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Texas Tech Thursday Morning Notes - Running With The First Team Edition

By Seth C

Double-T Nation News:

In no particular order, DTN's Top Five:

  1. Malcolm Kelly is not happy with OU.
  2. Above the Rim takes a look at who is graduating for Big 12 men's basketball players.
  3. Differing opinions on UCLA's Kevin Love as well as some other possible early entrants.
  4. Double-A Zone asks if billionaire boosters should have the influence that T. Boone Pickens and Phil Knight have.

Texas Tech Football:

LAJ's Don Williams' feature article this morning is on redshirt freshman cornerback Taylor Charbonnet. For those of you who don't know, Taylor's older brother Daniel is a senior safety and Taylor stands 5' 10", 165 pounds, but he's fast. Here's secondary coach Brian Mitchell:

"Kid's got great speed. He's tough. He's got a great vertical,'' Mitchell said after Charbonnet had an impressive practice. "I have no problems playing that kid, because he is me when I was a freshman and a sophomore. He reminds me of myself.''

Here's Charbonnet on his opportunity:

"You get only a limited amount of plays when you're on the third team, which I was doing,'' he said. "Running with the first team, you get all the plays you need to be able to show yourself. I think I knew that I needed to step up to the competition.''

I also appreciated this bit on Chabronnet's speed:

Aside from being the youngest and the smallest of Tech's corners, Charbonnet also is the fastest, an asset that gives him a chance to earn a role - if not this year, then in the future. He was timed in the 40-yard dash this spring at 4.31 seconds, which is about what he normally runs. That put him in the top three on the team. In high school, at a Nike combine, he ran a 4.37 that was third fastest of 283 prospects.

I'm not sold that T. Charbonnet will get significant playing time this year, but if he can add on a few more pounds then I certainly think he has lots of utility for years to come.

In Williams' Red Raiders Football Notebook, he notes that McNeill is tinkering with one of his pass rushing defensive end position and is both standing him up and also rushing from a specific point. And it's not just limited to the DE's, it's also linebackers who are rushing. Here's McNeill:

"Just something I'm messing with,'' McNeill said with a smile and a chuckle. "Just trying to get speed on the field, guys running around and making plays. We're just playing with it right now.''

This is the time of year to try something different, so I'm all for experimenting.

In the LAJ's Texas Tech Football Fifth Down, Williams talks with sophomore running back Aaron Crawford, who is from Memphis and talks about the NCAA Championship Game.

Fox34 looks at the Texas Tech secondary.

Texas Tech Baseball:

Date Texas Tech New Mexico Result
Tue. 04/08/08 @ 6:05 p.m. 10 (W: Lorenzo Douglas, 2-0) 0 (L: John Hewketh, 2-2) Boxscore
Wed. 04/09/08 @ 3:00 p.m. 2 (L: Russ Fornea, 3-3) 7 (W: Will Kerr, 2-1) Boxscore

I keep waiting for the bats to come alive with this team, but that's just not happening. The Red Raiders lose the second of two games to New Mexico, 7-2. It was Russ Fornea who got the start, not Cory Large, and he lasted only 2.2 innings, surrendering 4 hits, 6 runs, all earned, walking 4 and striking out none. The rest of the way the bullpen was pretty good (Sam Janca 2.1, Owen Brolsma 1.0, Robert Kilcrease 2.0, and Zach Stewart 1.0), pitching a collective 6.1 innings, giving up 6 hits, 1 run, walking 6, and striking out 4.

Texas Tech's 3, 4 and 5 hitters went 1 for 10 with 1 RBI for the day and while the top of the order was good, it wasn't enough. Willie Rueda and Joey kenworthy each went 2-4, scoring Texas Tech's only runs of the day.

LAJ's George Watson recaps yesterday's action and had this from Coach Hays:

"We had two innings today we just gave away things, and when I say give away I'm talking about walks, hit batters and not catching pop-ups, things like that," head coach Larry Hays said. "That was the two innings they scored. We put up seven goose eggs but just didn't handle those two innings."

Watson also takes a look at the Kansas Jayhawks, who will be moving their closer to the Friday night starter

Here's your Fox34 video highlights.

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