Texas Tech Football:
Lucky for us, we still have a few football items to discuss before it goes incredibly quiet for 3 months.
FWST's Charean Williams looks at the similarities between Danny Amendola and Wes Welker leading up to the draft (hat-tip to DTN Reader djollie111). I thought this part was pretty interesting:
Amendola is Welker of 2004.
"To tell you the truth, I've been compared to Wes since the day I set foot on the Texas Tech campus," Amendola said. "I say it's an honor just because he's such a great player.... He's a guy I look up to, a guy I admire."
SAEN's Al Carter asks and answers key spring questions in Big 12 football, and he actually talks a little Texas Tech football, but gets part of his story incredibly wrong:
What's amazing is that experts don't consider Tech a favorite to win the Big 12, or at least the Big 12 South. Had the Red Raiders been able to hold Oklahoma State under 45 points and Texas to under 43, Tech would have beaten everybody in the South last year and would have played in the league title game in the Alamodome. Coming back are quarterback Graham Harrell (who's being seriously pushed by backup Taylor Potts) and Michael Crabtree, possibly the nation's best receiver. Take away OSU and UT -- and Tech's defense wasn't that bad. The Red Raiders actually led the league in pass defense. Now the defense has been fortified with new players, at least a couple of whom are ready to play. Tech catches OSU and UT at home, with the biggest worry being a game at Oklahoma. And there's a likely margin of error in the South. Two losses might hold up.
I'm okay with the assessment for the most part, but the note about Potts seriously pushing Harrell is unquestionably inaccurate. He could have just emailed me or you and could have told him that.
The Kansas City Star's Blair Kerkoff says that the Big 12 will be a quarterback's league next season and lists the returning Big 12 quarterbacks (Via OU Sooners Football Blog):
"In high school there are more skilled athletes contributing to offense than ever before," Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said.
Kansas State and Oklahoma joined the growing list of no-huddle offenses this spring. Nothing wrong with the Sooners' offense last season. Bradford huddled up and led Oklahoma to a league championship while averaging 42.3 points per game.
But Oklahoma also saw the no-huddle success of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma State and at least wanted to show opponents a new look. The attack also should help teams adjust to the new 40-second play-clock rule.
The Tulsa World's Guerin Emig and Bill Haisten review every team of the Big 12 after Spring practices and Guerin Emig looks ahead at the Big 12, again focusing on the strength of Big 12 quarterbacks. I thought this quote by Leach was, again, classic Leach (Via OU Sooners Football Blog):
With that argument, how could any head coach not want to call plays?
But the part that gets me, is that it almost sounds like Leach is talking about a certain coach. Anyone want to guess?
Additionally, how disinterested would Leach be if he couldn't call plays?
Leave your guesses in the comments.