New Captains: LAJ's Don Williams reports that RB Baron Batch, LB Bront Bird, RT Marlon Winn and DE Brandon Sharpe were voted to be captains this week against Texas A&M and the team will vote weekly on who will be captains . . . also, Leach canceled the Sunday night practice . . .
New Seats: LAJ's Don Williams talks with AD Gerald Myers about the addition of the new seats and hopes to break the attendance record against the Aggies.
Rushing Ends: LAJ's Don Williams takes a look at the defensive ends and DE Daniel Howard talks about being the underdog:
"I’ve been the underdog my whole life,’’ he said. "I got recruited by the rest of the schools around here to play linebacker. Tech was the one who came in and told me, ‘You’re going to play defensive end.’ I said OK, because everyone else told me I was too small. I wasn’t fast enough. I wasn’t strong enough. I think as a defense, we’re making a statement because we’re all those (kind of) guys.’’
And DC Ruffin McNeill talks about DE Brandon Sharpe, and Sharpe comments as well:
"Everybody moves along and progresses differently,’’ McNeill said. "That’s the thing about coaching. You have to be patient. If the kids stay, they’ll play. You just have to keep coaching them up.
"Brandon’s one of those kids that stayed. He may have got frustrated at times, but he understands why now.’’
Tech coach Mike Leach said recently he thought Sharpe was capable of more dominating performances, and McNeill said Sharpe can have more games like Saturday if he has the proper frame of mind.
Lately, that’s all been true. Seven of Sharpe’s sacks have come in the last three games.
"I was just out there having fun and running hard, trying to get noticed and enjoying it,’’ he said Saturday. "This is my last year. I’m trying to play it to my fullest.’’
Texas Tech Red Raider Links: TR's dedfischer's post-mortem and RRR's had a few thoughts from the Nebraska win . . . LAJ's Don Williams grades the Nebraska performance . . .
TAMU Aggie Links: Dr. Saturday's Matt Hinton wonders if the Aggies have given up the fight with a 6 touchdown loss to Kansas St. . . . EDSBS with Mike Sherman supporting breast cancer . . .
BCS and Big 12 Links: SB Nation has a new blog, BCS Evolution, and it's got all kinds of good stuff regarding the BCS . . . Dr. Saturday's Matt Hinton takes a look at the BCS rankings . . . KC Star's Blair Kerkhoff look at all of the conferences and writes that the Big 12 North is down . . .
Practice Begins: DT's Zane Turner was at the open practice on Friday night and head coach Pat Knight is ready to start a new season:
"We’re excited. It’s tough, you know, when you have kind of a down season in your own mind just waiting all spring, summer and fall to get back at it," said Knight, who begins his second full season as head coach at Tech. "It starts today and to me we’re kind of getting a bad taste out of our mouths even though I’m proud of some of the things we accomplished last year. It’s still the team we wanted to have here."