Who Needs a Ticket: LAJ's Don Williams writes this morning that the TicketCity Bowl has only sold about 30,000 to 35,000 tickets thus far and Texas Tech has only sold 5,200 tickets out of their office. That's not good, but I'm not surprised. I know that a few of you have mentioned that the cost of tickets were higher in purchasing them through Texas Tech, but you could buy tickets from ticket brokers for a much lower cost. The other bad part is that every university for every bowl game is responsible for selling an allotment of tickets. If those tickets aren't sold then the university has to eat the cost of those tickets. I don't know how many Texas Tech has to tell, but I'd guess that it's close to 10,000. We're halfway there.
Post Practice Press Conference: The official site's blog has notes and photos of yesterday's practice and meal at the Hard Rock Cafe. You can watch the post-practice press conference or you can read the transcript (PDF). We have an injury update on D.J. Johnson (hamstring), Detron Lewis (hamstring) and @#%! James (pulled ovary -- totally made up injury). LAJ's Don Williams also has a notebook summarizing the presser including Tuberville saying that the alleged domestic violence incident with James Willis did not have an impact on Willis leaving Texas Tech.
Batch Diary: RB Baron Batch writes about graduating from Texas Tech and leaving Lubbock. Of course, I'd suggest you read the whole thing, but here's a snippet:
I’m officially a Texas Tech graduate as of last week. It’s a great feeling to have my degree and be finished with school. This past week there have been numerous changes that have occurred for me. I sold just about everything that I own and moved out of my house in Lubbock and am now officially a nomad. I no longer have a place of residence and am a drifter! I guess this will make it a tad more difficult for ‘the man’ to find me. Everything I own now fits in the back seat of my silver 99’ Toyota Camry. As I drove home to Midland from Lubbock I looked up and snapped a picture of my rearview mirror that held an image of the Lubbock skyline consisting of four buildings. I thought about all the things I would miss about Lubbock. It is only fitting that I write a farewell letter.
Williams and Hyatt Show Podcast: Ryan Hyatt had Scout.com's Greg Powers on yesterday and Powers thinks that Willis leaving the program isn't going to be a huge problem for recruiting for Texas Tech and also talks about how much he likes Texas Tech commit DeAndre Washington, who is set to visit Oklahoma St. and then Texas Tech. Washington apparently really liked OSU but they didn't offer and now OSU has changed their mind. We'll see.
Spousta Is An Amazing Writer: DMN's Tom Spousta is writing prose at the DMN and it's amazing. Yesterday I thought that Spousta took liberty with his headline and today, he's interpreting the looks on LB Sam Fehoko's face:
"It's like a déjà vu kind of thing," defensive end Sam Fehoko said with an annoyed look that wasn't directed at the dreary, rainy practice the Red Raiders had just finished at Bishop Lynch.
You can't blame the players for the ugly clouds hanging over Tech. You can't blame them for feeling let down, either.
While those above have bickered and postured, sued and slandered, resigned, jockeyed for other jobs or simply left "to pursue other opportunities," Bird, Colby Whitlock, Fehoko and others on an already maligned defense are left to sort through another mess.
Perhaps Fehoko was squinting, but no, it's "annoyed". I have no further comment.
So much more good-strong after the jump.
Changing His Style: WFAA's George Riba did a story on last night's news about how HC Tuberville has changed his ways and has shown that he wants to throw the ball. As mentioned above, DMN's Spousta told us yesterday that Tuberville was going to run the ball even more next year, although I don't think Tuberville said that. Anyway, Riba's story had these quotes (and they're in the transcript linked above) from Tuberville:
"You can tell them, hey listen! We're going to throw the ball and continue to do the same thing on offense, I think a lot of people didn't believe because I've never done that before," Tuberville says. "Now after going through a season, what we do on offense and defense kind of sells itself."
And:
"We just want to make it better," Tuberville says. "We want to make it better in the running game. We want to be more physical."
I intend on getting into this later in the offseason, but I can almost promise you that if you were to ask Tuberville if he's running the same offense as Texas Tech ran last year, he would say he absolutely is. I say that because I think that Tuberville believes that the offense, a spread offense that runs with 10 personnel (1 running back, 0 tight ends) 90% of the time, is the same type of offense. Anyway, you can watch the whole thing here and I can't wait for the cage match between Spousta and Riba to find out which reporter is reporting things accurately:
Northwestern and TicketCity Bowl Links: Sippin' On Purple's Rodger Sherman asks his fellow Wildcats to pick the best name on the Texas Tech roster (personally, I think it's Cqulin Hubert, but I don't want to influence the results) . . . also from Sippin' On Purple is the Fear-O-Meter for the Texas Tech offense . . . Off Tackle Empire's Hilary Lee with her post from the Foot Bet . . . Chicago Tribune's David Haugh writes about LB Bryce McNaul and his brother, Austin, who is serving in Iraq (I recall another story earlier in the week about this, but it just reminds me to think that we all need to remember those guys and gals serving our country) . . . also from the Chicago Tribune is a story on RB Stephen Simmons who may pick up the slack for injured RB Mike Trumpy . . #
Date | December 29, 2010
Time | 7:00 pm CST
Good Guys | Texas Tech Red Raiders
Bad Guys | New Mexico Lobos
Location | United Spirit Arena | Lubbock, TX
TV | None
Radio | Affiliates
GAME CAST | Fox Sports
Reese Making a Name for Himself: LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes about SF Brad Reese and his decision to commit to Texas Tech after looking at a handful of schools, including Iowa St., LSU and Oklahoma St. Here's Reese:
"At the time I wanted to go somewhere where my talents would be needed," Reese said. "Oklahoma State had James Anderson, a player just like me. Iowa State had Marquis Gilstrap. I wanted to go to a place where I could be used a lot, get early playing time. I found it at Tech."
And head coach Pat Knight talks a bit about Reese and PF D`walyn Roberts:
"Brad’s kind of like D’Walyn Roberts: there’s no complaining or anything," coach Pat Knight said. "He just goes to work."
Big 12 Hoops Power Poll: Big 12 Hoops has their weekly power poll and Texas Tech still sits at #12. Woot!