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Red Raider Gridiron | Kickoff Luncheon; Amaro Maturing; Versatile Foster

See the recaps from the Texas Tech football luncheon. TE Jace Amaro talks about maturing. IR Sadale Foster discusses the numerous roles that he'll have on this team.

By Seth C
Michael C. Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

1. Kickoff Luncheon | The annual kickoff luncheon. Just watch. Kliff Kingsbury. Matt Wallerstedt. Tom Stone ("We saved him."). Spike Dykes.

2. Media Availability and Injury Reports | I had a short Twitter conversation the other night with one of the Washington St. bloggers about how Washington St. head coach Mike Leach made it known that reporters could not report on injuries in practice. I let him know that this was pretty standard operating procedure and it wasn't ideal not to know, but that you got used to it. They were upset that they wouldn't let reporters report. From what I can recall, it was always that way at Texas Tech and this non-reporting was understood. I don't think that Leach had an edict or anything.

One of their other issues is that Leach permitted reporters to report injuries last year, so any questions about legal issues (which I've always agreed with) may not be a real concern. Although, I'd also say that if it's not Leach discussing the injuries, then maybe the legal concern still stands and he just doesn't see the need to speculate about injuries, which I also understand.

Of course, the flip side of that would be that had we known about the injuries to Crabtree and Harrell for the Ole Miss game would have explained quite a bit about how that game panned out, but we can't really use that as an excuse because we really didn't know about the severity of their injuries. I like knowing about injuries, but I won't demand that a coach discuss it, it's not that important in the grand scheme of things.

This leads me into the discussion yesterday, which was that Kingsbury has been available pretty much the entire time he was here, sans one week where he locked things down. I don't know if he's "no commented" on injuries, but as said above, it's fine. If he doesn't want to talk about it and doesn't want it reported, then I'm okay with that. But overall, Kingsbury has been pretty open. He also hasn't opened any practices, but I'm also okay with that too.

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3. Notebook | The LAJ talks with DT Kerry Hyder, where he talked about playing Garrett Gilbert in high school. Also available was TE Jace Amaro, who said that he's doing a better job of controlling emotions:

"My first couple of years I didn’t really know how to control my emotions sometimes and I feel like that’s one thing I’ve worked on really well and it’s prepared me to use my emotions more as energy than expressions."

I really hope that's the case. Amaro also endorses both quarterbacks and he has more extensive quotes at the DMN, where he discusses not being on the field for the first half against SMU:

"It’s bad," Amaro said. "There’s a lot put on me. This offense runs a lot through me. I just don’t want to be out there and not able to play. If some things go bad — Maybe we’re losing at halftime or something like that. New quarterbacks, new coaching staff and basically a whole new team. In the past few years we’ve always had a really rough start in the first half, and I know that’s just because it’s the first game. I feel like, once I get back out there, I’m expecting to catch as many balls as I can and not come out of the game no matter what the score is when halftime reaches."

The DMN also has some short quotes about the cornerback spot and Bruce Jones and Oloaluwa Falemi stepping up.

The video is of DL coach John Scott, DT Kerry Hyder and DE Dartwan Bush.

4. Wallerstedt is Excited | If you watch the kickoff luncheon, you'll get the gist of this LAJ article where Co-DC Matt Wallerstedt is pretty excited and gave $100 for charity promising that the first sack would be within the first two minutes of the defense being on the field. Wallerstedt doesn't lack for confidence and although this is totally against my personality, I think it's something that football players have to have, that confidence and brashness.

"If you guys wanted defense, we’re here to give you defense," Wallerstedt said, before promising lots of energy, aggression and blitzes from every direction.

5. Versatile Foster | The LAJ profiles IR/RB/PR Sadale Foster and talks about his new role of being about to do so many things for this team. I'm really cheering for this guy. Here's Foster:

"I’ve done a lot of things as far as my junior college career, and it was a lot asked of me," Foster said. "I was asked to be the guy on my junior college team. I was the guy that was going to catch nine or 10 balls a game. I was expected to score touchdowns when I got those opportunities. On the team that I’m on now, we have a lot of weapons and I’m not expected to do that much, but I’m expected to do a lot. I like being in a position where the ball’s going to be in my hands and I’m able to make big plays and help my team be successful."

6. Campus Photos | Totally Texas Tech has campus photos, which also include stadium renovation photos. Lots of work going on.

7. Madison Shutting it Down | AL.com talks with commit CB Tevin Madison is shutting down his recruitment (it's totally okay if he doesn't) who took his visit after committing to Texas Tech:

"It's a lot better now," Madison told AL.com. "A lot of people around here want me to stay closer to home and thought I wouldn't like it, but I loved it. It's a big weight lifted off of my shoulders and I'm happy I got out there. It was really big and beautiful."

8. ESPN to Stream Channels? The Verge (hat-tip Awful Announcing) is reporting that ESPN may stream all of their channels. I would love to be able to just pick the games that I want to watch because I pretty much don't watch any television other than sports.

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