Happy New Year: It's a little premature, but I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve tonight. Stay safe and don't drink and drive.
Post Practice Press Conference: The official site, with their official blog, has a new post and new video of yesterday's post practice press conference. A couple of things here, which is that someone asked Tuberville if he intends on running the ball next year, which is somewhat interesting since I pointed out the headline and implication from DMN's Tom Spousta earlier this week. Anyway, Tuberville said that he still wants to pass the ball, which is what Texas Tech actually does, although it never gets old to joke that this doesn't happen.
Also, if you can't go a day without a snarky comment about the team or the players, then I don't recommend watching the second half of the video, where there are a handful of players, DB Cory Lee, QB Jacob Karam, S Desmond Martin, DT Cody Rogers, WR Nick Cheesman and DB Jared Flannel, who visit the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas. The thing that jumps out at me is how engaging Karam is with the folks in the hospital. If Karam never takes a snap for Texas Tech, and I hope that he has many snaps under center for Texas Tech, I think I can guarantee that Karam is going to positively impact other people's lives when he's done playing football.
Mitchem's Career Challenge: LAJ's Don Williams writes about S Franklin Mitchem and the handful of injuries throughout his career. Mitchem received his degree in general business last spring (Congrats!) he's sad-happy about looking at the last game of his career:
"I feel pretty excited about my last game," Mitchem said. "Also kind of sad, too, because the season’s coming to an end and my college career’s coming to an end, but the whole experience has been fun."
Northwestern and TicketCity Bowl Links: Sippin' On Purple's Rodger Sherman with a double-official preview of Northwestern and Texas Tech, and with a score prediction . . . Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein with a profile of NU's Venric Mark, who's mom graduated from Texas Tech . . . SI.com's Stewart Mandel previews the game and predicts a winner . . . DMN's Tom Spousta writes that a Northwestern win would be the first since 1949 . . .
Leach Stuff: Again, it would make me incredibly happy to keep the comments to Leach in this FanPost unless there's some sort of breaking news, but Leach did meet with Maryland yesterday, but apparently he's not the only candidate.
2011 Recruiting Table: As Tech92 pointed out yesterday, Texas Tech has apparently moved up in the Rivals.com recruiting rankings, which as we all know doesn't mean much until sometime in February. Still, I would think it's encouraging to see a highly rated class possibly coming to Texas Tech. It's interesting to see so many people praise Tuberville for his recruiting efforts, but keep in mind that typically, it's the position coaches and coordinators that make the initial contact with these players. The coaching staff has taken a bit of a beating for their coaching efforts on the field, but they do appear to be getting after it on the recruiting trail. Personally, I'm not willing to say that these guys can't get it done on the field, especially after just one season (And I still don't get how people are more upset at the offense not being up to snuff when the defense fell 67 spots in total defense, but fell 13 spots in total offense.) as I think I'd like at least one more year to see what these guys can do, especially defensively.
Anyway, my new and updated recruiting table has been officially updated is after the jump. I've also updated the recruiting sidebar and the 2011 football recruiting page has also been updated. I tried to go over everything carefully: LB Sam Eguavoen was given a rating by all of the services (I think he was not rated previously); LB Terrell Hartsfield was given a 4th star by Rivals and a higher Rivals Rating; WR Marcus Kennard was given a star rating by Scout; and Jace Amaro was given a tenth of a point higher Rivals Rating. You can compare and contrast the changes with the table at the end of the Kennard profile.
| Position | Commitment | Ht/Wt | High School/State |
Rivals 
|
Rivals Rating |
Scout
|
ESPN
|
ESPN Grade |
| QB | Michael Brewer | 6-0/175 | Lake Travis (Austin, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 3 | 3 | 78 |
| RB | Kenny Williams | 5-10/210 | Hendrickson (Pflugerville, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 4 | 4 | 80 |
| RB | Bradley Marquez | 5-11/180 | Odessa (Odessa, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 4 | 4 | 79 |
| WR | Derek Edwards | 6-1/163 | Brenham (Brenham, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | 3 | 79 |
| WR | Marcus Kennard | 6-4/205 | Butler County C.C. (El Dorado, KS) | 4 | 5.8 | 2 | N/A | N/A |
| TE | Jace Amaro | 6-5/237 | MacArthur (San Antonio, TX) | 4 | 5.9 | 4 | 3 | 78 |
| OL | Tony Morales | 6-4/300 | Sam Houston (Arlington, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | 3 | 78 |
| OL | Alfredo Morales | 6-3/287 | Sam Houston (Arlington, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 3 | 3 | 76 |
| OL | Le'Raven Clark | 6-6/245 | Rockdale (Rockdale, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 4 | 3 | 79 |
| DL | James Castleman | 6-4/255 | Amarillo (Amarillo, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 4 | 3 | 77 |
| DL | Jon Lewis | 6-2/260 | Klein Oak (Spring, TX) | 3 | 5.6 | 3 | 3 | 78 |
| DE | Kindred Evans | 6-6/215 | South Grand Prairie (Grand Prairie, TX) | 3 | 5.6 | 3 | 3 | 75 |
| LB | Terrell Hartsfield | 6-4/215 | Hargrave MA (Chatham, VA) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | 2 | 74 |
| LB | Blake Dees | 6-0/234 | Spanish Fort (Spanish Fort, AL) | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 2 | 73 |
| LB | Sam Eguavoen | 6-2/220 | Lakeview Centennial (Garland, TX) | 3 | 5.6 | 2 | 3 | 75 |
| DB | Freddie Warner | 5-9/170 | L.G. Pinkston (Dallas, TX) | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 3 | 76 |
| CB | Jeremy Reynolds | 5-9/166 | Oak Ridge Military Academy (Oak Ridge, NC) | 3 | 5.5 | 2 | 3 | 77 |
| ATH | Ronnie Daniels | 6-1/195 | La Cueva (Albuquerque, NM) | 3 | 5.6 | 3 | 3 | 76 |
| ATH | LaDarrin Robertson | 6-3/215 | Longview (Longview, TX) | 3 | 5.5 | 3 | 3 | 77 |
| ATH | DeAndre Washington | 5-9/183 | Marshall (Missouri City, TX) | 3 | 5.7 | 3 | 3 | 78 |
| Averages | 3.30 | 5.68 | 3.10 | 2.85 | 73.15 |