Double-T Nation News:
I woke up a little late this morning so here's the plan. I will have combined the Coaching and Intangibles previews. Really tough to breakdown Al Groh from a coaching standpoint, especially since I didn't see Virginia play all year, which is why I tried to use statistics rather than blowing smoke about my knowledge of all things Virginia.
This morning's notes will essentially be a link dump. I'm trying to post any story from our regular sources.
Don't forget that we're going to have 2 game day threads today. The Texas Tech v. Virginia thread goes up sometime this morning. Make sure and leave your predictions. The second game day thread goes up right before start of the basketball game, which is scheduled to tip-off at 6:00 p.m.
Texas Tech Football:
I did want to start off with one and only one blockquote from DMN's Brian Davis, when Leach was asked about the pirates and stuff:
Leach was asked if he ever crosses paths with basketball coach Bob Knight and his staff. Leach said assistant Pat Knight and some of the basketball staff came over one day, presumably on Halloween, dressed up as pirates.
"They've all got pirate costumes on and gave us a skeleton that talks," Leach said. "So the cleaning lady, my office will be dark and she goes in to clean the office. It's got this sensor thing where the eyes start flashing, `Oy, matie!' "
Leach explained how the pirate references were first mentioned in the now-famous New York Times Magazine article. The whole pirate thing has taken on a life of its own now, he said. Leach was then asked if he ever dressed up as a pirate at Halloween.
"Naw. Let's see, I had some really cool costumes, though," Leach said. "I was a vampire one time, and I had the kind of cape sheet where mom dyes the sheet. But I actually had the wing-shaped stuff going, so I thought was kind of a cool one.
"I had another one, kind of a grim reaper thing. It really looked good; it had the sheet and the robe and all that. But it wasn't as functional for trick-or-treating, because your range of motion wasn't what you hoped it was. And with the mask, your face got all sweaty. Then as I got older, it got more bottom line as far as candy then you'd be a bum or something. You'd just have some shoes on and move along and get a little bit bigger haul, ya know?"
Virginia, that's what you're going up against. I hope you're ready.
I'll start off the links with my favorite college football blogger, Sunday Morning Quarterback, who has previewed every game today, including Texas Tech v. Virginia.
LAJ's Don Williams writes about the different styles of teams that are Texas Tech and Virginia, and checks in with a Gator Bowl Notebook, which has a little insight on the prospect of playing the 3-4 defense. Garry Smits from The Times-Union writes about how both Texas Tech and Virginia have had the ability to surprise recent opponents.
DMN's Brandon George writes about how Texas Tech is not afraid of the comeback and what last year's win over Minnesota meant to this year's team. The aforementioned Brian Davis previews today's game, and has the DMN staff picks. Davis also has a notebook you can check out. Finally, Jean-Jacques Taylor has an interesting article on the high number of successful collegiate quarterbacks from the state of Texas.
Update [2008-1-1 9:33:41 by Seth C]: I forgot to add the LAJ Gator Bowl page.
FWST's Dwain Price focuses on Graham Harrell's great season, including the chance to potentially be the first quarterback to throw for 6,000 yards in a season.
Texas Tech Basketball:
LAJ's Jeff Williams previews today's game with Lamar and then focuses on the what happened last New Year's Day, coaching victory 880 for Coach Knight.