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Texas Tech Sunday Morning Notes - Statistical Fact Edition

By Seth C

Double-T Nation News:

Promised a game-recap last night, but am still feeling a bit under the weather. The dreaded and feared cold has reared it's ugly head the last couple of days rendering me to be only a shell of the blogger I once was. Sometime today.

Texas Tech Football:

Up first today, is LAJ's Don Williams on whether or not we can expect Michael Crabtree to stay all four years. Here's Michael on the topic:

"I haven't said nothing about leaving school,'' Crabtree said after a recent workout for Tuesday's Gator Bowl against No. 21 Virginia. "I'm here playing football, man. I'm not worried about all that. That comes later. I've got to get my education first.''

Remember that Michal's father already told Brandon George of the DMN that Michael would enter the NFL draft ASAP. Thank goodness we have Coach Leach who can talk some sense into Michael and his father:

Leach makes no bones about saying Crabtree should remain in Lubbock for the long term. Leach said he hopes Crabtree does "the smart thing,'' which to Leach is staying in school and earning a degree.

"The other thing that's a statistical fact is guys that stay make more money, because it goes up every year,'' Leach said. "The base you start with once you get into the league is what it's built off of. If you have a higher starting point, you're going to be higher from there.

"Guys that come out early make less money than they potentially would have had they stayed. The exception to that is very rare. Financially it's smarter to stay, from the standpoint of his ability to perform it's better to stay, and I can go for two hours and tell you why he needs a degree.''

Williams then goes on to discuss Crabtree's perceived lack of great speed before 2007 (according to Rivals he ran a 4.5 40), where Crabtree's offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen had this to say:

"It's called really good game speed,'' offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen said. "Welker's got game speed. When people lined up against Wes (in sprints), he'd never time out very good, which is why he'd never get drafted. But Wes has unbelievable game speed. Mike has that. We like guys that have good game speed as opposed to guys that have good track times.''

Perhaps DTN reader Tech92 has a valid point in that 40 times are sometimes overrated and when we might project positions, especially at receiver. Bottom line that I think the staff considers is getting the best players out on the field is of the utmost importance.

Excellent stuff from Don this morning.

DMN's Brandon George writes about Texas Tech's recent trend of winning bowl games. Interesting stuff, historically, however, it was this quote from Coach Leach that I thought was outstanding:

"We don't just want to go to a bowl, we want to win it," Leach said. "Football is sacred enough that you should play them the best you can."

A feel-good story from FWST's Dwain Price on middle linebacker Paul Williams, who is not only the starting linebacker for Texas Tech, but also a father and a husband.

The Times-Union Garry Smits focuses on Virginia's best player, Chris Long, and whether or not Long will be able to get to Harrell. Long thinks that it will be a matter of perseverance:

"If you're a pass rusher, you should never give up on the pass rush," Long said. "Just because a cover cornerback is facing an option team, that doesn't mean he should stop covering the wide receivers. The one time you might fall asleep might be the one time you miss your best chance. You've got to work, work, work, and if you get there once or twice a game, it might change things. Then it's worth it."

I really can't wait to see Long. The article also mentions that former Virginia linebacker Jeff Lagemann thinks that Long needs to lineup against the weakest link on the offensive line. I've always thought that right tackle has been the weakest position thus far, whether it be Winn or Johnson, but I'd love to hear what you guys think is the weakest link.

Texas Tech Basketball:

LAJ's Jeff Walker has game story, focusing on the outstanding play of freshman John Roberson. Here's Coach Knight on the win:

"There have been times when we've played against teams this year where we just should have played better against and we didn't," Tech head coach Bob Knight said. "Here, we did play well. We took care of what should have been taken care of, as opposed to some other games."

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