Texas Tech Monday Morning Notes - Playing Another Great Opponent Edition

Double-T Nation News:

Chris Brown from Smart Football emailed me last night and asked if I was a little hard on Graham Harrell and his "B" performance and after a night's sleep on it, I think so. I fully admit that I'm harder on Harrell than I am with most other positions because I have an expectation of perfection with Harrell that I don't with other positions. Chris also wondered if naming Crabtree my offensive MVP was the right call, again, perhaps it should have been Harrell. My rational for naming Crabtree is because no one else in the country could have made the play that Crabtree made. Don't get me wrong, the stones that it took for Harrell to make that throw were unbelievable, and it's is sort of a chicken-or-egg argument, you can't have one without the other, I just thought that Harrell put the ball in a place where Crabtree could have made the play, and Crabtree sure as hell did. Thus, I'm asking you (poll should be at the bottom of this post) who is Saturday night's Offensive MVP?

Again, Smart Football is one of the more well-written websites on the internets and Chris' opinion is one that I highly respect. The guy knows his football. Chris wrote a piece on Texas Tech's win on Saturday and it's got a ton of great points that I overlooked on Sunday.

Texas Tech Football:

LAJ's Don Williams says that the game was won with the men up front. Quarterback Graham Harrell credits his offensive line:

"Offensively, they’re probably the biggest part of why we won," Harrell said of his linemen.

Snip

"I don’t think anyone felt like if they just go straight up that they were going to beat our offensive line," Harrell said. "Those guys are so good. So Texas did a good job trying to mix it up, showing us some things they hadn’t shown us, but our offensive line adjusted. They played great all night. They gave me time all night. We ran the ball well all night."

Meanwhile, defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill says that he knew that his defense would need to attack and contain all at the same time:

"We knew we had to attack to try to control the run and, at the same time, you’ve got to control Colt," said Ruffin McNeill, Tech’s defensive coordinator.

Snip

"I didn’t pressure him tonight always - I was thinking about this and that - but I felt good about our pressure from up front," McNeill said. "Those guys were able to get to him. I was glad that happened. I was glad we were able to control the run game. I was very happy with the tone we set, to be honest."

There are a couple of LAJ articles worth mentioning, including Texas Tech fans from around the world getting together to watch the win, while Texas Tech officials were congratulated on the win.

The DT with a game recap by Alex Ybarra, Adam Coleman on the Longhorns not pointing fingers after the last play, a roundup of ESPN's College GameDay reactions, including video from Lee Corso and a pretty cool Texas vs. Texas Tech slideshow.

FWST's Jimmy Burch writes that Texs Tech still has a tough road ahead. Ruffin McNeill and Colby Whitlock seem to have the right attitude:

The rest of Tech’s journey along this uncharted path will be governed by intangible qualities such as work ethic, focus, consistency and desire. Corso made it clear that he questions Tech’s makeup in those areas.

Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil disagrees.

"This is a team that handles adversity well," McNeil said. "They really push themselves. Beating Texas ... was a great win for our program."

But it needs to be a stepping stone, rather than a final destination, if the Red Raiders want to establish staying power at the top of the polls.

"I am real excited about this win and how the defense played," said defensive tackle Colby Whitlock, who recorded a safety on Tech’s first defensive snap.

"But if we don’t come out here [against OSU] and get another 'W,’ this win doesn’t mean much to us. I look forward to coming back and playing another great opponent."

It is, after all, Tech’s biggest game of the year.

At least for this week.

ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin has your Big 12 divisional tie-breaker rules and scenarios as to how he believes the season finishes and a few observations after the Texas Tech game, including this:

Texas Tech is the only team in the Big 12 that controls its destiny. If the Red Raiders win the rest of their games, I have to believe they will jump past an undefeated Alabama or Penn State into the national title game. The strength of the Big 12 Conference would enable the Red Raiders to rocket into the Orange Bowl for a shot at the national championship. All they have to do is when their next four games.

The NY Times is all about Texas Tech, beginning with Thayer Evans on your Captain Leach, an Evans recap of Saturday's win and Pete Thamel on keeping Leach in Lubbock.

RRS.com's Robert Giovannetti wrote a piece last week on what it means to be a Red Raider and Joe Yeager writes that the Texas vs. Texas Tech game was not just another great game.

SAEN's Mike Finger breaks down the Big 12 South with great detail. This is good stuff.

After the jump are two videos from ESPN's Road Trip that are pretty entertaining (DTN reader Tech Pirate posted these as a FanPost also).