Double-T Nation News:

Tonight's a big night for former Red Raider Danny Amendola as he is still on the bubble to make the Dallas Cowboys. Send good thoughts and mojo in and around the Irving, Texas, area tonight.

DTN's Top Five:

1. A big welcome to SB Nation Big Ten-centric blog, The Rivalry, Esq.
2. Paul Lukas of UniWatch takes a look at the college football teams with new uniforms.
3. Wow. If you followed the Sonics/OKC saga, then you'll know that the guy who writes the blog SonicsCentral, Brian Robinson, got served.
4. Congrats to Alabama, who have been crowned Fulmer Cup Champions.
5. Excellent roundup from FWST's Jimmy Burch on what to expect this year in the Big 12.

Texas Tech Football:

Per the LAJ, Donnie Carona is set to be the kicker, but it's not set in stone:

"If we were to play today, which it’s pretty darn close, it would be Carona," Leach said after Wednesday’s practice. "That doesn’t mean we won’t look in on it from one week to the next."

Leach said Carona has impressed him with leg strength and by improving his day-to-day consistency.

Asked about his confidence level in the true freshman kicker, Leach said, "It’s good. But if the next week Fowler outperforms him, then we’ll play Fowler."

Know Thy Enemy: The LAJ on EWU fullback Alexis Alexander as well as the QB/WR combo of Matt Nichols and Aaron Boyce.

ESPN Big 12 Blogger Tim Griffin asks his burning questions for Texas Tech, and this is my #1 question heading into the season as well:

1. How good will the defense really play? - McNeill says the defensive unit has returned with a cohesive mindset forged after several strong performances last season. But can they play that way on the road against Oklahoma and against traditional nemesis Texas? It remains the biggest question mark for the Red Raiders heading into the season.

Also, a very interesting piece by Griffin on what Big 12 teams are paying out for out-of-conference cupcakes. I assume that this doesn't come off of the bottom line, and it's nice to see Texas Tech actually make a little money going to Nevada, but those Nebraska payouts are unbelievable. Also note that EWU got $450,000, which appears to be Texas Tech's base of $300,000 plus the $150,000 received from Tulsa breaking their contract.

Neglected Video: The Daily Toreador with some video on quarterback Graham Harrell on his recievers . . . Fox34 on Ed Britton's increased expectations . . . KAMC28 on Texas Tech's high expectations . . .

The DMN rolled out their college football preview, which included a few articles on Texas Tech. Brandon George previews the red Raiders, with an emphasis on the idea of Texas Tech making a BCS bowl and Chuck Carlton looks at the other teams expected to be in the mix for the Big 12 title.

There'a also another op-ed piece by a DMN writer who was finally able to expound on his previous thoughts about Texas Tech (they were original and highly researched). In any event, I'm not going to link to him so if you want to read his insightful opinions, you'll have to go find him on your own.

Whatever.

I thought this was pretty good, ESPN's Mark Schlabach's 25 Reasons To Be Excited About The Upcoming Season and I got a chuckle out of this (because it's probably true):

2. The Big 12 has better quarterbacks than the NFC North.
The Big 12 has four legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates playing under center: Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Texas Tech's Graham Harrell, Missouri's Chase Daniel and Kansas' Todd Reesing.