Red Raider Gridiron | The Silent Scare Is Dumb. Really Dumb.

2,000,000 Visitors

How about that? Sometime last night, Double-T Nation passed 2 million visitors. It all started in November of 2006 and I was so totally excited to have 100 visitors in one single day. Today, DTN has grown to average around 5,500 visitors a day and I can only thank you, the reader, for choosing to read and participate in DTN. And the cool thing about this is that DTN is essentially doubling in size each and every year. About this time last year, DTN was averaging 2,500 visitors a day.

DTN is close to taking over the world.

Housekeeping: I'm going to sound like an overlord, but is it crazy for me to ask that we could all discuss a topic in one FanPost?  I know we all want to give our opinion on certain topics and of course I encourage the discourse, but I've found that when the discourse is in one spot, there's a lot of back-and-forth that can happen because you're able to reply to each and every comment.  Also, FanPosts are not where you just hop on, tell everyone that you hope that Texas Tech beats Texas and throw out some links. That might be a better as a FanShot. 

Silent Scare: I've already wasted enough time just reading about the Silent Scare and the SBN writers aren't supposed to cuss on the front page and I'm not going to violate that rule, but let's just say that this is dumb.  Really dumb.   PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, DO NOT POST DREW GRAHAM'S EMAIL.  I'm sure it can be found easily, but when an email is readily available, people will send some very hateful things.  Trust me, I know.  This kid doesn't deserve that.  Voice your displeasure other ways (i.e. be as loud  as possible the entire game). 

But back to the Silent Scare, even head coach Tommy Tuberville was confused when he appeared on Galloway & Co. yesterday afternoon. This is waste of everyone's time.  Seriously.  I don't know what to tell you, other than I'd encourage you to follow offensive coordinator Neal Brown's advice:

And regarding the Tweet by former Red Raider golfer Chris Ward, what did we all learn about Twitter during the conference realignment discussions?  Don't believe everything that someone Tweets.  I have no idea if Ward is being honest, but he's not going to be asked to prove his statement and nor should he care if he has to prove it.  Neither should we.  Ward could be telling the truth and he could be lying his ass off, I don't know.  Sounds like he got what he wanted, which is probably a little bit of attention.

[Note by Seth C, 09/17/10 8:03 AM CDT ] UPDATE:  Ryan Hyatt of the Williams and Hyatt Show interviewed the SGA President and can be found here.  Haven't had the chance to listen to it, but I'm still thinking that this was a dumb idea.

Focus on Willis:  LAJ's Don Williams has a tremendous look at Texas Tech defensive coordinator James Willis.  I was listening to an interview with Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett (I know, this may not be appropriate at this time), but he said something that I think ILB Bront Bird alludes to this in the following quote, but Garrett's comment was that successful people are able to communicate very complicated schemes or thoughts in a manner that's easily digestible.  Here's Bird:

"The guy is just smart," Bird said. "Watching him break down game film and setting up game plans, it’s really impressive."

So much more after the jump.

Here's head coach Tommy Tuberville on Willis:

"Players respect him," Tuberville said, "and that’s the big thing when you go out on the practice field: They’ll listen when he talks. And he can coach every position, not just one. That’s the essential of the coordinator: Don’t know just one position or don’t just know a little scheme. Know the adjustments and everything about what you’re going to teach at every position."

And I thought this was a nice quote from Tuberville:

"We were fortunate to get James to leave Alabama to come here," Tuberville said "I think that was a huge feather in Tech’s cap — not mine — for him to come here, knowing that they were going to be ranked again and have a chance to win a national championship.

"I think he’ll have a chance to be a head coach someday, but he wanted an opportunity to run his own ship in terms of defense. I think that has worked out great for him."

Go read the whole thing.

Zouzalik Ready:  FWST's Dwain Price talks to offensive coordinator Neal Brown and WR Austin Zouzalik about his appendectomy and this week's game.  Here's Brown on Zouzalik:

"When we turned on last year's film, he made plays, and he made plays in big games," Brown said. "He's not the biggest guy, he's not the fastest guy, but he knows how to run routes, he knows how to get open and he's made plays almost all the time when he's had opportunities.

"He played very well in the Texas game last year. He played about 90 percent of the snaps in that Texas game at the wide receiver position when Detron [Lewis] was hurt, and he made a lot of plays."

Hall of Fame Class:  Just going to link to it, but go read LAJ's Don Williams article about the class of Red Raiders to be inducted in the Texas Tech Hall of Fame. 

Texas Longhorn Links:  DT's Jose Rodriguez looks at the Longhorns and QB Garrett Gilbert talks about the Texas Tech defense:

"I do know that they do mix in a lot of four down (linemen), a lot of three down (linemen)," Gilbert said. "They’re going to be very aggressive. They’re going to fly to the ball, and we’re going to have to be very sharp offensively and really execute our game plan well."

 . . . ran across this ESPN Stats & Info Blog about how QB Gilbert is completing passes less than 15 yards at a 76.7% rate, while passes greater than 15 yards he's only completing 20.0% of his passes.  Good stuff . . . the Statesman's Alan Trubow writes about 39-33 and talks with UT DB Blake Gideon . . .

Predictions, Big 12 and National Links:  Rock M Nation's Bill C. with his weekly BTBS predictor and the computers think that UT wins by 7 . . . Dr. Saturday's Matt Hinton is thinking upset . . . the DMN employs student writers to write about their football team.  Texas Tech's representative is Mike Graham and Texas' representative is Laken Litman.  Naturally, Graham thinks that TTU will win and Litman thinks that UT will win . . . KC Star's Blair Kerkhoff with a Big 12 insider . . FSSW's Steve Hunt has his Big 12 predictions . . . the DT previews the Big 12 North and the the Big 12 South . . .