Blown Out By a Backup | The End of Texas Tech's Football Season

I wish I had more time, but I don't.  This weekend was actually really good for me personally.  It was my kid's first Thanksgiving, which was fun and then we went to my father-in-law's cabin/farm, which is in Northeast Texas, near Bagota, and it' so far away from everything, that I don't even get cell service.  He does appreciate some comforts of home and he does have satellite cable and he also has FoxSports, which means that I got to watch the game with my brother-in-law, who is also a Texas Tech graduate.

The first half went according to plan, in fact it almost seemed like a script for the season.  Offense is pretty good (really good in parts), defense is awful, Texas Tech and head coach Tommy Tuberville fail to press on 4th down and go for it when the defense had given up a score on every possession, and Texas Tech was losing.  I hated to see RGIII get injured during the game, but I didn't understand how or why he could be diagnosed with a concussion and then be given the green light to run a zone-read where he could have been tackled (had he been facing some other defense other than the Texas Tech defense), but that's a minor footnote. 

The second half was everything that you could dream of from a ass-kicking perspective, but the funny thing was that it was done by Baylor's backup quarterback.  Hilarious.  As I sat there sitting in that cabin, that's pretty much all I could think about.  Tuberville is getting his ass handed to him by RGIII's backup. 

Awesome.

Yes, I know it's not Tuberville literally getting his ass handed to him, its figurative, so you'll have to excuse me.

I don't know what I'm going to do to get you excited about the future and about next year.  I'm not supposed to write that.  I'm supposed to sell you on a brighter day, but I can't do that this morning and I won't do it during the offseason.  The only reason that I hope you come back to DTN is to settle in with reality and the prospect and thought that at the very least, we can commiserate together. 

I think it was after the Oklahoma St. loss (they're all running together, so forgive me) that I had given up hope and I was ready to let Tuberville go and hope that Texas Tech would move in another direction.  Before that, I had always thought, that short of a catastrophic season, Tuberville would be back for year three, which is what is apparently going to happen as Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said that Tuberville's job is safe for 2012 (per LAJ's Don Williams):

"It’s definitely a low point for us," Hocutt said. "But my confidence remains strong with Tommy and I couldn’t be more proud of the young men on this team and the way they fought tonight."

Snip.

"We know how important football is to our community," Hocutt said. "We’re all disappointed: coaches, players, me, fans. But these young men aren’t going to give up. And we’ve got to stay strong and behind them and continue to give them the support as we head into next year.

"We have great expectations at Texas Tech, and that is to compete for conference championships. We’re not there today. And we’re going to keep working and focusing every day on getting back to that level. And we’ll get there."

The article goes on about how it's about recruiting and how there are some redshirts that didn't play that will make a difference this next year.  Again, normally, I'd sell you on that, as this is the next major football event before spring practices.  I'll cover it, and because I'm obsessed, I'll cover recruiting like no one else does it for free (I can't touch what the subscriptions sites do).  As the article continues, both defensive coordinator, Chad Glasgow, and offensive coordinator, Neal Brown, both emphasized recruiting yesterday. Here's Glasgow:

"We’re going to sell the need for some players to be able to play," Glasgow said. "We’re going to sell Texas Tech University and the people here. And we’re going to sell everybody in the community because that’s what it is. Lubbock, Texas, is Texas Tech University. … We’ve got to sell people and sell an opportunity to go play."

And even Williams recognizes the subtle (yet persistent) dig:

Asked how he hopes to improve the defense, Tuberville said "we’ve got to do a lot of recruiting," which was hardly a vote of confidence for the players already in the system.

So here we go.  An offseason without a bowl game is something that I don't remember.  The emphasis on recruiting is getting off to a poor start as WR Marcus Johnson has de-committed from Texas Tech and committed to Texas A&M.  As I try to paint a somewhat hopeful picture, it may be that receiver, with Reginald Davis and Dominique Wheeler are both superb players and perhaps Johnson's scholarship can be used for an impact defensive player.  But I know that you all see through that.

I may be completely wrong, but there are no JUCO commits in the current class, but I'm expecting that this number will rise to six or seven by the time it's all said and done, possibly even more.  Tuberville had previously said that he'd only get a handful, like last year, he had three (Mackey, Wesley and Kennard), but I think after this second half of season swoon, he's had to change his tune and perhaps we should all be happy that he's going after guys that will hopefully make an immediate impact.  Tuberville has to show that he's making an improvement and I'm guessing that he knows that no number of redshirt freshmen will make a difference next year.  Tuberville will sink or swim with JUCO players that he had better hope will vault the defense into a defense that has the ability to occasionally stop an opponent.

So here we go through an offseason with so many question marks, the posts will literally write themselves.  I'll do my best to delve into the issues and problems with the program.

We've got time.  Lots and lots of time.

One more thing.  All we have are each other here on DTN.  I don't know what I'm asking other than for us not to eat our own.  Be nice as this isn't pleasant for anyone.  I'm sure that going to have to plow through the game day threads and either ban or warn people.  I think that you all respect this request for the most part, to be nice.  We are all most likely still on edge and being respectful of each other is the least you could do for me.

I'd also say that I'm not big into campaigns.  I don't sign Facebook petitions and I don't usually participate in Twitter hashtags.  I've already been asked, but will not participate in those things.  Sorry, it's just not my thing.  I don't think that my signing an online petition or constant use of a Twitter hashtag will make anything better. 

I promise to have a bit more tomorrow.  This is all you get today.