Double-T Nation News:
Just a couple of quick reminders. Thanks for participating in the mid-morning open threads. I'm a little surprised that L.A. Reed was third in the defensive non-starter to make the biggest impact and I'm also surprised that you also feel that Kansas is the game a majority of you are most concerned about.
Don't forget that you can recommend almost anything, case in point, last night I was looking back at the Bad Losses post and thought NM99's comment was really insightful about how teams play Texas Tech and this can perpetuate a bad loss. Really good insight and deserved a rec.
I've got a post going up at 10:00 a.m. about offensive non-starters who you think will have the biggest impact.
Texas Tech Football:
"Let me preface this by saying we want Mike to be our coach,'' Myers said Wednesday. "We made the decision some time back to wait 'til after the (upcoming) season to do his contract. I don't want anybody to read anything into that."We want him to be our coach. We want to be able to compensate him at the level that the market dictates. As you know, we operate on a tight budget every year, and I just felt that we would know a lot more about our budget situation in December, so we've made a decision to wait until after the season to do his contract.''
Williams' article goes on to state that the athletic department is operating at a deficit, for the second time in three years, which I just find amazing. In fact in 2006, the athletic department lost $2 million, while in 2007 the school was in the black for $500,000 or so.
Captain Leach's agents seem to want the deal done sooner rather than later:
"I can't comment directly on the status of the negotiations,'' said Matt Baldwin, one of two agents with International Management Group who work on Leach's behalf. "That is exclusively in the hands of Gerald Myers and Texas Tech. I can say that we're hopeful to resolve this matter soon.''
And Captain Leach seems to tote the company line:
"I don't enter into it, just so that I can focus on my task at hand,'' he said. "But both the budget and what's happening or not happening with my contract is exclusively in Gerald's hands. But I feel good about the direction of our program and what our players and coaches have done here.''
I get the sense that Leach feels a little sympathetic for Myers, or at the very least trusts Myers to do what needs to be done in the time frame that it needs to be done. The part I dislike the most is that this could have some negative recruiting by opposing coaches.
This is probably the last that we'll hear of this until December.
In light of the budget shortfalls, this is something that we may have to take a much closer look at, but the Chronicle of Higher Education released how much schools spend on recruiting (hat-tip to Fanblogs and Da Wiz). One of the more interesting things is that Texas Tech spent $883,700 on recruiting in 2006-2007 and 40% of that figure went to women's athletics ($350,100), which is second only to Penn State.
RedRaiderSports continues their fall previews, and today Chris Level previews the wideouts. Level thinks the starting four is set (Crabtree, Morris, Britton and Lewis) and the coaches have to figure out how to fill in the backups:
Only Lyle Leong is a proven backup among the wideouts in the post-spring two-deep. Todd Walker made some noise in 2006 but can he regain that form and remain healthy enough to do so? Are Tramain Swindall and Adam James ready for the prime time? Are Jacoby Franks and Rashad Hawk ready to play? This unit has the chance to be good but the depth isn't what most think it is in my view, not yet anyway.
ESPN's Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin looks back at Khalid Naziruddin, who has recently been hired by Texas Tech's Red Raider Club. Griffin recounts Naziruddin's transfer from Division III and his passion for the game. Good stuff.
On the heels of yesterday's rankings by Coaches' Hot Seat, ESPN's Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin ranks the Big 12 assistant coaches and Ruffin McNeill comes in at #7:
7. Ruffin McNeill, Texas Tech defensive coordinator -- Productive first season as interim coordinator last season, but will be facing immense challenge with heightened expectations riding on his work.
SI.com's Stewart Mandel thinks that Texas Tech is one of three teams taht could plummet out of the rankings (hat-tip to Tech92):
2) Texas Tech. Don't get me wrong, I'm solidly on the Mike Leach bandwagon -- the Red Raiders will appear in my preseason top 10. But I'm also the first to acknowledge that we're all taking a tremendous leap of faith with our rankings considering Tech has never finished higher than 18th (2004) under Leach and finished with fewer than three conference losses just once ('05). It's not inconceivable they could wind up being this year's Cal.
Tech92 is right, the media has come full circle on the Red Raiders, it's funny to see how nervous media folks get when they talk about Texas Tech . . . none of them are sure what the hell is going to happen.