It's Official - the Valero Alamo Bowl: As I was watching the Cowboys lose yet another game in December, the Valero Alamo Bowl chose the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Michigan St. Spartans for it's January 2, 2010 matchup. We'll be breaking down this game as we move forward. Hopefully we'll be hooking up with SB Nation's Michigan St. blog The Only Colors to talk Spartan football.
In trying to round up stories about the bowl announcement, we've got LAJ's Don Williams (and a commentary about going to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl in 2001), Detroit News' Angelique S. Chengelis, FWST's Dwain Price, SAEN's John Whisler, DT's Alex Ybarra, and RRS.com's Aaron Dickens. Here's Captain Mike Leach:
"I think it was fairly impressive," he said. "We had to go through three (starting) quarterbacks, which I think is challenging. Now we just need to be excited about playing this game and take advantage of the opportunity to improve and go play a football game."
Texas Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill talks a bit about the Spartans:
"I know they recruited well and they have great tradition at Michigan State," Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said. "So we know they have some guys in reserve ready to go.
"They’ve faced adversity just like our staff and our team this year. I know the discipline they impose on their team is similar to what we do with ours, so I’m sure they have some guys willing and waiting for the opportunity to play, so I don’t think [the loss of the suspended players will] affect them at all."
Michigan St. head coach Mark Dantonio talks about the game and also addresses the suspended Spartan players:
"You have an opportunity to go to a bowl game it says success," Dantonio said. "Going to a bowl game and being one of those teams that is playing in January in a bowl such as this -- and I think this is a marquee game in terms of media exposure on a Saturday night -- the exposure you get and the opportunities to work with young offensive line, those are things you can't put a price tag on.
Snip
"The majority of our football team is intact," Dantonio said. "Actually, we only lose two starters, the other one was a part-time starter. Provides opportunities for others. Usually when things of this nature happen, somebody’s going to step to the forefront."
Miscellaneous Links: TR's dedfischer writes the 2009 TR All-Big 12 team . . . Rivals' Mike Huguenin ranks the bowl games . . .
Ranked? LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that she believes the Red Raiders are worthy of top 25 consideration. Personally, I follow Texas Tech closely, but I do not follow most teams nationally and so I have no idea if this win is significant enough to be in any sort of poll. I'd also guess that at this point, there's plenty of teams that could argue that they are deserving of a top 25 ranking. The list of opponents for Texas Tech isn't overly impressive other than Washington and Oregon St. I think a few more road wins would certainly do the trick, and that's going to happen very soon with games against TCU, Wichita St. and UTEP. Not being ranked in the top 25 doesn't bother me, especially since we're still in December.