I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. We have lots of things to get to this week, including the first post in a seven post series on the 4-2-5 defense. I know, you're all on the edge of your seats.
1. Texas Tech Closes NCAA East Regional in 16th Place - TEXAS TECH OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE | I think this was the only athletics event going on this weekend. Everyone else was off due to finals, I think.
2. Neely Named to National Pitcher of the Year Watch List - TEXAS TECH OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE and Paiz Named to Olerud Two-Way Player Of The Year Watch List - TEXAS TECH OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE | Congrats to John Neely and David Paiz for being named to these two watchlists.
3. Spring Football: Missouri - Big 12 Conference - Official Athletic Site and Spring Football: Oklahoma State - Big 12 Conference - Official Athletic Site | The Missouri Tigers and Oklahoma St. Cowboys are previewed by the Big 12.
4. Tough life lessons push Marquez to do his best | marquez, follow, tough - Track and field - OAVarsity.com | I really recommend reading this story about Texas Tech signee RB Bradley Marquez, raised by a single mother, his father in prison since he was in the 8th grade and Bradley appears to have become an outstanding citizen. Who else thinks that Bradley has his head screwed on straight:
"I would hate for God to bless me with this much talent and then let it go to waste. Everybody makes mistakes, and I hope to do my best to minimize those mistakes."
Good stuff this morning.
5. Double T Faithful: Terrell Hartsfield Update | Good stuff from Spencer about LB Terrell Hartsfield, who was supposed to be in the 2011 recruiting class, but has had to go to the JUCO route for one year.
6. Best of spring - Big 12 Blog - ESPN and Big 12 post-spring Power Rankings - Big 12 Blog - ESPN and What we learned this spring - Big 12 Blog - ESPN | Ubben was busy on Friday, posting a ton of stories about the spring for every Big 12-2 program. Ubben awarded QB Seth Doege as having the best spring game performance:
Best spring game performance: Seth Doege, QB, Texas Tech: The Red Raiders' likely new starting quarterback completed 20 of 35 passes for 317 yards and four touchdowns. That capped a solid spring in which Doege did just about everything he could to cement his status as the next Tech quarterback in the fall.
And Ubben also released his post-spring rankings, which has Texas Tech 6th in the conference, which is ahead of the Texas Longhorns, but behind the Baylor Bears:
6. Texas Tech: There are lots of new faces on offense for the Red Raiders, who lost a pair of quarterbacks, their starting running back and top two receivers. Last season's struggles for a young secondary should pay off this time around.
7. Ohio State to investigate players' car deals | BuckeyeXtra | The Ohio St. compliance department probably feels a bit overwhelmed right about now.
8. Recap of spring football notes from the Big 12 - Campus Rivalry: College Football & Basketball News, Recruiting, Game Picks, and More - USATODAY.com | Fairly generic, but it's a bit of something.
9. Red Raiders' secondary outlook: experience returns, can improve | College Sports Blog | Sports News | News for Dallas, Texas | The Dallas Morning News | The safety position may be the most reliable position on the team, love D.J. Johnson and Terrance Bullit being moved to safety full time, however, the cornerback position may be the position with the least proven depth on the team, which is why I think Tre' Porter was moved back to cornerback. If you want a mental exercise, think about all of the true cornerbacks on this team . . . you done? Here's who I have: Porter, Derrick Mays, Jarvis Phillips, Urell Johnson, Jeremy Reynolds and Eugene Neboh. We've seen Mays for a handful of games, Porter and Phillips for a full season, some at safety and some at cornerback, and Neboh for a good part of last year. It's 100% unproven after that.