Odds and Ends
If a Tree Falls . . .
Saturday night's baseball game was the last major sporting event until football begins in August/September. If you thought it was quiet recently, then you're going to be slightly disappointed with DTN from this point forward, although I'm going to be doing my best to bring lots of new content to the interwebs all the way until football season.
I'm taking the week off from DTN's Best of Lubbock, we'll get ramped back up next week.
I've got a new feature coming out later this morning, Five Things, and wanted to give a shout-out to DTN reader rojo donzo for creating all of the new logos (you have to wait to see). Much, much appreciated.
Politicians hard at work, it appears that votes for Texas Tech to achieve Tier 1 status is being delayed by both political parties arguing over the voter ID bill:
"This is not the Texas Legislature's finest moment," said Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock."With regard to Tech and some of the other items, they need to be addressed. We file the legislation and followed the process and we need to finish the deal."
Awesome.
Texas Tech Football
Filling in for Stars
Columbia Tribune's Dave Matter is looking at the players in the Big 12 who are expected to fill in for the recently departed stars, and two Red Raiders made the cut:
1. Detron Lewis, wide receiver, Texas Tech: The Red Raiders always seem to produce prolific wide receivers, but none more so than Michael Crabtree, the two-time Biletnikoff Award winner and No. 10 overall pick by San Francisco. Of all the stars the Big 12 has produced the last few years, Crabtree might have been the league’s best pure player.If there’s one receiver who can match Crabtree’s production in Lubbock, it’s probably Lewis, a 6-foot junior who quietly grabbed 71 passes for 869 yards last season. Mike Leach likes his team’s depth at receiver, but Lewis figures to be the leading candidate to emerge as Tech’s No. 1 target.
Snip
4. Taylor Potts, quarterback, Texas Tech: Leach’s quarterback assembly line has spit out a new starter. Unlike some past Tech quarterbacks — B.J. Symons, Sonny Cumbie, Cody Hodges — Potts has game experience, having played in 15 games as Graham Harrell’s backup the last two years. Just like the rest, Potts will probably lead the country in passing.
Early Statement Games
Rivals.com's Mike Huguenin writes that the Texas Tech at Houston game in 2009 has a lot to gain while Texas Tech has quite a bit to lose should the Cougars beat the Red Raiders:
4. Texas Tech at Houston, Sept. 26: Houston has had a prolific offense for most of this decade, first under Art Briles and now under Kevin Sumlin. But those numbers, for the most part, have been ignored because the Cougars play in a league generally bereft of defense – Conference USA – and really have beaten no one of note. That changes if the Cougars beat Texas Tech. This would be a huge victory for Sumlin's program and legitimize Houston as a possible top-25 team. Tech wouldn't gain much with a win, but given the Big 12's mediocre bowl showing, a loss in this one by the Red Raiders would add further fuel to "the Big 12 is overrated" talk.
Texas Tech Baseball
Future is Bright
Fox34 with Drew Dougherty talks with head coach Dan Spener who believes that there are still things to correct the future to be bright for Texas Tech. Early Sunday morning I attempted to look for some updated statistics on the 2009-10 recruiting class (subject to MLB draft) and struggled mightily to find much of anything. There are seven seniors on this team, most notably, starting pitcher AJ Ramos and 2B Willie Rueda. I'm sure I'm forgetting many others, but there are seven players to replace, most notably on the mound.
From what I could find (and I'm not linking to anything here because most of the information I found was somewhat dated), it appears that Stephen Hagen might make the biggest difference of all of the players. I thought I had read that he had 29 homeruns this year which led the nation. That's some serious power. Nick Popescu knocked in 73 RBI this year, again, some fairly serious run production. In other words, the offense should be fine. I think Spencer will be relying quite a bit on the JUCO pitchers: Jay Johnson and Zach Fowler. Both are lefties. Spencer will also have to see some improvement from returning guys like Colton Farrar, Ben Flora, Brandon Foster, Louis Head, Austin Quick, Jordan Stern, and Brennaen Stewart.