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Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe // 04.23.09

Texas Tech Football

Shefflield Second Team

LAJ's Don Williams writes about the move upward by QB Steven Sheffield, who if you recall is not on scholarship . . . yet. Here's Sheffield on his motivation:

"It drives me every single day when I’m lifting weights, going and watching film after class, stuff like that — just to try to get on scholarship and eventually get on the field here and play,’’ Sheffield said.

And Sheffield also addresses why he wears gloves, which drives me crazy:

"The footballs we use here, for some reason, feel really slick to me,’’ Sheffield said. "That, accompanied with the dry weather and the dust and everything, I never could get a good grip of the ball. I was always licking my hand and getting dust in my mouth.

"I just started messing around, putting some receivers’ gloves on and throwing the ball, and sure enough it kind of caught on where I never had to lick my fingers and I always had a good grip. If I keep a fresh pair of gloves, I can throw the ball a lot better. Even catching snaps, it helps out a lot.’’

Marlon Williams = Rapping

DT's Adam Coleman features linebacker Marlon Williams musical aspirations. Williams, a.k.a. King of Da Streetz, and Richard Jones, a.k.a. Untamed Beast, have been working on their music since their time at Texas Tech:

"We started out freestyling," Williams said. "I freestyle, then Richard start freestyling. Rich will be freestyling, then I start freestyling. Then Rich is like, 'Let's just go head and kinda make a CD.' I was like, 'Well shoot, I could start making beats.' It just kinda started from there."

Michael Crabtree Is All In Your Face

Michael Crabtree was all over the place yesterday, including an interview on ESPN yesterday:

A chat with ESPN and a chat with NFL.com.

Leach: NFL Does Not Understand the Spread

FWST's Dwain Price talks with the Captain Mike Leach who believe that the NFL has no clue what the spread actually is, well, maybe not everyone:

"Most of the league runs spread offenses and yet they'll be critical of them,'' Leach said during Tuesday's Big 12 Conference call. "At some point you've got to wonder how many of those guys from the NFL even know what a spread offense is _ or maybe their definition's different.

"But you look at New England, that's a spread offense. You look at the Arizona Cardinals, that's a spread offense. You look at the Green Bay Packers, that's a spread offense. The Seattle Seahawks _ a spread offense. And I can definitely go on.''

Personally, I'd love to know what Leach's definition is of the spread is.

Neglected Audio, Video and Pictures

The second hour of Tech Talk featured an interview with Aaron Dickens and offensive line coach Matt Moore who says that Chris Olson is going to be in the mix somewhere along the line and it looks like Terry McDaniel will be at left tackle, Brandon Carter will be at left guard, Shawn Byrnes will be at center, Olson may be at right guard and Marlon Winn at right tackle. Fox34 looks at the improving Texas Tech defense with Ruffin McNeill who's happy with the progress of the defense, the Captain who wants to see better execution and could care less about the NFL draft.

Texas Tech Baseball

Date Start Time Texas Tech
Starting Pitcher
UNLV
Starting Pitcher
Result
4/21/2009 7:00 p.m. Nate Karns (W, 3-4) Matt Hutchinson (L, 1-2) 10-6
4/22/2009 12:00 p.m. Lorenzo Douglas (W, 1-2) Corey Hales (L, 2-3)

14-5

Outfield:
LF - Michael Reed (Jr.); CF - Taylor Ashby (Jr.); RF - Mason Macnoll (Fr.)
Infield:
3RD - Justin Berry (Fr.); SS - Joey Kenworthy (Jr.); 2ND - Garrett Totten (Fr.); 1ST - Chris Richburg (Sr.)
C - Kevin Whitehead (Fr.)
DH - Scott LeJeune (Fr.)

*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech series preview (pdf).

Red Raiders Win Two from UNLV

Two weekday wins in a row and it was the bullpen that picked things up? Texas Tech beat the UNLV Runnin' Rebels yesterday afternoon 14-5 (recap) and it wasn't close. Miles Morgan (1.0 IP; 4 H; 3 ER; 2 BB; 1 SO) managed to get out of the first inning but that was it. After that it was a collective bullpen effort that led the way, led mainly by Lorenzo Douglas (2.2 IP; 1 H; 0 ER; 0 BB; 3 SO) who got the win and Louis Head (3.0 IP; 1 H; 0 ER; 0 BB; 1 SO) who earned the save. At the plate, freshman second baseman Garrett Totten (4-4; 3 RBI) led the way and sophomore catcher Jeremy Mayo (1-3; 1 HR; 4 RBI) homered in his only hit of the game. Freshman third baseman Justin Berry (2-4; 2 RBI) continues to hit the ball well.

LAJ's George Watson and DT's Mike Graham (with video) filed game stories and head coach Dan Spencer likes the way his young bullpen pitches threw the ball:

"We really put it away on the mound," Spencer said. "When you keep the score down, it’s a lot easier to play that way than when you have to score a lot of runs. So the bullpen really put things away today."

And Spencer likes how guys are stepping up for some of the injured players:

"It was good to get some of our younger guys going again," Tech coach Dan Spencer said. "When the young guys come out and hit, we've got a pretty good club. That's the thing we've missed most with Willie (Rueda) out of the lineup. We didn't miss him these weekdays because those other guys got on base and hit."

Early Look at Missouri

LAJ's George Watson has an early look at the Missouri Tigers.