Texas Tech Tuesday Morning Notes - Five Already Edition

Double-T Nation News:

Best thing I've read about college football all year. Take the time to read this.

Remember to check back this morning, around 11:00, to check out the interview with UMass Football Blog. Also take note of the following:

• kayakyakr's look at the role of the running game in the Air Raid Offense, remember, if you like something you read on DTN, you can hit the "Rec" button (at the bottom of the post), which will create a featured FanPost section.
• RaiderAde's preview of UMass.
• Totally Tech's Texas Tech wallpaper.

Texas Tech Football:

One of my favorite blogs out there is Statistically Speaking and they've previewed the Big 12, including Texas Tech. Excellent reads on every Big 12 team this morning.

ESPN's Bruce Feldman lists the softest college football schedules and your Red Raiders check in at #2:

2. Texas Tech: On the bright side, the Red Raiders face two of the toughest teams in their division. Then again, Eastern Washington and UMass both are at the FCS level and Tech has outscored its last four non-Division I-A opponents by an average of 61 points. Tech has beaten SMU by a combined score of 84-12 the last two seasons. The toughest of the four out-of-league games figures to be at Nevada, which is coming off a 6-7 season.

Is anyone else tired of talking about schedules? I feel like every time one of these articles comes out I have to point out that Texas Tech would be playing Tulsa, blah, blah, blah. It's a crappy schedule and it's not all Texas Tech's fault. I'm ready for the games to start.

Here is the Rivals.com Top 100 players in the state of Texas and you'll note that right now Texas Tech has 5 of these players, including the following:

1. #36 Kyle Clark (OL)
2. #46 Aaron Fisher (WR)
3. #72 Will Ford (DB)
4. #74 Daniel Cobb (DB)
5. #79 Jacob Karam (QB)

For comparison purposes, last year [Note by Seth C, 07/08/08 8:00 AM CDT ] - This is actually from 2 years ago, will have to go back and look at last year.  Texas Tech had 6 players, one of which never qualified:

1. #32 Lonnie Edwards (OL)
2. #49 Jacob Amie (WR-never qualified)
3. #66 Blake Emert (OL)
4. #80 Jared Flannel (RB - moveded to DB)
5. #85 Detron Lewis (WR)
6. #97 Tyrone Sonier (DE - moved to LB)

It seems like Coach Leach and his staff are on a pretty good pace with quite a bit of the recruiting season to go.

Behind the Stripe's Dave Matter takes a closer look at the offensive lines of the Big 12, focusing on experience as it relates to success. Good stuff.

Fox34's running feature Fact or Fiction asks if Harrell is the better quarterback and last summer, I also took a look at Harrell's numbers in comparison to Kingsbury's numbers before the start of the season. I may have to update some of the data and ask the question again, but I think it's pretty clear that Harrell's numbers are overall better than Kingsbury's.

Here are a couple of non-Texas Tech items that deserve some mention. Kevin at Fanblogs.com asks which programs embellish their claims of national championships. Great stuff . . . JoePa and BHGP. Genius.

Texas Tech Baseball:

Another article on another draftee from last year, this time its Robert Kilcrease, again drafted in this past year's MLB draft, with some early success with the Eau Claire Express. Success like this is good for the program.