Double-T Nation News:
ARRRRRRR!!!! It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Aye, I'd lo'e t' be able t' talk like a pirate through the entire post, but that just isn't goin' t' happen. Aye. Aye, in any e'ent, just make sure that you celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day with your fa'orite captain, Captain Leach, at tomorrows game by dressin' as a pirate. Aye, me parrot concurs. Now, swill a pint or two of grog and pick up some of the opposite sex. ARRRRRRR!!!!
DTN's Top Seven:
- Congrats to Colorado for beating WVU in a really good game last night.
- Florida 1, Tennessee 0.
- ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin picks the winners in this week's slate of games.
- DMN's Chuck Carlton looks at the national games of interest.
- Wooooo! Return of Black Shoe Diaries drunk post. Key rule of drunk post, don't hit the backspace. Woooooo!
- Checking in on Texas Tech's first conference opponent, Kansas State at Bring On The Cats.
- Painting the Mona Lisa in 80 milliseconds.
Texas Tech Football:
LAJ's Don Williams feature this morning is on the running attack, which historically means a successful season for the Red Raiders. Running backs coach Seth Littrell had this to say about the running backs last week:
"The biggest thing is they played with tremendous pad level and they broke a lot of tackles," Littrell said. "Yards after contact were big. They did a great job of really running their feet and making people miss tackles, and we’ve got to build on that."
Littrell also had praise for the quarterback, Graham Harrell:
"Graham did a nice job the other night," Littrell said. "That’s his job. That’s what Leach really puts on him and emphasizes to him: If we have the numbers (advantage) in the box and they’re spread out over the field, to run the football."
As much that we might nit-pick Graham Harrell for not passing like a mad man thus far, it's nice to step back and realize that many times it's Harrell who is making the call to run the ball. He's putting the team's success first and I think that goes overlooked, at least by me, as I watch the game.
In Williams Red Raiders Football Notebook we've got updates on a number of things. Brent Nickerson will continue to start at cornerback, and although we were promised changes at receiver, the only change that we'll see is Lyle Leong back in the coaches' good graces and will play behind Britton. Also, Adam James' role is discussed behind Eric Morris, and Williams mentions (although I think it was mentioned before on DTN) that the staff intends on redshirting junior tight end Adrian Reese.
I thought all of the Daniel Charbonnet articles were supposed to be yesterday, but FWST's Dwain Price pens a nice article on the Texas Tech safety and it sounds like he's ready for conference play:
"We’ve still got a lot of games to go," Charbonnet said. "So I’ve just got to keep improving and keep getting better every week, and hopefully I can keep making plays."
DT's Alex Ybarra writes about the end of non-conference play and Captain Leach has this to say about UMass:
"They are a team we don't see much of, we don't know much of," Leach said. "Outside of the fact that we know they have had quite a lot of success. I know going into this season they thought they could win the whole thing, so we'll see. We now have enough games under our belt that we can draw a little more from the games they have played this year."
Texas Tech Baseball:
DT's Kevin Cullen checks in with the baseball team (there's also video) and head coach Dan Spencer repeats that there's competition at almost every position:
"We're trying to get some (growing pains) out," he said. "The other thing we are doing is we are trying to find six to seven starters to play those spots. There's a lot of competition. I think that if they understand anything, they understand they are gonna compete. They're not just gonna compete against Texas, Texas A&M in the spring, but with each other in the fall to find out who gets to play against Texas and Texas A&M."