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Red Raider Gridiron | Reaction from Texas Tech Accepting Bid to Holiday Bowl to Play Arizona St.

Reaction from head coach Kliff Kingsbury, LB Will Smith and IR Bradley Marquez as Texas Tech has accepted a bid to play Arizona St. in the Holiday Bowl.

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If you get a chance to listen to the press conference embedded below, make sure and listen.  Kingsbury is somewhat asked about possible JUCO recruits that were in town from California and he very much doesn't want to acknowledge that those players were even in town and really refers to the three JUCO players from California, Will Smith, Bruce Jones and Sadale Foster.

Kingsbury also talks a bit about Sonny Cumbie, Mike Smith and Trey Haverty all playing in the Holiday Bowl the last time that Texas Tech played in that game, as well as noting that Kingsbury's first ever game was against Arizona St., a game that Texas Tech lost.

Kingsbury is also asked about if this is good for some of these players who have never really been outside of the state of Texas, other than to road games in the Big 12, and it is a reward for the season.  LB Will Smith and IR Bradley Marquez talk about the game as well.

Links: These are your morning links.

Official Site: The official site has their official announcement of Texas Tech going to to San Diego to play Arizona St. in the Holiday Bowl.  The university also has a travel package if any of you are interested in that.

Local Media: The LAJ has a notebook and they also have a story about Texas Tech accepting the bowl invitation to the Holiday Bowl where head coach Kliff Kingsbury is excited:

"Going to a great city like San Diego is going to be fun for our entire team," Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. "I know the guys are all pumped up about it and have a great opponent to play, so it’s an exciting way to end the year."

As an aside, Kingsbury talked a lot about getting better just in case anyone is worried about this being all fun for Kingsbury.  Bidness.

The DT has a bit from IR Bradley Marquez talking about Cumbie and his Glory Days:

"I’ve heard plenty about (the game) from him," Marquez said. "Apparently, he took down Aaron Rodgers, and that’s kind of his claim to fame. So, we’ve heard a lot from him about it, and I’m pretty sure he’s fired up about going back with us as a team."

The DMN has you covered as well as an early prediction for the game.  As an aside, I did look to see if there was an early line this morning and I couldn't find any lines just year.  I'm sure that will happen soon enough.

Arizona Perspective: Arizona Central has your perspective from the Sun Devils.  Also, from the official site of Arizona St., you can check that out as well.

BCS Realpolitik: Football Study Hall's Matt Hinton has his last BCS Realpolitik and the title is great:  "You will know Florida State by the trail of blood."  Hinton has early looks at all of the BCS bowl games.

TCU Offers Castaneda: The DMN has a story about how TCU recently offered Texas Tech commit Robert Castaneda, but Castaneda had heard from one of his teammates that the TCU coaches thought Casteneda was soft. Castaneda said he brought up the incident to the TCU coaching staff and they have said that they have changed their recruiting policy.  Right.

Action: