Red Raider Gridiron | Players Talk Kingsbury and Amaro Returns

SWAGGER MISSING | LAJ's Don Williams was there after practice and talked to players after practice and all of them mentioned that the swagger and excitement wasn't there this year, but will be this year. I have a hard time with swagger, but if you call it confidence then it makes sense to me. Maybe three parts confidence and two parts excitement. I dunno. Here's TE Jace Amaro to explain:

"And swagger can be a misleading word," Tech tight end Jace Amaro said. "Going into game days, I feel like the team wasn’t as excited as it should have been. We went through the motions a lot. Especially against (Oklahoma), you could tell we weren’t too into it. I feel like he’s going to bring something to the table just by the way he talked to us in the first team meeting."

I think the word that Amaro is looking for is "uninspired". I am also very happy that head coach Kliff Kingsbury wants everyone, including the graduating players, how important the bowl game is:

"I think Coach Kingsbury has done a very good job of making it known that this team still has a game to play," Doege said. "Of course, everybody is excited about his hire, and he’s excited to be here, but I think he’s done a really good job of kind of keeping the focus around here on this bowl game, knowing that if we win this bowl game it helps him out in the future. It helps his team going into the offseason more than it would be if we were to lose it."

And I tend to think that S Cody Davis writes like he speaks to the media, which is stock answers and nothing shocking or nothing revealing. I think that Davis has learned that he's left alone if he doesn't say anything revealing. I have no problem with Davis doing this. He did open up a bit yesterday:

"It was really motivating," Tech safety Cody Davis said. "I don’t think he meant it to be motivating, but how he spoke with passion kind of motivated players and showed them that he’s here to stay. This is where he wants to be, and he’s ready to get to work and bring the fire back to Texas Tech."

Also, RRS.com's Mike Graham had a bit from QB Michael Brewer:

"It's definitely been a roller coaster, that's for sure," Tech's backup quarterback said. "It's tough anytime you lose a coach that brings you in. I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Coach Tuberville or Coach Brown. To think about that, and now that they're gone, that's tough to swallow. But at the same time, I'm extremely excited about the future with Coach Kingsbury. Obviously he's had a great track record and I'm ready to get to work with him."

AMARO RETURNS TO PRACTICE | LAJ's Nick Kosmider writes that TE Jace Amaro is returning to practice, but this makes me a bit nervous:

"I’m kind of pushing it right now, trying to get back out there," Amaro said. "I probably shouldn’t be able to play, but for me, as competitive as I am, I want to be able to play one more game with these guys. Last year, I kind of felt lost. This year I love my teammates. I feel like we’ve really come along, and that’s one of the reasons I want to play so bad."

Amaro wears his emotions on his sleeve and I understand wanting to play, but if he's not ready, then do not play.

THE FIRST MEMBER OF THE KINGSBURY FAN CLUB | Fox34 has this bit from former players talking about Kliff, but then there is this guy, Richard Guzman, who says that he was the very first member of the Kingsbury Fan Club. How can anyone know that and I am surprised that there are still fan clubs.

THETFORD AND ASHBY | Two good interviews for a Sunday morning and if you have never listened to them, they are good old boys just talking (I mean this in the best possible way, normally I would hate listening to this, but this is who they are and I like that) and they had on former Texas Tech head coach Spike Dykes and athletic director Kirby Hocutt. Hocutt really loosens up in these interviews and Spike used the word "drip" when describing Kingsbury. Hocutt also says that Texas Tech has only sold 8,000 of the necessary 12,000 tickets. Just make sure and buy your tickets through the athletic department.

MISCELLANEOUS | LAJ's Don Williams has a bit about when Kingsbury was being recruited, and continues "Kliff" related puns . . . this is so fantastic, Good Bull Hunting has Nifty Shades of K and I wish someone here could continue this (LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU SARR BECAUSE I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW ROMANCE) . . .