It's been so long since we had Five Questions and now it's the triumphant return of DTN's somewhat favorite pastime. The questions are all after the jump so that you can copy and paste for answering and commenting.
1. WOULD YOU BE HAPPY WITH A RETURN TO THE HOLIDAY BOWL? CFN.com is doing way-too-early bowl predictions and one of their predictions is that Texas Tech will return to the Holiday Bowl to face Stanford. Would you be happy with a trip to the Holiday Bowl and would you consider this an improvement (this would mean that Texas Tech was slotted as the 5th best Big 12-2 team)?
2. ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT CORNERBACK? I mentioned this last week, but thought that I should mention this again, which was my thought that cornerback is the position of greatest concern. I'm actually pretty good with the starters, Tre' Porter and Derrick Mays. I also think that Jarvis Phillips and Eugene Neboh are also okay, but I don't think that either one at this point would be starters for most Big 12-2 teams. After that, you have true freshman Jeremy Reynolds, who showed up on campus early, just like Blake Dees, and is now running second team, while redshirt freshman Urell Johnson is in the mix as is JUCO transfer Junior Osunde. Are you okay with this group and are you counting on the fact that since Chad Glasgow coached the secondary while at TCU, the impact on the secondary could be immediate?
3. WHAT NEW DEFENSIVE TACKLE WILL HAVE THE BIGGEST IMPACT IN 2011? You could say that there is an embarrassment of riches at defensive tackle, especially with the late commitment of Delvon Simmons. Honestly, I thought that Leon Mackey was going to be the guy with the biggest impact in 2011, but with the addition of Simmons, I'm starting to wonder. I still think that Mackey might be an ideal option at defensive end, but he can certainly play tackle, while Wesley might be one of the few true noseguards on the team (Donald Langley and Pearlie Graves are slotted at noseguard in the spring two deep PDF). With Simmons you have a guy that is capable of starting immediately, perhaps at either position, with his size and Phillips is most likely a redshirt candidate. So who do you think has the potential to be the biggest impact at defensive tackle?
| Position | Commitment | Ht/Wt | School/State | Rivals  |
Rivals Rating | Scout |
ESPN |
ESPN Grade |
| DL | Dennell Wesley | 6-3/315 | Butler County C.C. (El Dorado, KS) |
3 | 5.5 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| DL | Leon Mackey | 6-5/260 | Hinds C.C. (Raymond, MS) |
4 | 5.8 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| DL | Donte Phillips | 6-3/260 | Homestead (Mequon, WI) |
2 | 5.4 | 3 | 2 | 74 |
| DL | Delvon Simmons | 6-5/295 | McKeesport (McKeesport, PA) |
4 | 5.9 | 5 | 4 | 79 |
4. DO YOU THINK THAT TEXAS TECH BASKETBALL IS A TOUGH REBUILDING JOB? Yahoo! Sports Jason King profiled the toughest rebuilding jobs in the country and Texas Tech was included in the list, along with Arkansas, Georgia Tech, N.C. State, Miami and Oklahoma. Here's King on Texas Tech:
The positives: Although it may be an unappealing job to some, Billy Gillispie has long felt that Texas Tech was a sleeping giant in college basketball. That’s why he jumped at the chance to take the job when Pat Knight was fired in March. What sold Gillispie? The beautiful, state-of-the-art United Spirit Arena, a rowdy fanbase that’s proven it will support a successful team and one of the top states in the nation for producing recruits. Gillispie, who grew up in the small Texas town of Graford, is the perfect fit for Lubbock and Texas Tech.
The negatives: Even though it’s in the Lone Star State, Lubbock isn’t regarded as one of Texas’ most attractive destinations. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the actual city – but the location is the pits. Lubbock is 570 miles from Houston and 360 miles from Dallas, so it’s not exactly a hop-skip-and-jump from some of the state’s top high schools. Luckily Southwest Airlines has direct flights to both cities. Another negative: Gillispie is inheriting a team that lost all of its top players.
Do you think that Texas Tech is a tough rebuilding job and do you agree with King's positives and negatives?
5. ARE YOU MORE EXCITED ABOUT BASKETBALL BECAUSE GILLISPIE WAS HIRED? It's natural to think that a fanbase is going to be more excited with a new coaching hire and I've posted a handful of positional previews (point guard, shooting guard and small forward with power forward and center previews on their way) but they've received little traction. Ultimately, for you to get more excited about basketball does the team need to win or are you going to get behind this team (for a while) simply because of the coaching hire?
1. WOULD YOU BE HAPPY WITH A RETURN TO THE HOLIDAY BOWL?
2. ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT CORNERBACK?
3. WHAT NEW DEFENSIVE TACKLE WILL HAVE THE BIGGEST IMPACT IN 2011?
4. DO YOU THINK THAT TEXAS TECH BASKETBALL IS A TOUGH REBUILDING JOB?
5. ARE YOU MORE EXCITED ABOUT BASKETBALL BECAUSE GILLISPIE WAS HIRED?