Double-T Nation News:
Congrats to Jerry Moore and Appalachian State for winning his third consecutive title in the Football Championship Subdivision. Check out the boxscore and those rushing numbers for Appy State.
Texas Tech Football:
The San Diego Union Tribune's Brent Schrotenboer has an article on the spread offense as being an equalizer of talent on the football field. Here's the part that related to Texas Tech:
They asked: How can we fill the football stadium with fans and win lots of games despite significant disadvantages in recruiting and resources?
The consultant, Barry Terranova, did his work and came up with an answer: Hire a coach to install the spread offense.
"It's something you'll continue to see proliferate because people have found it incredibly difficult to stop," Terranova said. "With some teams that otherwise should have problems being competitive, it made them competitive."
First and foremost, this is a really good article, so please go read the whole thing. Lots of quotes from Appalachian State, and former Texas Tech coach, Jerry Moore. The point of the article is about how teams that have had certain disadvantages are able to compete with the "big boys" of college football.
The interesting thing to me, and I fully admit that I wasn't following Texas Tech athletics as closely as I am now as I did in 1999, is the idea that Texas Tech faced two problems: 1) win; and 2) put butts in seats. I swear I thought about this, but I just didn't put it in the blog (sure, you say) that Leach's job just wasn't or isn't to win, but it's to win in an entertaining manner. As good as Spike was, I think the program probably hit a lull, people weren't as passionate about Texas Tech football, or at least I don't think they were. Now, Leach and the program in general have all of these huge expectations, but it's all predicated on the idea that Leach was able to create a program, from the ground up AND get people passionate, not just interested, but passionate, in Texas Tech football again.
Schrotenboer mentions that Texas Tech as 1/3 the recruiting budget that Texas and Texas A&M and at some point during the offseason I really want take a hard look as to why the money isn't there for Texas Tech (in terms of state support) and if anything can be done about it. If anyone has any starting points please email me.
Texas Tech Basketball:
LAJ's Jeff Walker takes a look at the similarities between Alfraud (shoutout royalsreview) and Coach Knight in starting their programs. It's interesting to see what Pat Knight thought were issues in setting up shot in Lubbock, especially recruiting.