TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL
REMAINING TEXAS ST. LINKS | LAJ's Don Williams editorializes on Texas Tech's 50-10 win against Texas St. and briefly discusses that defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow wasn't sure what to expect from Texas St. even though he knew most of the coaches (I had mentioned this in the post game thoughts):
They weren’t the only ones. So much for that insight, though. His old colleagues did their best to confound him.
All that option football Texas State tried against Tech?
The Red Raiders weren’t looking for that.
"Not at all," Glasgow said. "They were in 22 personnel (two running backs, two tight ends) for probably 65 or 70 percent of the football game. One of the tight ends they played wasn’t even listed on the two-deep depth chart.
"I’ve known a bunch of those guys for a long time and worked with a bunch of them throughout the years, but they’ve done something completely different than what they’d done for a long time. But we’ve got to go make adjustments and find ways to make plays."
I said it a day after the game, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps that's what's wrong with me as a blogger, in that I'm not incredibly quick to have a "take" right after a game, declaring that if this team plays like it did on Saturday, it won't win a conference game. I honestly try to look at both the good and bad, acknowledge both, and also acknowledge that after one game, I probably don't have a great handle on this team as most of us don't. I still don't understand those comments after a 40 point win, but maybe I'm in the minority. I think we all get that it wasn't perfect. Just ask all of the Texas, Oklahoma St., Kansas St., Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa St., etc. about their perfect games from this past weekend.
LAJ's David Just writes about QB Seth Doege's day and if you stuck through the post-game interviews, you saw Doege be asked about what it was like for WR Darrin Moore losing his father at the beginning of fall camp and continuing to be focused:
"I remember talking to him and it was hard to hear a grown man cry," Doege said. "He’s had a rough patch the last month or two. It’s huge for him to step up and have the game he had. I know his father is proud of him and his family is proud of him. I’m happy for him and glad he played so well."
I admit, I got a little choked up when Doege talked about that as I can't imagine losing my father at such a young age. Good for Moore.
The LAJ also has a really cruddy report card. Was expecting some betting formatting and details.
RP.com's Joe Yeager has some post-game thoughts, and as always, Yeager is worth your time and has this interesting fact about opening games for Texas Tech:
An Impressive Outcome: There will doubtless be much gnashing of teeth and perhaps even some rending of garments over various aspects of Tech’s victory, but the reality is that the Red Raiders last opened a season with a wider margin of victory all the way back in 2005. In that year Tech defeated Florida International 56-3. Personally, I was hoping the Red Raider defense would hold the Bobcats to 14 points or less and that the Tech offense would score more than 45 points. Mission accomplished on both scores.
CBSSports Bruce Feldman (that's so strange to type) has a quick mention of WR Darrin Moore's incredible performance on Saturday:
Cam Newton's former teammate at Blinn JC, Darrin Moore, a 6-4, 214-pound WR, caught 12 passes for 221 yards and a touchdown for Texas Tech against Texas State, which is over 100 yards more than he totaled in all of last season.
Totally Texas Tech's TTURed has some photos from being on the sideline at the game. Go check it out!
CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT
RECAP | I think the short story is that as of Friday, OU president David Boren said that OU (and most likely Oklahoma St.) would be looking out for their own interests in terms of conference realignment. Can't blame them. Also, Oklahoma St. mega-booster, T. Boone Pickens, said that he doesn't expect the Big 12 to last and had some harsh words for Texas athletic director, DeLoss Dodds:
Pickens believes the Cowboys will end up in the Pac-12, with Oklahoma. He largely blames Texas' insistence on creating the Longhorn Network.
"The network could have been the straw that broke the camel's back," Pickens said.
Dodds "is a friend of mine," Pickens said. "But DeLoss had too many cards and he played every damn one of them. I think that's too bad. You get tired of saying ‘aaah' while you get something shoved down your throat."
In the same linked article, it says that Pac-12 commissioner, Larry Scott, says that the Pac-12 has been contacted by other universities about joining the Pac-12 and that the Pac-12 is not being predatory.
NEW NEWS | I think that some time yesterday, the Texas legislature said that there may be a meeting now that there is a chance the Big 12 may implode. Per OB.com's Chip Brown:
Sources said members of the Legislature are or will be reaching out to Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin to tell him the Aggies may no longer have the blessing of lawmakers to leave the Big 12, especially if it looks like the Big 12 will collapse.
According to sources close to Texas A&M, there is expected to be more movement involving the Aggies and the Southeastern Conference Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
Sources say statewide office holders such as lieutenant governor David Dewhurst and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus haven't been active on realignment up to this point but now are getting involved.
A source in the Big 12 says there is also an increasing likelihood of litigation against the Southeastern Conference as well as the Pac-12 if the Big 12 comes apart.
NY Times Pete Thamel writes otherwise:
But State Senator Judith Zaffirini, the chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, said in a telephone interview Sunday that the Senate had no plans to get involved in conference expansion. A hearing before the Texas legislature’s House Committee on Higher Education about Texas A&M’s potential move to the SEC was canceled. Zaffirini said she saw no potential political roadblocks for a Texas move to the Pac-12.
"I don’t see that happening at all at this point," she said. "I have absolutely no intent of calling a hearing at this time."
AAS's Kirk Bohls writes that Texas Tech has reached out to the Pac-12 (also including OU and OSU) and writes that Pac-12 commish Scott says that equal revenue sharing is a must:
"Absolutely," Scott said when asked if that was a condition any school must accept. "Equal revenue sharing is the hallmark of any stable conference. We spent a lot of meetings exorcising those demons from the Pac-12. USC and UCLA have the Los Angeles market, and I really commend them for their leadership and vision for thinking they'd be better off growing the pie."
Bring On The Cats' Panjandrum has an excellent post this morning about conference realignment and to boil it down is not appropriate. Go read the whole thing, but the idea is that he thinks that much of the discussion referenced above is posturing and that the Big 12 will stay together, expand to 12 teams, including adding Pittsburgh, Louisville and TCU. And to clarify, the reason why those Big East teams, he thinks, go to the Big 12 is because the Big East loses West Virginia to the SEC, and that the remaining football programs don't really have a significant football program, except for Pitt and Louisville. Here's Panjandrum:
After the Big East loses their tent pole football program in WVU, media rights demand in their future negotiations will most likely go down, making any and all schools in the Big East up for grabs. Pitt becomes target #1, and if it looks like the Big East is going down, and there are no rooms at the inn for them in the Big Ten or ACC, they become much more interested in what the Big 12 has to say. The same goes for Louisville as well. Both teams bring excellent pros to the Big 12:
Pittsburgh: Strong academic institution (AAU Member) in a major media market that plays in a professional stadium in football. They are a big time basketball program that would bring pop to the Big 12 in addition to their traditionally strong and historic football program.
Louisville: The football stadium has expanded seating to 58,000, and the new basketball facility is top notch. Louisville has been to both a Final Four and a BCS bowl in the last few years, so they are a big time athletic program looking for a bigger stage in football.
Now, the drawback for both schools would ultimately be, "Why would we want to drag our basketball programs out of the Big East and into the Big 12?" Well, yes, it would be a bit of a downgrade, overall, but if you moved those two schools to round out the North, you'd have a division consisting of Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa State, Pitt, and Louisville. I'm sorry, but that's just sick right there.
It's not what most of you want, but it's definitely worth your time. It's a good read. I should also add that Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban also thinks that the remaining Big 12 teams should say no to super-conferences.