4 touchdowns - Texas Tech 28, Iowa State 17.

Thursday Night

2006-10-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

The biggest news out of Lubbock today was the new contract extension between Coach Knight and the university, keeping Knight here until the 2011-2012 season. It's interesting that Myers knows that it's about keeping a good face with recruits and I agree. Tech needs to start recruiting more high school players than juco players. I don't think I'm revealing anything earth-shattering here, but programs are better, long term, with 4 year players and it looks like everyone else is on the same page.

For what it's worth, the EN is picking Tech to win this weekend.

A sobering (I know, this is the second time I've used that word in a week) LAJ article about the deficiencies of the Texas Tech defense. Setencich admits that the first touchdown given up on Saturday against Colorado was a full 7 man blitz. I have two questions: 1) Why would we blitz 7 guys? That's just crazy. 2) Do we have the secondary to cover for the 7 man blitz?

My first thought is that if any team blitzes 7 guys and you don't get to the quarterback then you're in trouble. Obvious. We have to blitz 7 guys because we've been unable to get to the quarterback with more traditional methods, i.e. with a 5 man or 6 man front. Setencich goes so far to say:

"What people get excited about is seven Keyunta Dawsons coming,'' Setencich said, referring to the rush end who's one of the fastest players on the Tech defense. "They see the swarm. That's what they get excited about. We don't have seven Keyunta Dawsons. They see a swarm of guys and want us to do it. It's not what we do well.''

So, we don't blitz well. That's fine, I can live with that, however, the next problem with blitzing 7 players is that it puts tremendous pressure on the secondary. I do not claim to have the most accurate idea of the athletic ability of our secondary, but leaving 4 guys out to dry like that is just not fair. Setencich has to know the limitations of the defense. Play to win, guy.

Although, it's kind of ironic that the Des Moines Register notes that the Cyclones are susceptible to the blitz. Will Setencich be tempted to blitz if he knows that one of a team's weaknesses is picking up the blitz? My money is on that he will, he's got nothing to lose.

Wednesday Notes

2006-10-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

Nothing in any paper today. Nothing in the DMN, nothing.

Thankfully, the LAJ has a really informative notebook today where there are a couple three notes:

Robert Johnson is practicing. This is a good thing. It's really difficult to figure out why he was suspended for last week's game and to speculate isn't going to make this any better. He can be a real important part of this offense and he needs to be out there.
Offensive lineman Brandon Carter is being punished internally. Carter is doing body rolls which is a form of punishment. Leach notes that he's a young kid who has made a mistake. I agree, it's obvious he's in the wrong, and unless there's a suit filed, this should be the end of this incident.
Finally, there's some decent insight on the depth of communication between the quarterback and the wide receiver. For whatever reason, lots of fans expect a new QB to be able to run this system without flaw and to perfection. Obviously, it's much more difficult than most of us realize or understand. There's probably a lot of nuance within a certain play that we really don't get.

I like this quote: "Just before halftime Saturday, Harrell threw a pass for a route that inside receiver Eric Morris didn't run, and the ball was picked off.
Holgorsen said Morris sensed that the play had been changed, but didn't get the audible and couldn't get Harrell's attention in time. He ran a corner route, which was the original call, and Harrell threw a deep vertical, which was what his route had been changed to."
Good stuff.
Last but not least, there's an article from Lubbock Online regarding Damir Suljagic and his return to play. But more than that, I did not realize that there are 7 newcomers this year:
"Headlining this year's class is 7-footer Esmir Rizvic and guards Charlie Burgess and Benny Valentine.
Rizvic is the tallest player in the Knight era since 6-foot-11 center Andy Ellis, who played for Knight in his final season when Knight was in his first year at Tech.
Burgess was named the NJCAA Player of the Year last year. He and Valentine led Howard College to a 35-2 record, the best in Hawks' history."
By the way, the aforementioned Lubbock Online article requires a subscription, go to BugMeNot to avoid having to sign up.

Tuesday Before Iowa State

2006-10-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

We have some pretty good content today. The first from the DMN, where Tim McMahon has some pretty sobering numbers on the vaunted Texas Tech passing attack. The one negative that I'll point out is that Tim mentions that the modest numbers provided are swayed by the SE Louisiana drubbing, but there would be teams like this in each year, not just this year, so it's really not a fair exception. Nevertheless, Leach is confident that Harrell just has some growing pains to go through (which I believe wholeheartedly).

Leach also admitted that it was a mistake to replace Harrell. Quite frankly, I'm glad that he made the admission. I never understood why, I guess it's always a case of the grass is greener on the other side, fans think that the head coach doesn't know who to play at quarterback. I've got to imagine that Leach, who's seen his fair share of quarterbacks knows a thing or two about talent. I will continue to believe that Leach knows what he's doing, especially with the quarterbacks. We just have to be patient.

The DMN also has some notes regarding the strides the Texas Tech pass defense is making, but is quick to point out the struggling run defense. Something needs to be done about the run defense, I would start with tackling.

In a LAJ notebook, Leach is quoted about the Harrell decision:

"Graham's our quarterback," Leach said, "and I probably shouldn't have pulled him (Saturday). I thought it was more disruptive than positive. I thought it was (a) good (move) the Missouri game. I don't think it was smart this last game."

I like a coach who isn't afraid to make some mistakes, especially with a struggling team. I also like a coach who realizes his mistakes after the fact.

Don Williams (LAJ) has a nice article about the lack of this team being a cohesive unit. There's a lot of good quotes here that I'll have to breakdown when I have a little more time.

I like this note about Leach and chicken fighting from the DMN College blog.

Monday Notes

2006-10-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

There's very little news out there. Most of the news deals with the two incidents I linked to on Sunday morning: Hicks being pulled back from the crowd and Brandon Carter spitting on some fans. I really don't know what to think about Carter other than he's a RS freshman, however, we now have two incidents where Tech players are reacting to fans way too much.

The only real article is from the LAJ, and Leach emphasizes that he has not given up on this team. This is really a time where Leach shines. As I said before, I think Leach is pretty damn intelligent and he knows that with young players he only had one bite at the apple and that was against TCU. He has not given up on the team and I'm not surprised. Previously, when Texas Tech had little to no talent, Tech won and it shouldn't be any different now. Leach knows that empowering this team a little bit certainly can't help and I think that his belief that there's a lot of games left to play should not be lost on this team.

I've thought about this often, but for whatever reason, I think there are some real talent issues here. Not necessarily with the offense (I think their problems are because of chemistry), but with the defense. Any division I team should be able to hold an opponent for less than 200 yards rushing. I said early in the year that I thought that Tech seemed more athletic on defense early in the year, and it appeared that Tech was rotating more players. I still believe those to a point, but there does not appear to be any difference makers on this team and we're at least one or two special players away from making a difference on offense.

The other killer is turnovers. You just can't expect to win with so many turnovers without the defense creating some as well. I think we very well know that Harrell is the main culprit here and he's got to cut down on the fumbles and interceptions for Tech to have a shot a winning games. This is a reasonable request. I really think that the game is going to slow down for him at some point during the year. Let's just hope that it happens sooner than later.

Iowa State is next.

Texas Tech 6 Colorado 30

2006-10-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

The only ones who saw this game were the ones who were there. I'm glad I didn't have to sit through this game. All I have to go on is they Yahoo play-by-play and that's not pretty. There were one or two plays with each drive where Tech got some decent yardage, but no sustainable drive. Todd replaced Harrell at the beginning of the second half and I think he put to rest any quarterback controvery. Both of these guys are stuggling and I'm not sure where to start.

Here's the box score.

Leach claims that it's a chemistry issue. I guess he's the only one who really knows that, but it's apparent that this frustation is boiling over. Here's just two events from this weekend, none of which involved Harrell flipping off a stadium.

"The frustrations were apparent. Split end Jarrett Hicks, held without a reception, had to be pulled away from fans who were taunting him as he walked toward the locker room. Backup offensive lineman Brandon Carter spit on a Colorado fan who was razzing him as Carter headed up the ramp."

Players and coaches are both frustrated. That may be both a good sign and a bad sign. It may be good in the sense that this team is ready to start working, simple fundamentals. It may be bad in the sense that players may want to give up on the season.

Here's some startling numbers:

Tech had 7 penalties, Colorado had 0.
Colorado ran for 249 yards.
Colorado averaged 8.9 yards per attempt.
Harrell had 3 interceptions.
Tech had 97 yards in the first half, total offense.
Tech did not have a touchdown for the first 3 quarters, a first in the Leach era.

From the number of rushing yards gained by Colorado, I'm assuming that Texas Tech still does not know how to properly tackle a football player. We should probably look into that pretty soon.

Texas Tech v. Colorado - Game Day Thread

2006-10-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - Texas Tech v. Colorado

2006-10-14T04:56:00.000-07:00

I ran across this article while visiting the Tech - Yahoo site, which I rarely do, and in fact I usually only do this on game day. But here's an article which describes a scene from last Saturday night where Graham Harrell, flipped off the stands. Was this wrong? Yes, I read some message boards last night where a number of people made it clear that they felt it was wrong. Great, I think we can all agree that giving your home fans the finger is not appropriate. I really don't think this is the question, the question is if Harrell has the temperament to be a quarterback. If we take a step back, which we should, I think that Harrell's just a kid and the minute that he did that he was probably wrong. He probably let his emotion get the best of him and he probably knows that. Let's not make a mountain out of a mole hill, if it happens again then we probably have an issue, but if he doesn't then this is completely forgotten.

On to game previews:

DMN - predicts a Tech victory if the offense can step it up. In particular, there's the note that Colorado has a terrible pass defense. I thought last week we were all licking our chops at Mizzou's young cornerbacks? Let's hope we take more advantage of the defensive backfield that we did last week.

SEN - predicts a Tech victory.

LAJ

The LAJ has dueling quarterback controversy articles up, the first is why Todd should replace Harrell and the second is why Harrell should stay. Please, stop. Replacing the QB in any college can be a slippery slope. There are more reasons to stick with a quarterback than not, but the most important one is consistency and the coach letting kids know that unless they really can't handle the pressure (which I do not think that Harrell falls anywhere close to this category) then the kid stays in at quarterback. You will run off recruits if you flip flop. You stick with the one who brought you. If this year fails as a result of Harrell, then the decision will be final and we'll lose what looks like a really talented quarterback due to a transfer. It stinks, but be patient.

Friday Updates

2006-10-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

The biggest news is that two Texas Tech starters are out for Saturday's game (there's much more information in the LAJ article).

First, I previously signed up for to have the privilege to view RedRaiderSports. I thought I would be able to view some things for free. I finally decided that it was an extreme beating to go to the website to only then be denied once you were teased with a headline. That's some of the reason why I'm writing this blog. Don't get me wrong, I have a passion for this, but I don't want to charge people for something that can normally be provided for free. So when I got the email from RedRaiderSports I was intrigued, but I knew that within the hour I'd find out who was being benched and why.

So, what do these suspensions mean? My initial thought is that Johnson's suspension is not a good sign. I've never thought Johnson to be a bad kid, but let's not forget that he left the program when he was told that he wasn't going to run the offense. I have to wonder if his semi-stardom as a WR led to him thinking that he was a little bigger than the team? Of course this is all speculation and I have no way of knowing exactly what's transpired, but as a complete outsider that's all I can really figure. Leach seems to intimate that Johnson's attitude has kept him from this game and it will be Johnson's attitude that will keep him out of future games.

The LAJ Notebook has some notes on starters being more involved with the special teams after the A&M kickoff touchdown return. Some additional information on Todd Walker, he's been practicing at both the split end and flanker position.

Wednesday Notes

2006-10-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

Things have quieted down quite a bit and Leach seems to be his usual calm self. In the DMN, Leach agrees that consistency is the problem with Tech this year, and who can disagree with that. It's almost expected with a young quarterback.

The LAJ has a nice preview of Colorado, and consistency seems to be their problem too. The LAJ "notebook" has one note, that Tech is still looking for a game next September. Seriously, that's it. Great coverage. Finally, I really hate letters to the editor, just start a blog.

In non-football related news, i.e. men's basketball, the pre-season all Big XII teams have been released and our Jarrius Jackson made the first team. CollegeHoopsNet has a nice preview of Tech's basketball squad, it seems to me we're really relying on the juco transfers again, but they are predicting an NCAA birth.

Tuesday Before Colorado

2006-10-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

The grass isn't always greener. As I said yesterday Leach was clear that Harrell isn't going anywhere. Here in the LAJ and in the FWST (you may not recognize this acronym, there's actually a decent article about the quarterback situation, including this quote.

'There's several good quarterbacks in the country, but I can't think of very many I would rather have than Graham Harrell,' Leach said. 'There's a notion that, 'Oh, I know, let's plug this guy in and it will be perfect.' Whoever your guy is that you have rolling through your head, that you think is pretty good, has already had a bad game or he's going to. Then maybe you can put Graham Harrell in for that guy when that happens.'

We tend to forget that Harrell is very young in a very complicated system. The reason Leach only started 5th year seniors is because this is a difficult offense to master. It's disappointing that Tech doesn't have immediate quarterback success, but it's also not the worst thing that could happen. The other thing to consider is that Texas Tech quarterbacks are not asked to get out of situations with their legs. We haven't seen Harrell scramble out of the pocket at all, and after reading the quotes last week about , and all of this makes a lot more sense. Leach has instilled in his quarterbacks, despite Hodges propensity to run last year, the mindset that you have to get it done in the pocket. Bottom line.

As I also said the week after the TCU loss, Leach realizes that he had one bite at the apple and he's not upset after this most recent loss. I think he's a lot smarter than we all give him credit for and he knows how to push his players.

The LAJ, notes that there's no TV for the Tech v. ISU game and Leach is wary of Colorado.

Monday Notes

2006-10-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's been two days and I've had a little time to think about the game. I was thoroughly disappointed with the way that Tech played overall, but here are a couple of notes:

Offense:

Harrell just can't do that. I know that Leach came out today and said that Harrell is in place for the duration, but Tech has to have the next two games. Harrell has got to look off his receivers, look down the field, the receivers have got to react. This is football and they have to adjust. I thought giving Harrell a break was really nice and Todd is going to be a really good quarterback.
Why is Hicks getting more looks? He's probably the best receiver on the team. Granted Missouri was completely clogging up the middle and they way they played reminded me of TCU in the sense that they were a very athletic defense. Tech needs to adjust, they're too talented at the skill positions not to do so.
The offensive line was not at it's best. The run blocking was pretty good, but there were times that Vasquez looked really slow. I have to believe that having a completely healthy lineman out there would have been better than Vasquez. I blame to coaches for that and not Vasquez.

Defense:

Like I said yesterday, the defense had a lot of passion, but that didn't translate to a great game. They came out over-pursuing and trying to knock the crap out of everyone. The problem with this is that Daniels is a great equalizer when a team is too aggressive and he really made Tech pay for it. Once Tech realized they needed to contain Daniels he abused our secondary.
For all of the complaining, I just did, the defense held up well for the most part and realistically the 14 points given away in the 2nd quarter were a result of the offense and not the defense.

There really aren't any articles to post, as usual. In fact there's the above referenced articles one other one from the DMN and that's about it. Not even the LAJ has anything ground-breaking.

For the record, I believe that Tech needs to rebound these next two games and hold on for the Texas game. Tech has a great chance to beat OU and OSU, but I'm not counting my chickens just yet. Before I started this blog I always believed that Tech was an 8-4 team this year. Tech only gets 2 more losses for me to hit my prediction. Don't let me down.

I'm Hiding

2006-10-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe my eyes half of the time. I literally sat in my living room in complete shock the second time that Graham threw the interception. Turnovers alone cost Texas Tech that game. Granted, Missouri has a better, faster and bigger defense and Daniels just didn't make the mistakes that Harrell did. I will have a better handle on all of this tomorrow, try and get back into the swing of things. The one thing that really bothers me is that Leach got his one bite at the apple with the loss against TCU. Now, he has to simply make some changes. It is amazing that the defense will try and take someone's head off, but won't actually tackle someone. Nevermind, this will have to wait until tomorrow.

Colorado is up next week.

Saturday Morning Preview - Missouri v. Texas Tech

2006-10-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

This is a really big game. The way both of these teams are playing, it could really go either way. I don't know enough about Mizzou to know if they have the physical talent that Tech has or if Tech's defense will step up and stop the run this week. Quite simply, I'm glad that this game is in Lubbock. We sit at 4 point favorites, and I think that 4 points may be too much. I'm glad the game is on TBS, there's nothing wrong with a little national exposure for two top 25 programs.

I will post a game day thread, I promise.

There's only a few Saturday morning previews and some local Mizzou coverage:

Texas Tech @ Yahoo.

DMN.

LAJ.

EN.

Here's a little on the Mizzou offense.

Two really great breakdowns of the game from The Columbia Daily Tribune writer, Dave Matter (honestly, this is really good stuff).

Thursday Night

2006-10-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

Tim McMahon of the DMN is actually doing a little writing over at the news and he has an interesting take on the what Leach thought was the biggest differences between Harrell and Daniels. Leach perceived Daniels to be more of a running quarterback, but liked Harrell's accuracy. Tim has a follow up on the DMN blog about Leach not really seeing the need for a "strong-armed" QB, and honestly, I can't blame him. I believe that a quarterback's best asset is what's between the ears. Granted, he's got to be able to throw the ball, but all things being equal, it may be more important to have a smarter QB than a stronger QB. Tim steps it up further and 6 minutes later points out why Tech will never have a running QB in their system. Quite simply, that takes time away from the passing game. Last but not least, the Mizzou DB's will be very young on Saturday, much like last week.

A lot of love to Jarrett Hicks and his effect on the game. Leach has always maintained that for this offense to work properly, Texas Tech needs at least 4 quality receivers. Hicks' presence truly helps the rest of the receivers by taking pressure off of them.

I don't get this, this article was on the LAJ website. For whatever reason I thought it was blasphemy to have any articles other than articles about Tech on this website.

Wednesday Notes

2006-10-04T19:26:00.000-07:00

It's the OU/Texas weekend so it seems that all of the attention is focused on that rivalry as there seems to be little to no news regarding the other matchup between two top 25 teams.

In fact there's no new articles from the DMN, nor any blog entries on their college blog regarding Tech. The only two articles I could find was this at the LAJ regarding Pinkel's rebuilding job and how the Mizzou secondary is chomping at the bit to play against Tech.

Yawn.

I hope to have some better information tomorrow night, or better yet, I hope that these "major" newspapers are not sending all their reporters to report on one game. You would think that they would have more resources than that.

Who Does That?

2006-10-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted since the game. I had a death in the family, and was out of town for a number of days.

I was only able to watch the 2nd half of the game and the one thing that I came away with from the game was this, who does that? Who goes for it on that particular play? That entire drive I kept thinking that we simply needed to go for the field goal, tie the game and hope we can win it in overtime. Graham was not thinking the same thing. He saw the man pressure and made the only call he should have made. It truly was a thing of greatness. It wasn't fair to that defensive back. The only thing he did wrong was not look back at the ball, other than that he was there. One of the best games I've watched in a really long time. I have yet to go back and review the game, I'll get to that as time allows, but I think that most everyone has detailed Texas Tech's offensive genius in the 1st half and A&M's ability to control the clock in the 2nd half. I thought the defense stood up pretty well, but I did scream at the television that the option was "high school." I really don't know what I meant by that.

Because I lack time, I'll give you numerous links to newspapers.
DMN:
1. Texas Tech remembers the whoppin' last time Tech played Mizzzou.
2. Leach blames the offense for the time of possession.
3. Harrell passes a big test.
As as aside, when is the DMN going to designate a beat reporter to Tech and the Big 12? There is so much upheaval at that newspaper, it is going to cause it's own demise.

LAJ:
1. Red Raider notes.
2. Harrell and Daniels.

Fox Sports Texas Tech v. Mizzou preview.

Thursday Night

2006-09-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

I will not be around to post a game day thread as I'm going out of town for the weekend. The DVR is set to record the game and I have made arrangements to watch the game.

The DMN has had better coverage than the LAJ, which seems odd, and has a nice article on Hicks' return. We actually get some quotes from Hicks himself and he talks about earning his job, which after watching the TCU fiasco, this shouldn't be too difficult. Chip Brown, I guess, is going to be covering the Big 12 from this point forward and he writes about the young Big 12 quarterbacks, being led by Harrell, McGee and Chase Daniel, from MU.

A Q and A session from the LAJ, but I would expect with a game this big this weekend that we'd have a few more features from the LAJ.

Tim Griffin from the EN, is predicting another Tech victory, albeit a very close one. He notes that one of the keys to victory is that Tech has played two very tough road games already. I tend to agree with this notion. A new writer from the EN, Brent Zwerneman, at least to me, talks how this game is very important to Franchione. Is it possible he pushes his team a little too much this week?

The Chronicle has an article about how A&M hopes to stop Tech. I often believe that in games like this commentators generally like to say, "It's Tech's offense against a A&M's defense." Typically, I tend to take the opposite approach. It's not the Tech offense I'm worried about, despite TCU, it's the Tech defense and their ability to stop the run. Conversely, I wouldn't be that worried about A&M's defense as they clearly have talent, but rather, whether the offense has enough to keep A&M off the field. In other words, it's the weakness of the team that's the key because that's the one variable.

Finally, from the DMN college blog, my favorite source of news, is about Michael Crabtree and how he's tearing up the Thursday scrimmages. This seems insignificant, but Tech doesn't have a choice about reloading WR's next year. We need some special WR's to really make this offense click. They're hoping that he will be able to play basketball this year. I wouldn't mind seeing that.

Wednesday Notes

2006-09-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

Lots of things today. First off, there's quite a bit on the rivalry between Tech and A&M. The first bit is from the DMN, which points out that Tech is on quite a roll in regards to recent history, but that A&M is more of a traditional powerhouse. I especially like this note from the DMN college blog.

The idea that A&M has, according to the experts, better players only gives credence that Tech is doing a better job of taking what they have and doing more with it. Let's face it, I truly believe that the perfect thing about the spread offense is that it allows less talented teams to compete with more talented teams. A spread offense can take a quarterback with average physical skills, but a high football IQ and can turn this into a dangerous offense. This of course doesn't take into consideration the idea that as this team wins, more talented teams will go to that school and eventually that team can compete with some of the best teams in the nation. I've always thought that this was Leach's plan from the beginning, and it's all starting to come into focus.

Lagrone Shields, a DT from Memphis, TN committed to Tech, which seems to be the most important note in the LAJ Notebook.

The EN notes that Harrell has become, at the urging of Leach, the team leader. As I said before, nothing that Leach does surprises me and last week's rantings were all part of his plan to make one attempt at motivating the team. Having Harrell be this team's leader makes perfect sense, he's going to be around for a while.

In addition to the above referenced article, the EN has another article about the matchup between Tech's offense and A&M's defense. Gary Darnell recognizes that it's the YAC that affect teams:

"The mark of a real defense is how tough you are when the ball is in the air," Darnell said. "(Texas Tech) doesn't beat you throwing the football. They beat you after they catch the ball."

Leach also poked fun of A&M last year and agrees that A&M's defense is better than it was last year.

Tuesday Before Texas A&M

2006-09-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

No posts last night, watched almost the entirety of the Saints/Falcons game.

This is such a delicious match-up and I actually believe that playing in Ft. Worth and in El Paso will help this team in College Station.

A nice perspective on the offense taking note that they have to focus and that they key to the offense is to spread the ball around to everyone. The main issue was Harrell focusing on Johnson and Filani too much.

Chip Brown goes into some detail regarding the budding (relatively speaking) rivalry between Tech and A&M.

In the EN, there's an Aggie Insider and the Aggies seem to be a little giddy about the game. I would think that they'd be taking this a little more serious. The EN also has a really nice write up on some uncommitted recruits.

Finally, in a note from the Springfield News Leader, Tech and Mizzery will be on television Saturday, October 5th on TBS.

Texas Tech 62 SE Louisiana 0

2006-09-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

The return of Jarrett Hicks

This was expected. I honestly wasn't sure about holding SE Louisiana scoreless, but we did and kudos to the defense, but there was really nothing else we could have expected. From all accounts, the offense was very efficient as Harrell lead the team to scores on 6 of their first 7 possessions.

I think that I've gotten a little more insight to the game from the DMN blog and not the DMN game wrap. Robert Johnson, Joel Filani and Todd Walker were briefly benched for the game, but it was Walker who eventually scored on the first possession. Ofa Mohetau was benched, briefly by RS freshman, Brandon Carter. And G. January's injury doesn't appear to be too serious.

The DMN, the only newspaper with an actual reporter, Tim MacMahon, assigned to the game, gives us this recap. MacMahon also gives us some notes, most of which he mentioned in the DMN blog.

The LAJ has a really nice slideshow of the band and some photos from the game. And the game recap. We also learn that Seth Nitschmann finally got a little PT after sitting out the first 3 games and Brandon Jones learns a new position.

Saturday Morning Preview - SE Louisiana v. Tech

2006-09-23T04:21:00.000-07:00

The DMN has a preview of tonight's game, predicting a 63-3 whipping.

The Houston Chronicle also has a preview with no prediction on the score.

Finally, the EN predicts Tech to win, 70-0.

I can never get a good handle how these games will turn out. Honestly, I seriously doubt that this will do anything to prepare Tech for A&M next week. I will try to post the game day thread at game time, otherwise I'll post the Yahoo link.

Friday Updates

2006-09-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hicks gets to play. This would have been a decision that would have come in handy last week, nevertheless he's here now. Apparently, some of the blame is on Tech as they submitted additional information on Thursday and the NCAA then reversed their decision. The story even gets ESPN coverage.

A really good article on the LAJ regarding some of the progress of some of Tech's freshman and question and answer session.

Tim Griffin of the EN breaks down this week's Leach "meltdown". Once again, I'm not sure that this could be coined as a meltdown and I also believe that nothing that Leach does is without forethought. I truly believe that he intended to say all of this, thus it really doesn't qualify as a meltdown.

Leach will be the subject of an NFL Films story, which really picques my interest.

Wednesday Notes

2006-09-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of notes from the DMN recruiting blog. The first one on of Tech's QB commits, Stefan Loucks. In 3 games Loucks has already put up 1,230 yards, which is 410 yards a game. This blurb also discusses why Tech did not offer Brock Mansion a scholarship. Texas Tech's rationale: the coaches are enamored with numbers. The second note mentions Tech's commitment to Seth Doedge after he tore his ACL.

The LAJ has the only other notes on Tech today and it's more of the same, Leach is serious about benching some players who aren't playing to their full potential.

It's time to move on, as I said before, I think that it's good that Leach is threatening these guys with the only thing they value, playing time. It is a true motivator, we'll see if it works this week and the following weeks.

Tuesday Before Southeastern Louisiana

2006-09-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

The best news blurbs today are from the AV where Leach goes into detail regarding Tech's meltdown with some really good quotes from Mike:

"I saw a bunch of prima donna pretty boys prancing around like they thought they were too good to be there," Leach said. "And then when we got hit in the mouth, they looked surprised and frustrated, like this isn't supposed to happen. Like didn't (Tech players') press agent talk to TCU and let them know how good they were and what they did last year? Then they got frustrated like they were too good to fight back. I mean, we didn't even fight back."

Additionally, Leach addresses some of the comments from Whitmore as to whether or not teams have "figured out" Tech's offense:

Have other teams caught on to Tech?
"It's a stupid question," Leach said. "I try to be polite and answer it, but it's very difficult to kind of not roll your eyes at the thing. There's nothing wrong with the scheme. How it's applied, how you play, how hard you try, yeah, that's infested with problems right now.

"If it's so easy to lead the nation in stuff, everybody would do that. But the thing is, I think we have an entitlement syndrome around here and think that everything's easy and don't understand that to get anything, you fight for it."

The reality is that I'm still really impressed with Leach's response. Call out the players and let them make a stand. The only thing that I've given some thought since yesterday is the idea that this may be his one bite at the apple, and during the course of a year I think that this is all that a football coach gets in terms of challenging his players. Anything where he questions the integrity of the team will eventually fall on deaf ears and we'll just have to look forward to next year.

Leach is also not following the Hicks saga and it doesn't sound positive.

One basketball note, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle, Tech has 3 of the top 15 players committed next year.

Monday Notes

2006-09-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

Lots of notes from the DMN blog and Keith Whitmore:

The key to stopping Tech, pressure defense.

Some very public criticism of Tech's player's by Leach. You really don't see coaches really make the team responsible, but maybe Leach has reached his boiling point. I taught high school English for a period of time, and I found that they best method to get a kid to do what he or she needed to do was to either publicly call them out and let them know, in front of everyone that they were the cause for their actions.

The offense has no opportunity to defend itself. Like I said. Most of these guys are adults and at some point they need to be responsible for their actions. You silence people with your performance. This is their chance to do that.

That's it for today, I'm still reeling over the loss. I take them too hard and too personal. Thus, on different note, Knight has signed a pretty important recruit. Go Raiders . . .

Texas Tech 3 TCU 12

2006-09-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Ugh. What a horrible loss. Tech did one-half of what I thought might happen in the game. I thought that the Tech defense would come up with enough stops to come away with a win. Unfortunately, I did not predict complete and total ineptitude from Texas Tech's offense. It wasn't just one thing, it seemed to be a number of things that went wrong. Johnson and Filani couldn't catch. That's a huge problem. Harrell could not keep the defense honest, and at times the strong safety was in the box, leaving the middle of the field completely wide open for someone to make a play. In other words TCU knew that Tech would not go deep and they gambled on getting pressure on Harrell would result in poor decisions. Not necessarily decisions that resulted in turnovers, but decisions that resulted in negative to little yardage gains. I really wanted to see crossing routes over the middle or a deep corner route, but instead merely got sideline outs with little or no gain.

I'm beginning to wonder the long-term effect of Hick's absence due to the NCAA. He could have cleared up a number of these items as I believe him to be more surehanded than not and has the ability to stretch the defense a little more than Filani and Johnson.

Checklist for new recruit: speed receiver who can stretch the field.

The defense played surprisingly well, as I've said before, I believe that Tech's defense is much improved, we seem to be bigger and faster on all fronts. I really have no complaint with the method in which the defense played.

I thought the defense played really well, despite the fact that Kellen Tillman made one of the dumbest plays I've ever witnessed, he intentionally gave what looked to be a forearm shiver to a TCU player going out of bounds. I thought he deserved to be thrown out of the game, classless act.

Louis Vasquez was injured and that may have precipitated quite a few of our problems on offense, from a protection standpoint, but I certainly doubt that this was the major cause for the offensive woes.

Here are the game recaps:
DMN
Yahoo
EN
AJ

Game Day Thread - Texas Tech v. TCU

2006-09-16T05:11:00.000-07:00

Since I'll be at the game I won't have time to put up the box score link, so here's the Yahoo link and click on Box Score to follow the game.

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - Tech v. TCU

2006-09-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

The DMN predicts a Tech victory and states that the key matchup is Tech's WRs against TCU's redshirt freshman corners.

The EN notes that TCU has the nation's longest winning streak and it would be so sweet to break that today.

The Houston Chronicle has a preview of today's game as well and notes that Graham Harrell and Robert Johnson are the keys to victory. That's crazy, Tech's QB and best WR are the keys to a game? I never would have thought that the QB for Tech, who normally leads the nation in offense, would be an important player for Tech. Thanks.

The AJ notes that TCU is excited to be playing a top 25 team.

The key for me will be Tech being able to stop TCU's offense, plain and simple we need more rain and we need more 3 and outs. The defensive line has to be big, has to get to Ballard and put some pressure on him. The secondary has to do a better job of jamming the WR's at the line of scrimmage.

Friday Updates

2006-09-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

There's a couple of articles regarding Tech's defense. The first being from the DMN talks of Tech possibly being lulled into thinking they were a little better than what they actually were after playing SMU. Tech is claiming that most of the mistakes were mental, I tend to err on the side that I think that most of the mistakes were simply not tackling well and letting UTEP's WR's run all over the field without breaking up their rhythm or simply laying a hit on they (i.e., we might miss Slay).

The Avalanche-Journal notes that Setencich understands that a successful season will hinge upon the play of the defense, which is exactly right. I certainly like the idea of making the defense accountable. Without this type of responsibility the defense could skate through the season, letting them know that the season depends just as much on them as the offense is important to establish early.

A decent article from the AV regarding Shannon Woods and his play to date.

A pretty decent observation from Tim Griffin, of the Express-News, regarding Harrell.

"Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell appears to be the perfect fit in the Red Raiders' offense. Not only does he have a quick release (only one sack in 101 pass attempts) but he seems to have a significantly better deep arm than his predecessor, Cody Hodges. Look for Coach Mike Leach to try to exploit TCU's defense with a more vertical passing game than heÂs used earlier in the season."

I couldn't agree more, it was evident during the UTEP game that Harrell has a better arm and may be just as athletic as Hodges. I truly believe that Tech is blessed with outstanding quarterbacks for the next 3 or 4 years. It would certainly be worth it for Tech to try and throw deep, Filani has the ability to jump up and over defenders and his height is such an asset that Tech should take advantage of it.

Wednesday Notes

2006-09-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

This concerns me a little bit. When I first clicked on the link which was to be the early commitments for Tech, I was a little excited. First, I am expecting an even better class than the one last year simply because Tech is in the limelight now more than ever and I truly believe that we're a more high profile program. Well, according to this writer, it seems as if every one of the early commitments is nothing to get excited about. I hope this is just his opinion and that the class grades out to be much better than Mr. McCarney has opined.

DMN has a nice article on Kellen Tilllman and his rebound from tearing ACL's in his right and left leg to become the starting strongside linebacker.

Safety Anthony Hines returns from being stabbed.

Seth Doege, QB from Frenship, commits to Tech for 2008.

Also, Todd Wills on the DMN Recruiting Blog has some nice things to say about Tech recruit, John Roberson.

Tuesday Before TCU

2006-09-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Star Telegram echoes my sentiments from the other day regarding Tech's receivers, they're good. All kidding aside, I think that you would be hard pressed to find a more talented group of receivers from top to bottom, and of coarse we really aren't even considering Hicks and what he would mean to this team.

The Avalanche-Journal has a few notes regarding Tech's defense, or lack thereof. Leach, I think, realizes that Tech really needs to make some significant improvements. Personally, I'd love to see more of a pass rush, which I think would imrpove a lot of the defense's woes. I think they're close, they just need to get better as quickly as possible. Also in this same article, another WR, Michael Crabtree, a freshman from Carter has been cleared by the NCAA to enroll at Tech. The idea is that he's not cleared to play, yet, and if he doesn't get cleared to play until next year then this year will merely count as a redshirt and he won't lose any eligibility.

Fox Sports has a decent preview of this weekend's game, focusing more on the TCU angle than the Tech angle.

Monday Notes

2006-09-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

Joel Filani.

I wasn't able to sleep Saturday night, there was just too much running through my head as I tried to go to beach after Saturday night's game. In retrospect I really simply want Tech to be able to put teams like UTEP away, early. I really want the defense to step it up, as I said before, I can't remember a defensive line that was bigger or a faster linebacking crew that our current defense.

On to TCU. I will be attending this game and I'll try to take as many pictures as possible.

The DMN college blog has some Tech notes. Chuck Carlton has some quotes as to Leach's true feelings towards the new clock rules, including, "I think simply stated that itÂs the stupidest rule to come out in a significantly long time." Whitemore talks about the pants fiasco and TCU likes to hide Tech's most recent victory against TCU.

CB Chris Parker has an undisclosed injury.

The Express hands game of the week honors to Graham Harrell.

Harrell expresses what I believe Tech should take from the UTEP game. Be glad we got a victory, no matter how you slice it, and realize that Tech is a long ways away from being a truly complete team.

TCU remembrs the 70-35 thrashing two years ago and they believe that this a victory against Tech may help them get a BCS bid.

In non-football related news, Tech got an oral commitment from John Roberson, a guard from Plano.

Harrell's Poise

2006-09-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

The San Antonio Express News seconds my thought about Harrell's poise throughout the game.

Another game summary from Red Raiders.

That Was A Shocker

2006-09-10T05:07:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that game. Completely shocked by a number of things, including the outcome. Let's get to the things that I liked as I watched the game, things I didn't like and finally links to game stories.

Liked:

I like Filani's play. It seems to be Tech's m.o. to have one receiver really step up and he did. Johnson' played well too, but most of his big plays were called back (i.e. two touchdowns).
The defensive line seemed to play decent, but if Tech only rushed 4, they were not going to get to the quarterback. They needed that extra push from another blitzer.
Happy to see every kickoff in the endzone. Some NFL team will appreciate that.
Harrell was okay, but not great. Once again, he didn't seem to force things, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Beautiful touch on the fade route to Johnson and Filani. I'd like to see Amendola get more involved.
Offensive line provided decent protection. Didn't really seem like Harrell was being harassed much.
Woods was really good, runs hard, which is the one thing I look for in a running back.
The defense looks bigger and faster.

Don't Like:

Too many costly penalties. I think Tech was given a few penalties on UTEP's pass interference.
Overall the defense was giving up too much. They play the spread every day in practice and they couldn't seem to stop it. UTEP had two wideouts with some talent, Higgins and Sam. You would think that keying on them was a priority, but it didn't seem to be throughout the entire game.
The "give but don't break" defense played at the end of the 2nd quarter and 4th quarter was horrible. I'd rather Tech just line it up and make an attempt to keep the opponent out of the endzone rather than simply let them walk in.

I continually shook my head in disbelief the entire game. I initially thought that there's really no way that UTEP should be able to compete. Palmer seems like an average QB at best, he seemed capable only making the short throws and nothing else. Anything deep was not even close. He's not a quarterback that should beat Tech. Aside from two plays that just made us look foolish, the WR pass and the onside kick, Tech really seemed to be in control of the game. I like that Harrell didn't seem to be affected by all of the pressure

Trlica really seemed to take those field goals he missed personally. On some level I really like that, but on other, I really need him not to be so affected by a missed field goal.

I hated their uniforms, and according to RedRaider, they were supposed to have been in all white except for the helmet, which would have looked much better. The three color look is not a good look and seems very high school.

I will be at the game next week, but I really need for that defense to come together and I need the NCAA to decide on Hicks' fate. I thought that Tech could have used him, if nothing else as a threat opposite Filani and Johnson.

I believe that having these big receivers help tremendously with yards after catch. I love the Welker's and Walker's of the world, but having a big powerful receiver is an incredible weapon and can be a tremendous threat.

Yahoo's game recap from the AP that has some nice quotes from Trlica.

Whitmore at DMN was obviously up against a deadline and there are no quotes, but a good article nonetheless, detailing the insanity of that 3rd and 4th quarter as well as the OT.

The Avalanche-Journal has an article giving some praise to Price's offensive play calling.

Just consider yourself lucky on this one and hope that Tech is a little more focused against TCU.

09-09-2006 Tech v. UTEP Game Day Thread

2006-09-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - UTEP v. Tech

2006-09-09T03:39:00.000-07:00

I'll throw up the game link later today.

We have a couple of previews this morning, all predicting a Tech victory, in some manner or another. The San Antonio Express-News noting that UTEP is 10-2 at home with Price as the head coach and has lost 7 straight against ranked teams.

Yahoo has a preview up and has a lot of regurgitated quotes from last week's game.

The DMN is predicting the easiest victory, and says that the key match-up will be the Tech's defensive backs versus Palmer. The DMN also has an additional article on Tech's recent struggles on the road. Whitmore notes that this is the first nonconference home game since a loss to New Mexico, two years ago.

EDIT: It took a while, but the Avalanche-Journal finally got their content up and running. A few nice quotes on today's game as well as a comment by Leach where he acknowledges the progress that Harrell is making in checking off plays at the line of scrimmage. A preview of positions for tonight's game, which by the way is on CSTV at 7:00 p.m. CST.

Friday Night

2006-09-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

There aren't just a lot of articles out there today or tonight. The Avalanche-Journal has some general notes on Tech, but nothing really earth-shattering.

I was really expecting something out of DMN. The Star-Telegram has a preview of tomorrow night's game. Jordan Palmer, this guy's brother, had his share of trouble last week against San Diego State. It would be really nice if Tech could capitalize on some of Palmer's mistakes. Despite UTEP's more experienced quarterback, I still like Tech's talent overall this week. Admittedly, I really know nothing about UTEP other than Palmer is their QB and Price is their coach. I hope to have more posted tomorrow morning.

I also loved watching Wes Welker play last night, giving credence to the idea that if you can catch the ball and you know how to run routes and quite simply play football then you can make it to the NFL. Tape of that game should be shown to each and every one of Tech's receivers

Wednesday Notes

2006-09-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

Keith Whitmore who is the DMN reporter assigned to Tech, and by all account I think he does a decent job. At one time the DMN used to do a weekly report, but apparently, due to lack of interest it was stopped. Nevertheless, Whitmore has some news and notes on Tech and this week's game. Most notably, the emergence of Johnson as a stud receiver.

I've always thought that Tech should be producing some real quality receivers in the NFL and I believe that this will start next year. I always have a tough time judging speed in the collegiate ranks, but it seems to me that there's just too many guys who are big receivers and can catch the ball.

Another game recap from last week by the El Paso Times.

Finally, Leach is a little aggravated that the NCAA has delayed Hick's return as it appears they've been sitting on this for a while.

Tuesday Before UTEP

2006-09-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of articles on Tech, in the first Leach comments that the new clock rules for college football are "just dumb", and after watching a couple of games this weekend I seem to agree. I also heard a mention on one of the local radio stations that the in booth replay official is a local official, which really is only a recipe for disaster when a controversial call is overturned due and the fans claim home cooking. Leach also gives some praise to Johnson for his tremendous effort in last week's game.

DMN comments on Tech's defense and the youthful infusion of talent into Tech's playing rotation.

And in El Paso, Coach Price gives Tech some bulletin board material, "It's going to be a beautiful Saturday night; I guarantee it." Nevertheless, he deflects and says that the pressure is on Tech to win, which it is. This is one of those games where it should be an easy victory for Tech, and my hopes is that the offense clicks a little bit more than it did last week.

Derek Shaw Walks on at Tech

2006-09-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

While flipping through my Sporting News magazine I noticed that Tech was mentioned as part of the Arizona State controversy. I caught some of this on Dan Patrick's radio show, of course while in between BAD Radio last week during my lunch hour. Apparently all of this deals with the highly talented QB for ASU, Rudy Carpenter, a red-shirt freshman, as he was named as the starter for the Sun Devils. The problem with all of this is that Sam Keller was a 5th year senior and slated to start, but was supplanted by the freshman. Keller went on to transfer to Nebraska, but in addition to this, Derek Shaw has walked on at Tech. The problem of course is that Shaw is behind redshirt sophomore Graham Harrell and redshirt freshman Chris Todd, who is supposed to be an amazing talent. Here's the story from the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, and below is the entire blurb from Sporting News:

"More on the soap opera that is the Arizona State quarterback situation: Derek Shaw was one of the top three quarterback recruits in the nation going into last season. He committed to Miami but eventually signed with Arizona State. After a year at Arizona State, Shaw left (even he saw the potential of then-freshman QB Rudy Carpenter) and walked on at Texas Tech -- where he's sitting out a season and watching sophomore Graham Harrell and redshirt freshman Chris Todd compete for the starting spot. Shaw might never play again. Meanwhile, besides Carpenter, the Sun Devils have only one scholarship quarterback on the roster, freshman Danny Sullivan, because Sam Keller transferred to Nebraska. Considering the recent history of injuries to ASU quarterbacks (see: Jeff Krohn, Andrew Walter, Keller), Shaw's decision looks more flawed. At least ASU recently received a commitment from Nick Foles, one of the top quarterback recruits in Texas. ..."

I realize that I'm more than a month late on this news, but thought it interesting enough that this made a national publication like the Sporting News.

Texas Tech 35 SMU 3

2006-09-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

EDIT: I cannot help but notice the lack of coverage for Texas Tech, and it's not that I necessarily believe that the public is clammoring for a place to go regarding Texas Tech football, so I thought that I could do a little something about providing some blog content regarding Texas Tech. Raider Red Nation was a default name as it appears that most of the good names for a blog have been taken, and until I think of something more clever, this will be it.

I want to go on the record that I am not a good trash talker, and I really don't want this blog to be a "I'm better than you" type of blog. It's intent is to be an aggregation of Texas Tech sports news (mostly men's basketball and football). One place to go to find most, if not all, of the Texas Tech articles posted in one spot. I'll try and provide some insightful comments on what's happening with the team.

I'll also be posting a game day thread if anyone wants to comment on the game. I that I do not have the opportunity to go most of the games, but I'll watch as many as I can on television and what I can't watch I'll try to provide as many links as possible to stories.

Game one of the 2006 season is in the books and from the looks of things, this appears to have been a fairly easy victory.

Links to the game:
Box Score
Newsvine
Scout @ Raider Power
Rivals @ Red Raider Sports