A Few More Top 12's: Thanks to kayakyar and merrik for their top 12's, how about 2 more so that I can get together a decent BlogPoll ballot.
Brain Injuries in Football: New Yorkers' Malcolm Gladwell has a very interesting look at brain injuries in football (Hat-tip to SmartFootball's Chris Brown).
No TV for TAMU Game: LAJ'sDon Williams has quite a bit on the decision not to televise the TAMU game and I'd encourage you to go read the whole thing. But there's still a chance that the game is possibly televised:
There’s still a chance the Tech-A&M game could be televised for the seventh year in a row. Langer said he plans to start discussions with the two schools’ officials today to look into the possibility of airing the game via local telecast or Fox College Sports pay per view.
The game has been set for 6 p.m. Langer said FSN would have to take into account added production costs and what would air in the 6 p.m. time slot otherwise.
"It would have to be a different kind of arrangement than we traditionally have,’’ said Langer, who is based in Los Angeles. "It’s not something we could pull the trigger on quickly and make happen. There’s a lot of conversations that need to be held. We’re definitely going to have those conversations.’’
I may be begging for a ticket in a week or so as I was planning on this game being picked up by some network.
There's No Question: There seems to be some discussion about head captain Mike Leach being coy about naming a starting quarterback. DMN's Kate Hairopolous has the entire transcript from this week's teleconference and Leach had this to say about his quarterback situation, deftly taking a jab (I think) at Florida Gators:
"I don't know but we'll find out one way or the other. I've been criticized for not doing what 'bigtime' programs do so I've decided to accommodate the wishes of the media. And 'big-time' programs like to have game-time decisions so we've got us a game-time decision on our hands, and I think that'll be not just 'big-time' for everyone but exciting for everyone. So there's 'big-time' for you, how do you like that?"
And Leach likes both Steven Sheffield and Taylor Potts:
"Well, I think they're both good quarterbacks and both do good things. I think that we've taken a lot of pride here at Texas Tech and have had some good ones and so I think we're fortunate that way and certainly have two guys that have played well. And that's the thing with defenses and whoever they have or whatever they have. You just worry about yourself worry about doing the best you can. We can control what we do, we can't control what the other guy does."
There's quite a bit in the transcript, including Leach discussing the battle during the summer between Sheffield and Seth Doege, the possibility of switching quarterbacks, etc. If you're interested, go read the whole thing.
Violating HIPAA: Per FWST's Dwain Price, Leach also discussed yesterday the possibility that discussing player injuries may be a violation of HIPAA laws. This makes the most sense to me and I mentioned this possibility to my law partner a couple of weeks ago, if universities had student-athletes sign waivers to allow coaches to discuss their injuries in public. I have no idea if they do or they don't, but I would think that without a waiver, there would be a technical violation of HIPAA laws. Here's Leach:
"Well, unless you know that he’s ever not been cleared to play because we’ve been 100% healthy and the rest,'' Leach said. "I’ll tell you another interesting thing on that injury thing while we’re on the subject.
"The thing that goes over everybody’s head is, did you know that it was illegal to discuss those things in the first place? Doctors aren’t allowed to, so why would they turn me loose with it?''
It says here that schools are not covered, but injury information has to go from a doctor to a coach, which would be a violation.
It Doesn't Matter: Dr. Saturday's Matt Hinton writes that Leach likes to pretend it matters who plays quarterback, but it doesn't.
Players Support Sheffield: LAJ's Adam Zuvanich writes that the players support QB Steven Sheffield, here's RT Marlon Winn (also see the Neglected Video below):
"It’s the energy that he brings,’’ Winn said. "He’ll come in and light up a whole room. He’s not a very gloomy guy. He doesn’t down himself about a (bad) play. If he has a bad play, he’ll come back and make the next play. He’s just a great guy.’’
Texas Tech Red Raider Links: RRS.com's Paul Lowery has the 5 players who discusses the 5 most talked about recruits, players, coaches, etc. This week, it's new 2011 basketball commit Kevin Wagner, Sheffield, 2010 football commits WR Shawn Corker and DE Kedrick Dial and RB Baron Batch . . . Statesman's Rick Cantu writes about KU's Todd Reesing and Sheffield, both former Central Texas signal callers . . .
Nebraska Cornhusker Links: Big Red Network's Steve Hanway (BRN) thinks that Texas Tech is no joke and a post-mortem of NU's win over MU . . .StatePaper.com's Samuel McKewon writes that NU head coach Bo Pelini isn't ready to hand out the blackshirts (keep 'em hungry) . . . Kansan.com's Jacob Muselmann writes about TT's Sheffield and NU's Ndomukong Suh:
"A good player can do a lot of things. They move him all over," Leach said. "We’ll just keep an eye on him and know where he’s at. We’re not nearly as concerned about him as we are about the Nebraska Cornhuskers overall."
. . . Omaha.com's Jon Nyatawa writes that Nebraska is preparing for both Sheffield and Potts . . . HuskerExtra's Larry Asante also comments on the lack of blackshirts and has other NU notes . . .
Big 12 Links: WacoTrib's Bryce Cherry writes that Baylor's Robert Griffin had surgery yesterday and is officially out for the season . . . LAJ's Adam Zuvanich has plenty of notes from around the Big 12 . . .
Neglected Video: Fox34 with some soundbites from yesterday's press conference and the players support Sheffield (is it just me or does Marlon Winn seem like the most likable guy in the world?):
If You Don't Know Anything About Texas Tech Basketball, Go To A K-State Website: BOTC's BracketCat has a good preview of the Texas Tech basketball squad and will be previewing the entire Big 12. Lots of good stuff, and I disagree with the eventual finish of our Red Raiders (this is probably my bias that I don't want them to finish that low), but a lot of work went into this.