Double-T Nation News:
Again, I point you to Rock M Nation and The Boy's Big 12 Beyound the Box Score rankings after week 5. This is a tremendous feature, tons of good stuff.
As mentioned last night by TTpilk645, Texas Tech received another commitment yesterday from Austin receiver, Emory Blake. As with every recruit, make sure and check out the recruiting sidebars (see the left-hand side of the page) for every recruit, but here's his vitals:
Emory Blake
Position: WR
Rivals Profile
Scout Profile
ESPN Profile
Ht: 6'1"
Wt: 194 lbs
Forty: 4.6 secs
High School: S.F. Austin (Austin, TX)
The ESPN link has free video and a good write-up on Blake.
And for those of you who think that Blake is too slow, just remember how good Robert Johnson, Joel Filani and Jarrett Hicks were? Well, Filani ran a 4.57, Johnson ran a 4.69 and Hicks ran a 4.67 at the NFL combine. If Blake can catch the ball and understands spacing, which he should since he's the son of former NFL quarterback Jeff Blake, then he'll be great at Texas Tech.
Welcome to Texas Tech, and Git Your Guns Up!
Texas Tech Football:
LAJ's Don Williams writes that the training camp drills helped in the win against Texas:
In preseason camp, the drill began with the offense starting on its 5-yard line and each subsequent snap coming 5 yards from the previous spot.During the season, Tech coach Mike Leach changed it up: So that his linemen and receivers wouldn’t have a bold yard line as an easy visual on which to line up, the ball was advanced 7 yards after each play.
But the point of the organized chaos remained the same: Run plays as rapidly as possible and get on the line of scrimmage for the next snap.
Harrell recalls what the exchange he and Leach had right after Texas scored to go ahead:
"I can remember they scored with a minute, 29 on the clock," Harrell said. "Coach was standing right beside me and he said, Our average drive’s under a minute, 30 anyway, Graham, so let’s just go do what we do.’ I was like, Let’s do it, coach.’ "
Ha!
And here's the exchange that Harrell and Crabtree had on the sidelines:
"But that’s not Crab’s mentality," Harrell said. "Crab’s thinkng, I’m about to score a touchdown to win this thing.’ Afterward, on the sideline, I told him, I was thinking you were going to step out of bounds, Crab.’ He was like, Man, come on, Graham. You know I wasn’t going to get tackled right there.’ I said, Hey, as long as you were sure, then I’m comfortable with that.’ "
LAJ's Williams then asks the Texas Tech players about how they felt last year's loss to Oklahoma State, it being Darcel McBath's worst game, while Graham Harrell enjoyed the shootout aspect of the game. But on to this week, safety Daniel Charbonnet says that the team can put last week aside because of how good OSU is:
"It’s not that tough, because we know how good they are," safety Daniel Charbonnet said. "All you have to do is go in there and turn on the film. You see they have a really explosive offense and a lot of playmakers, so we know how hard we have to work this week."Also, we’re excited. It’s another home game. We get to play in front of our home crowd, so (the preparation) is not too hard. We’ve got a lot of older guys on this team that know how to put games behind us. The Texas game doesn’t mean anything if we don’t win this week."
In Williams Red Raiders Football Notebook, there was this interesting bit that Captain Leach considered letting Texas score early:
"It ran through my head, but we didn’t do that," Leach said. "I’m not against it, but it’s not what we selected, because we’ve stopped people down there and done a pretty good job of it. And if you stop them down there, then the thing’s over. But they got in, we got the ball and so it went."
"It seemed like a good opportunity at the time, but I never really enjoyed playing there," Charbonnet said about his short-lived career in the Atlantic Coast Conference. "But I wanted to come back to Texas and I was homesick. I came out here and I just loved it."His association with former Texas Tech wide receiver Danny Amendola, an old friend from high school in the Houston suburb of the Woodlands, convinced him to transfer.
"I just saw all of the stuff they were doing and it looked like a good fit for me," Charbonnet said. "The coaches liked me and I liked them. It just seemed like a good place to play."
DMN's Kate Hairopoulos writes that Oklahoma State is an obstacle for Texas Tech and Michael Crabtree remembers the ball that he dropped in the endzone:
"I watched that play in the summer because it was something I wanted to work on," said Crabtree, who had 14 catches for 237 yards and three touchdowns against OSU last season. "Graham and I practiced that a lot. It was never about motivation, just me not wanting to make that same mistake again."
And Harrell says that it was a learning experience:
"It was a big learning experience with us, and I think it really helped us get where we are," Harrell said. "We said if we're ever in that situation again, we don't want to be the ones that lose. We want to make the play. I think we really grew up that game."