Double-T Nation News:
First things first, go check out Barking Carnival's and dedfischer's breakdown of Baron Batch and Shannon Woods. Tremendous stuff and I've got nothing to add, but to tell you that I agree wholeheartedly and found myself nodding my head throughout the entire article. I've liked Batch for quite a while, simply remembering what I saw a few years ago, not to mention, Batch is an inspiring story who gets "it".
Texas Tech Football:
Good news, according to DMN's Brandon George Rajon Henley should be back for the Texas A&M game. Here's defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill:
"I'm planning on him being back," McNeill said. "We missed him a bunch because we've been rotating those tackles every series in the game. When you miss one, it adds more reps for everybody else."
Lots of good stuff in the LAJ's Don Williams' Red Raiders Football Notebook and I'll take them point by point:
- Williams confirms what the official Texas Tech website already published, that the Texas Tech vs. Kansas matchup will be at 11:00 a.m. on ESPN or ESPN2.
- Apparently, the film session, which usually takes 2 hours and only took 35 minutes, wasn't long enough to keep Brandon Carter busy:
"BC was about to have a heart attack, I think," Hamby said. "I didn’t know what to tell him. Put on some more face paint, I guess."
- Captain Leach isn't worried about other teams following the Nebraska game plan:
"Those schemes usually don’t work real well, because you have to be able to be consistent with it," Leach said. "Like anything, it’s got to be well-executed, and obviously, there’s nothing new about that.
- A little trash talking by Eric Morris and Stephen Hamby:
"I’ve never been a real big fan of it," Tech inside receiver Eric Morris said. "There’s a lot of them when they come marching in before the games: I guess the ROTC. I don’t know what it is, really - the fake army, which I don’t know if that’s a good thing to say.
"But there’s a lot of them, march around the field forever and all kinds of chants. I don’t know what it means, but they have great tradition there, so you have to respect that. Their fans get into it. It’s a great atmosphere to play in."
Snip
"They’re supposed to be classy fans or whatever. They’re not," he [ED: Stephen Hamby] said with a smile. "I’ve been in their stadium before. They do the hiss thing. That’s about as far as they say they go. But I’d rather have somebody tell me I’m terrible than tell me I’m great."
Hamby said he’s had a relative in A&M’s corps of cadets.
"My brother-in-law was in it, I think," Hamby said. "Needless to say, he wore a kilt to my sister’s wedding. They’re just a different breed down there. I’m not too enthusiastic about their whole thing they’ve got going. … Every friend I’ve had go to A&M turns out different when they come back."
Lots of additional notes in DT's Alex Ybarra's Texas Tech football notebook:
- Captain Leach thought we could have played the fake field goal better:
"Sure thought they could (run a fake)," Leach said. "I thought they could. (Daniel) Charbonnet kind of got caught up. I thought we should have played it better. The other thing is the guy is coming in to block it, as he pulled away from the guy we should have hit that guy in the mouth. We had two shots to shut that down, we just didn't do it."
- Stephen Hamby talks about his fellow offensive linemen and their nicknames. This is some funny video.
- And Captain Leach prefers cheerleaders:
"Cheerleaders absolutely, I'm from Wyoming," he said. "At the University of Wyoming, for years, they just had cheerleaders. But as far as the core and (A&M's) tradition, I mean I think that's impressive and it's fun to watch and it captures everybody's attention."
[Note by Seth C, 10/14/08 6:36 AM CDT ] I missed these articles from the FWST earlier this morning.
FWST's Dwain Price says that the Red Raiders are still confident in their defense and Price takes a look at Texas Tech's daunting schedule.