Colorado vs. Texas Tech

Don't forget, Texas Tech should get one a conference win tonight against the Buff's, TV is TTTN and tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. CST.  Preview and open game day thread should be posted later this afternoon.

DTN's Top Five:

1. Stuck at work and want to watch the Presidential Inauguration? Hulu to the rescue.
2. For those of you in Austin, want to buy Lance Armstrong's house?
3. Rush The Court checks in on the Big 12.
4. The Rivalry, Esq. looks at the top football program of the 1990's.
5. The Dagger with an interesting look at Bob Knight and NCAA President Miles Brand, Brand's fight with pancreatic cancer and Brand's legacy with Bob Knight.

Harrell at Senior Bowl Practices

DraftGuys is a great website for all sorts of draft coverage and they've got a report on Harrell's performance yesterday:

Graham Harrell (Texas Tech): There were many eyes on Harrell today as some see him as just a "system" QB. Graham had a nice first day to try and prove the doubters wrong. He looked very comfortable underneath the center, and I liked the crispness of his 3,5, and 7 step drops. Like Bomar, Graham also did a nice job of checking down as he was very careful with the football. His passes were very deliberate and he did a nice job of hitting his receivers in stride. Just when it seemed like he was never going to challenge the DBs downfield he started throwing deep, including a nice sideline pass to Brooks Foster.

Don't forget that if you want to watch, the game will be Saturday @ 6:00 p.m. on the NFL Network.

Looking to 2009

CollegeFootballNews.com's Pete Fiutak looks ahead to 2009 with a short preview of every Big 12 team including your Red Raiders (hat-tip The Ralphie Report):

The number one thing to work on is: Finding the new starting quarterback. While Taylor Potts appears to be the next man up in the progression, Seth Doege, who has had knee problems and hasn’t played since his sophomore year of high school, is an interesting option who’ll be in the mix along with Stefan Loucks. It usually takes a year for a Texas Tech quarterback to figure things out, but Mike Leach is going to demand Graham Harrell-like production right away..

Finding a Leader

LAJ's Jeff Walker, DT's Alex Ybarra and DMN's Chuck Carlton all have similar articles where Pat Knight implores someone on this team to step up and be a leader. Pat Knight re-told this story from 2004-2005 season:

Texas Tech trailed Gonzaga, 38-29, at halftime of an NCAA Tournament game during the 2004-05 season.

Something happened in the Red Raiders’ locker room that changed the game, but it didn’t come from the coaching staff.

"We heard a huge commotion and we go into the locker room and Ronald Ross has Devonne Giles by the jersey up against his locker telling him, ‘You’re not going to ruin my senior season by playing like a dog,’" Tech head coach Pat Knight said Monday. "Giles came out and got some points, some key rebounds in the second half and we were able to move on to the Sweet 16.

"We didn’t say anything. We didn’t do anything. There’s only so much you can do as coaches before the players start to tune out the same voices they keep hearing."

Junior Knight knows that he wants it to be Mike Singletary:

"I’d like it to be Mike Singletary," Knight said. "He’s got the personality for it and the body. He’s a strong kid who also has a physical presence. Right now, though, he’s got to pick it up from a playing standpoint because if he tries to say something to the players now, they could be like, ‘Yeah, what have you done lately on the court?’"

And Pat Knight also says that he cannot have players go into shells and the emphasis is mine regarding the recruiting:

"I liked the personality of this team coming into this season," Knight said. "One of the problems we’ve had, though, has been instead of guys stepping up and saying something, they get in their shells and get quiet. Once you step across that line in practice, you can’t be buddies with each other during practice. If you’ve got to punch a guy out, you punch him out. If you’ve got to block him out, block him out. When practice is over, you can go back and talk about it and be buddies.

"This is a problem we’ve had for three years and it’s something I address and talked about when recruiting, but we don’t get those kids until next season."

And how about this:

If he could, Knight said he would make personnel changes, but halfway through the season, major roster moves are not likely to happen, he said.

"How you make those changes is recruiting. I gotta wait until next week for that," he said. "If this was the NBA, yeah we'd make trades tonight, but I can't. I'm stuck with what we have. You gotta work with it. But the way you address personnel is by recruiting, but you gotta wait on those guys.

"So we have to work with what we've got. I can't wish that I had so and so. I know what I have, and I gotta figure out what we gotta do with it."

Call me crazy, but I think what Pat Knight is talking about is what I wrote about yesterday, that he's getting very little production and the five seniors, other than Voskuil, are not Big 12 caliber players.

Bigger question . . . is Junior Knight reading DTN?