Thursday Morning Links at Viva The Matadors | 2013-04-25

ODDS AND ENDS

Shout-out to Nick Kosmider, who has been writing for the LAJ for the past couple of years. Kosmider announced earlier this week that he's leaving for Denver. Kosmider mainly covered the men's basketball beat, but he also covered football. I always enjoyed Kosmider's work and mentioned to him on Twitter that Lubbock's loss is Denver's gain. Good luck and prosit.

This is probably incredibly cliche, but J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is my all time favorite book. They just recently found nine letters from a young Salinger.

I haven't even had time to read this, but I will. Grantland with a very #longread on the Iditarod. SB Nation has another terrific #longread about the original dual-threat quarterback, Reggie Collier, who I think was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 6th round.

GOIN BAND FROM RAIDERLAND

So, I don't know how I stumbled on this, but the Goin Band from Raiderland is doing a documentary about the band and it's really good. Really good. Check it out.

TENNIS

The DT has a preview of the men's tennis team, who is set to play in the Big 12 Championship.

TRACK AND FIELD

Texas Tech will host the Red Raider Open on Thursday. The LAJ has a feature on 400m hurdler Isaiah Gill and the DT previews this week's meet.

GOLF

The men's golf team ended up finishing 7th in the Big 12 Championship.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

In a bit of good news, Alex Foster (6-8/200 -- Rivals) visited Texas Tech yesterday according to his Twitter. Foster was originally committed and signed with Minnesota and Minnesota and Foster agreed to mutually part ways. You can watch him play basketball here. I hope he signs with Texas Tech.

BASEBALL

The baseball team will take on the Oklahoma Sooners this weekend and the LAJ has a story on their top two pitchers, who are really good.

FOOTBALL

The NFL draft is today and SB Nation has you covered with everything you could imagine. You know how we talk about how 2-star players slip through the cracks and end up to be top players in the draft, well, 24/7 Sports takes a look at some 2-star players who are projected to be first rounders and I thought this was an interesting read. The LAJ talked to head coach Kliff Kingsbury about being drafted and his advice to players is that it doesn't matter where you are drafted. I wish all of the Red Raiders eligible luck over the next few days.

SB Nation has the details about how Cowboys Stadium has been confirmed as the first Championship Game. SI Stewart Mandel has some thoughts on the College Football Playoff system.

Athlon Sports ranks the Big 12 running backs and I don't think I agree with these rankings.

This is something that we'll need to bookmark and come back to later, but Football Study Hall has an excellent article on offensive tempo and yes, Texas Tech was fast last year, but Sumlin/Kingsbury teams were some of the fastest teams in recent years and the TAMU team last year was 11th, while Texas Tech was 33rd.

Yesterday, Sonny Cumbie and Trey Haverty mentioned that they were in East Texas doing some recruiting. As it turns out, 2015 Longview RB JaMycal Hasty received an offer from Texas Tech and Cumbie and Haverty also apparently talked to TCU commit DT Zaycoven Henderson and WR Dorian Leonard.

I think it was last week when I broke the news (I'm writing this totally tongue in cheek) that Butler C.C. WR Jacob Hurla would be walking on at Texas Tech. The CJ Online talks with Hurla about choosing Texas Tech. Good stuff. Hurla will be on the fall roster.