Honor Stone: LAJ's Don Williams has a great editorial today where he says that Captain Mike Leach should relent on his no-injuries policy in regards to DB Nathan Stone and honor him and his career. I agree with Williams to an extent, in that I still have no problem with Leach not discussing any injuries, but when a guy's career is over, then I would agree that it's time to acknowledge what he meant to the team and program.
Former Red Raiders with Concussions: LAJ's Don Williams talks with former Red Raiders Mickey Peters and Donnie Hart regarding concussions they suffered while at their time in Lubbock:
"It’s scary,’’ said Peters, who makes his living these days working in investments. "It’s kind of a freaky deal. You know you’re not all there, but there’s nothing you can do about it.’’
Snip
"I don’t think you consciously realize that you’re not yourself,’’ said Hart who, when he finished his career in 1998, was second in Tech history for receptions (125), receiving yards (2,111) and touchdown catches (17). "Certain things in a game that you would normally do, you have a little bit of reluctance to put yourself in harm’s way. It’s not something that you go into being scared of; it just sort of happens that way.’’
Dress Roster: LAJ's Don Williams writes that both FS Cody Davis and QB Taylor Potts are not on the dress roster, but C Shawn Byrnes and DE Daniel Howard will be with the team on Saturday.
Freshman Focus: LAJ's Don Williams weekly series, where he focuses on a freshman player redshirting this year and up this week is WR E.J. Celestie. Inside receivers coach Lincoln Riley likes what he sees in Celestie:
Celestie has spent his first couple of months at Tech being an "H" inside receiver, but Tech coaches don’t want to be too quick to pigeonhole him.
"He just brings so much versatility," inside receivers coach Lincoln Riley said this week. "He can play all four receiver positions. He’s going to be able to help special teams. He’ll be able to help with the return game. There’s a lot of positions he’s going to have a chance to play."
And Celestie is a smart player who adjusts:
"He didn’t do a ton of (inside receiver) in high school," Riley said, "but he picked it up fast because he’s just a smart guy. He’s an attentive guy. He really pays attention to detail and remembers things. He was raw because he never really got to settle in at one position in high school, but you could tell he’s really explosive with the ball in his hands and knew things."
Brandt Likes Texas Tech Offensive Linemen: FWST's Dwain Price talked with NFL scout Gil Brandt, who think that Texas Tech offensive linemen come to the NFL ready to play:
"They do such a good job coaching (offensive) linemen, because pass protection is the whole name of their game,'' Brandt said Thursday night. "When (Tech's offensive linemen) leave there, they're well-coached five-year guys that are pretty strong and turn out to be pretty good players.''
And Brandt talks about how smart Leach is:
"Mike Leach is like a fox,'' said Brandt, the Dallas Cowboys' Vice President of player personnel from 1960-'88. "Some coaches go out and they hob-nob with the boosters and so forth. Mike hob-nobs with himself and his wife, Sharon.
"He does all that crazy pirate stuff and all those crazy things. The guy is really sharp the way he does stuff.''
How sharp?
"I asked his wife how did you meet Mike, and she said they met in California,'' Brandt said. "She said early on Mike had come up with this big idea that they would go to Cody, Wyoming, which is his home town, and Mike would get a job there for the summer and she'd get a job and they would save a lot of money.
"But Mike wanted to save more money. He wanted (Sharon) to get a job at the bookstore and see if they could put a hammock in the back room.
"So instead of having to rent a place to live, he could sleep in the hammock in the back room of the bookstore. The guy is always thinking.''
Well that's interesting.
Crabtree Links: DMN's Tim Cowlishaw writes that players who associate with Deion Sanders may be hurtful to their careers and there was some talk about this on The Ticket during my lunch hour yesterday in that Sanders may help lean players to a certain agent, in particular, Eugene Parker, but is not an agent himself, which allows him to talk with players during their playing days and the NCAA can't do a thing. The other thought that occurred to me was that there was a very short period of time early in the season last year where there was a question about Crabtree's eligibility. Everyone said that it was merely a paperwork issue, but I wonder if the difference between Bryant and Crabtree is that Crabtree told the truth about his relationship with Sanders. Who else could see the NCAA start cracking down on these types of relationships . . . on the field, SFGate writes that Michael Crabtree's first job is to line-up on the scout team, something he did regularly on Thursday nights during his redshirt year . . . SacBee considers the type of player that Crabtree is . . .
Kansas St. Wildcat Links: DT's Adam Coleman writes that KSU hopes that Bill Snyder brings this football program back to the level of his first tenure . . . CJOnline's Austin Meek has some KSU notes and talks with the Kansas St. secondary (good read) . . . KC Star's Kellis Robinette takes a look at RG Brandon Carter . . . Kansas.com previews the KSU vs. TT game . .
Big 12 Links: Congrats to Nebraska for just pouring it on (that's a pun) last night, scoring 27 points in the 4th quarter, Corn Nation will be celebrating and they had the Big 12 Roundtable Recap yesterday . . . DMN writes that backup quarterbacks are getting some burn this weekend . . . KC Star's Blair Kerkoff with his weekly Big 12 Insider . . .
High School Links: Scotty Young had an off night where his Denton Ryan Raiders lost to Lake Dallas 31-35, where Young was 15-33, 229 yards, 3 interceptions and 1 touchdown. I know he's supposed to be good, but there's no way in hell that he steps in and starts next year. I think and hope he's going to be a great player, but let's ease up . . . for those of you who don't know, James Gray was one of the best running backs ever to wear the Scarlet and Black, well his son, Johnathan Gray, is also a running back in Aledo and just tearing things up . . .
Neglected Video: Fox34 with a look at QB Steven Sheffield:
Preseason All-Big 12: The Big 12 Preseason first team and individual honors were picked by the coaches and there were no Texas Tech players chosen, but truthfully, only Kansas (Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich) , Texas (Damion James), Oklahoma St. (James Anderson), Oklahoma (Willie Warren) and Iowa St. (Craig Brackins) had players that were picked.
Friday Night Scrimmage: There's a scrimmage tonight at 5:00 p.m. Go check it out tonight and let us know how it went.