Texas Tech Wednesday Morning Notes - I've Been Fortunate Edition

Double-T Nation News:

My schedule for the next couple of days is to lay low the rest of today and tomorrow. If there's some sort of breaking news, I'll be able to get to a computer, but I may be a tad bit late. I'll hopefully be posting the preview of the secondary, special teams and coaching all before next week's game.

DTN's Top Four:

1. Dawg Sports "Don't Bet On It!" featuring the Cotton Bowl.
2. Rush The Court checks in on the Big 12.
3. ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin empties out the mailbag.
4. Griffin also ranks the best Big 12 games of the year. Wanna guess what was #1?

Texas Tech Football:

I still love this story.

LAJ's Don Williams features Lynnwood, a.k.a. junior kicker Matt Williams and his incredible journey to be the starting kicker for the Texas Tech Red Raiders:

Three months ago, with his name drawn at random, Williams stepped from the game-night crowd at Jones AT&T Stadium and made a now-famous field goal as part of a promotion for Lynnwood Townhomes. Two months ago, after his eligibility was established, he converted all nine extra points in his first game.

That was all it took.

Overnight, his life changed.

"It was tough on schoolwork," he said, "because I used to be able to go home and chill after school. I’d be done at 1 o’clock every day. I could just go home and play Xbox if I wanted to. But now, I’ve got to go to practice. Then I’ve got to schedule time to do my homework and that kind of stuff."

Per LAJ's Don Williams, Captain Mike Leach is the recipient of the FieldTurf / Howie Long Division I-A coach of the year:

"I’ve been fortunate enough to win several," Leach said. "I think it speaks well of our program and the people I get to work with."

I'm going to dwell on the contract situation a little bit here and I'm sure that everyone is tired of hearing/reading about it. We just want a resolution, which may never happen.

In any event, I remembered that earlier in the year I linked to a story in NewsOK which compiled all of the Big 12 assistant coaches' salaries. It's been rumored that the reason Leach hasn't signed his contract is because he wants more money for his assistant coaches. The table linked above clearly shows that Texas Tech assistant coaches rank #9 in the Big 12, more than $500,000 behind the top two schools, Texas and Oklahoma State. I have no idea if it's true that Leach is holding out for his coaches, but if he is, then I think we can understand why.

In the LAJ's Williams' Red Raiders Football Notebook, Williams talks with offensive line coach Matt Moore about the tremendous Ole Miss defensive line:

"They’re very comparable to Texas with their front four," Moore said, "but Texas doesn’t have the depth they have. Their second four are better than Texas’ second four. They’re that good. I think they are."

Moore called Jerry "the energizer" of Ole Miss’ defensive line. He said the senior defensive tackle sets a tone for the entire defensive line to play hard.

As for Hardy, Moore compared him to Texas’ All-America defensive end Brian Orakpo.

"He shows flashes of being as good if not better than Orakpo," Moore said. "He’s 6-4, 265, and he plays heavier than that, really, when he wants to. He’s a really good athlete."

Ummm . . . wow. Williams is also reporting that cornerback De'Shon Sanders, you remember, the guy arrested for suspicion of dealing cocaine is still practicing with the team. Here's the Captain:

"If I find out he’s guilty I’ll cut him in a second," Tech coach Mike Leach said, "but it doesn’t appear to me he’s guilty."

Well, alright.