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Hey everybody. I've got an open thread for US vs. Germany going up at 10:00 am. The match is set to start at 11:00 am CST.
Better Amenities. Colleges are trying to improve the fan experience at college football games and a handful of athletic directors were quoted, including our very own Kirby Hocutt:
"We live in this social media world in which people want to be connected and want to converse during games," said Kirby Hocutt, athletic director at Texas Tech, which recently installed a digital antenna system at Jones AT&T Stadium. "It's important to be able to send and receive messages inside the stadium."
Strong Makes Impression. Well, Charlie Strong is making impressions as he gave a talk at a coach clinic in San Angelo and these were some of the comments:
"I think everyone was shocked. It was that bad," one coach told me later.
"It made me miss Mack," one joked.
Another: "If I was the coach at Texas, I would act like I had bigger balls than that."
Strong spoke so rapidly, jamming one sentence on top of another as if he were playing verbal Tetris, that you would have thought he had two minutes, not 20. It was difficult to follow his train of thought or discern the central points being made.
The bulk of the address sounded like something more suited for parents or boosters than people who also coach for a living.
Defensive Success. Lots of ESPN links today as they are asking what would be success for defenses and if Branden Jackson is sacking the quarterback, that's good for Texas Tech:
Texas Tech defensive end Branden Jackson's sack total: The Red Raiders will really need to lean on Jackson, who finished the 2013 season with 44 tackles, including nine tackles for loss, and four sacks. He's a proven commodity along Tech's defensive front so it will be critical for him to, at the very least, match those numbers this fall. If he struggles to be productive, the Red Raiders defensive line could be the weak link of the defense and hamper the team as a whole.
You could also add Pete Robertson to that stat too. If Robertson and Jackson are sacking the quarterback, I'll feel pretty good about the defense.
He's Struggling. Well, No He's Not. In the category of articles that are directly opposite of each other, we have one article that says that Jace Amaro is struggling with learning the plays to another article saying that he's memorized the playbook.
Spread Revolution. From one of our fellow SB Nation NFL blogs, Music City Miracles, takes a look at the implementation of the spread from the colleges to the NFL, including Mike Leach and Kliff Kingsbury.
Smith and Crockett, After Basketball. A short story on how head coach Tubby Smith tries to prepare players for life after basketball:
"We talk academics first," he said. "Then we talk about their careers and then basketball. From there we talk about how they can start to reach those goals, along with social and spiritual goals."
And that would include Jaye Crockett, who has created a basketball camp for kids 7 through high school and has bigger aspirations:
"It's something me and my dad talked about," Crockett said. "It came from me just wanting to build a new rec center in Clovis. I want it to have places where kids can be tutored as well as play basketball. Eventually I want it to get bigger where I can help them get scholarships. My dad said that I need to start somewhere."
Official Visits are Texas Tech and Arizona for Johnson. The #1 rated receiver, Tyron Johnson, from New Orleans said that Texas Tech and Arizona are his two known official visits and he hasn't really thought about the other three at this point.
Miscellaneous. The volleyball team changed a game on their schedule . . . one of the writers for Bring On The Cats went to Brazil to watch the World Cup . . . I'm repeating stuff from a few weeks ago, but that's because someone will post the link, so here it is again, Patrick Mahomes was named the MaxPreps athlete of the year . . .
