Grant and Marquez to Play. We have a lot of short notes from coach Kliff Kingsbury's coach's show, including the note that both IR Jakeem Grant and IR Bradley Marquez will both play on Saturday according to Kingsbury and special teams coach Darrin Chiaverini, via the LAJ. This is really terrific news, especially if you want Texas Tech to have much of a fighting chance against TCU as they offer significant upgrades on playing true freshmen at inside receiver.
Barnes Plays 3 Positions. The LAJ has a note about how the coaches feel that S Jalen Barnes best position will be the Raider linebacker position, but has also had to play strong safety and free safety this year. Here's safeties coach Trey Haverty, who now coaches the Raider linebacker position, thinks that Barnes best spot is Raider:
"Jalen, in a perfect world, you'd want him at Raider," safeties coach Trey Haverty said, "because he's a banger. For him, that's a better situation. You man cover, but not as much. You're not 12 yards (deep) sitting there flatfooted with a guy like Jakeem (Grant) running at you full speed. But right now, Jalen's having to play multiple positions and we're going to do what we have to do for five games."
Remembering 10 Years Ago. I had completely forgotten this game, via the LAJ, but it has been 10 years, with Mike Smith and Sonny Cumbie, since Texas Tech was down 21 to TCU to come back and score 70 against the Horned Frogs. Here's Smith:
"We were down 21 to 0," Smith said. "Leach called us up and (cursed at) us about a hundred times, and we turned it around and played well."
The Red Raiders were coming off a 27-24 loss the week before at New Mexico. "So we were already in the doghouse with him (Leach)," Smith said, "and got down to them. That group, we were pretty feisty guys, a bunch of overachievers, so we worked hard."
Miscellaneous. Oh hey! I did a Q&A with Frogs O' War and we were totally hospitable and stuff . . . you have dueling DMN predictions as the TCU blogger predicts an Oklahoma State like score and the Texas Tech blogger predicts a much more respectable loss (I did too) . . . Football Study Hall numbers are very much predicting a huge win for TCU . . . ESPN has their staff predictions and all predict TCU wins . . .