Double-T Nation News:

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year.

I took my wife to the Dallas Maverick game last night, witnessed history, and as a result, that's two nights that I haven't done squat for you guys.

Good friend of DTN, Steven Leija, is taking a ton of photos leading up to Friday's game with Ole Miss and you can see all of those photos on his site, SidelinePros. Lots of good photos to scroll through and there's one of Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree that I'd like to put on my bedroom wall if my wife would let me.

DTN Appointments:  Make sure and check back tomorrow, there's a basketball game tomorrow afternoon (it's on TTTN) and I'll be posting my prediction thread tomorrow morning as well.

DTN's Top Three:

1. The NY Times Year in Pictures.
2. The always funny, Adventures of the Big 12: New Year's Eve Edition from Bring On The Cats.
3. Rush The Court checks in on the Big 12.

Texas Tech Football:

LAJ's Don Willliams has a few stories this morning, including Captain Mike Leach being a fan of Ole Miss' offense:

"The thing is, they’re unique," Leach said. "You don’t get to see it all the time. Stuff comes at you from different angles. But there’s nothing gimmicky about it, because they understand that the most important thing you do on offense is block. The other thing is they use the whole field, and they put it in everybody’s hands. That’s why it’s a great offense. The uniqueness makes it that much tougher."

And Williams notes that this quote was taken later, but it's hilarious:

"Everybody thinks that if you run it between the tackles you need to be knighted as a sainted offense, just because you’re really boring and people see it all the time," Leach said. Feigning an impersonation, he continued with: " ‘Oh well, if we wanted to score 40 points a game, we would, but we want to do this.’ No, you don’t want to do that; you just don’t have any imagination.

"Sadly in our case, Mississippi’s not one of those teams. They put it in everybody’s hands and they do attack the whole field, and that’s why they’re a problem for everybody."

Williams also files a Cotton Bowl Notebook.

DMN's Brandon George transcribes Captain Leach's funny story from yesterday's press conference.

And to bring the room down a bit, it's amazing what we learn, but DMN's Brandon George details the story behind linebacker Bront Bird's mother who passed away about a week before last year's Gator Bowl. I'll just pull one blockquote, but go read the whole thing:

"The guys on this team did a great job and helped me and got me ready to play again and took my mind off things," Bird said. "I can't thank them enough for what they did for me."

FWST's Dwain Price features right tackle Marlon Winn who is playing for his mother who has been on dialysis since 2006. Teammate and fellow lineman Brandon Carter talks about Winn:

"He doesn’t openly talk about his mom, but with guys he really trusts, he’ll talk about it," offensive right guard Brandon Carter said. "She has been struggling for a while now, and it’s always been on his mind for however long that I’ve known him.

"But he’s always done a great job coming out and playing as well as he can without any problems. He is a pretty close family guy and he cares for his mom."

Good stuff.

Price also has a notebook with additional notes about Friday's Cotton Bowl game.

Neglected Video: Fox34 on the Harrell family, including Sam Harrell and his brother Clark . . . News Channel 11 with reports from the Cotton Bowl (click on the video player) . . .