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Television Stuff. The official site released this television guide (pdf), but I'm not real sure if it is helpful to me because it doesn't have the channels for each network.
Press Conference Things. I'm really happy to have DoubleTFaithful take over the "pullquotes" part of the what VTM does, not just a posting of the quotes, but talking them out with you and trying to figure out where things are headed. For those of you that just want to cut to the chase, you can find the quotes here (pdf), all of them from head coach Kliff Kingsbury, QB Davis Webb and DE Branden Jackson. You can see some photographs here. The actual press conference of Kingsbury is embedded below. At some point during the year, the hope is that the official site will also release the video of the other coaches that talk, but that didn't happen this week.
JUCO to FBS Isn't Easy. I've been saying (writing) this for year, which is the idea that JUCO players that are able to come in and compete at a really high level immediately is a really tough task for a lot of JUCO players. Not impossible, but it's tough to get to this level and it's tough to catch on that quickly. Not only that, but the idea that this is a much bigger stage than these guys have ever played. Much bigger. Don Williams writes about that and talked to WR Devin Lauderdale to boot about how it's different and more tough to make an impact:
Again and again this August, Tech coaches said the Red Raiders' junior-college newcomers struggled to keep up with the pace set by the Red Raiders' offense. Maybe they thought they were good before. This called for a whole new level of conditioning and thinking on the run.
That goes for offensive and defensive first-timers alike.
Offensive line coach Lee Hays said as much about big lineman Dominique Robertson. Defensive line coach John Scott Jr. said about it Marcus Smith and Brandon Thorpe. Safeties coach Trey Haverty said Josh Keys wrestled with getting into better shape than he'd needed to in the past - then watching Jakeem Grant shoot toward him when he was tired.
Sadler to Redshirt (Right Now), T. Morales Out, Notebook. The LAJ has their notebook of all sorts of things and rather than try to quote, I'll just summarize and send you over to take a look.
* IR Ian Sadler will redshirt this year, at least for the moment as fellow IR Cameron Batson won the punt return spot. Things change quickly and you never know how things will shake out, but right now, this is the plan.
* C Tony Morales injured his knee and is out for a bit.
* Texas Tech has 3,000 tickets available for Saturday's game.
* Vinny Testaverde, Jr. is the third string quarterback right now.
No One Motivates Like Kingsbury. Let's do this.
Coach @TTUKingsbury took out full page ad in the @DailyToreador for 1st day of class today with this message #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/eFxdOV7xCV
— Texas Tech Athletics (@TechAthletics) August 25, 2014
Wilder Works. Pretty neat profile in the Houston Chronicle on 2016 commit S Colin Wilder, who plays for Katy who wants to lead his Katy team to another state title:
"The big focus right now is to win another state championship this season," Wilder said. "I try not to think about anything beyond that, but the guys who have gone on to play at the next level, or those I used to watch that are now in the NFL, that's inspiring to us.
"It's amazing to think about all the things you can get from just being a part of this program."
Miscellaneous. Want to know a bit more about Bret Bielema (because Texas Tech plays Arkansas in a few weeks)? Read this SB Nation longform on the Hawgs and Bielema. Just fantastic . . .
