Texas Tech Sunday Morning Notes - Struggling for Content Edition

by Seth C on Jul 13, 2008 7:22 AM CDT Comment 5 comments

Texas Tech Football:

Perhaps the most interesting (and lone) article this morning is from Samuel McKewon of the Nebraska State Paper, who makes the case that the Big 12 will unseat the SEC as the nation's best conference this year. One thing that McKewon did, which I thought was an interesting exercise this morning, was to take each team from the SEC and Big 12 and put them in a head-to-head matchup. Below is the list from McKewon (he put the teams in order) with my winner (underlined) and comment by me:

Oklahoma/Georgia (both return so much, but I think the Bulldogs win it all, with OU very close)
Missouri/Florida (I think Mizzou is underrated by most folks and they return quite the defense)
Texas Tech/LSU (LSU is a little unsure at QB right now, although LSU has the defense to stop the Air-Raid. I'm also hesitating on this pick quite a bit, which means that I'm completely unsure)
Kansas/Alabama (I'm not sure how much Saban has improved Alabama, but I still don't think Kansas has the level of talent as Alabama, despite Shula. I've hesitated longer here than any other matchup)
Texas/Tennessee (I like Texas this year and UT/Vols have to replace their QB)
Oklahoma State/Auburn (both offenses still struggle at times, but give me Auburn's traditionally good/great defense)
Nebraska/Mississippi State (I have no idea what Nebraska is going to do this year, they're not a bad football team, but do they have the pieces that Pelini needs/wants, give me Croom)
Texas A&M/Arkansas (in terms of talent, this should be TAMU, although I have no idea how the Aggies' o-line holds up)
Colorado/South Carolina (I think the Buffs are a little underrated by most)
Kansas State/Kentucky (KSU returns their QB but with 19 JUCO's, I don't have a clue how good they will be, but Kentucky is replacing Woodson)
Iowa State/Ole Miss (ISU is bad)
Baylor/Vanderbilt (just because it will be Briles first year as a head coach, I think he makes the program better eventually)

So I have the the teams going 6-6 (completely unintentional, I thought I'd pick a winner), a draw. What about you?

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Comments

SEC

I still think that the SEC has a strong hold as the powerhouse conference in college football. I think that the Big 12 would be lucky to go 5-7 in these match-ups, but it probably would be something more like 4-8 or 3-9

by jake_the_snake on Jul 13, 2008 2:13 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Great Games!

The rest of the college football world would be completely blown over if they would actually schedule these games. Most of these matchups would be great games and command top TV billing (and revenue).

Assuming these games were played on neutral ground with no home field advantage, I think your assessments (guesses) are pretty good.

Wes Welker can't be stopped.

by 10forTech on Jul 13, 2008 4:15 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

thoughts

Florida has the speed on defense to control Missouri, and Missouri wouldn’t have an answer for Tim Tebow. They faced a bigtime team with an offense and a defense twice last season, and lost both times, to OU.

Kansas would beat ‘Bama. ‘Bama is not very good, don’t buy the hype. Maybe they’ll improve in Saban’s second season, but at the end of the year, they had no starting QB and a defense that couldn’t stop the run. Maybe McElroy will step up for them.

Nebraska-Mississippi State would be a great defensive battle, I think, with both teams just pounding each other with their running games, but I think Nebraska would come out on top. Their problems on defense were as much from attitude as from lack of talent. Improve the attitude, improve the effort, and they can beat MSU.

LSU-Tech is a toss up right now. While I would give LSU the edge in simply being able to play in and perform in big-time games, their head coach is still Les Miles, and his balls being bigger than his brain almost got him into trouble several times last season. I think LSU’s defense would give Tech trouble, but I could also see Tech winning it in a shootout. That’s why it’s a toss up.

by Beergut on Jul 14, 2008 12:11 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I probably

tend to over-rate Missouri after what they’ve done to TT the last two years, but it seemed to me that their defense would be equipped to handle Florida. Again, I’m probably not a good person to ask.

Go Raiders . . .

by Seth C on Jul 14, 2008 6:17 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs