Texas Tech Monday Morning Notes - It Wrecks Today Edition

Double-T Nation News:

My thoughts on Saturday's game are here or below this post. Since I was at the game and then traveling on Sunday I obviously haven't had time to link or read anything. I get back on the wagon this morning, and as I said yesterday, Baylor isn't going anywhere and Robert Griffin is scary-good.

Texas Tech Football:

I did want to point out LAJ's Don Williams' article from Sunday. If you haven't read it, you should.

On to today. Also from the LAJ Williams writes about how the Red Raiders are moving forward with their goals still in mind. Here's Ruffin McNeill on the team and moving forward:

"The team has accomplished a lot this year,’’ Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said Sunday. "One game doesn’t make the season. We have a great core of leadership. Our leadership will respond. They responded today.’’

Snip

"There’s a lot of things that we have accomplished as a team that the team can still be proud of, and there’s a lot of season left for this team to accomplish things,’’ McNeill said. "That was the mood of the team (Sunday). They were disappointed, as all of us were. But we have a 24-hour rule. That’s about up. The leaders were ready to move on to the next one.’’

And here's Captain Leach throwing his team under the bus (sarcasm):

"It sours today. It wrecks today. It’s disappointing today,’’ he said. "But it doesn’t wreck what they’ve done. It doesn’t wreck the quality of the things they’ve done and how they’ve overachieved througout the year and how I think they’ll continue to.’’

Snip

"Maybe our guys got body punched a little by our schedule,’’ Leach said, referring to three straight November games against top-10 teams. "We need to be able to prepare and work around it, get up one more time, and so we didn’t. I think we overreacted and over-tried and fell short, but this team’s got a tremendous amount to be proud of. I’m incredibly proud of our group.’’

LAJ's Don Williams Red Raiders Football Notebook with some updates on Texas Tech and national records:

On the dismal night, Crabtree did become the fourth player in Tech history to top 3,000 yards in career receiving. He has 3,034.

Crabtree moved past Carlos Francis (3,027). This week, he can break the school career record by overtaking Lloyd Hill (3,059) and Wes Welker (3,069).

Tech quarterback Graham Harrell’s three touchdown passes gave him 128 for his career. That’s three away from the major-college record held by Colt Brennan, who was a senior last year at Hawaii.

DMN's Chuck Carlton talks with BCS guru Jerry Palm and sums up what Texas Tech needs to happen in order to oplay for the national championship:

What's left: A home game against Baylor and a lot of hoping and waiting. First the Red Raiders have to rebound from Saturday's huge loss at Oklahoma and avoid a hangover against an improved Bears team. Then they have to hope for Oklahoma to lose at Oklahoma State.

Chances are: Long, but not impossible. BCS guru Jerry Palm still gives Tech a chance to reach the national championship game if Oklahoma loses. In Palm's scenario, Tech holds the head-to-head tiebreaker on Texas, could win the Big 12 title and finish 12-1 by beating Missouri.

FWST's Gil Lebreton writes that the schedule for Texas, Texas Tech and TCU weren't kind to either team:

In hindsight, the Big 12’s best teams this season all benefited from the delayed start to the conference season.

By the time Tech had pirated and plundered its way through Eastern Washington, Nevada, SMU and Massachusetts, the Red Raiders had built a handsome, unblemished nest egg.

And once Tech, Missouri and Oklahoma State had risen high in the rankings, their position within the relative scheme of things had been established. Five Big 12 teams remain in the nation’s top 12.

The Big 12 didn’t start playing conference games until the first weekend in October. The Southeastern Conference and Big Ten, to name just two, were already playing league games.

Besides, welcome to our world, the SEC schools would argue. Maybe the Big 12 coaches can understand now what all the whining and moaning was about when the SEC teams complained about how deep and challenging their conference was.

Texas Tech Basketball:

The Red Raiders clamped down defensively (sarcasm) and beat Eastern Kentucky on Saturday afternoon (boxscore) and face Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday night. In the EKU game, Alan Voskuil hit 8 three-pointers, setting a Texas Tech record in the process:

"I was just going down and letting it go," said Voskuil, who finished with a game-high 28 points. "Every time it went up, I felt like it was going in. I just kept shooting."

Junior Knight felt that the team did well on Saturday, but the intensity dropped in the second half:

"Our intensity really dropped, I thought," he said. "We had a great first half, offensively, defensively, one of the best halves since we’ve been here. … The same thing happened against Sam Houston and (Saturday). Instead of doubling the score, you kind of play lackadaisical, get comfortable and it allows teams to come back. … When you’re up by 20, you should win by 40."

Snip

"This is what we wanted. We wanted to push it up. We wanted to score," Knight said. "We want to mix it up defensively. We’re giving up some points, but I think we’re more aggressive defensively. … I like what I see so far, but it’s not close to being a finished product. I like what I see so far."