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Texas Tech Sunday Morning Notes - Texas Tech 75, Northwestern State 7

By Seth C

DTN News:

The result was what I expected and what you expected. The game wasn't close, the offense put up 75 points and the defense only gave up 7. Granted, NW St. is a I-AA school, but Texas Tech gave up only 118 yards to the Northwestern State Demons. It's a start and I'm happy for the defensive unit. They needed a rebound game and it looks like they got one.

I start my reviews once the official stats are up, but my reviews will be based on statistics or numbers. If you can provide a first hand account, that will be outstanding, submit a diary and let us know who looked good, who stood out, etc. You'll not only be doing me a tremendous favor, but you'll be doing the entire Red Raider Nation who didn't get to see the game a favor as well.

One more thing. The Big 12 South Division is up for grabs. It is there for the taking and there's no reason why Texas Tech cannot lay claim to the South Division - this year. UT, OU and A&M are all talented, but flawed teams. I thought OU was going to be the dominating team, not any more. This may be the most interesting conference race for years and I can't wait.

Texas Tech Football:

LAJ's Don Williams' game review article focuses on the defense's performance. Coach Mike Leach on the defense's performance:

"I think this is the best I've seen them play with emotion for quite some time and really be excited to play and got a lot of people involved in the effort," Tech coach Mike Leach said.

It's good to see that Coach Leach believes that the defensive unit played with some emotion. Here's Coach McNeill on the way this team played:

"We talked about establishing our personality," said McNeill, who replaced Lyle Setencich seven days ago when the latter resigned. "The biggest thing I wanted them to establish was being a team that swarms the football, that's aggressive, that makes and finishes plays and causes turnovers. We didn't get as many turnovers as I wanted to tonight, but I think we saw the beginning of what we wanted our personalities to be."

That's what we all want to here. Aggression, swarming defense that creates turnovers. That's all we've ever asked.

Don also had this note on the incredible, Michael Crabtree, who had 8 catches for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns yesterday:

Crabtree, in just the fifth game of his college career, broke the school record for single-season touchdown receptions and tied three other players for the major-college mark for touchdown catches by a freshman. He has 14 - three apiece in four games and two in the other.

Snip

For the season, Crabtree has 60 receptions for 920 yards to go with the 14 TDs. The major-college records are held by Houston's Manny Hazard (142 catches in 1989), Nevada's Trevor Insley (2,060 yards in 1999) and Louisiana Tech's Troy Edwards (27 touchdowns in 1998).

Incredible.

LAJ's George Watson reports on the offense where Coach Leach was not entirely happy with the offenses performance in the first half:

"I thought the offense was probably slow to get on board but did for a significant portion of the game," Leach said. "We played with emotion together on all sides of the ball simultaneously and it's important to develop that skill. I thought we came out a little slow.

"Honestly I thought that first drive ... it resulted in a score but it wasn't very well executed. We kind of slopped our way and made things happen on key downs and ended up with the score. But it wasn't really our best foot forward."

In Don's Tech Football Notes there's a couple of interesting tidbits from yesterday's game. First, Brian Duncan did get his first start yesterday for Kellen Tillman, who did not play yesterday due to a disciplinary action. I don't know about you, but it seems like an asinine move to get in some sort of disciplinary action when there's a new defensive coordinator, looking to shake things up. Also of note, Shawn Byrnes sat out yesterday's game and that's probably a good move on his part. Finally, Joe Garcia sat out yesterday's game with Anthony Hines starting in his place.

Don also notes that both Detron Lewis and Bront Bird burned their redshirt.

There are other game notes as well, go read the whole thing.

DMN's Brandon George's game review also focuses on the play of the defense and Michael Crabtree. Most interesting thing to note was that starting right guard, Brandon Carter was on crutches and his left leg was in a brace after the game. That would be horrible news for Texas Tech.

FWST's Dwain Price's game review has an amusing quote from Coach McNeill on last week's events:

"There were mine fields and bombs on the left, there were hungry alligators from [Hurricane] Katrina's storm on the right, and there were like 10-12 Ninjas taking those masks to cover your eyes, and they had two swords... and the only way I could go was straight ahead," McNeill said. "If I looked to the left, I might get blown up and if I looked to the right, one of the Katrina alligators might bite me.

"And if I turned around, those guys looked really mean behind that mask and were throwing those swords at me."

Ninjas and alligators. That's just awesome.

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