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Texas Tech Sunday Morning Notes - It Was Money Edition

By Seth C

Double-T Nation News:

Go watch the last game in the 3-game series with Missouri. First pitch is at 1:00 p.m. Getting a win today would be huge for this team, so go cheer for your Red Raiders.

Texas Tech Football:

Lots of notes from yesterday's practice, all from LAJ's Don Williams. Up first, Williams takes a look at the receiver commits from the 2007 recruiting class and their progression. For those of you who don't know, Detron Lewis, Rashad Hawk, Tramain Swindall, and Jacoby Franks were all part of the same class (Lyle Leong was also a part of this class, but was a grey-shirt). This article is packed with information, but let's try and run down the essentials.

Detron Lewis, a sophomore, is starting at Danny Amendola's old position, the Y Inside Receiver. Here's his coach, Lincoln Riley:

"He's got really long arms,'' Riley said. "One good thing he does is he doesn't jump if the ball is high. Kind of like (Mike) Crabtree, he's able to catch it but keep his feet on the ground so he's able to accelerate after the catch.''

Tramain Swindall, a redshirt freshman, is also at that Y Inside Receiver spot, with Adrian Reese, who is also limited in workouts due to injury.

Both Jacoby Franks and Rashad Hawk, redshirt freshmen, are at outside receiver positions. Here's receiver coach Lincoln Riley on Hawk:

"Rashad (Hawk) in particular has really come on from the fall,'' Riley said. "He's made a lot of plays out here.''

Here's Hawk on how he adjusted last year:

"I guess when I started practicing, I was kind of nervous, timid, didn't know what to expect,'' Hawk said. "I don't want to toot my horn, but I'm a pretty fast guy. I didn't play as fast as I could.

"But I'm getting used to everything. I'm seeing how things work. I'm more confident in myself, so I'm playing to the speed that I know I can. I feel like I'm a better player than I was before, because I'm doing all the little things.''

Riley on Jacoby Franks:

"He's so fast, sometimes he gets out of control,'' Riley said. "We've got to get him to play within himself. Kind of like we did with Eddie (Britton) and L.A. (Reed). They have to play within themselves.''

Today's installment of Texas Tech Football Fifth Down talks with new H-Back Ryan Hale as well as some notes from Saturday's practice (Good News Item: there's actually news about people getting hit and "lit-up" in practice. We've come a long way in a short time).

The Red Raiders Football Notebook focuses on the weight loss of McKinner Dixon, who weighed in at a svelte 250. In previous years Dixon was carrying around an additional 35 pounds and his knees were taking a beating:

"My knees feel awesome,'' Dixon said. "They haven't felt this good since my 11th-grade year. That's wonderful. I was at 280 (three years ago) trying to carry around that weight. (With) rehab on your knees, that's kind of tough.''

Also in the notebook are additional notes from practice, mostly individual players who made plays during practice.

Fox34 has Jarrod "Guns" Edwards interview Chris Level at practice, focusing on the improved team speed and talent on the defensive side of the ball.

I missed posting this yesterday morning, ESPN's Tim Griffin talks with Defensive Coordinator Ruffin McNeill about the challenge in front of him. Here's McNeill:

"I'm very excited to get things going and start working around the kids," McNeill said. "The philosophy and package won't change that much. We're going to be trying to build the house one brick at a time."

Snip

"Every day during practice, we emphasized fundamentals and the scheme," McNeill said. "The biggest thing was making them believe in themselves. I know that sometimes when young kids have something bad happen, they tend to lose confidence. The one thing I tried to do was coach on a positive level.

"It doesn't mean that I won't coach them up. But we backed off and eliminated some of the thinking and reading they were doing and just let them play."

Texas Tech Baseball:

Date Texas Tech Missouri Result
Fri. 03/28/08 @ 6:05 p.m. 0 (L: Nate Karns, 1-4) 1 (W: Aaron Crow, 6-0) Boxscore
Sat. 03/29/08 @ 2:00 p.m. 3 (W: Brian Cloud, 1-0) 2 (L: Tepesch, 0-1) Boxscore
Sun. 03/30/08 @ 1:00 p.m. Chad Bettis (3-1, 3.69) Kyle Gibson (5-0, 1.83) Boxscore

I'm not sure where to start. Bottom of the 9th, down 2-1 to the #2 Missouri Tigers and Doug Thennis drives in the tying run, while Taylor Ashby drives in the go-ahead run to win 3-2. That 9th inning rally started with Monk Kreder earning a walk with Logan Brown pinch running for Kreder. Jason Seefeld then singles to left, moving Brown to second. Thennis loops a single into shallow left field scoring Brown. Doug Thennis then drives in the go-ahead run hitting a single into right field and scoring Seefeld.

On the mound, AJ Ramos was pretty good, going 6.2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits, walking 2 and striking out 8. Pitching in relief, Robert Kilcrease got Ramos out of the 7th inning and Brian Cloud pitched the rest of the way, 2.0 innings with no hits, no walks and striking out 2.

Fox34 has Robert Giovannetti's call as well as highlights from yesterday's dramatic win.

LAJ's George Watson has the recap from yesterday's win and here's your hero for the day, Taylor Ashby:

"I was pumped when they brought in a lefty because that's what I'd grown up facing," Ashby said. "I was really pumped they brought in a left-hander. It was money ... just the fact that we hung in there and showed a lot of gut, and hopefully this will jump-start our year because that's a huge win right there."

Pitcher AJ Ramos on his performance:

"I told you guys I'd been working on some stuff and that I just had some things to fix, but I think I've got them fixed," said Ramos, an Estacado product. "There's still a couple of things I need to work on but it was a lot better than my other starts and hopefully I can build on this."

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