FC Dallas on SBN: Shoutout to the newest SB Nation blog, Big D Soccer, who is now covering FC Dallas. There are currently two teams that are in their respective championship series, the Rangers vs. the Giants and FC Dallas vs. Real Salt Lake.
Of Bloggers and Bias: Bring On The Cats' TB has a good post on bloggers and bias and the mainstream media.
Official Site Preview and Post Practice Presser: The official site has the official Texas A&M Aggies game preview. I haven't had much time to look at the depth chart like I did last week, but there is one fairly significant change. Brent Dewhurst is now playing WLB and looks like he's replacing WLB Julius Howard as the starter. WR Darrin Moore is also creeping his way up the depth chart. I'm not sure what to think about moving Dewhurst to WLB, but on some level, Tuberville has said that he wants fast guys on the field and although Howard is a former safety himself, he's not making a ton of plays, but he is 7th on the team in tackles with 30, however, Dewhurst has 16 tackles is much more limited time. One other thing that I noticed was that ILB Cqulin Hubert is the backup to ILB Bront Bird and DE Sam Fehoko is the only backup at defensive end to DE Donald Langley. Here's the non-transcript from yesterday's post practice press conference:
Tommy Tuberville: Had a spirited practice. Little more step in their step (?) with an in-state team. DT Chris Perry should be back and WLB Terrance Bullitt should be back. DE Kerry Hyder practiced today. IR Alexander Torres is going to be sore all year. It comes and goes, but he's as close to 100% as he'll get. He played well last week, but he's nervous. He'll play at both positions. The quarterback has a lot of confidence in him. He competes and never complains and spends a lot of his off-time in the training room. QB Ryan Tannehill can run and will probably see both QB Jerrod Johnson and Tannehill. WR Jeff Fuller is a big physical guy that can make plays. Have noticed that every team has a dominant wide receiver. Haven't been back to A&M in a long time, still a lot of people there that are friends, R.C. Slocum and Gene Stallings.
K Matthew Williams: Not on campus much, keep myself humble, the lower I stay to the ground the better. Only has 3 classes and will graduate in December. Felt really good doing something good for the team and they got me in the position to make that field goal. The end-of-practice field goal and 10-second field goal.
WR Detron Lewis: Loving being able to catch the ball in space. Maybe the move was good for the both of them, both excited about it and ready to make plays for the team. Have practiced outside before, the position wasn't foreign to me and was looking for a chance. Never practiced it with Mike. Picked things up from watching film and Torro has been a good receiver as has Lyle Leong. Colorado was a weird game. Were patient and did their job the whole time, and that's how a game goes sometimes. Gave a lot of motivation regarding the Colorado cornerbacks because they're NFL caliber. Had a chance to show everyone that they're good players too. These are three big conference games and have been on a rocky road as a team, losing a game, winning a game, losing a game, and just looking forward to winning these games.
Receiver Switch: FWST's Dwain Price writes that the receiver switch between Torres and Lewis paid off for Texas Tech. Here's offensive coordinator Neal Brown:
"It's really more for us because they're two of our best players, and we just wanted to put them in positions where they can be successful, and I think it worked," Brown said. "Alex has had a back injury and he hasn't had the burst or the speed that he had last year, and he's struggling to get open out wide.
"Detron has been explosive, but he hasn't been as consistent running his routes and he hasn't been as consistent at blocking [as] he needed to be inside. So we flipped them."
Snip.
"Torres blocked very well last week and was consistent in his routes and had some discipline, and that helped him get open on several of those routes," Brown said. "And Detron went outside and was explosive and made some big plays, and made some plays that Alex probably wasn't capable of making.
"So I think [the switch of positions] worked out well for both players. They both played their best game so far this year."
Notes, Notes and More Notes: LAJ's Don Williams has a notebook, but I can't copy and paste because it's a JPG of the article.
QB Controversy: AggieSports.com's Robert Cessna thinks that TAMU head coach Mike Sherman has replaced starters for not performing, and asks why he wouldn't do this also at quarterback. DT's Mike Graham weighs in on the subject as well.
Roberts, Pain Free: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that finally, CF D`Walyn Roberts is back and completely healthy. Pretty interesting story in that Roberts had a bruise that just didn't heal until Roberts went to a special doctor who sculpted orthotic insoles and has pretty much been pain free since then (other than a little bit of back problems from adjusting to the insoles). Here's Roberts and what he went though last year with the injury:
Roberts said he sometimes lied and said his foot didn’t hurt too much, knowing he’d rather play through pain than watch from the bench. It hurt all day before Tech played Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., and throbbed during the game.
Roberts insisted on playing.
"It was hurting so bad sometimes, but I wouldn’t come out (of the game)," Roberts said. "I just made myself play through it."
Roberts is a difference-maker and having a completely healthy Roberts could mean a NCAA Tournament team and another NIT appearance.
Win or Go Home: LAJ's Linehan also has an op-ed piece about PK stating last week that either he gets an extension after this year or he goes home. Linehan essentially says that a big part of PK's rational for making such a statement is to deliver the message to his team, which is that he believes in them to take Texas Tech to the NCAA Tournament.
Red-Black Series Continues: The Red-Black series continues as the Black Team won their second game of this short series, 8-5 and now has a 2-1 lead over the Red Team. Interestingly, P Trey Masek has 2 saves for the Black Team, which is encouraging. Masek is a true freshman and he's supposed to be really good. The official site as a profile on LHP Robbie Kilcrease, who missed all of 2010 with Tommy John surgery.