Double-T Nation News:

First things first, Mike Leach has NOT signed his extension.

Star-Telegram Archives

Sammy Baugh passed away last night at the age of 94. Baugh, born in Sweetwater, was the greatest ever during his day. Baugh graduated from TCU and was drafted by the Washington Redskins. You can learn a little bit more about Baugh, courtesy YouTube, and yes he's still chewing tobacco at an advanced age. Make sure and check out the FWST for lots of coverage on Baugh, but certainly start with this article:

Though he came to TCU from Sweetwater, Samuel Adrian Baugh was born near Temple on March, 17, 1914. Baugh later moved to West Texas as his father chased a job with the Sante Fe Railroad to stay ahead of the Great Depression.

Once in Sweetwater, Baugh emerged as more of a star on the baseball field than on the gridiron. At 6-foot-2 and with a strong right arm, Baugh was an ideal fit at third base.

He was first spotted by TCU when coach Dutch Meyer was barnstorming through Texas with the Frogs’ baseball team. Texas coach Billy Disch was also interested in luring Baugh out of Sweetwater, and Baugh said he was interested in heading to Austin.

But Disch wouldn’t allow Baugh to play football. So, he packed his bags and headed to Fort Worth in 1933 to join Meyer, who was also the freshman football coach and basketball coach.

Meyer soon took over the football team when Francis Schmidt left for Ohio State. Meyer planned to implement an offense that used short passes, a rarity in an era noted by runs on first and second downs and passes only in third-and-long situations.

Baugh, Meyer decided, would be TCU’s quarterback.

Texas Tech Football:

Congrats to receiver Michael Crabtree and guard Brandon Carter for being named to Sporting News' magazine's 2008 All-American First Team.

Graham Harrell, Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford were all named as The Sporting News' 2008 National Player of the Year. Congratulations to all three of these guys and I think it's pretty cool that the Sporting News recognizes that these three football players each had one hell of a year. Here's Harrell, per FWST's Dwain Price:

"It's a tremendous honor to be named the National Player of the Year,'' Harrell said. "I want to thank everyone at The Sporting News for recognizing just how difficult the Big 12 was this season, and especially the Big 12 South.''

Per FWST's Dwain Price, Captain Mike Leach was named the winner of the Woody Hayes Award, and will be presented the award on February 7, 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. Here's the Captain:

"I’m just thrilled to death and I’m surprised,’’ Leach said. "I’m excited, and it’s truly an honor. "It’s really a thrill, and it’s especially a thrill when you consider how many good teams there are and how many great coaches there are in this country. Especially this year in (the Big 12) conference.’’

Congrats Captain, well deserved.

Per DMN's Brandon George, Michael Crabtree also was named the winner of the Paul Warfield Award. Here's a little info on who Paul Warfield is and congrats to Michael.

Very cool note from ESPN's Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin, Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree, who is only the 16th set of teammates to finish in the top 5 in Heisman voting. Griffin also has an all-too-early look at 2009, with Texas Tech being ranked #14 next year.

Texas Tech Basketball:

It was close for a while, but it turned out to be a real whipping. LAJ's Jeff Walker recounts Texas Tech loss to UTEP, 78-96 (boxscore. Junior Knight harps again on the defense:

"We’ve got to start guarding people," Tech head coach Pat Knight said. "There’s not one guy in that (locker) room that can tell us that they can guard somebody. It doesn’t matter what defense we’re in, we get driven.

"They’ve got to hold each other accountable. We’ve got guys that are chirping at other guys and they’re not getting it done. They’ve got to look at themselves. I don’t want any team meeting or anything like that. They’ve got to look each other in the mirror and figure out what’s wrong."

I think the rebounding and defensive ability of Michael Prince is missed more than we may know and not having Nick Okorie in the backcourt means that Voskuil is having to guard the other team's athletic off-guard (i.e. Stefon Jackson goes off for 28 points). Okorie isn't the best defender, but he's better than Voskuil.

If these guys can get healthy in a hurry, I think you see this team perform better. The longer they're out, I think the more this team struggles.