OMG! Expansion and Conference Realignment: I was absent for most of the day and to say that I had to spend some time rolling through my RSS reader would be an understatement. I thought about linking to any and every latest update, but then I decided that I'd link to the SB Nation story stream on realignment and just tell you to follow the updates there (a storystream is one link that gets continuously updated). This will be a great place for you guys and gals to check in on what's going on throughout the day as opposed to searching Google news. Just in case anyone is living in a cave, I should probably mention that Orangeblood.com's Chip Brown came out with a story yesterday that stated that the Pac-10 was about to invite six Big 12 schools to the Pac-10 and form two eight-team divisions with the six Big 12 schools, Arizona and Arizona St. Brown was also on the radio yesterday, Galloway & Co. (103.3 ESPN) here in Dallas. If you want a pretty good summary of what happened after Chip Brown's story came out, then check out CT's Dave Matter. Excellent work.
LAJ's Don Williams and George Watson have the official response from AD Gerald Myers and Chancellor Kent Hance. Myers is towing the Big 12 company line:
"My position right now is that we're committed to the Big 12," he said. "We want the Big 12 to stay whole. The Big 12's been a great conference for all of the membership. Our interest is in continuing to be a Big 12 member and hoping that the conference stays intact, completely intact, with all 12 members."
And Chancellor Hance points out some concerns for joining the Pac-10, which I'm not going to quote because it's a ridiculous notion to suggest that this isn't a good idea for Texas Tech. If the opportunity is there, you run, don't walk, to take the offer.
DMN's Chuck Carlton opines as to why Texas Tech got the nod rather than Kansas or Baylor, with the thought that it comes down to behind the scenes political wrangling.
What Carlton doesn't do is a Google News search (which is what I did) where some of the answers are revealed, per Columbus Dispatch's Bill Rabinowitz, who has some really interesting stuff. For some background, the Ohio St. president apparently had a conversation with the Texas president and the Ohio St. president sent this email to the Big Ten commissioner (my emphasis):
"I did speak with Bill Powers at Texas, who would welcome a call to say they have a 'Tech' problem," Gee wrote in an e-mail that was among several obtained by The Dispatch through a public-records request for documents and correspondence related to Big Ten expansion proposals.
And a quote from Don Hale, Texas' vice president for public affairs:
Don Hale, Texas' vice president for public affairs, said he did not think the three Texas schools had a legal commitment to be in the same conference. But he said the Texas Legislature may apply pressure for that to happen.
"I think it's a political issue," he said today. "Because they're state institutions, I think the concern is that one can't move without the others."
I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise, the fact that Texas Tech has enough legislative clout to be a thorn in the side of any of the public universities in Texas move to another conference.
Key Coordinator: Pre-Snap Read's Ryan Myerberg runs down the key offensive coordinator hires and Texas Tech offensive coordinator makes the list:
I feel for Brown; there cannot be larger shoes to fill on the F.B.S. level than those left behind by Leach. Outside of his first two seasons in Lubbock when he was recruiting the players to fit his scheme, the Red Raiders never finished lower than sixth in total offense from 2003-9, including the top ranked offense in the nation during that 2003 season.
I commented on PSR with the Brown profile I did, we'll see if they approve my comment.
Steele Stuff: Phil Steele had the career returning offensive line starts for 2010 and Texas Tech was 111th in the nation. The Big 12 would stack up as follows:
1. Colorado : 109
2. Iowa St. : 89
3. Kansas : 85
4. Missouri : 80
5. Nebraska : 75
6. Kansas St. : 63
7. Texas : 47
8. Texas A&M : 43
9. Oklahoma : 42
10. Baylor : 37
11. Texas Tech : 29
12. Oklahoma St. : 12
I haven't had the time to do this and I was curious if there was a difference in the rankings between starts and games played. Nevertheless, that's a really low number. Steele also breaks down the 2010 starters by class using a formula that gives more points to older starters:
1. Iowa St.
2. Kansas St.
3. Nebraska
4. Kansas
5. Colorado
6. Missouri
7. Texas
8. Oklahoma St.
9. Texas Tech
10. Baylor
11. Oklahoma
12. Texas A&M
Is anyone interested in checking Steele's math?
Harrell Impresses: There's a good chance that this has been linked elsewhere, but in case it hasn't, former Red Raider QB Graham Harrell is apparently impressing in Green Bay:
"We really felt Graham came in and had a heck of a workout," said McCarthy. "He had the opportunity in Cleveland and had some very good college tape, and had some very good grades from our scouting department."
Harrell finished his career with the Red Raiders in 2008. He spent the 2009 season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League and he played well enough to garner a workout from the green and gold.
"I was impressed with his velocity," McCarthy said. "That's something that was probably a little in question coming out of college in my opinion. But I thought he had a very good workout, and we felt it was a chance to give him an opportunity."
Miscellaneous Links: The Williams and Hyatt Show's Ryan Hyatt has on RaiderPower's Travis Cram the last half hour . . . SB Nation's UTEP blog, Miner Rush, has an excellent preview of the Houston Cougars and also does a Q&A with some Cougar bloggers . . . NewsOK's Berry Tramel ranks the Big 12 schedules and Texas Tech comes in at #9, which isn't unexpected with Wright St. on the schedule . . . Heisman Pundit with a pretty interesting look at recruiting rankings and why is the state of Florida getting so much love from the recruiting websites . . . Blatant Homerism talks with Phil Steele about OU and also apparently talks a little Texas Tech and Tuberville (I haven't had the chance to listen, but I did a podcast with BH)
Recruiting Tables: Since Rivals and ESPN have updated some of their rankings, you can find the updated table after the jump. Let me know if I've got something wrong or my math is incorrect. HTML tables aren't very fun.
| Position | Commitment | Ht/Wt | High School/State |
Rivals 
|
Rivals Rating |
Scout
|
ESPN
|
ESPN Grade |
| QB | Michael Brewer | 6-0/175 | Lake Travis (Austin, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 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) | N/A | N/A | 4 | 4 | 79 |
| WR | Javares McRoy | 5-9/165 | Lakeland (Lakeland, FL) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | 4 | 80 |
| WR | Derek Edwards | 6-1/163 | Brenham (Brenham, TX) | N/A | N/A | 3 | 3 | 79 |
| TE | Jace Amaro | 6-5/237 | MacArthur (San Antonio, TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | N/A | 45 |
| OL | Tony Morales | 6-4/300 | Sam Houston (Arlington TX) | 4 | 5.8 | 3 | N/A | 45 |
| DL | James Castleman | 6-4/255 | Amarillo (Amarillo, TX) | N/A | N/A | 3 | N/A | 45 |
| LB | Devon Hocutt | 6-0/260 | Ellison (Killeen, TX) | N/A | N/A | 3 | 2 | 74 |
| LB | Terrell Hartsfield | 6-4/215 | Hargrave MA (Chatham, VA) | N/A | N/A | 3 | N/A | 45 |
| LB | Blake Dees | 6-0/234 | Spanish Fort (Spanish Fort, AL) | N/A | N/A | 2 | 2 | 73 |
| Averages | 1.81 | 2.63 | 3.09 | 2.00 | 65.72 |