Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | Williams at LB is no Gimmick; JUCO Basketball Rankings

Athletic Faculty Reps Endorse CAPA Ideas, But Not to Unionize: I think the idea here is the president of the committee of athletic faculty reps is a Texas Tech law professor and they've pretty much endorsed all of the things that the proposed player union is about, except for the idea that the players actually form a union (via LAJ). Lots of the things we've been talking about, including scrutinizing the 20 hour rule and not allowing players to work-out on campus during the summer. Here's part of the statement:

"We recognize that we live in a zero‐sum world, where choices must be made that forestall other opportunities," the statement said. "But we also believe that the pendulum needs to swing back to provide student athletes more time away from athletics.

"We support a moratorium for at least part of the summer from any athletically related activities on campus. We support limiting the number of games. We support a re-examination of the 20-hour rule and its many exceptions. We support one semester sports. Indeed, why not May Madness rather than March Madness?"

There's a lot there to digest, so go check it out.

Williams at Linebacker is no Gimmick: The move of running back Kenny Williams to linebacker is not a gimmick (via FSSW). Head coach Kliff Kingsbury on Williams, who he also says that Williams could switch immediately to running back and not miss a beat:

"He picked up the system -- €”we only had 12 practices and three scrimmages -- €”quick," Kingsbury said. "He'€™s an instinctive player. He did some great things and I think once he really learns and he'€™s reacting and not thinking so much, that he'€™s really going to help us on that side of the ball."

JUCO Basketball Rankings: Two of Texas Tech's signees are in the top 100 of the most recent JUCO rankings from JUCO Rankings as F Justin Jamison is at #10 and Devaughntah Williams is at #58 (via @Juco_Offers and this is the PDF document). The bad news is that former Red Raider Josh Gray is the #1 JUCO player and Jeff Newberry, an Oklahoma St. signee is at #9. I guess that's not bad news, but other teams are getting better too and Gray is going to LSU, so that doesn't affect Texas Tech all that much. I wasn't sure how highly rated Jamison was and that's terrific news, while Williams is also more highly rated than I initially thought. I wasn't sure he would make the top 100.

Links:

Former Red Raider Terrance Bullitt performed very well at his pro-day workouts (via NFL).