Double-T Nation News:
Don't forget to check out the recruiting information in the left sidebar, first football and then basketball. Hopefully this will take care of all of your recruiting needs.
DTN's Top Six:
- USC owns the logo "SC", which means that South Carolina is SOL.
- Could a collegiate team win the gold in the Olympics.
- J. Leman saves the world, Part I and Part II.
- ESPN's Big 12 Blogger Tim Griffin answers the mailbag.
- Rember how one of the best hoops players, John Wall, was going to commit to Baylor? Well, Wall was coached by Brian Clifton, who has been associated with NBA agent, Bill Duffy. There is a story here, someone just needs to dig for it.
- Corn Nation takes a good look at stopping the spread.
Texas Tech Football:
LAJ's Don Williams starts this morning with relatively full day that your Red Raiders have, despite not practicing the traditional two-a-days. After 8:00 p.m. practices last week, Williams reports that a typical day for a Texas Tech football player is as follows:
Beginning at 9 a.m. each day, a half-hour apiece is allotted to weight lifting and on-field walk-through sessions, followed by two hours of position meetings before lunch. After lunch comes a special-teams meeting before practice.
While D. coordinator, Ruffin McNeill talks about the difference between practicing once or twice a day:
"With one-a-days, I think you have more meeting time," defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said. "You have more coach planning time. You give players a chance to recover, and then you can get more quality work. That’s what Coach Leach has always been about is getting quality work. At the same time, when the first game comes around, we want to be the freshest team on the field."
DMN's Brandon George features the relentles spirit of Michael Crabtree and his desire to be the absolute best:
"I want to be the best," said Crabtree, who set NCAA freshman and Big 12 records last season with 134 receptions for 1,962 yards and 22 touchdowns, leading the nation in each category. "The best can't just chill off one season. The best has to work every day, every year, every minute."
In fact, earlier this summer Mr. Crabtree worked with Deion Sanders in his "Prime U" and Adam "Don't Call Me Pacman" Jones had this to say about Mr. Crabtree:
"Crabtree is physical. He's a good receiver. He's got all the tools, but he's got to refine some things," Jones said. "In the league, he's not going to be able to run through everybody. He's got to work on his technique, snugging and pulling to get off press [coverage]. Other than that, he runs pretty good routes."
It's interesting that one of the things that makes Mr. Crabtree such a treat to watch, his ability to run over people, may be a liability in the NFL.
During the summer, Mr. Crabtree worked on his speed and receivers coach Lincoln Riley wants to make him a better deep threat:
"He was a big-play threat last year, but he wasn't really the deep threat that we wanted. There were a lot of runs after the catch," Riley said. "Hopefully, we can make him a better deep threat."
Lots of practice notes in Williams' Raider Rants blog, including Taylor Potts, Lyle Leong, Adam James, Julius Howard, and goal line situations to close out practice. Williams also retells how McNeill chewed out Blake Collier for a sloppy tackle, eliciting this response from McNeill:
"Tackle the way we tackle! None of that horse-collar crap!,'' McNeill screamed. "Be smart! Be smart!''
In Williams' Red Raiders Football Notebook we get a little more information on the kicker and safety situations as well as some additional practice notes.
The SAEN gets around to previewing the Red Raiders in their Big 12 Tour as well as an article from Mike Finger regarding the expectations of this year's team and I thought this bit was pretty good:
And while the players feel a sense of responsibility, much of the attention this fall will undoubtedly focus on Leach, the man long lauded as an offensive genius but rarely mentioned in discussions of championship-level coaches. The persistent knock on Leach has been his team's inability to establish an adequate defense, but with the insertion of Ruffin McNeill as coordinator last year, that unit is showing as much promise as ever.With the Red Raiders a near-unanimous Top 20 preseason pick — and a Top 10 selection in several polls — some might assume the team has more to live up to than usual.
Leach isn't buying it.
"You do the best you can every day," Leach said. "I don't feel any pressure. I'm going to do the best I can, just like before."
Texas Tech Basketball:
The Hoops Report takes a look at the Non-Top 50 Big 12 teams, including Texas Tech on page two.