Houston vs. Texas Tech Preview: It's a busy week this week as it's also probably a busy week for the rest of you. And just in case I forget about this later in the week, I hope everyone travels safe wherever you're headed.
I'll get some sort of preview up for the Houston game, hopefully by Wednesday morning.
Texas Tech | University of Houston vs. Texas Tech Preview
Houston Week Press Conference: LAJ's Don Williams transcribes some of yesterday's press conference for the Houston game. I know a lot of you guys and gals talk about some of the things that head coach Tommy Tuberville says about different things, but I tend to ignore those things and prefer to focus on the comments that Tuberville makes about players that haven't been mentioned all year. This week, Tuberville talks about WR Aaron Fisher:
Q: Aaron Fisher, a redshirt freshman receiver, got a lot of playing time on offense Saturday. How has he looked?
Tuberville: Good. Fish is one of the fastest guys on the team. He’s a very good special teams guy. If we get in a bowl, bowl practice will really help him. We’ll work him and several other receivers, (quarterback Seth) Doege and those guys every day. They’ll go skelly (7-on-7 passing period), and then they’ll go at least 30 plays of team. That’s really going to help him.
I've somewhat forgotten about Fisher, but when he came out of high school, he was that long and lanky receiver with some real speed (6-2/186) along the outside and he's just a redshirt freshman, so he'll have three more years after this.
Tuberville also talks about getting RB Ben McRoy some work, what QB Jacob Karam goes through as the scout team quarterback and what the team will do on Thanksgiving.
Possible Bowl Game Destinations, Players of the Week and Report Card: LAJ's Don Williams discusses the three possible bowl destinations, those being the Texas Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl and TicketCity Bowl. Williams also transcribes Tuberville's three players of the week and the three positives and three negatives from Saturday's game against Weber St. The players of the week were IR Austin Zouzalik on offense, OLB Dartwan Bush on defense, K Donnie Carona on special teams, OLB Dion Chidozie on scout team defense and QB Jacob Karam on scout team offense. The LAJ also has their report card for the Weber St. game.
And I think that Tuberville's three negatives are pretty similar to some of the negatives voiced in yesterday's five questions. I've always taken a bit of solace when my head coach sees the same problems that the fans see, which means that we're seeing the same flaws with the team and we and he are on the right track in terms of identification of those flaws.
So much more good-strong after the jump.
Avenge the 2009 Loss: DT's Mike Graham and LAJ's Adam Zuvanich both write about how the team is looking to avenge the 2009 loss to the Houston Cougars. Quotes are from Graham's article. Here's Tuberville:
"A lot of these guys know some players on the other team, and last year they went down and played and felt like they had a chance and it just didn’t work out," Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. "When you lose a close game to an in-state team, it brings back old memories. Not that there is a revenge factor here at all; it’s just a game last year that had they had a chance and didn’t get it done.
"This is one game they want to play better in. Whether we can win it or not, they want to go out and perform better than they did last year."
And QB Taylor Potts talks a bit about what winning this game would mean and possibly playing in a bowl game:
"I am excited," Potts said. "I think a lot of us are ready to play them. We walked away from that game last year feeling like we should have won that game. A couple of plays here and there and the game would have turned out different, but it didn’t. So, we have this year and, we are definitely trying to win this year."
Instead, Tech’s senior quarterback looks at the prospect of potentially pulling out an eight-win season amid the turmoil of a coaching change and some bad luck this season.
"We want to win," Potts said. "I think if we win this game, it’ll put us in a good bowl game, and hopefully we’ll win our bowl game. That’s an eight-win season; that’s pretty good. For whatever one might say about all the new coaches coming in, all the transition type stuff that goes along with that, finishing out with three wins in a row will be a good success to our season."
Georgia Southern Eagles (2-2, 0-0) vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders (3-1, 0-0)Tuesday, November 23,2010 | 7:30 p.m.
United Spirit Arena | Lubbock, TX
TV: None | Radio: Affiliates
Singletary Dishes: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes about SF Mike Singletary's 8 assists on Sunday afternoon and how he and PG John Roberson are not leading this team in scoring, but that the team likes a more balanced scoring team:
"I’m not going to score 20 points a night; I don’t think so," Singletary said following Sunday’s 79-71 win against Liberty. "A lot of defenses key on me and John (Roberson) just because we’ve been here for ages. My goal is to play the game right, and if I have a shot, take it, but if not, find the open guy."
And head coach Pat Knight continues to say that he'll bench a player if said player isn't giving effort on the defensive end of the floor:
"Nothing’s worse than when a player feels sorry for himself," Knight said. "He sits there and is not cheering on his teammates.
"There’s so many other things. I’ll leave a player in because the offense really doesn’t bother me as long as a guy’s rebounding, helping his teammates, talking. I thought Mike did that."
Quick Start: DT's Tommy Magelssen writes that the team understands that they must start better:
"We have to (start better) because if you’re playing Texas or Kansas, instead of being down by one or four, you’re going to be down by 15 or 20," Knight said. "And we’ve just got to have a better first half, and we just haven’t had it yet.
"We’ve had really good second halves in the last four games, but we’ve got to put together a good first half. And we really need to put together two good halves is what we want."
Red Raider Profile: The official site continues their look at each player and up next is RHP Jamen Parten. Here's head coach Dan Spencer:
"We think that Jamen Parten is going to throw a lot of innings for us this year," head coach Dan Spencer said. "We are not sure if it will be as a starter or as a reliever, but he has a lot of skill. He has a very good breaking ball and a very good change. He hasn't had much weight training in his life prior to here and has already put on 14 pounds since being here, which has helped his stuff."