Poll Results: I'm honestly shocked and happily surprised by yesterday's poll results regarding whether or not this audience pays for the subscription services. It's nice to know that me being incredibly cheap is shared with around 82% of those of you who voted.
A Day Late, But Worth Your Time: utesfan100 from BCS Evolution (a blog about evolving the BCS) wrote a fantastic post yesterday on race, integration and college football. Excellent work and I apologize for not posting this sooner in the day yesterday.
Fulmer Cup: EDSBS with the season's inaugural Fulmer Cup post (I think) and UT's Dan Buckner (now formerly of UT) has mugshot goodness.
Willis Ready: DT's Adam Coleman sits down with new defensive coordinator James Willis, who is ready to take on the challenge of being a coordinator rather than just a position coach. I think you've read most of this before, but thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone is behind the curve. Here's head coach Tommy Tuberville on what Willis brings:
"Offensively, this conference is known for throwing the ball," Willis said. "We got a chance last year at Alabama to play against a few offenses that did the same types of things. You turn on the film and what you see is a lot of points being scored out here. You see defenses really trying to get after teams and slow them down some.
Recruiting Update: Thanks to RaiderArch who posted this in a FanShot, LAJ's Adam Zuvanich writes that Memphis, TN, LB Fred Harvey has officially uncommitted, but that QB Scotty Young, RB/WR Ben McRoy, WR Javares McRoy, DB Russell Polk and LB Zach Winbush all remain committed to Texas Tech. Apparently, offensive coordinator Neal Brown, graduate assistant Sonny Cumbie and head coach Tommy Tuberville visited with Young on Monday and Young had this to say:
"I’m with Texas Tech now, for sure," said Young, who had been in recent contact with coaches from Arizona State and Notre Dame. "I never really left, but I was kind of uncertain there for a while with everything going on. Now, after talking with coach Brown and coach Tuberville, I’m really happy with my decision."
I take it that the McRoy brothers visited Lubbock this weekend and their guardian stated that they appreciated OC Brown going over film with them and what he envisioned their roles being with the team:
"We actually got to sit in his office and watch some film," Mandish said. "He showed us some film (from Troy), and where he thought the guys would fit, and they seemed happy with that."
Also, Polk stated that his visit went well with the new staff:
"It went pretty well," Polk said. "They said they were excited for me to still be coming and excited for me to be a part of the team."
Also check out FWST's William Wilkerson looks at the coaching upheaval in college football and Wilkerson talked with RRS.com's Aaron Dickens about the recruiting and feels that Texas Tech will keep almost all of the prior committments:
"Overall, things look very good," Dickens said. "I think they will keep most of these guys that were previously committed."
Shrine Game Practice Update: CBS Sports' Chad Rueter wrote that RG Brandon Carter has played well in practice and has demonstrated the ability to play in a three-point stance, which I suppose will improve his draft stock:
Brandon Carter, the tattooed behemoth from Texas Tech, showed scouts he could come out of a three-point stance, something not often done at Tech. He got into his man's jersey and moved him to either side, also trapping effectively on inside runs.
2010 Top 25: Rivals.com has a very early top 25 for 2010 and right now only two Big 12 teams make the list. Want to guess who those two teams are? I'll give you three guesses and the first two are wrong.
Miscellaneous: Dr. Saturday's Matt Hinton has the Red Raiders finishing first in a list . . . which is most surreal moments of the season, yes, the Leach/dungeon and/or closet with Adam James . . . This has already been mentioned in FanPosts and FanShots, but thought I'd mention on the front page that per LAJ's Don Williams, two former Texas Tech assistant coaches have found employment. Special teams coach Eric Russell will be the special teams coach at Tennessee and cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell will coach at Memphis . . . KCBD had Leach's case analyzed by a fancy employment attorney in Dallas and has come to the same conclusion that most of us have, that Texas Tech may not have sovereign immunity because they failed to give Leach proper due process, but it's not a slam-dunk for Leach, I would advise KCBD that they just need to read DTN for this type of analysis, plus I'm sure that as a group, we'd look smashing on camera . . . congrats is in order for former Texas Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill, who will be honored at the 15th annual 100 Black Men of West Texas scholarship fundraiser and gala on January 30th . . .
Game Tomorrow
Iowa St. Cyclones vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Lubbock, TX
Television: KLBK (Lubbock) : FSSW : ESPN 360
DTN Preview: 8:00 a.m. tomorrow :: Open Game Day Thread: 5:30 p.m. tomorrow
Preparing for the Worst: I don't know if anyone will think less of me, but I'm not real confident heading into Wednesday's home game against Iowa St. Big 12 teams are supposed to hold serve at home and considering Texas Tech's start thus far to the conference portion of the schedule, I'm concerned.
Passionate Response: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes about head coach Pat Knight's walking onto the court during the Kansas game on Saturday, but then writes an entire article about how PK didn't address the issue during his press conference. Huh? In any event, PK has resorted to taking moral victories out of 20 point losses:
"We have to take a moral victory out of this," Knight said. "We’re 0-3 but there’s still a lot of spots left. We’ve still got to get our minds back."
Snip.
"I wish we could have played that way in the first half, and I think we would have won the game," he said. "It would have been a lot better, more competitive for us. But we’ve got to take the moral victory in the second half and build upon it because we cannot get too low right now."
Linehan also writes that this Texas Tech team has players that can make jump-shots, but also get to the bucket. I would agree that this team does have players that like to go to the basket by driving, but right now, this team isn't getting any sort of calls and it appears to me that there's an expectation that they deserve certain calls. This group needs to do a better job of forcing opposing players into fouls in the paint and/or correctly picking their spots.
Still Optimistic: DT's Mike Graham writes that the Red Raiders are still optimistic about the season and PK is trying to keep the players upbeat:
"We’ve played three really good teams that went to the tournament last year," Knight said, reminding fans the Red Raiders were ranked No. 16 not too long ago. "You can’t get too high, and now I’ve got to be careful so that we don’t get too low. There are still a lot of spots left to try to get to the postseason. We haven’t been to the postseason in two years.
"Just going to any postseason would be big for us."
As much as I'm worried about the direction of this team, if this team can get to the NIT, that is certainly improvement over last year, but after this team started so well, I wanted more.
Miscellaneous: KC.com's Blair Kerkoff writes about SF Mike Singletary's struggles from the floor and that right now, Texas Tech isn't getting any production from what is supposed to be a scoring leader for this team . . . SB Nation's Chris Dobbertean has this week in bracketology . . . gocyclones.com's Bobby LaGesse writes about how Texas Tech SF Brad Reese and Iowa St. SF Marquis Gilstrap both played for Gulf Coast Community College . . .