Texas Tech Football:
Red Raider Sports' Joe Yeager continues the countdown of Key Red Raiders and Brandon Sesay is #17. Here's Yeager on Sesay's qualifications and where he'll play:
Not that Sesay doesn't have the ability to do so. He was regarded as one of the elite junior college prospects to sign a letter of intent in 2008. At six-foot-six and 275 pounds, Sesay has the ideal frame for a college and NFL defensive end. And with legitimate 4.6 speed in the forty, Sesay has the ability to gobble up quarterbacks from the backside and stick with ball carriers, either in the backfield, in the flat, or over the middle in coverage situations. His combination of length and speed would certainly make him a prime candidate to drop into zone coverage in Ruffin McNeill's scheme, which will incorporate a significant complement of zone blitzes.To get on the field, Sesay apparently will have to beat returning starter at strong end Jake Ratliff. Ratliff, a senior, is a serviceable defensive end, and an experienced one, having seen meaningful snaps ever since his redshirt freshman season. Ratliff in not, however, a tremendous play-maker and does not generate much pressure on the quarterback.
I'm confused. On July 21, 2008 Dennis Dodds said that because Mr. Crabtree and Graham Harrell didn't show up at the Big 12 Media Day that they were no longer Heisman candidates. Here's a part of Dodds' post:
Coach Mike Leach decided that the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner (Crabtree) and a guy who could become the leading passer of all time (Harrell) weren't worthy to be interviewed by us media types during a pre-arranged media session on football media day. Leach threw out something about football being the ultimate team game when I asked him why on Monday.I'm not saying Harrell and Crabtree are out of the Heisman race before it begins. I'll leave that to the other Heisman voters whose companies spent money and resources for them to get here. Let's just say stiffing the Big 12 (and national) media doesn't help.
Leach is quirky that way. He doesn't do things conventionally all the time. Sometimes that's charming. Sometimes it's downright unprofessional. A person with knowledge told me that the Big 12 asked to Leach to reconsider bringing his two stars, but that he refused.
To reporters Monday, Leach flippantly said that any of us are welcome to interview his stars "in their natural habitat" in Lubbock. That's great except there is a reason these media days exist, so we don't have to go to each individual school. Especially when Lubbock is so far from anywhere it can see the end of the earth in any given direction.
A lot of you tastefully disagreed with this ridiculous contention and now, on July 22, 2008 Dodds says that Mr. Crabtree and Harrell are two of the five candidates for the Heisman trophy from the Big 12:
--Harrell. If Tech plays 14 games (regular season + conference championship game + bowl) Harrell would need to average only 456 yards per game to become the game's all-time leading passer.--Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree. If that happens then Crabtree will another monster year like 2007 when he caught almost 2,000 yards worth of passes.
Are Mr. Crabtree and Harrell Heisman candidates or aren't they?
Per DMN's Brandon George, TAMU defensive back Devin Gregg at the Big 12 Media Days lamented about the recent losses to Texas Tech and had this to say:
"Just going into my last year, if I had anybody on my list that I would like to play and to beat, it would be Texas Tech."