Red Raider Gridiron: Payne's Return; Stidham #1 QB in Texas; Kingsbury as a Unicorn

Payne Returns. The LAJ writes about the return of LB Chris Payne, who returned last week after tearing his Achilles tendon in February (which is a really fast turnaround, so congrats to Payne) and defensive coordinator Mike Smith said that we can look to see Payne play more on defense:

"He's going to help us on defense," Smith said. "He's another guy who can do multiple things. Don't overload him on one position. He can help you on defense like that and give you different looks and different schemes."

Stidham #1 QB in Texas. Fox Sports ranks the top quarterbacks in Texas and Texas Tech commit Jarrett Stidham is ranked #1:

Stidham follows a long line of quarterback standouts at Stephenville, most recently Texas State's Tyler Jones who in his 2012 senior season accounted for more than a mere 5,000 yards of total offense and 68 touchdowns -- Stidham, a sophomore receiver at the time, on the other end of 11 of those scores on the Yellowjackets' way to their fifth straight title.

Stidham now looks to close in on those numbers in his senior campaign, having already accounted for 1,929 yards of total offense and 24 touchdowns (with one interception) through the first five games of the season. The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder has committed to continue his career under Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech.

Kingsbury as a Unicorn. Want to see photos of Kliff Kingsbury from his senior yearbook at New Braunfels?  Yeah, me too, and the title to the post, I Don't Want to Wait, is engrained in my brain thanks to the Paula Cole and The Ticket's misadventures of the Fake Dawson's Creek and the Fake Felicity.

WVU Reinstates Cornerback. Via the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia Daryl Worley was fully reinstated yesterday and you can expect him to play against Texas Tech.

Ruffin and Wallerstedt. This is a weird combination, but trying to give credit where credit is due, SI broke the story that former Texas Tech defensive coordinator Matt Wallerstedt is now at Ul-Lafayette as a defensive consultant, along with James Willis, who was also the defensive coordinator #1 under Tommy Tuberville.  That's a short note, but I did enjoy the interview with Ruffin McNeill, head coach at East Carolina.

Miscellaneous. Fox Sports' David Ubben went and tested all of the food at the Texas State Fair (this is one of my favorite things he's done the last year) . . . Ubben also has his week 7 predictions and it's still not good for Texas Tech despite playing at home . . . former Texas Tech footballer Seth Doege had an awful debut with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, going 3-9 with 3 picks, and he's continuing to work at getting better . . . Sports On Earth writes about TCU's emergence in the Big 12 race . . .