Strange Day: I got up especially early yesterday, wrote my post game thoughts article, and then get away from the computer for the entire day.
I check back after dinner last night and the first thing that I see is that RG Brandon Carter is suspended for 1 game, post a quick FanShot, promote a FanShot regarding Robert Griffin's injury (I hate that good players get injured, especially ones that I enjoy watching), read through some comments (which by the way I know I appreciate everyone's opinion, even if I disagree), and check out for the evening.
I wake up early again this morning and find out that Brandon Carter is now suspended indefinitely.
It's the past two days that make life as a blogger somewhat tough, especially in the sense that there are fans who have views that are directly opposite of other fans. Trying to keep in mind that we're all on the same team. More on Carter below.
Carter Suspended Indefinitely: Last night, I posted a FanShot about LAJ's Don Williams who broke the news that RG was suspended for one game, probably based on the content of Carter's Tweet:
I am not a captain anymore and will not be playing this week. Good luck red raiders ill still be cheering on my family from the stands!!:)
I think for a period of time, it was one game, and then something happened last night, I have no idea what it was, and would appreciate it if no one tried to speculate at this time, which required the official Texas Tech site to send out a press release about Carter and his suspension and for Don Williams to revise his article to reflect the official press release.
Williams article also details the Twitter account from LB Marlon Williams, who tweeted the following:
Wondering why I’m still in this meeting room when the head coach can’t even be on time to his on (sic) meeting.
It turns out that last night's regularly scheduled Sunday meeting was canceled and would imagine that the coaching staff loves Marlon, but I would expect that all players will no longer be allowed on any sort of social media website here in the very near future. And for the record, Marlon's twitter account is still up, I won't link to it, but you can find it if you really want.
Lots to digest here, and to be honest, this wasn't what I was expecting to write about today.
Trying to Rebound: LAJ's Don Williams and FWST's Dwain Price both write that head Captain Mike Leach expect this team to rebound. This from Williams article:
"We just need to tighten up," Leach said. "We’ve got a group that’s made a lot of progress since (preseason) camp. We just need to play sharper. We need to keep working and stay positive and keep getting better. We’ve done a lot of good things, and now we’ve got to keep sharpening up and keep getting better."
And this from Price's article:
"The biggest thing that we need to do is go hard and improve," Leach said. "Unfortunately we have to leave this game with some regrets for not having done better, but we’ve got a great group of players who care about one another and play hard, and I think went out there and really played well.
Taking Responsibility: This comes from Price's article above, but thought that it deserved it's own subject line. Price's article seems to make it clear that Leach did take responsibility and admit that he should have kicked the field goal on the 4th and 1 from the Houston 1 yard line:
Leach took the blame for passing up a short field goal on fourth-and-goal from the Houston 1 with 10:56 left.
At the time, the Red Raiders were clinging to a 28-23 lead, and a field goal meant the Cougars would have had to convert a 2-point play after their final touchdown to tie.
But Leach gambled and quarterback Taylor Potts was stopped on a sneak play.
"If I put the field goal team out there, at that point in the game that’s the better thing to do," Leach said. "And I didn’t do it."
Beating C-USA: LAJ's Don Williams writes that the Red Raiders cannot be an elite team of the Big 12 South when losing to a Conference-USA opponent and LB Bront Bird feels that 3rd downs are killing the Red Raiders:
"Definitely,’’ linebacker Bront Bird said as he and his teammates trudged out of the visitors’ locker room on a sweaty night at Robertson Stadium. "We weren’t very mentally tough today. We should have won this game. We had every opportunity to. We were up pretty much the entire game. We didn’t come through in the clutch situations. That’s something we’ve got to improve on as a team.
"It happened last week against Texas also. Third downs are killing us on both sides of the ball. We’ve got to get off the field (on defense), and we’ve got to convert on offense. We didn’t do that tonight. It really hurt us.’’
New Mexico Lobo Links: Only one today, as the New Mexico Daily Lobo recounts the Lobo's loss to in-state rival, the New Mexico St. Aggies . . .