Double-T Nation News:
I often have to check myself, make sure that I'm being as honest about the state of the Texas Tech football team as I possibly can. I've always been a glass half-full sort of guy, especially with sports. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I won't criticize, but my personality is to look at the silver lining, admittedly ignoring deficiencies, of things. Part of this is that I started this blog as an escape from my day job that is way too stressful, thus DTN keeps me sane.
In any event, I think it's great that we have different viewpoints about where this team is and just by looking at the FanPosts, the viewpoints and comments are varied and that's what makes good blogs work, respectfully agreeing or disagreeing about where we are.
Despite me holding onto the silver lining, I'm wondering if we're being hyper-critical of our Red Raiders. I know that most people are not following the program as closely as DTN readers are, but I subscribe to over 200 different college blogs, a bunch of them are voters with the BlogPoll and for the most part, they don't at all seem concerned about the margin of victory. Granted, some voters are purely resume voters, meaning they only vote based on a team's resume, so Texas Tech and teams like Ohio State don't even appear on their ballots, but for the most part, Texas Tech has remained pretty static. BlogPoll voters, for the most part, seem unconcerned. And I trust these guys more than I trust the coach or the writer polls.
So I ask you, what side of the fence should I be on? I don't know if it's in my nature to hyper-critical, especially at this point in the season, but I also realize that there's certainly lots of things that need correction. I've always thought that the truth is somewhere in-between. You are never as bad as your worst game and you're never as good as your best game. Harrell could throw for 800 yards and 10 touchdowns on Saturday and for me, it wouldn't change my perception of him. I still think he's an excellent quarterback, who is prone to having a bad game, but he's always bounced back and I think he will again. The same goes for the defense. They're a work in progress at this point, and they're making improvments. I understand the concept of believing that a team should be at a certain place, but my expectations of this defense have tempered a bit, and are where they should have been at the start of the season. The defense will show improvement, but Texas Tech isn't going to become South Florida or Ohio State overnight.
I just wanted to give everyone a webcast update. Refunds are in the works and should have been completed yesterday. I also want to make sure that everyone has canceled their online subscription. To cancel your online subscription, please login to Nevada Wolf Pack with your email address and password. After logging in, you should see your account profile page. When you are on this page, click on "Manage Packages". From here you cancel any active subscriptions. Keep me in the loop if you have any questions or issues.
Texas Tech Football:
The LAJ focuses this morning on the great pass defense coming from the Texas Tech defensive line and Ruffin McNeill thinks that the team is just playing harder:
"I think it’s just the fact that I hope the kids are playing harder, trying to make more plays, trying to make things happen," defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said. "Knowing that if you can’t get the sack and you do have pressure, then get your hands up. On three-step type teams, it’s hard to get sacks, but one thing you can do is get your hands up and defend the pass or alter the passing lanes of the quarterback."
McNeill notes that both EWU and Nevada quarterbacks were dropping back only three steps, which decreases the defense's ability to get any pressure, but they do feel like they can affect the quarterback:
"(Quarterbacks) have been three-stepping on us, and (Kaepernick) rolled on us a lot and bootlegged out of the pocket," McNeill said. "But if you’re not able to get the sack, you can cause pressure and try to deter the pass or alter the passer."
McNeill also acknowledges that another part of the relative success is the fact that he is rotating lots of players, which is what I think most of us thought would happen this year.
FWST's Dwain Price writes this morning that the Texas Tech defense is making a statement and lots of other good notes, make sure and read the whole thing. I think we've talked enough defense, but also in the link was this line from Captain Leach on going for it on 4th down early in the game:
"No guts no glory," said Leach. "If you make [the first down], then the perception of it is different."
Well, I guess so Captain, but it was still a bad decision.
Also, the team realizes that people are giving Texas Tech their best shot and they've got to improve as a team, per quarterback Graham Harrell:
"We know people are going to come hard against us and try and knock us off because we’re ranked high," Harrell said. "But we have to improve as a team and not worry about what other teams are going to do to us, but worry about executing what we do, and if we do that we’ll be fine."
And finally, Captain Leach knows that it's taking too long for his team to assert itself:
"You work all week, you do some good things and you want to be as precise as you can," Leach said. "Everybody takes a lot of pride in their work."Sometimes you try to be too perfect and you get tentative. I guess the disappointing thing was it took as long [to ice the first two games] as it did."
DT's Adam Coleman says the Texas Tech football team is still optimistic despite a tough win against Nevada and Eric Morris knows that that the team needs to be more consistent and that the Big 12 is a rocky road only 2 games away:
"Our demeanor isn't very bad, especially in meeting (Sunday)," Morris said. "We understand that we're really close to hitting on some big plays. We just have to put a couple things together here and there. That's something that we have to be conscious of and we have to work at this week and get better at."Snip
"It's a big game for us," he said. "We kinda need to get rolling right now. About to be starting Big 12 play, it's coming up really soon. It's the time of the season where we need to start putting things together and start executing and get more consistent on offense."
Texas Tech Basketball:
Texas Tech assistant men's basketball coach Stew Robinson as he just underwent successful bypass surgery. Think a good thought and send some good mojo Robinson's way.