I've spent the last 48 hours mulling this set of topics over in my head with no forseeable conclusion. I've got a few things covered and a lot of things are still swinging in the wind. Probably should have done this sober but that's not how I roll. With the conundrum that is Texas Tech Football right now, there is a lot we could discuss. But none of this will come to a head until the Annual Red and Black Spring Game, as far as I can tell. For the time being, I say we cover a few topics and let 'er rip.

Tuberville - I didn't get to listen to the press conference, but I was able to read it. To be honest, I think this is the best thing we could have done given our current situation. I was ok with Ruffin but not sold. I know the players love him, but could he have pulled it off? Eh, we can talk about that some other time. During Tubs Press Conference, he seemed to carry himself really well. I liked it. Very PR if you ask me. His reputation proceeds him. You don't have that kind of career in the SEC without being a certified bad ass.  The whole "Alabama was down" arguement is a load of Meyers if you ask me.Or load of James, take your pick.He spoke of switching our D to the 3-4. Works for me. This could be one of the best things for our team. QB Draw was the death of this defense no matter how you look at it. We where collectively murdered on many occassions. I think we all agree that our D could use some improvement. A 3-4 with our current players could turn out to be a force to be reckoned with. This would be great speed wise.

Back to the press conference. One thing that jumped out at me was his ability to waffle back and forth on a few topics. One topic being coaching. In one segment, he stated that he would let his coaches coach and he would stay out of it. Later on, he said he liked to be involved in everything and he would do so. What is that supposed to mean? I guess he was talking in circles. I really don't know. He said he would maintain the Air Raid. Big plus for Tuberville. You take that away and we're screwed. He also said that he would make an attempt at keeping some of the current coaching staff on board. Fine, but who? My request would be everybody possible. Is that possible? Not likely. For me to rationalize, I would pick the following.

Lincoln Riley - OC or Assistant OC. ( I would prefer somebody that knows the Air Raid and not just the Spread)

Bennie Wylie - Strength and Conditioning. ( The dude is solid money, he needs to stay. End of discussion)

Sonnie Cumbie - QB Coach of some sort. ( You can't deny this guy. Don't even try.)

Matt Moore - OL Coach ( You don't produce these kind of numbers without him.)

Dennis Simmons - Wide Receivers ( We wrote the book on receivers, sadly, I think he'll follow the captain.)

Carlos Mainord - Safeties ( It's my understanding that he was with Tubs in Miami. Plus, he knows his job.)

Eric Russell - Special Teams ( Significant Difference this year.)

I don't know enough about Charlie Sadler, Brian Mitchell, and Clay McGuire to make a decent call. They've been here and they've done a good job as far as I can tell. But that's not my area at all.

Air Raid - This departs and so do 3-4 years of solid recruiting. The fun factor takes a significant drop. Football for Red Raider fans is stagnant without it. We've all thought that if we could run the Air Raid with a solid SEC type defense that we would be a holy terror. Here is our chance ladies. I hope like hell that Tuberville leaves it the hell alone. He can add some wrinkles here and there. I agree with most of you that running the ball a little more would help our chances of winning, but I don't want to run it too much. What was shown during the Alamo Bowl has me sold on Riley. I'm still a fan of Sticks calling the shots, but that will be a topic all thru the spring and we can talk about it later. His ability to check down and do his pre-snap reads made Potts look bad. Sorry, we'll discuss later.

Recruits - All of our recruits are listed on the left hand side of the screen on the home page. I would like to see all of them here next year. I don't know if that 's possible but I like to think it is. I'm sure Tuberville is going to spend the next few weeks talking to kids. I can't blame him, this is an awesome class. I want to see all of them here. If we lose a few it won't be the end of the world. I was reading an old Dave C. Texas Football Magazine a few weeks ago showing Crabtree as a 2 star recruit. Boy did they miss that one. But, how could they have known? Anyway, I think Riley and Simmons have an eye for the receivers we want and need. The offensive guys for the most part should stay intact as far as recruits go. Defensively, I would think these guy are pretty excited about playing for somebody like Tubs. We shall see.

Finally, Damien Franco and I were discussing this earlier. While talking about recruits and what works for Tech, I had a revelation. Texas claims that they "select" the best athletes. I think we select "specialist". So as weird as this sounds, we don't have athletes, we have specialist. This couldn't be said any better. We recruit guys based on our needs and our "system" and it works. As far as the recruiting goes, I think we'll be ok. Postion coaches know what they want and for the most part they can get it. Sometimes, they have to make sacrifices. I never thought our D-Line was going to produce like they did this year. Chalk that up to solid coaching. Howard and Co. did the damn thing and they did it well. If we can continue to recruit guys that are willing to learn and bust ass, I don't see why Tuberville won't take our defense and turn it into something great.

Sorry I Tarantino'd this post. I was all over the place. I think you guys got the general idea though.

Wreck Em Tech