Tuesday, October 24, 2006

 

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.

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