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1. Kingsbury Talks Offense and Leach | SI has an interview that was posted in the comments yesterday as head coach Kliff Kingsbury discussed all sorts of things. The thing that I sorta took issue with was Kingsbury mentioning that his offense is a running offense:
That’s huge. And I tell people, we’re a run-first offense. That’s what we try to be. And I think last year, leading the SEC in rushing, proved that. That’s one of the best offensive lines I’ve ever seen, obviously. But we’re gonna play to our strengths. We’re gonna run the ball and do what we have to do to keep defenses honest. And I would say over the last three years that I’ve been a play-caller, it’s probably close to 60-40, 55-45, as far as run-pass [split]. It’s not as skewed as everybody thinks. We like to run the ball and if we can do it, we’re gonna do it. Now if we can’t, we’ll air it out. I’m not opposed to throwing it every single down.
Because I like to check these things, last year, TAMU did run the ball 52%. In 2011, Houston ran the ball 38% and in 2010 the Cougars ran the ball 45%. I was surprised by that. Kingsbury also discusses Leach and Manziel briefly. Speaking of Leach, CBS Sports has an excellent Q&A with SMU head coach June Jones and new assistant, Hal Mumme. It would be really neat if we could have watched their interaction in addition to reading their thoughts.
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2. Conference Picks | SB Nation has ALL of your conference picks and predicts that Texas Tech will finish 7th, which seems to be industry standard. BR's Adam Kramer (I tend to make exceptions for BR with it is Kramer or Mike Felder writing) simulated the entire season on NCAA '14 and predicts that Texas Tech will be 8-5, which would be fourth in the Big 12.
3. Perez Joins Petty's Coaching Staff | Per the official site, former Nebraska associate head coach Hayden Perez is joining Todd Petty's coaching staff. Welcome!
4. Kliff's Top Games | KAMC is doing a series where they asked Kingsbury as to his top five games and they have done #5 and #4. Both games against TAMU.
5. Top Linemen | The Tulsa World has the top defensive linemen in the Big 12, which includes DT Kerry Hyder, and top offensive linemen in the Big 12, which doesn't include any Red Raiders.
6. Coaches We Love to Hate | This is via the Amarillo Globe-News, which is just fine because the Orlando Sentinel link is a slideshow, lists the coaches we love to hate and includes some former Texas Tech coaches, like Bob Knight, Mike Leach, Tommy Tuberville and Billy Gillispie.
7. Discussing Amaro | The DMN discusses TE Jace Amaro and his backstory, what he can improve and what he does well. Amaro also wasn't named as part of the Mackey Award watch list and he tweeted that he didn't think that he should have been named as he has more to prove. I disagree because a watch list is supposed to be inclusive of just about any tight end that has a pulse and then they weed it out during the course of the year. Amaro is good enough, despite his injury issues, to be named to the watch list.
8. Kittley Finalizes 2013 Class | Per the official site, track and field head coach has finalized his 2013 recruiting class, which includes footballer Dee Paul and basketballer Cory Scott.
9. Brewer Transfers from Texas | In Big 12 conference happenings, BON with the news on Connor Brewer transferring from Texas. It appears that UT is going towards a more mobile quarterback with Jalen Overstreet and Tyrone Swoopes.
10. Best Big 12 Football Game Last Year | The DMN ranks the Big 12 football games last year (people love lists) and at the top was Texas Tech vs. TCU. I agree.
11. Motorcyclist Saves Cup of Coffee Off of Bumper | Welp.
12. Zorrilla Baseball League | #longreads from SB Nation writes about the Zorrilla Baseball League in Brooklyn, NY, where former major league players play when they are cut.