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I'm pretty sure that when the morning arrives where there are only football links, it's safe to say that the season is near. This is that morning.
STEPHENS NAMED TO DOAK WALKER WATCH LIST | Congrats to RB Eric Stephens for being named to the Doak Walker watch list.
2014 QUARTERBACK | The Old Coach notes that Brownwood QB Chris Keesee, who's father is former Red Raider Aaron Keesee, is a rising junior and played last year in Ballinger. Aaron played in the mid-80's and I think he eventually transferred after losing the starting job to Billy Joe Tolliver. One other note is that Sam Harrell is the quarterbacks coach in Brownwood and are implementing a new offense. You can check out Keesee's highlight film via YouTubery.
TUBERVILLE ON THE MORNING DRIVE | Head coach Tommy Tuberville was on The Morning Drive yesterday and lucky for you I got up early enough that I had time to do a non-transcript:
Most excited about getting back on the field, had better team than win-loss record, didn't have a great team and knew that this past season. Excited about work ethic and players and everything that's gone on. Excited about both sides of the ball participating, total team effort, been trying to win on offense, think defense will help this year. Need to run the ball better and stop the run and it will help our defensive backs.
Starting to look like a Big 12 football team, been pretty short with linemen, will have a chance to have a very good offensive line. Defensively, still a ways away, DT Anthony Smith joined us about 3 weeks ago, don't know how much this year, but with lack of depth will have to play him. It's a game of depth and just haven't had any depth and this year we should have some depth. Helps your starters to get backups 15 to 20 snaps a game.
Challenged every player to get better. Didn't have any standouts last year. Everyone had to improve their game, technique, physical and mental structure, don't need a lot of great players, but good players. Challenged every player and pleased as to how they prepared. We're not there yet. Breath of fresh air to see players step up in leadership role. Structure is there, need to add in recruiting.
We need to have a good preseason in terms of non-conference. When we get to the open date and have nine straight conference games, we need to have a good mental frame, good kicking game. Every game is going to be huge. I think we can compete with everybody, last year that wasn't the case. Going into the open date, we're going to be able to throw the football and play some defense, but we need to be able to feel like we can run the ball against anybody and stop the run.
Not one of those guys that wants to take all 25 guys before they play their senior year of high school. Doesn't make any sense. We could get two or three more. We're only going to have 21 or 22 spots. We've placed some guys in JUCO. We've had some guys go some other places, but the simple fact is that we didn't recruit them as hard because of their academics and how they finished up their semester. Had better get guys that can go to school and graduate. We want good solid guys that want to come. Like I said, you don't win championships with great players, but with a large group of good players. We've had two great recruiting classes and we're going to have another one. Will be 200 kids camping today. Coaches are doing a great job of getting them there. There are players we are looking at for this year, but for 2014. Talking to players and picking the right ones.
More after the jump.
Don't understand the rules committee on some rule changes. Don't understand the kickoff rule. The one that scares me is if the helmet comes off and goes to the 1 foot line and the center's helmet comes off, the center has to come out and the backup center has to come in. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I'm all for the safety of players, don't know if this is a safety measure, but that's part of football. Giving an advantage to a team that has committed a foul.
Regarding WR Darrin Moore, anytime you have a player, the best thing to do is to let them work things out until their problem is resolved and let things play out. I want players to act appropriately. Is he guilty or not guilty, then we'll assess some sort of punishment.
Loss for words with the Paterno situation. Can't be a tougher situation for the families involved (the victims), can't feel sorry for Penn St. If there's going to be any penalty, it's lack of institutional control. I think there should be heavy penalties.
Manning Passing Academy, just being around them, the top quarterbacks in the country go, over 1,200 high school quarterbacks. For the QBs in college, Matt Barkely, Geno Smith, the kid from Arkansas, they get to work with each other and it's great for your quarterback, and our quarterback next year will go whoever that is. Payton said he watched Seth and mentioned the things he needs to work on and is good to be able to let him talk to two of the best.
MEET THE TWO-DEEP | The series continues with a look at C Deveric Gallington, who was also written about by RP.com's Joe Yeager in his Critical 20 series:
MISCELLANEOUS | ATTENTION! 1340 The Fan's Jack Dale had on Graham Harrell, then Robert Hall, then B.J. Symons, then Kliff Kingsbury, then Zebbie Lethridge and finally Cody Hodges. Weekend listening! . . . Crystal Ball Run looks at the list of "danger games" and includes Texas Tech . . . Wide Right & Natty Lite with the Big 12 as characters from Batman . . .