This is me trying to shoehorn in a moment of zen, hat-tip to Unlikely Words. Make sure and watch it full-screen for the full effect " World Behind Waves " from Edwart Ramirez on Vimeo.
POST PRACTICE AND POST SCRIMMAGE REPORTS | Neither the players nor head coach Tommy Tuberville were made available to the media. You've got a handful of post-practice links: Runnin' With the Raiders' Nick Kosmider; LAJ's Don Williams and Kosmider, RP.com's Scott Fitzgerald; and 1340 The Fan's Rob Brennan. Take it all in, there's a lot of good stuff in those four articles.
BROKEN FOOT FOR WHITE | As noted in a couple of the articles above, RB Quinton White has a broken foot. White is the one that broke the news on his Twitter and so we don't have a medical prognosis for when he could return. I'm not heavily concerned about losing white, although my opinion could change if some of the other players don't come back from last season injuries, RB Eric Stephens and RB DeAndre Washington, although that doesn't seem to be the case. It is also nice to continue to read how RB Kenny Williams and RB Sadale Foster are having such a good camp.
CENTER OF ATTENTION | You see what I did, just right there? Pretty good writing if I say so. LAJ's Don Williams profiles C Deveric Gallington and his transition to center. Offensive coordinator Neal Brown talked about how the move has made Gallington a better pass protector and it sounds like it is because Gallington is forced to get down and get some leverage. Here's Gallington:
"The adjustment’s going pretty good — actually, really good," Gallington said. "I feel a lot more comfortable at center. I think it’s a great position to play. There’s still some more learning aspects, but as of right now everything’s been going really smooth."
"We’ve developed a great chemistry, especially between me, LaAdrian and Terry because we’ve been here so long and we’ve played in a lot of games around here," Gallington said. "And a guy like Beau Carpenter, we expect him to play a lot of games in the future. He’s in the process of learning a new position, because he’s always been a tackle.
The end of the article mentions that OC Brown has given more responsibility to Gallington and that Gallington graduated, is engaged and is a different person.
TALKIN' DEFENSE | RP.com's Joe Yeager has some quotes from head coach Tommy Tuberville about defensive coordinator Art Kaufman. It seems that a lot of quotes are old or maybe recycled, but there was this at the end that I liked:
"Art picks his poison. Again it goes back to how is the game goin’? Do you need to [blitz]? You need the ball back? It’s really no rhyme or reason, unless you go into a game saying, hey, we can take advantage of this lineman, you know, this center, this back blockin’, or their scheme. Are they goin’ empty a lot? You want to make ‘em throw real quick? That’s when you see a lot of blitzin’. But me and Art’s been in it before where we blitzed probably ever other down to maybe where we’ve gone into a game and didn’t blitz any."
"The big thing is technique," says Tuberville. "John Lovett is my favorite guy I’ve ever worked with for teaching technique to corners, because you can be as athletic as you want but if you don’t have the technique of playing bump-and-run and zone and playing inside-outside leverage you don’t use your talents as well as you could. But I saw a lot of progress from our corners just in technique."
A CRAZY WIN TOTAL? | Friend of DTN, CFBMatrix Dave Bartoo writes that Texas Tech could win 9 games, but due to the coaching effect, 7 wins is more likely. Again, if the coaching improves, and maybe it will just with the addition of Kaufman and Lovett, then is it possible that Texas Tech could be a 9 win team:
Texas Tech can be as big of a dark horse in 2012 as they want to be. They are underrated due to the performance of the last 2 years, but have a base schedule that started at 10-2. It was 9-3 after the second adjustment of schedule and 7-5 after the coaching effect. Tech is one of 6 teams to be under .500 last year but have a 80%+ chance of .500 or better in 2012. So I say that they easily get there and even a 7-5 season is disappointing.
Interesting.
MISCELLANEOUS | 1340 The Fan's Rob Brennan talks with WR Bradley Marquez . . . CBS Sports had a podcast with all-world blogger Matt Hinton . . . Double-T 104.3's The Morning Drive had athletic director Kirby Hocutt on to discuss football things . . .