Flooding in Ames: Think a good thought for those folks at Iowa St. in Ames, Iowa, as they are battling flood waters in their homes, but to bring it to athletics, their basketball court is 8 feet underwater now.
College Football Links: SB Nation's Spencer Hall with 100 thoughts on the college football season, with this gem about Tubs:
39. Tommy Tuberville will award Texas Tech's starting QB job to the same middle-aged man he's started at quarterback wherever he's been. In fact, he's just going to call him Ben Leard and see if anyone notices.
. . . go ahead and bookmark this the folks that brought you pro-football reference have a college version, College Football at Sports-Reference . . . ESPN's Mark Schlabach has a number of articles on the 3-4 defense (here, here and here) . . . SI.com's Stewart Mandel with an excellent user's guide to the new football bowl partnerships (this is really good and also should be bookmarked) . . . TAMU's Bill Byrne with some thoughts on conference realignment talks:
Byrne responded in part: "Take a look how Arkansas and South Carolina did before they entered the SEC and how they have done since. Unless you're the lead dog, the scenery is always the same."
Other e-mails reflected Byrne's desire to remain in the Big 12.
"We played it straight down the middle with pluses and minuses for all three options," Byrne wrote. "I believe the correct conclusion was reached."
The e-mails included a note from Byrne to his senior staff referring to what he took as "tu's" leaks to the website Orangebloods.com as an "ongoing campaign" during the headiest times of the expansion frenzy.
A couple of things, which is that other schools are getting open records requests, that Byrne believes the Aggies made the right choice staying in the Big 12 (with I guess what is a comparison with South Carolina and Arkansas) and that Byrne also thinks that our favorite puppet, Chip Brown, was a mouthpiece for Texas.
Open Practice Update: Because I just can't let things go sometimes (and this is why I'm pretty sure that I'm not well-liked by some of the local media) I'm ready for LAJ's Courtney Linehan to rail on both the Texas Longhorns and the Houston Cougars for only having two open practices for fall practices. And although I haven't linked anything here, this information isn't hard to find and I think that obviously the fans of these programs deserve to see practices since they pay for season tickets and the media is the watchdog for the program.
Practice Report: The official site has yesterday's notebook, which includes WR Detron Lewis being named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, although WR Alexander Torres should have also been included. The official site also has video, and I've typed out some notes while listening to head coach Tommy Tuberville, DL Myles Wade and DL Donald Langley (not a transcript):
Tommy Tuberville: Not happy with practice, go back to basics and the team isn't finishing. Will have two practices today and must earn the right to play in the games. Need to find players that want to play in the Big 12 and the intensity must continue for four quarters. Players must give a little bit more. Can be corrected.
Myles Wade: A lot of technique, little things needs to be corrected. Talks about Tuberville's frustration and thinks that it's about saying strong the entire practice while the team is tired. Ready for the two-a-days. Not as hot as Arizona. Will call his Dad for motivation (remember his mother passed away). Believes he is ready, but thinks that technique and timing wise he'll be ready for SMU.
Donald Langley: First day of full pads went well. Knows that the team needs to get better every day. Summer program was great and liked running first and then lifting. Feels much better from spring to fall practices, really pushed in the summer workout program and built a foundation during the offseason. Must be prepared for two-a-days and pound the playbook day after day.
Yes, Tubs wasn't happy with yesterday's effort, but they'll have two practices today to correct any mistakes.
So much more good, good after the jump, including more practice notes, Shawn Corker talks, links to video and Neal Brown's daily Twitter update.
Notes, Notes and More Notes: LAJ's Don Williams writes about Tuberville not being happy with yesterday's practice:
"If you’re going to win championships," Tuberville said, "you’ve got to be ready to go for the duration, and so that’s what we’re trying to get from these guys. We can go out and probably win some games with the effort we’re giving right now, but that’s not what we want to do. We want to win it all. We want to win every game."
. . . Williams also writes about how Tuberville wants Detron Lewis to be an every down player:
"The one thing we want him to do is be a guy that doesn’t have to come out of the game," Tuberville said. "He can go an entire drive and make plays. We’re not going to ask him to do that very often, but there’s going to be a lot of things we ask him to do that he’s going to have to be in the game and be mentally sharp."
Spotlight on Corker: LAJ's Don Williams focuses on freshman WR Shawn Corker, who has three defensive roomates:
When Corker beat fellow freshman Urell Johnson on a bomb last weekend, they took the play to the house — literally.
"We were making fun of him the whole night," said Corker, whose other roomies are linebacker Cqulin Hubert and cornerback Tre Porter. "It’s just friendly competition. We’re all fighting for our position. We’re all fighting to get on the field.
"On the field, we’re enemies. Off the field, we’re best friends."
Tuberville talked about his freshman receiver:
"He’s got good hands. He can make plays, but he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing yet," Tuberville said. "When the bear gets on your back, and we put two or three new plays in for that day, then he takes too many steps, doesn’t run a route deep enough, doesn’t block the right guy. That’s typical freshman, but he’ll get better.
"He’s got all kinds of talent. We’re excited that he’s here, but right now he’s going through growing pains, learning the speed of the game."
Video and Radio: KAMC's David Collier with some video of yesterday's practice (which includes video of Detron Lewis running the Wildcat) and a short clip from Spike Dykes . . . Fox34 with a bit on yesterday's practice . . . Tubs was on the radio with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt yesterday . . .
OC Brown Daily Twitter Update: From about 5:00 a.m. this morning, offensive coordinator Neal Brown had this to say about yesterday's practice:
Gave in to the heat yesterday. Not our best day. Detron, Keown, Edwards, Okafor, and Stephens had good days. We've got 2 today.
Neal Brown
CoachNealBrown
Miscellaneous: The official site has information on the Kickoff Luncheon, which is set for August 19th . . . WFAA's George Riba with a short story on Jamar Wall, Brandon Williams and Brandon Sharpe . . . ESPN's David Ubben with a little bit on an Insider article about a college football player poll . . .