Bethel Q&A: A nice Q&A with CB Nigel Bethel, II about Texas Tech and his relationship with the Texas Tech coaches (via ESPN). Here's Bethel on his relationship with head coach Kliff Kingsbury and cornerbacks coach Kevin Curtis:
Bethel: Coach Kliff is a cool dude. He's a young guy and he has the program up and coming. He has a nice personality and I see him and Coach (Kevin) Curtis as big brothers. They talk to me like a man, treat me like a man. They don't have to sugar coat anything with me, they can always be real with me at all times. That's what they've done from day one.
Smith's Dream Call: Will Smith's call from the Dallas Cowboys was a dream come true for Smith as he was always a Cowboys fan and dreamed of getting that call (via LAJ). You can listen to that call here (via Dallas Cowboys). There's also some quotes from Terrance Bullitt about Baltimore and Kerry Hyder about the Jets talking about their opportunities with their new teams. Also, the Jets opine about what they have in Jace Amaro and the Cowboys on Will Smith (via DMN).
Baseball Success No Surprise: This is the first part of a two-part series about how the baseball team has been so successful this year after a mediocre first year under head coach Tim Tadlock (via LAJ). This is pretty good, and here's a bit from Tadlock:
"I thought we would be a consistent team," Tadlock said as the Red Raiders began final exams this week. "Looking back through, the season could be a lot better but it could be a lot worse. It's always that way. We've taken some games we needed to take, but also you can look back and go, ‘Man, if we'd have gotten that one, or gotten that one, think where we'd be now?' Fortunately we're in a pretty good spot."
This is the second part of the series (via LAJ) and this article goes into breaking the streak of not making the NCAA Tournament and should make it this year where the team projects in the post season and recruiting and Tadlock says that the 2015 class is as good as any in the country (and the 2014 class has been signed, but hasn't even arrived yet):
"(Recruiting coordinator J-Bob Thomas) did a great job with the (2015) class," Tadlock said. "He had some guys committed in that class before anybody knew who they were. The advisors are usually ahead of people; well, we're a year ahead of them. We're ahead of the curve as far as the '15 class. Our '15 class is as good a class as anybody in the country right now."
Softball Fails to Make NCAA: The softball team, despite winning over 30 games, didn't make the NCAA Tournament (via LAJ). The comparison in the article notes that Texas Tech was left out, while Kansas made the tournament, despite winning 35 games, having a better conference record and sweeping Kansas in Lawrence. This is a pretty young team, I expect them to do some damage next year.
Tennis Teams Lose in First Round: Both the men and women lost in the first round, with the women's team losing to Ole Miss (via Texas Tech) and the men's team losing to Cal (via Texas Tech).
LINKS:
* Running back commit Corey Dauphine won the 5A 200m run over the weekend (via PAnews). The interest in Dauphine is picking up dramatically. Texas Tech got in on him early.
* Right now, the advanced metrics don't care all that much for Texas Tech (via Football Study Hall). And before you claim bias, there is no such thing in formulas, just numbers. The numbers don't like the defense all that much, which isn't a surprise, what is a surprise is that the offensive numbers aren't that great.
* The concrete has set around the Southwest Conference circle and the new Big 12 logo goes on the field at Jones AT&T Stadium (via Totally Texas Tech).
* General Martin Dempsey has an excellent Q&A about why he asked the various coaches to speak at the Pentagon last week, including Tubby Smith (via ESPN).