The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Today, Jarrius Jackson, the leading scorer of the Big XII was dismissed from Texas Tech's basketball team for academic reasons. Knight apparently has left the door open for his return stating that if he does what he's supposed to do then he'll be back.

On one hand, I really think that's great. We all have certain standards that we have to abide by and for whatever reason Jackson did not. On the other hand, it's going to be a long season.

In better news, at 9:21 p.m. the Texas Tech notes for today's DMN were posted. Since Baylor's quarterback, Shawn Bell, went down with a knee injury last week. In a strange exchange, Leach doesn't necessarily believe that Bell is done, but he'll try and review tape on the new starting QB. Huh.

Tuesday Before Baylor

Bad news, three Tech players were arrested and charged with burglary. I'll let you read about the details on your own. You always hope it's not true, but the circumstantial evidence in the newspaper article seems to be pretty clear about the situation.

Tim MacMahon writes a nice article about the Tech wide receivers and the current size and projects the younger wide-outs. Reed and Reese are already pretty good players and I wonder what kind of skills Crabtree will bring to the table. The key of course is to continue to recruit those big and fast wide receivers.

The FWST has a Tech notebook, noting that the offensive line did an excellent job against UT and once again, there are the obligatory complaints by Leach, which I assume are the same quotes from Saturday. Here, Leach mentions that Harrell had the best half he's ever witnessed against UT.

Monday Notes

I hate blaming referees, I really do. Typically, within a given game it all evens out. Some calls go one way and some go the other. But there were so many plays that were affected by the referees. I talked to a UT fan on Sunday morning and his comment was UT seemed to get the benefit of more than a couple of calls. Don't get me wrong, I know that sometime this season, the shoe will be on the proverbial other foot, but this was an opportunity to completely turn around what has been a less than stellar Texas Tech season so it hurts a little more (enough to not want to write about it all day Sunday). Wrapped up in all of this is Leach voicing his concern about some of these calls. If he doesn't defend his team then he's not doing his job, and he deserves an explanation on some of those calls. It's a tight rope to walk and any fan of any team would expect their head coach to be upset. Despite all of this, I'll post the article which addresses the bad calls here and here and ignore them from this point forward. We all remember the Tech v. OU game last year, right?

Defense:

• I thought this before the game, that we can't tackle and we are a bad defense. We are. We played great for the first quarter, but after that I think we all saw Tech's true colors. We cannot tackle and we let UT just grind it out almost the entire 2nd half.
  
• We should have all been on the same page. Under no circumstances should Sweed be left to go 1 on 1 against anyone. It's a bad matchup for just about anyone, but especially against this defense. That touchdown to Sweed in the corner of the endzone never should have happened as he never should have had single coverage all night long.
• There are times to go for the ball, make a play, try to intercept a pass, but you also have to know if you've got a safety behind you. On the touchdowns by Shipley and Cosby, we never should have let them get behind us. We were playing to win, I don't know why the idea of "bend but don't break" was not being preached to every player. We should not have given up the big play and we did almost all night long.
  
• Kellen Tillman is horrible. I have never seen a linebacker take such a poor angle as he did in trying to catch McCoy as McCoy scrambled for a touchdown. Not only did he take a bad angle, but he gave up on the play. Tillman is a bad player and had another personal foul penalty. What also bothers me is that Tillman cannot catch McCoy. I'm not saying that I expect every player to be able to catch any quarterback, but McCoy does not have great speed and if nothing else, you would expect a linebacker to, at the very least, hold their own against most quarterbacks. Tillman cannot.
• Despite big plays given up by the secondary, which is a lot, I thought they played pretty darn good.
  
• The defensive down linemen played pretty good, but I'd still like to see a little more pressure on the quarterback. I understand that it takes special players to do this, and we don't really have but one (Dawson), but it helps everyone if we can get a little more pressure.
• I thought it before the game and I still think it now, if Tech was to give up 200 yards rushing it was going to be a long day. They did and it was.

Offense:

• I thought Harrell played incredibly poised. For a kid who was under fire for throwing bad interceptions, which he did, he was incredibly calm. When there was pressure he side-stepped the rushing linemen and was able to get off a pass more times than not. He took a sack, but that's okay, we just don't want the bad turnovers.
• Harrell really spread the ball around nicely, almost every receiver was involved.
  
• I still wonder what we're going to do next year when Hicks, Filani and Johnson are all three gone.
• Amendola was more involved than I've ever seen him. Did anyone catch him giving a forearm shiver to one of the Griffin brothers. Don't think that Amendola didn't have him in his sights from the beginning. Amendola was laid out pretty good by one of Griffin brothers in the first drive of the game.
  
• Shannon Woods should be used more often during the game. He can be a weapon, he's catches everything thrown at him and he's a pretty good runner. I think part of the lack of a rushing game has something to do with UT still being pretty good, but I put a lot of the blame on Leach for not utilizing him more.
• The offensive line did an admirable job. I hardly remember a series where it appeared that the offensive line did not pull their weight. There were some times that their penalties really cost Tech, especially in the second half, but I thought they played pretty good.
• Harrell did a really good job of picking up the blitz throughout the game. The times that UT blitzed with effectiveness was not very often. I think at some point UT realized that Harrell was taking advantage of the secondary if they did blitz and they back off into coverage. This is a significant improvement from two and three weeks ago.
• All in all, I can't complain about the offense too much. They score enough to win.
  

Nice article by DMN's McMahon on Harrell's progress. He's maturing before our eyes. I hope we all take notice.

FWST has a nice roundup of this past week's action and looking forward to this weekend.

Off the field and on the court, Rogdrick Craig will miss the entire season with a heart condition. Let's hope this is something that can be fixed, not from a basketball perspective, but from a human being perspective.

Texas 35 Texas Tech 31

I don't have the energy, despite the fact that I've had time to sleep on it, to write completely about this game. Although we could blame the referees for some real questionable calls, I think this loss comes down to a couple of things. The porous run defense, which simply allowed the UT offense to eat up huge chunks of the second half and the pass defense which allowed too many big plays. Poor angles to ball carriers, we still can't tackle to save our life, etc. I thought the offense played well, but something happened in that second half, UT was able to get just a little more pressure on Harrell and I think it affected him. However, I don't blame the offense for this loss despite some of their misgivings.

Too many mistakes.

Too many penalties (Kellen Tillman needs to never see the field again).

UT v. Texas Tech - Game Day Thread

Go Raiders . . .

I think you can listen here. I'll post the box score later today.

Box score.

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - UT v. Texas Tech

Because I missed yesterday I'm attempting to make up some ground with some articles from Friday and all of the previews.

There was a UT v. Tech preview in the USA Today.

Suzanne Halliburton of the Statesman discusses the history between Tech and Texas and the last UT loss was in Lubbock against Tech in 2002. The similarities are a little scary: UT played Nebraska the week before in 2002 and this year and at one point during the UT/Tech game, UT had 8 freshman playing.

A nice preview article from the AP over on Yahoo. Tech says they're more relaxed after last week, we'll see.

Zach Thomas, Wes Welker, and Miami DE, Jason Taylor, all plan to be in town for the game. We so rarely hear about former players coming to the game, but this could be exactly what Tech needs, motivation. I.e., if you work hard you can have this.

This RedRaiders notebook details who might start in place of Vasquez, who still may be injured and further notes the progress of some freshmen linemen. A Tale of the Tape from RedRaiders (honestly, there's nothing special here, other than commenting on each position.)

If I've already posted this article I apologize, but John Miller from the FWST details some of the history between Tech and UT.

DMN's Chip Brown has a preview and an article about today's game and predicts a 31-21 Texas victory.

The Houston Chronicle has a preview here.

Tim Griffin of the EN predicts a Texas 38, Tech 20 victory for Texas. Jeff McDonald goes into some detail about today's game, once again, in injuries for Texas are not an excuse.

Texas Tech's Offense v. Texas' Defense:

• This one is all about turnovers for Tech. Harrell must not fumble or throw away this game, literally. I really believe that his game management will turn this game one way or the other.
• I'm really curious to see how the Tech offensive linemen will match up the more highly recruited Texas players.
  
• Shannon Woods can change the face of this game, he's not Taurean Henderson, yet, but he's pretty darn close. He catches almost everything thrown his way and he's got a really nice burst out of the backfield. He will be a valuable outlet for Harrell if the pressure gets to Harrell.
• I believe that utilizing Hicks as a deep threat will be invaluable. Just let him run and throw the ball to him. Tech must make an attempt to stretch the field and Hicks or L.A. Reed seem to be our best option.
• Let's hope the size of our WR's bothers UT's secondary and the speed of Woods bothers their linebackers.
  

My final prediction: I'm torn. On one hand I read everything about the similarities between this year and 2006. On paper, I believe that Texas is just a more dominant team, obviously, and it would be an incredible upset if Tech was able to pull out a victory. My heart tells me to go with Tech, be a homer, and take a chance. My mind tells me that Tech will make it close, but UT is the better team. To heck with my mind. Texas Tech 34 Texas 28.

Thursday Night

This and this was two of the three articles on RedRaiders.com. Seriously, this is the second biggest game of the season and that's all we get from them. Amazing. Luckily, we get a mailbag and it had a question about the ninja offense, which is something I had completely forgotten. From what I remember, there are three offensive linemen, a quarterback, a running back and two sets of three wide receivers. Leach explains that this package is dependent upon the personnel of a team, and I guess we don't have the personnel.


Terrence Harris of the Chronicle details the offensive woes this year, rehashing the idea that it was a number of facts, not just Harrell. I do like this last quote from Leach: "I think he's comparable to all of them. There are some things he does better," Leach said. "But it's an adjustment for everybody."

I was going to link the two DMN articles, but thought I shouldn't waste anyone's time. It's not worth it to go to the DMN today and probably not tomorrow. Tim MacMahon was busy writing this article about small-town Texas quarterbacks.

The Statesman has one of the two best articles of today. Cedric Golden was able to talk with Kliff Kingsbury about the trials and tribulations of being a Tech quarterback. Reminding Harrell that he went through the same things.

"I always want to see where his head is when we talk," Kingsbury said. "I went through some of the same deals he's gone through this season — the booing, the discontent from the fans and all the extra attention, when I was a sophomore. I tell him all the time that everything will be all right if you keep progressing."

Jimmy Burch's FWST article discusses the inability of UT to break any big runs, which surprised the heck out of me. Only 3 runs for more than 2o yards for the entire season, and two of those runs came last week against Nebraska. Burch gives Tech a definite chance in light of UT's injured defensive front. We'll see, I'm still not sold on Tech being able to stop the run, but if Tech can focus on this then I like our chances. Burch predicts a close game, UT 34, Texas Tech 28.

Wednesday Notes

I jinxed myself, or more likely, the press conferences were yesterday and reporters are out of ideas today, thus we are left with very few links.

The DMN has their daily article and it follows along much of what was discussed yesterday, that Leach has inspired/convinced/demanded this team to be more cohesive, which I still maintain, whether Leach forced or not, is a good thing.

The lone article from the LAJ is about Colt McCoy. That's not exactly covering Texas Tech football.

Finally, a new article on Leach's actions and reactions this year in relation to the various wins and losses.

As I continue in my quest to become a better writer and my need to have a little more content for this weekend's game, let's breakdown the Texas Tech defense versus the UT offense.

• As I said yesterday, the Tech defense has got to step up. Our linebackers will be heavily counted on to stop the run. Tech has not been very successful throughout the year, granted last week was a good week, but the ISU offense is not that great.
• Colt McCoy is the definition of letting his team do all of the heavy lifting. He has not been asked to change the game and he hasn't tried to do so. He's merely done what's been asked of him. Manage the game, let the game come to you. I was able to watch quite a bit of the UT game last week and it's apparent that he can be prone to mistake, like a lot of young quarterbacks can be, but he doesn't make the devastating mistake (two interceptions in a row within your own 20 to be returned for touchdowns). That's all you can ask of a quarterback.
• Sweed scares me. He's big and fast and that's a bad combination for any team.
• UT is deep at running back, but neither of their main running backs are that big. They are the same type of running back.
• Teams have not thrown on Tech because they really haven't needed to. The lack of proper tackling (I can't believe I'm typing that) has lead to lots of other problems, but it has mainly led to Tech being unable to contain certain offices.
  
• Ideally, I'd love to see Tech's somewhat deep defensive line can control the line of scrimmage and the running lanes, allow the defensive backfield to cover the Texas wide receivers. All of this depends on the linebackers doing their jobs. Making tackles and dropping into coverage.
• I don't think that this game hinges on the Tech defense, but rather turns on whether or not the Tech offense can control the clock to allow the Tech defense to remain fresh throughout the game.
  

Tuesday Before Texas

Wow, Tech plays Texas and there are articles everywhere. The biggest problem I have is where to start.

Edit: I am making these comments prior to reading any of the linked articles, or rather, these are my thoughts before being influenced. If Texas Tech can reduce turnovers (how about one) and reduce the mental mistakes/penalties (how about none) then I think that Tech has a chance. Don't get me started, I think that Texas is superior to Tech as far as athletes, and I think that the past has shown that Tech has real problems avoiding those two aforementioned items, however, I truly believe if we can limit those two items then we'll be in the game. We'll go more into some of the keys to the game later, but for now we have articles.

Chip Brown believes that Texas Tech will play UCLA in the Brut Sun Bowl. I don't know how exciting that is, but I'll take any bowl I can get this year. The most interesting items is that he also predicts that Texas will play Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Huh.

MacMahon from the DMN has a well written piece on the lack of togetherness of the Tech team and the new attitude. I like the insight about the players, that this game had essentially become a job, that they players weren't really young guys learning about life (this was a quote from much earlier, but check out the quote in the Statesman notebook), rather they were older guys getting on with life. There are few teams out there who probably really feel like they are on their own, and I have to believe that Tech is one of them. Don't get me wrong, this is not a "woe is me" thing, but more about the location. Tech is in the middle of no where and because of this we've never had the "studs" that so many other teams have had. We've always been the hardluck underdog. Obviously, I hope that this changes, but all these guys have are each other. They have to rely on each other, I like that. The key of course is keeping with it through this week, even if it is a tough loss.

Maybe I've missed it all year or was subscribed to the wrong newsreader, but the FWST has a Tech notebook. The best note is about the new cohesiveness of the team. The most disturbing note is the porous Texas Tech run defense and the well-oiled Texas running offense. My favorite quote from Leach on what Tech did not need to practice on this week:

"We could practice on not getting hit in the back of the head," Leach said. "It's just be more conscious of little things is all we really need to do."

A Statesman Texas notebook along with a short preview of Tech.

The LAJ has much of the same as linked above. Don Williams notes that Tech must reduce the turnovers, as I mentioned above. As I think about this a little more, this kind of key is common sense. The fewer the turnovers then the more likely you'll have the ball to score, but for Tech it's a reality. We really do need to keep the ball and we could stand to control the clock as I am fearful of the Tech defense being exposed for too long.

The Houston Chronicle goes into detail about the UT injuries, which on some level, is good for Tech.

Finally, FoxSports already has a game preview.

Monday Notes

It's pretty quiet, although I'm sure that things will pick up as the week progresses, considering all major Texas newspapers follow the Longhorns.

Shannon Woods "lobbies" for more touches. I don't know if he's really lobbying for more touches or if the question asked was whether or not he wished he could see more touches during the game. The obvious answer is yes, he would. I would second this as I believe he can be a game changing running back because of his speed and he has size, or at least more size than you assume.

The DMN notebook has a few interesting tidbits, the most interesting was that Fletcher Session started but did not record a tackle. That's disturbing. You would think that a linebacker would just run into the opposing team's running back at least a couple of times. Also, let's not forget Kellen Tillman. My memory is getting more and more foggy as the day continues and I cannot seem to find this information, but I seem to recall the Tech announcers pointing out a very late and unnecessary hit. That's the second one this year and that Tillman has had a 15 yard penalty. That will cost us greatly against the much better teams. FYI - Texas Tech had 14 penalties for 129 yards. That's not good.

A pick-me-up article from D. Williams, LAJ, about Antonio Huffman, who believes that Tech could be doing this every week.

We have "good news". Good in the sense that Tech will not have to face one of Texas' starters this week, DT Derek Lokey, broke his left leg against Nebraska.

Finally, an interesting exchange between DMN beat writer, Tim McMahon and Coach Leach. Good times.

Texas Tech 42 Iowa State 26 - Recap

I listened to the entire game and from what I heard, Texas Tech has a fairly easy victory over Iowa State, although there are still a number of questions leading up to the Texas game.

Here's the box score. along with the AP write-up.

Tech was off to the races very early as Harrell lead Tech down the field for the first score to J. Filani for 30 yards. The problem without seeing this game is that I cannot recall if this was truly a big yardage play. My hope that it is, we need to open things up a bit in order to get the underneath stuff.

B. Stratton intercepts a B. Meyer pass, Stratton's first INT of the year, and 35 yards later, Filani has his second touchdown for 7 yards. ISU gets it's own TD and FG and after one Tech 3 and out, Harrell finds Amendola for 41 yards for another TD. The next possession, ISU drives, but is stalled, punts and Amendola and fumbles, this leads to an ISU touchdown. Amendola makes up for it a little later as Harrell finds him for a 9 yard TD, with a 43 yard pass to L.A. Reed being the component that gets Tech down the field.

A big part of ISU's first drive of the 2nd half was a Filani, roughing the punter penalty, which ended up leading to an ISU touchdown and, naturally, Tech responds with a 32 yard touchdown pass from Harrell to Woods. Prior to this score, the game was the closest it had been all day. At the end of the 3rd, Tech seemed to be firmly in control and Filani gets his 3rd TD of the game in the 4th quarter for Tech's only score.

As the DMN notes, Tech was a lot more footloose and fancy free this game. And Don Williams of the LAJ notes that at some points during the game, Tech used a defensive line that consisted of 4 defensive ends. The LAJ notebook goes into a little detail regarding the Ramirez injury, no one knows, and how Tech filled in for the injured OG. Also, this from Harrell in regards to his progressions on offense:

"Coach said, 'Don't concentrate on getting Hicks the ball. Just go through your reads, and let your reads take you to Hicks,''' Tech QB Graham Harrell said. "I think I did a better job going through my reads and getting him the ball when he was open.''

A little bit from an ISU perspective, from the DesMoines Register.

Finally, perhaps the biggest news, in the Big XII media day, Knight's press conference makes the New York Times, and Kevin Durant, UT freshman, thinks he's a rock star.

Texas Tech 42 Iowa State 26

Initial thoughts:

• Too many dumb personal fouls.
• Sounds like Harrell looked really sharp.
• Also sounds like Johnson droped passes that he probably should not have, but Filani caught almost everything that came his way.
  
• The defense bent but did not break.
• A couple of big play touchdown means we're stretching out the offense a little bit.
• Woods was good today.
  

More to come tomorrow.

Texas Tech V. Iowa State - Game Day Thread

I will be at a wedding tonight and I'm getting this up early. If Yahoo will post the game channel, I'll edit this post.

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - Texas Tech v. Iowa State

Lots of previews this morning.

The DMN is predicting a Tech victory, they see the most important matchup to be between ISU defensive tackle Curvey and Tech OG Ramirez. Personally, I am beginning to have my doubts about whether or not, one on one, Tech can handle a really good defender. We'll see. Also note that the player who needs to step it up is Hicks. Hicks is playing for the NFL and I'd like to see him a little more serious about getting open. Don't get me wrong, Harrell has a lot to do with this equation as well, but the receivers need to find a way to get open. Here are the staff predictions.

The LAJ game preview link has gone bad, so we have an article from Don about the need for both teams to control their turnovers. Bill Parcells makes usually makes it a point every year to discuss how the team with the fewest turnovers wins 80% (or some ridiculous stat) of their games.

Tim Griffin of the EN is predicting a little more lopsided Tech victory.

The Chronicle has no prediction but a small preview.

ISU is getting prepared for the pass, and rightfully so. Tech has got to get their passing attack underway for them to have a chance.

Small Des Moines Register preview with article about aforementioned DT Curvey.

My prediction: I still don't have a lot of confidence in the offense, yet I'm going to predict that Tech will score 4 touchdowns - Texas Tech 28, Iowa State 17.

Thursday Night

The biggest news out of Lubbock today was the new contract extension between Coach Knight and the university, keeping Knight here until the 2011-2012 season. It's interesting that Myers knows that it's about keeping a good face with recruits and I agree. Tech needs to start recruiting more high school players than juco players. I don't think I'm revealing anything earth-shattering here, but programs are better, long term, with 4 year players and it looks like everyone else is on the same page.

For what it's worth, the EN is picking Tech to win this weekend.

A sobering (I know, this is the second time I've used that word in a week) LAJ article about the deficiencies of the Texas Tech defense. Setencich admits that the first touchdown given up on Saturday against Colorado was a full 7 man blitz. I have two questions: 1) Why would we blitz 7 guys? That's just crazy. 2) Do we have the secondary to cover for the 7 man blitz?

My first thought is that if any team blitzes 7 guys and you don't get to the quarterback then you're in trouble. Obvious. We have to blitz 7 guys because we've been unable to get to the quarterback with more traditional methods, i.e. with a 5 man or 6 man front. Setencich goes so far to say:

"What people get excited about is seven Keyunta Dawsons coming,'' Setencich said, referring to the rush end who's one of the fastest players on the Tech defense. "They see the swarm. That's what they get excited about. We don't have seven Keyunta Dawsons. They see a swarm of guys and want us to do it. It's not what we do well.''

So, we don't blitz well. That's fine, I can live with that, however, the next problem with blitzing 7 players is that it puts tremendous pressure on the secondary. I do not claim to have the most accurate idea of the athletic ability of our secondary, but leaving 4 guys out to dry like that is just not fair. Setencich has to know the limitations of the defense. Play to win, guy.

Although, it's kind of ironic that the Des Moines Register notes that the Cyclones are susceptible to the blitz. Will Setencich be tempted to blitz if he knows that one of a team's weaknesses is picking up the blitz? My money is on that he will, he's got nothing to lose.

Wednesday Notes

Nothing in any paper today. Nothing in the DMN, nothing.

Thankfully, the LAJ has a really informative notebook today where there are a couple three notes:

1. Robert Johnson is practicing. This is a good thing. It's really difficult to figure out why he was suspended for last week's game and to speculate isn't going to make this any better. He can be a real important part of this offense and he needs to be out there.
2. Offensive lineman Brandon Carter is being punished internally. Carter is doing body rolls which is a form of punishment. Leach notes that he's a young kid who has made a mistake. I agree, it's obvious he's in the wrong, and unless there's a suit filed, this should be the end of this incident.
3. Finally, there's some decent insight on the depth of communication between the quarterback and the wide receiver. For whatever reason, lots of fans expect a new QB to be able to run this system without flaw and to perfection. Obviously, it's much more difficult than most of us realize or understand. There's probably a lot of nuance within a certain play that we really don't get.
   

I like this quote: "Just before halftime Saturday, Harrell threw a pass for a route that inside receiver Eric Morris didn't run, and the ball was picked off.

Holgorsen said Morris sensed that the play had been changed, but didn't get the audible and couldn't get Harrell's attention in time. He ran a corner route, which was the original call, and Harrell threw a deep vertical, which was what his route had been changed to."

Good stuff.

Last but not least, there's an article from Lubbock Online regarding Damir Suljagic and his return to play. But more than that, I did not realize that there are 7 newcomers this year:
"Headlining this year's class is 7-footer Esmir Rizvic and guards Charlie Burgess and Benny Valentine.

Rizvic is the tallest player in the Knight era since 6-foot-11 center Andy Ellis, who played for Knight in his final season when Knight was in his first year at Tech.

Burgess was named the NJCAA Player of the Year last year. He and Valentine led Howard College to a 35-2 record, the best in Hawks' history."

By the way, the aforementioned Lubbock Online article requires a subscription, go to BugMeNot to avoid having to sign up.

Tuesday Before Iowa State

We have some pretty good content today. The first from the DMN, where Tim McMahon has some pretty sobering numbers on the vaunted Texas Tech passing attack. The one negative that I'll point out is that Tim mentions that the modest numbers provided are swayed by the SE Louisiana drubbing, but there would be teams like this in each year, not just this year, so it's really not a fair exception. Nevertheless, Leach is confident that Harrell just has some growing pains to go through (which I believe wholeheartedly).

Leach also admitted that it was a mistake to replace Harrell. Quite frankly, I'm glad that he made the admission. I never understood why, I guess it's always a case of the grass is greener on the other side, fans think that the head coach doesn't know who to play at quarterback. I've got to imagine that Leach, who's seen his fair share of quarterbacks knows a thing or two about talent. I will continue to believe that Leach knows what he's doing, especially with the quarterbacks. We just have to be patient.

The DMN also has some notes regarding the strides the Texas Tech pass defense is making, but is quick to point out the struggling run defense. Something needs to be done about the run defense, I would start with tackling.

In a LAJ notebook, Leach is quoted about the Harrell decision:

"Graham's our quarterback," Leach said, "and I probably shouldn't have pulled him (Saturday). I thought it was more disruptive than positive. I thought it was (a) good (move) the Missouri game. I don't think it was smart this last game."

I like a coach who isn't afraid to make some mistakes, especially with a struggling team. I also like a coach who realizes his mistakes after the fact.

Don Williams (LAJ) has a nice article about the lack of this team being a cohesive unit. There's a lot of good quotes here that I'll have to breakdown when I have a little more time.

I like this note about Leach and chicken fighting from the DMN College blog.

Monday Notes

There's very little news out there. Most of the news deals with the two incidents I linked to on Sunday morning: Hicks being pulled back from the crowd and Brandon Carter spitting on some fans. I really don't know what to think about Carter other than he's a RS freshman, however, we now have two incidents where Tech players are reacting to fans way too much.

The only real article is from the LAJ, and Leach emphasizes that he has not given up on this team. This is really a time where Leach shines. As I said before, I think Leach is pretty damn intelligent and he knows that with young players he only had one bite at the apple and that was against TCU. He has not given up on the team and I'm not surprised. Previously, when Texas Tech had little to no talent, Tech won and it shouldn't be any different now. Leach knows that empowering this team a little bit certainly can't help and I think that his belief that there's a lot of games left to play should not be lost on this team.

I've thought about this often, but for whatever reason, I think there are some real talent issues here. Not necessarily with the offense (I think their problems are because of chemistry), but with the defense. Any division I team should be able to hold an opponent for less than 200 yards rushing. I said early in the year that I thought that Tech seemed more athletic on defense early in the year, and it appeared that Tech was rotating more players. I still believe those to a point, but there does not appear to be any difference makers on this team and we're at least one or two special players away from making a difference on offense.

The other killer is turnovers. You just can't expect to win with so many turnovers without the defense creating some as well. I think we very well know that Harrell is the main culprit here and he's got to cut down on the fumbles and interceptions for Tech to have a shot a winning games. This is a reasonable request. I really think that the game is going to slow down for him at some point during the year. Let's just hope that it happens sooner than later.

Iowa State is next.

Texas Tech 6 Colorado 30

The only ones who saw this game were the ones who were there. I'm glad I didn't have to sit through this game. All I have to go on is they Yahoo play-by-play and that's not pretty. There were one or two plays with each drive where Tech got some decent yardage, but no sustainable drive. Todd replaced Harrell at the beginning of the second half and I think he put to rest any quarterback controvery. Both of these guys are stuggling and I'm not sure where to start.

Here's the box score.

Leach claims that it's a chemistry issue. I guess he's the only one who really knows that, but it's apparent that this frustation is boiling over. Here's just two events from this weekend, none of which involved Harrell flipping off a stadium.

"The frustrations were apparent. Split end Jarrett Hicks, held without a reception, had to be pulled away from fans who were taunting him as he walked toward the locker room. Backup offensive lineman Brandon Carter spit on a Colorado fan who was razzing him as Carter headed up the ramp."

Players and coaches are both frustrated. That may be both a good sign and a bad sign. It may be good in the sense that this team is ready to start working, simple fundamentals. It may be bad in the sense that players may want to give up on the season.

Here's some startling numbers:

Tech had 7 penalties, Colorado had 0.
Colorado ran for 249 yards.
Colorado averaged 8.9 yards per attempt.
Harrell had 3 interceptions.
Tech had 97 yards in the first half, total offense.
Tech did not have a touchdown for the first 3 quarters, a first in the Leach era.

From the number of rushing yards gained by Colorado, I'm assuming that Texas Tech still does not know how to properly tackle a football player. We should probably look into that pretty soon.

Texas Tech v. Colorado - Game Day Thread

Go Raiders . . .

Saturday Morning Preview - Texas Tech v. Colorado

I ran across this article while visiting the Tech - Yahoo site, which I rarely do, and in fact I usually only do this on game day. But here's an article which describes a scene from last Saturday night where Graham Harrell, flipped off the stands. Was this wrong? Yes, I read some message boards last night where a number of people made it clear that they felt it was wrong. Great, I think we can all agree that giving your home fans the finger is not appropriate. I really don't think this is the question, the question is if Harrell has the temperament to be a quarterback. If we take a step back, which we should, I think that Harrell's just a kid and the minute that he did that he was probably wrong. He probably let his emotion get the best of him and he probably knows that. Let's not make a mountain out of a mole hill, if it happens again then we probably have an issue, but if he doesn't then this is completely forgotten.

On to game previews:

DMN - predicts a Tech victory if the offense can step it up. In particular, there's the note that Colorado has a terrible pass defense. I thought last week we were all licking our chops at Mizzou's young cornerbacks? Let's hope we take more advantage of the defensive backfield that we did last week.

SEN - predicts a Tech victory.

LAJ

The LAJ has dueling quarterback controversy articles up, the first is why Todd should replace Harrell and the second is why Harrell should stay. Please, stop. Replacing the QB in any college can be a slippery slope. There are more reasons to stick with a quarterback than not, but the most important one is consistency and the coach letting kids know that unless they really can't handle the pressure (which I do not think that Harrell falls anywhere close to this category) then the kid stays in at quarterback. You will run off recruits if you flip flop. You stick with the one who brought you. If this year fails as a result of Harrell, then the decision will be final and we'll lose what looks like a really talented quarterback due to a transfer. It stinks, but be patient.

Friday Updates

The biggest news is that two Texas Tech starters are out for Saturday's game (there's much more information in the LAJ article).

First, I previously signed up for to have the privilege to view RedRaiderSports. I thought I would be able to view some things for free. I finally decided that it was an extreme beating to go to the website to only then be denied once you were teased with a headline. That's some of the reason why I'm writing this blog. Don't get me wrong, I have a passion for this, but I don't want to charge people for something that can normally be provided for free. So when I got the email from RedRaiderSports I was intrigued, but I knew that within the hour I'd find out who was being benched and why.

So, what do these suspensions mean? My initial thought is that Johnson's suspension is not a good sign. I've never thought Johnson to be a bad kid, but let's not forget that he left the program when he was told that he wasn't going to run the offense. I have to wonder if his semi-stardom as a WR led to him thinking that he was a little bigger than the team? Of course this is all speculation and I have no way of knowing exactly what's transpired, but as a complete outsider that's all I can really figure. Leach seems to intimate that Johnson's attitude has kept him from this game and it will be Johnson's attitude that will keep him out of future games.

The LAJ Notebook has some notes on starters being more involved with the special teams after the A&M kickoff touchdown return. Some additional information on Todd Walker, he's been practicing at both the split end and flanker position.

Wednesday Notes

Things have quieted down quite a bit and Leach seems to be his usual calm self. In the DMN, Leach agrees that consistency is the problem with Tech this year, and who can disagree with that. It's almost expected with a young quarterback.

The LAJ has a nice preview of Colorado, and consistency seems to be their problem too. The LAJ "notebook" has one note, that Tech is still looking for a game next September. Seriously, that's it. Great coverage. Finally, I really hate letters to the editor, just start a blog.

In non-football related news, i.e. men's basketball, the pre-season all Big XII teams have been released and our Jarrius Jackson made the first team. CollegeHoopsNet has a nice preview of Tech's basketball squad, it seems to me we're really relying on the juco transfers again, but they are predicting an NCAA birth.

Tuesday Before Colorado

The grass isn't always greener. As I said yesterday Leach was clear that Harrell isn't going anywhere. Here in the LAJ and in the FWST (you may not recognize this acronym, there's actually a decent article about the quarterback situation, including this quote.

'There's several good quarterbacks in the country, but I can't think of very many I would rather have than Graham Harrell,' Leach said. 'There's a notion that, 'Oh, I know, let's plug this guy in and it will be perfect.' Whoever your guy is that you have rolling through your head, that you think is pretty good, has already had a bad game or he's going to. Then maybe you can put Graham Harrell in for that guy when that happens.'

We tend to forget that Harrell is very young in a very complicated system. The reason Leach only started 5th year seniors is because this is a difficult offense to master. It's disappointing that Tech doesn't have immediate quarterback success, but it's also not the worst thing that could happen. The other thing to consider is that Texas Tech quarterbacks are not asked to get out of situations with their legs. We haven't seen Harrell scramble out of the pocket at all, and after reading the quotes last week about , and all of this makes a lot more sense. Leach has instilled in his quarterbacks, despite Hodges propensity to run last year, the mindset that you have to get it done in the pocket. Bottom line.

As I also said the week after the TCU loss, Leach realizes that he had one bite at the apple and he's not upset after this most recent loss. I think he's a lot smarter than we all give him credit for and he knows how to push his players.

The LAJ, notes that there's no TV for the Tech v. ISU game and Leach is wary of Colorado.

Monday Notes

Okay, it's been two days and I've had a little time to think about the game. I was thoroughly disappointed with the way that Tech played overall, but here are a couple of notes:

Offense:

• Harrell just can't do that. I know that Leach came out today and said that Harrell is in place for the duration, but Tech has to have the next two games. Harrell has got to look off his receivers, look down the field, the receivers have got to react. This is football and they have to adjust. I thought giving Harrell a break was really nice and Todd is going to be a really good quarterback.
• Why is Hicks getting more looks? He's probably the best receiver on the team. Granted Missouri was completely clogging up the middle and they way they played reminded me of TCU in the sense that they were a very athletic defense. Tech needs to adjust, they're too talented at the skill positions not to do so.
• The offensive line was not at it's best. The run blocking was pretty good, but there were times that Vasquez looked really slow. I have to believe that having a completely healthy lineman out there would have been better than Vasquez. I blame to coaches for that and not Vasquez.

Defense:

• Like I said yesterday, the defense had a lot of passion, but that didn't translate to a great game. They came out over-pursuing and trying to knock the crap out of everyone. The problem with this is that Daniels is a great equalizer when a team is too aggressive and he really made Tech pay for it. Once Tech realized they needed to contain Daniels he abused our secondary.
• For all of the complaining, I just did, the defense held up well for the most part and realistically the 14 points given away in the 2nd quarter were a result of the offense and not the defense.

There really aren't any articles to post, as usual. In fact there's the above referenced articles one other one from the DMN and that's about it. Not even the LAJ has anything ground-breaking.

For the record, I believe that Tech needs to rebound these next two games and hold on for the Texas game. Tech has a great chance to beat OU and OSU, but I'm not counting my chickens just yet. Before I started this blog I always believed that Tech was an 8-4 team this year. Tech only gets 2 more losses for me to hit my prediction. Don't let me down.

I'm Hiding

I couldn't believe my eyes half of the time. I literally sat in my living room in complete shock the second time that Graham threw the interception. Turnovers alone cost Texas Tech that game. Granted, Missouri has a better, faster and bigger defense and Daniels just didn't make the mistakes that Harrell did. I will have a better handle on all of this tomorrow, try and get back into the swing of things. The one thing that really bothers me is that Leach got his one bite at the apple with the loss against TCU. Now, he has to simply make some changes. It is amazing that the defense will try and take someone's head off, but won't actually tackle someone. Nevermind, this will have to wait until tomorrow.

Colorado is up next week.

Saturday Morning Preview - Missouri v. Texas Tech

This is a really big game. The way both of these teams are playing, it could really go either way. I don't know enough about Mizzou to know if they have the physical talent that Tech has or if Tech's defense will step up and stop the run this week. Quite simply, I'm glad that this game is in Lubbock. We sit at 4 point favorites, and I think that 4 points may be too much. I'm glad the game is on TBS, there's nothing wrong with a little national exposure for two top 25 programs.

I will post a game day thread, I promise.

There's only a few Saturday morning previews and some local Mizzou coverage:

Texas Tech @ Yahoo.

DMN.

LAJ.

EN.

Here's a little on the Mizzou offense.

Two really great breakdowns of the game from The Columbia Daily Tribune writer, Dave Matter (honestly, this is really good stuff).

Thursday Night

Tim McMahon of the DMN is actually doing a little writing over at the news and he has an interesting take on the what Leach thought was the biggest differences between Harrell and Daniels. Leach perceived Daniels to be more of a running quarterback, but liked Harrell's accuracy. Tim has a follow up on the DMN blog about Leach not really seeing the need for a "strong-armed" QB, and honestly, I can't blame him. I believe that a quarterback's best asset is what's between the ears. Granted, he's got to be able to throw the ball, but all things being equal, it may be more important to have a smarter QB than a stronger QB. Tim steps it up further and 6 minutes later points out why Tech will never have a running QB in their system. Quite simply, that takes time away from the passing game. Last but not least, the Mizzou DB's will be very young on Saturday, much like last week.

A lot of love to Jarrett Hicks and his effect on the game. Leach has always maintained that for this offense to work properly, Texas Tech needs at least 4 quality receivers. Hicks' presence truly helps the rest of the receivers by taking pressure off of them.

I don't get this, this article was on the LAJ website. For whatever reason I thought it was blasphemy to have any articles other than articles about Tech on this website.

Wednesday Notes

It's the OU/Texas weekend so it seems that all of the attention is focused on that rivalry as there seems to be little to no news regarding the other matchup between two top 25 teams.

In fact there's no new articles from the DMN, nor any blog entries on their college blog regarding Tech. The only two articles I could find was this at the LAJ regarding Pinkel's rebuilding job and how the Mizzou secondary is chomping at the bit to play against Tech.

Yawn.

I hope to have some better information tomorrow night, or better yet, I hope that these "major" newspapers are not sending all their reporters to report on one game. You would think that they would have more resources than that.

Who Does That?

I haven't posted since the game. I had a death in the family, and was out of town for a number of days.

I was only able to watch the 2nd half of the game and the one thing that I came away with from the game was this, who does that? Who goes for it on that particular play? That entire drive I kept thinking that we simply needed to go for the field goal, tie the game and hope we can win it in overtime. Graham was not thinking the same thing. He saw the man pressure and made the only call he should have made. It truly was a thing of greatness. It wasn't fair to that defensive back. The only thing he did wrong was not look back at the ball, other than that he was there. One of the best games I've watched in a really long time. I have yet to go back and review the game, I'll get to that as time allows, but I think that most everyone has detailed Texas Tech's offensive genius in the 1st half and A&M's ability to control the clock in the 2nd half. I thought the defense stood up pretty well, but I did scream at the television that the option was "high school." I really don't know what I meant by that.

Because I lack time, I'll give you numerous links to newspapers.
DMN:
1. Texas Tech remembers the whoppin' last time Tech played Mizzzou.
2. Leach blames the offense for the time of possession.
3. Harrell passes a big test.
As as aside, when is the DMN going to designate a beat reporter to Tech and the Big 12? There is so much upheaval at that newspaper, it is going to cause it's own demise.

LAJ:
1. Red Raider notes.
2. Harrell and Daniels.

Fox Sports Texas Tech v. Mizzou preview.