DEFENSIVE LINE REPLACEMENT | I'll get to the news first, it appears that Marshall Thundering Herd defensive line coach Fred Tate will be the next defensive line coach at Texas Tech and will replace Terry Price.
Here's the somewhat funny back-story. I was poking around on the internets last night and I cruised on over to RRS.com and noticed that they had posted a story about a coach being named, and I have to assume that they had the information about Tate. I also checked Coaching Search to see if they had a name or any sort of update about Texas Tech, and they did not. There was no Texas Tech update. Then, this morning, I check Coaching Search, again, and the guy that runs the site has this:
I posted last night that Tommy Tuberville very well may turn to Marshall defensive line coach Fred Tate to fill the defensive line job at Texas Tech. I was notified that my information appeared on another website rather quickly thereafter. Keep your eyes open. Apparently, it's happening often.
I know for a fact that Coaching Search did not have the information first because I was on the internets checking both sites at the same time, literally within seconds of each other, assuming that RRS.com was posting about Tate and I'm almost 100% positive it was. Coaching Search is making it sound like RRS.com took his news, but I actually think it's the other way around and that's somewhat sad not to give credit where credit is due. Sometimes other sites beat you to a story and it's just fine to link to the site that does break the news. I'm not going to link to Coaching Search, you can go find it, but this ain't cool.
But even the RRS.com folks have a hard time linking to outside material as Mike Graham had Thursday links for the DMN, none of which included anything from DTN. This is expected and I don't really care, after four or five years of writing, the only folks that link to DTN are mostly other bloggers, I think the general thought is that you don't ever recognize your competition, but I'll link to just about anything and everything, so long as it's free.
Back to Tate, here is his Marshall bio and you'll note that it says he is coaching safeties, but apparently his Marshall bio wasn't updated as he moved to the defensive line. Tate played defensive line at Southern Miss and then took a 5 year hiatus to join the Army as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army Airborne. That's kinda cool. Then, as you can see his Rivals page, he went back to Southern Miss after getting out of the army, then to Chattanooga and then to Marshall. The only reason I think, or possibly know, that Tate is the defensive line coach is this article from April of 2011 from the Huntington Herald-Dispatch:
"He was like a fish out of water coaching the secondary because he's never done that," Marshall head coach Doc Holliday said. "His comfort zone has been the linebackers, the front seven and the defensive line. It didn't take long to watch him work with that defensive front to know that there is where he likes to be and he's at home there."
Tate's energy was realized early on Saturday as players lined up for the ever-popular Circle Drill, in which Marshall players form a ring and coaches call out individual players -- one from the offensive side, one from the defensive side -- to engage in a physical, mano y mano battle.
As excited as Tate was during the drill, it appeared that he wanted to get in the middle and line up himself.
Holliday noted that he wouldn't mind seeing that, either.
"He looks like a D-lineman. Hell, he looks better than the players," Holliday said. "That's where he played at Southern Miss, so I know he's enjoying it."
More on Tate and so many additional football links that you'll go cray-cray.
And Tate is apparently a dynamite recruiter as he was named the recruiter of Conference USA in 2010 by ESPN:
The Thundering Herd signed one of the best classes in Conference USA and all with a new head coach in Doc Holliday working his first recruiting cycle at the school. Tate came from Chattanooga and earned a sterling reputation as a recruiter and rising star in the coaching profession at Southern Mississippi, his alma mater, under Jeff Bower.
I've been trying to find something more recent, but have come up empty.
LINEBACKER PREVIEW | LAJ's Don Williams has his last position look before spring practice that starts today at 4:00 pm (I think) and here's a bit:
With the move from a 4-2-5 defense back to a 4-3, starting strong safety Terrance Bullitt will convert to strong-side linebacker, and one of the newcomers the Red Raiders are most optimistic about is rangy linebacker Will Smith, who transferred at mid-term from Riverside (Calif.) Community College.
They also have more options with Pete Robertson and Justin Cooper from the 2011 freshman class and Chris Payne, another JC transfer who came in at mid-term.
"Our linebacker corps could be the strongest part of the team this year, if you look at it on paper," defensive ends coach Robert Prunty said.
Much like the secondary, I'm thinking that there's a lot that's going to shake out between now and August and there's going to be a lot of movement at this position group.
TEXAS TECH SPRING PREVIEWS BIG 12 LINKS | Turfburner's Jay Beck has what Vegas has released as the win totals for the next year and Vegas has Texas Tech at 7 wins. I'll encourage you to go over and give a click for Beck's thoughts . . . high school classmate and writer for FSSW, Matt Mosley, previews the Big 12 and has this to say about Texas Tech:
Texas Tech: We talked to Red Raiders coach Tommy Tuberville on 103.3 KESN Tuesday, and he seemed pleased with the schedule. The Red Raiders have Oklahoma, West Virginia and Texas at home, and they have a decent chance to be 4-0 before the Sooners come to town. Call me crazy, but it looks like the Red Raiders will qualify for a bowl game this season.
. . . Dave Campbell's Texas Football's Travis Stewart previews Texas Tech prior to spring practices and it's a good-good, although not entirely accurate, it's a good read for a Friday . . . here is a Rivals preview of the Big 12 . . . CBS Sports has a spring primer . . . Rivals has a spring preview with some thoughts by RRS.com's Aaron Dickens . . .