Succumbed and bought all the Preseason  major southwest  football magazines. Lindys , Athlons, Sporting News and Dave Campbell’s. Here’s the break down.

Lyndys: Opposing Coaches view  - On the departure of Mike Leach: "I really don’t know all that went on behind the scenes…but  I believe the administration and fans will forever regret letting Mike Leach get away… he was definitely different.. But he consistently made them dangerous with that offense. I seriously doubt Tommy Tuberville will be as effective. He’s a more traditional guy and I don’t think you can be Plain Jane at Tech and be as successful as Leach." 

On Tech Offense : "I expect it to take a major step back.  B.Batch is a really underrated running back but Taylor Potts and Stephen Sheffield are  just pretty average quarterbacks. I bet they won’t recruit another Michael Crabtree with Tuberville offensive track record ."

Centex’s take this is either Mack Brown or Brent Venables talking.

Lyndys Sports Big 12 preview

Magazine offers pretty decent stats, player profiles and notebook.

Lyndys doesn’t offer a prognostication about the upcoming season.

Sporting News does a one page team recap its notable for only one thing it projects your Red Raiders to go to the "Dallas Football Classic" bowl formerly  the Cotton Bowl??. Right and no way do they predict the overall record. So 6 and 6 folks? sporting news football 2010 by the Clone chronicles

Athlon: Opposing Coach size up of Texas Tech:

http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football

 "You don’t know about them and whether they are going to stay with that  offense. You’d think  they’d keep some of it with the skill kids they have, but Tuberville’s always been a run guy…Tommy  has always relied on his running game and defense to win games and that worked for him in the SEC. I’d be really surprised if Texas Tech comes out throwing the ball all over the place. Tommy has the old school approach in his blood…I know one thing Texas Tech is going to finally play defense. As good as Mike’s offenses were there the defense was never going to win games for them..This is going to be one of the most intriguing teams not only in our league but in the entire country."

Centex’s take this was either Art Briles or Will Muschamp talking. Possibly Mike Sherman.

Decent job breaking down the recruiting, 2009 rankings, and a full page devoted to the roster by position. That’s nice.

They offer up a verdict for 2010: Raiders go 8-4. Postseason : Holdiay Bowl "if everything comes together Texas Tech could finish third in the Big 12." Interesting not just third or fourth in the Big 12 south.  It’s a switch folks.

Dave Campbell’s  2010 Texas Football

Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine promo

Nice game of the year sniglet. They grade out the Raiders players positions like this:

Vs nation OL = B -  Vs Big 12 OL = B-  // Vs nation RB = B+  Vs Big 12 RB = B // Vs nation WR = A-  Vs Big 12 WR = B+  // Vs nation QB = B+  Vs Big 12 QB = B

Vs nation DL = B-  Vs Big 12 DL = C  // Vs nation LB = B  Vs Big 12 LB = C+ // Vs nation DB = B-  Vs Big 12 DB = B-  // Vs nation Spec Tm = B   Vs Big 12 Spec Tm = B

For the life of me I can’t figure out why they let Don Williams from the Avalanche Journal write these reviews.  Every year he writes it like he doesn’t know these coaches, (he knows at  least 2 x  Cumby and Moore) players or the operating environment. In fact he writes like he’s trying to pass a term paper. With minimum effort.  In his defense I know he probably only delivers a manuscript and the DCTF guys and gals edit it. They are wedded to UT and ensure the whole magazine licks their orange backsides with great regularity.

DCTF last year predicted the Raiders would go 7-5 we all know how accurate that was. For 2010 they are equally pessimistic.  We are going 8-4 and losing in order of the schedule  to Texas, Texas A&M, Missouri and finally Oklahoma. The only saving grace in this tepid dishwater write up was that they admitted that Texas was losing 6  x starters and Garret Gilbert might not be all that and a bag of chips by 18 Sep in the Raider crater.  As with most conventional wisdom write ups they rank Tech as finishing fourth in the Big 12 South behind UT, OU and  aTm. The Writers poll are as close to unanimous as possible – with the lonely two exceptions of the Houston Chronicle dude Steve Campbell  and Jimmy Burch of the FW Star Telegram.  All the other Texas sports writers pick a UT versus NEB rematch in the Big 12 title game. And the Avalanche Journal wasn’t even in on the poll.

Phil Steele and other polls on where everyone will finish

Finally they don’t give you "An" opposing Coaches run down.