Texas Tech Wednesday Morning Notes - Give Us Their Best Shot Edition

Double-T Nation News:

Ha! From Bring On The Cats, Group Therapy: Big 12 Football Edition.

Texas Tech Football:

LAJ's Don Williams says that being ranked high means that teams have extra motivation to knock off the Red Raiders. CB Jamar Wall says that he knows that teams want to beat a ranked team:

"Everyone always wants to beat a ranked team," Tech cornerback Jamar Wall said. "With us steadily going up, some people say we’re overrated and all this. They’re going to get pumped up. They always get pumped up to play us for some reason. And now that we’re top-5, it gives them that much more reason to get pumped up, to say they beat a top-10 team."

And Eric Morris agrees:

"I think so," inside receiver Eric Morris said. "That comes along with us finally getting some respect and being undefeated right now in such a great conference. … I think we’re getting a lot of respect that we deserve right now, but we also are going to have a target on our back from here on out, and teams are going to come in and give us their best shot."

LAJ's Don Williams has a couple of items in the Red Raiders Football Notebook, including some background on TAMU defensive coordinator Joe Kines.

The DMN lists 5 significant wins for Texas Tech and 5 for TAMU. My favorite is personal, and although the game was outstanding, it's a day I'll never forget. September 30, 2006 is the day that my grandfather passed away and it was also the day that Robert Johnson caught the ball over his shoulder in the endzone for the game-winning touchdown. I had actually driven to Tulsa that Friday evening to see some law school friends and my mom called me right after that game to let me know. Bittersweet to say the least.

Per DMN's Kate Hairopoulos, the Texas Tech football team had a 79% graduation rate for incoming freshman from 1998 to 2001, is 1st in the Big 12 and is 3rd in the nation. The national average is 67%, so congrats to Coach Dykes, Captain Leach, the support staff and everyone involved in making sure that players graduate. The men's basketball team for that same time period was 50%, but that low number can be attributed to James Dickey's last year's and the turnover in the program after Bob Knight was hired in 2001.

Texas Tech Hockey:

The City Council and the Texas Tech Hockey Club have agreed to a new contract, which calls for the Hockey Club paying an additional $20,000 to rent the City Bank Coliseum. Huh. It came down to money, or rather, more money. Never would have guessed.