DTN Daily Diatribe | Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | 2012-08-22

ODDS AND ENDS | Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt is to serve a four year term on the NCAA Leadership Council. I guess this is a good thing and you can read about what this means at the link.

UniWatch power rankings 76 through 100.

Your moment of zen (hat-tip Gear Patrol) comes from the small island of Seychelles, which I didn't even know existed and is in the Indian Ocean. You'll wish you were there.

MEN'S BASKETBALL | Congrats to Chris Level who was named the color-commentary to the men's basketball broadcast with new play-by-play partner, Brian Hanni. I also thought that earlier this week that Hanni got the full-time gig on Tech Talk, and is to co-host with Level from this point forward. On Monday, this seemed odd to me because I thought Aaron Dickens was good on the radio. So maybe this is the trade-off? I don't know, but the timing is odd.

BASEBALL | Texas Tech had a late signee during the spring/summer, INF Jake Barrios, who was just named the #8 prospect by Baseball America in the Jayhawk League.

NCAA INVESTIGATIONS | Bylaw Blog's John Infante writes that there are some dark clouds hovering over Oregon as their NCAA investigation looms, in part because Oregon paid for recruiting consulting from Willie Lyles. I don't know if I need to remind you that the player that is the center of all of this now plays at Baylor, Lache Seastrunk, and Briles also paid for Lyles' services when he was at Houston (I think).

So this is strange, a Georgia fan called a Georgia commit Steve Nelson, to make sure he was still committed to Georgia. The school that he was wavering on was Texas Tech. Nelson plays at the same JUCO as Stormy Butler and Darren Dotson. I will try to make this clear: DO NOT EVER CONTACT A RECRUIT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM BECAUSE YOU ARE MOST LIKELY A BOOSTER.

Football stuff is after the jump and I'll just say that Tuberville had some interesting things to say yesterday.

FOOTBALL | Head coach Tommy Tuberville, CB Cornelius Douglas and DT Kerry Hyder were all made available after practice.

HC Tommy Tuberville: Not a great practice, blessed with a lot of cool weather. Looked like mentally tired. No room to slow down and need to have better practices every day. We looked sloppy on offense, from QB's on down. On OL gave too much pressure on QB. Get mentally ready for 80 play scrimmage tomorrow. You have to change it up, but we're adding things every day and it is the coach's job to get them mentally ready. It is all a mental game. Sometimes you count too much on what you can do physically. Added some formations offensively and some things defensively, but we don't have time to rest and need time to execute it all. Corn has done well, his technique, learned the hard way last year. He can cover anyone. I'm proud of Corn, Lovett has worked with him, play cornerback with your eyes. He's getting better at that. Torres is as old as me and you, we know what he can do, he's mentally and physically into it. Ward and Happy have the flu, we get them away from the team. Your great football teams are experienced and they mentally stay with it through practice. It doesn't come natural, like studying for an exam for 3 weeks. But we don't have time to take days off, the young guys, we have to keep piling it on, but we are still in spring practice mode. Hard to get that chip on the shoulder going again, don't try to survive, try to absorb. We can't afford to be in neutral, need to keep getting better in technique. Kennard had a first few days that was good, but he has to make the most of every rep. Just no consistency and there are people in front of him, that's the beauty of competition. I think he will respond. We don't play favorites out here, the best players will play.

CB Cornelius Douglas: Started off on the spring, got to learn the basics. Got acclimated. Footwork is the biggest. Eyes on defense, read the receivers hips, also play with your hands. Learning from splits and where they line up, that helps, how a receiver comes off the ball and how they lean. Defense as a whole has come a long way, everyone is buying in, everyone is trying to make plays. Have battles with Darrin Moore, compete every day, NCAA or FIFA. Everyone is different. Have some good receivers.

DT Kerry Hyder: With the depth, we are better. Little let down on 2nd team last year. Starts is doing well right now, he's learning. Guys getting a little sluggish and grind through camp. Just keep everyone on their toes. Just trying to play my role, kinda the old guy and still just a junior. Feel good, put on some weight, still trying to get heavier. Right now at 280, hope to be at 285 by the time the season starts.

LAJ's Nick Kosmider and RRS.com's Mike Graham and Will McKay also have notebooks with things that I probably missed.

LAJ's Don Williams profiles S Cody Davis who had this to say about a new defensive coordinator for the last four years:

The routine has become familiar: Each spring practice, meet a new defensive coordinator and learn his ways. Every fall, try to retain and adapt as quickly as possible to what’s just been installed.

"You’ve just got to take a deep breath, say you can’t control it and then move on," Davis said. "That’s all you can do."

MISCELLANEOUS: SI.com's Stewart Mandel previews the Big 12, worth your time . . . Pre-Snap Read's Paul Myerberg previews West Virginia . . . Barking Carnival's dedfisher looks at the attrition for every Big 12 team . . . Grantland's Chris Brown with packaged plays . . .