Double-T Nation News:
I have no idea how I'm going to vote in this week's BlogPoll. It was actually the last think that I was thinking about before falling asleep last night.
Texas Tech Hockey:
Things just keep getting interesting. The Lubbock Mayor, Tom Martin, said that it was the Texas Tech Hockey Club who chose not to renew the option:
"The hockey team had a contract this last season with two, one-year renewals at their option. After their season was over this last spring, the team chose not to renew their option," Martin said.The mayor says, after the spring and summer months past, and the hockey team was in a crunch, they wanted their same contract.
"It's the same thing when renting another facility from an apartment house to a building the land lord has to be able to recover the cost of the facility first and in this case to be able to generate revenue to be able to make improvements to that facility," said the Mayor.
Hmm. So the Mayor is saying that this is the Hockey Club's fault, and that it was a failure of them to exercise the option. Of course there's no mention here of the terms of the option, but rather than the Hockey Club chose not to renew. Perhaps the bottom line here is that if the City Bank Coliseum is going to have ice and it's going to be there regardless of whether or not the Hockey Club plays or not, then what's the problem in letting these guys do what's fun? I'm sure that we could find other city projects that aren't making money hand-over-fist, so why single out this one?
This entire story and situation makes me think of The Wire.
Texas Tech Football:
LAJ's Don Williams' feature this morning is on the play of non-starting defensive backs on special teams units. Much has been made this year, which I think is a good thing, about the special team units receiving their own recognition on their "Top Gun" chart, which awards points for various special teams plays.
Here's converted defensive back Jared Flannel, who was one of the special teams aces last week:
"It relates to our three goals: Being a team, being the most excited to play and doing your job," Flannel said. "When we’re on kickoff (coverage), our thing is, I’m going to make the play.’ That goes to being the best at doing your job. We want to all make the plays ourselves, so when that happens, everybody’s swarming."
And safety Lance Fuller is buying into the importance of special teams play:
"It’s the greatest part of the ball ever, because it’s momentum changing," he said. "When you have one play to go out there and make something happen, there’s no second chances. You don’t have four downs. It’s always a big play. Go down there on kickoff, blow somebody up, or have a return for a touchdown on one of the return teams."
All this football talk makes me wish for a game.
Williams also files a Red Raiders Football Notebook, mostly about the team wishing they didn't have a bye this week (join the club) as well as a bit on little used senior wide-out J.J. Griffin, who received his first career carry last week against UMass. Two of the class guys of this team, linebackers Bront Bird and Brian Duncan, said that Griffin is one of the hardest working guys on the team.
Here's Bird:
"That’s awesome to see a guy do that, because we all see how hard he works,’’ linebacker Bront Bird said. "He may not be as blessed as everyone else physically, but that guy works harder than anyone else on the field. We all appreciate everything that he does. It was a really cool moment, I’m sure for him, but even for all of us to get to see a guy like that do that.’’
Here's Duncan:
"He’s the most excited person around,’’ Duncan said. "He’s the most hard working. He’s always in the gym, working on his abs, working on his arms, anything. He’s encouraging everyone else. He’s always keeping us up. For us to see what he did on the field is awesome.’’