Double T Nation News:
I still have tickets to Saturday's game against the Sooners. If anyone is interested send me an email. I'm not looking to make any money, just need to get rid of them.
I posted a new poll to the right, the second to last football prediction of the year -- predict the outcome of the Oklahoma game.
As bad that you may feel about the current Texas Tech football season, Sooner Schooner, Big 12 War Blog, and SAEN's Tim Griffin all feel that Texas Tech is the 5th best team in the Big 12, and looking at the bottom feeders, that's probably pretty accurate.
I always appreciate Corn Nation's book reviews and this one is no different, as he previews College Football: History - Spectacle - Controversy.
As basketball season approaches, a team to watch is K-State. Michael Beasley will be this year's Kevin Durant and as an example of how dominant he'll be, as per Bring On the Cats, Mr. Beasley has already been named Big 12 Player of the Week.
Texas Tech Football:
Coach Leach certainly has a sense of humor as he noted that he is accustomed to setting records, of which includes yesterday's of $10,000. Coach Leach had this to say about the fine:
Snip
"Made my feelings known already,'' he said, "so I don't have a reaction.''
The drama continues as receiver and special teams ace L.A. Reed will be suspended for Saturday's game against Oklahoma. In the notes section on Sunday, Don Williams details the confrontation between receiver Eric Morris and Reed:
"Things like that happen in a game,'' Tech wide receivers coach Lincoln Riley said. "They were heated for a little bit. But we just determined that Eddie (Britton) was playing really well. That's why L.A. didn't play.''
Morris came up angrily after being thrown for a 3-yard loss on the last play of the first quarter, and Reed appeared to take a poke at him between other players.
"It's a heated situation,'' Riley said. "Guys are feeling a lot of pressure, just wanting to do well. It was all good intentions. We were fine after that. We feel like Eddie B. gave us the best chance, and he proved that.''
That's interesting. Then, today in Don's Raider Rants blog he give a little more detail and observations:
When Leach was having problems last year with Robert Johnson and Jarrett Hicks, some columnist nationally -- I'm sorry, I forget who, and I can't locate it -- observed that when Leach began to bring in better talent, he had to be ready for the personalities becoming more difficult to manage. You'd get more players who maybe felt they were bigger than the system -- and make no mistake, Tech's offense functions best when all those skill position players get along and don't mind sharing.
It's hard to know Woods' and Reed's motivations since Leach muzzles nearly everybody who wears a uniform. It'd be nice if they could speak for themselves in these matters.
But here are the same two kids I was told carried themselves as if they were big time when they walked on campus who will get nothing but pine time in one of the biggest games of the year.
And it makes you wonder.
I have two thoughts here. First, whatever comment Reed made must have been a really ugly comment or perhaps Reed wasn't remorseful about the comment he made. Second, considering the number of players who's gone through the program, this has been a relatively drama-free program (me knocking on wood).
Either way, Leach has got his hands full this week. As an aside, I especially like how Riley refers to Britton as "Eddie B."
DMN's Brandon George had two interesting blog posts, the first about Coach Stoops' reaction to Coach Leach's recent fine and the second which notes that there is no requirement that Coach Leach has to be the one that pays the fine. According to George, Texas Tech can pay the fine or they can just have the money payable to Texas Tech reduced by the fine amount.
Two additional stories by George, he writes that Texas Tech will have a tough time stopping Oklahoma's running game. Here's Coach Leach:
"You go out there and do the best you can. There's not some veil that comes down and stuff happens. They are good with the run, and we're going to have to be good at stopping it."
George also reminds us about the success of Danny Amendola, who has been outstanding this year. Coach Leach: