Don't Be Mean
One of the many strengths of DTN is that it is a place where people with divergent views about a team they love can meet to discuss the same. This is not, however, Vietnam. There are rules. More precisely, there is rule: Don't be mean. We are all in a distressed place right now. No one here is accustomed to losing to Texas A&M in the manner we did last night. We're all pissed off. We all have wildly outrageous views about the direction of this team, where it should be, where it is going, whether the coaching staff in place is the correct group, etc. This is as fine a place to discuss those views as anywhere.
However, if you feel that the piece of writing that you are about to plaster on the website, for the world to see, is even remotely likely to violate the Rule -- Don't be mean -- then it probably violates the rule. In times of merry, like when we beat Nebraska on the road last week, there's no need to enforce the rule because we're all in joyful agreement. Now, more then ever, we have to respect each others' dissenting views, because failure to do so will lead us down the (typically unfamiliar for this website) path of name-calling, random cursing, and vindictive hyperbole.
We are all on the same team here. Ok? We should be consoling each other and finding ways to move on, not cannibalizing ourselves.
Let's be friends and sing kumbaya and make chocolate covered smores together. Or at least let's not call each other naughty names.
over 2 years ago
Skin Patrol
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I love smores!!
Thanks Skin Patrol, very well said. On a side note I cussed the hell out of my new / now old game day shirt. I made it cry. Lousy hunk of cotton…….
" Answers -- Become Resources."
Without Questions; There are limited Resources...
Chocolate covered?!?!?!
I’ve never had a chocolate covered smore… but I get the strange feeling I’ve been missing out on something great for 25 years!
Agreed Skin Patrol
I was appalled at the level of cussing and personal attacks exhibited last night. There were a great number of Raiders that I recognize as regular contributors to this blog that wrote the most foul posts. I am very disappointed. Potts is not the only one with leadership problems.
by raiderross on Oct 25, 2009 10:39 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
For what it's worth I apologized in my fan post.
I tried like crazy not to direct anger to any certain person. I was mad at everybody in general including myself. Don’t know why.
Again, I apologize.
KWashburn
" Answers -- Become Resources."
Without Questions; There are limited Resources...
Here is a cheerful story
Today is Michael Crabtree’s debute. Let’s wish him all the best. Saturday is behind us, let’s celebrate the second big talent of Leach era starting in his first game for the Sanfrancisco 49ers today.
Yeah, I was probably harsh on Potts - blame the massive amount of alcohol
I feel bad for the kid. But this is D1 football…..he just doesn’t have the QB acumen to be a TTU QB. Hey, I would have loved to have been a TTU QB. But I didn’t have the talent. I would have sucked. It isn’t harsh to say the blue sky is blue. It is what it is. I wish it was different. I wish him luck in med school.
HOWEVER – this was not Potts’ loss only. THIS LOSS IS SQUARELY ON RUFFIN MCNEIL AND THE “DEFENSE” – and I use the term “Defense” loosely. Watch an SEC game, any SEC game – that is why an SEC team will win the championship…..again. Heck, I would kill to have TCU’s defense.
Here’s the bottom line….with that loss to A&M we are now the #5 College Football Team in the State of Texas. #5 guys, and that assumes we will beat Baylor and that we could beat UTEP (who throttled UH). WE NEED A DEFENSE. WE NEED A DEFENSE. WE NEED A DEFENSE. I’m glad Ruff is a father figure, the kids like him, etc. Keep him as a position coach. BUT GET A REAL DC. Look at a DII school for a great DC.
Finally, Put the O Line and the D Line in the sandpit head to head on a daily basis. Feed them raw meat and whip their backs. We have been getting killed in the trenches all year……and that did not happen last year (except the OU and Ole Miss games).
But seriously folks, WE NEED A REAL DC. Seriously.
I think those who got out of hand realize that freaking out over a football game is, in the big picture, a bit silly. It’s okay to be passionate and be pissed. We just need to remember what it is we’re dealing with.
This isn’t political upheaval, it’s college football. If we leave our happiness and joy to the whims and folly of 100+ 19 to 23 year-old males, we are in for a world of disappointment : )
by Tech92 on Oct 25, 2009 12:01 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs
I heard it put a different way after my posts last night
I guess it was the show after post game on double t 104.3. They were talking about the UCONN west virginia game and how good it was and everything they had to go through after the murder. When something like that happens to you, it makes you appreciate the fact that you can be that worked up over the outcome of a football game. If your team losing a game breaks your heart, it kind of means your life isnt all that rough.
What is amazing when looking at the fans after a game like this is the drive to find someone to blame. Blame the qb, blame the defense, blame the dc, etc.
I heard the game on the radio, I was watching play by play on yahoo. I saw a TTU team that did not play good football after the two opening drives. TTU recovered a fumble and could not score. The o-line could not provide time, that led to the qb having to hustle, that led to int’s and fumbles out of the backfield crew…etc. And the defense could not make a stop.
Sounds like team to me. Who did play well enough to win ?
Answer is no one
but from being at the game, the o-line gave plenty of time on most plays. Only thing that disappointed me about their play was all of the holding.
Curious to see how they respond
Still kinda PO’d about the game. But I am more than a little anxious to see what kind of character this team shows over the next 2 weeks.
We’ve all been there at some point. Hopefully our team realizes what is important at this point is not that they got knocked down, but how they respond to some adversity. I say this ONLY because there ins’t anything we can do about the game last night at this point.
Still angry about it? Sure am. But my hope is they will take this as motivation to finish out the season strong.
Well said.
On that subject I feel like KU could be a bloodletting. Which way that goes I’m not sure……
" Answers -- Become Resources."
Without Questions; There are limited Resources...
Tech Crowd
Lubbock, unfortunately, can still be one of the toughest places to play for the home team. The ignorance of our student section was amusing when they kept rushing the field before the game was over. Yelling at your own guys is not productive, and I feel worse for Potts than I do about the loss. I feel guilty for not telling the idiots to shut up. If you heckle your own team, you are a fair weather t-shirt fan. No one should care about how such people feel about Tech football.
Could we elaborate on this?
I have no idea what you are getting at…….
" Answers -- Become Resources."
Without Questions; There are limited Resources...
Skin Patrol said:
This is not, however, Vietnam. There are rules.
That’s an allusion to The Big Lebowski.
My comment, similarly, is a line from The Big Lebowski.
No one caught it, though, apparently.
ah the f word
the f word? is that how classy aggies converse with each other? Out here at Tech we call it classless.
When I first started coming to this site,
It was the old format, no ads, pretty spartan. Now, many, many fans come here to chat. Gripe about the rules? The rules are why people still come here……. well, except for Pablo. haha
¡Viva los Matadores!
Frustration, anger and Makers Mark don't mix
Yesterday was horrible. I posted a hyperbole filled inebriated rant and the sarcasm got missed in the anger that came back. I’m not changing to a UT fan. I was at a place where I was just throwing up my hands and saying I give up, if you can’t beat them join em. I respect the UT and OU football programs. They, in the last 10 years have the kind of record I want for Tech. My frustration is why we can’t seem to get to the next level? I don’t know the answer, but by next level I think we mean a program like UT and OU. My father is a UT alum, my girlfriend and her family are UT alums, I live in Austin and am surrounded by family and friends that support UT so I wouldn’t be a T-shirt fan. I am, however, very frustrated by the inconsistent play of my team. Is it the head coach? the DC? the recruits? the facilities? I wish I knew what the answer was.
I’ve been a member of this blog since the Fall of 06 and when my team really looks bad I get wrapped around the axel, just like you. I have not and will not insult any of you personally and I expect the same from you. We may and often do, disagree but I’m not going to make it personal. My friend TTPilk is the eternal optimist, I’m much more pessimistic, but even Pilk gave up on last nights game.
Back to the point. My anger and frustration is with the state of our program. Does anyone know what direction this team is headed? In the decade that Stoops, Brown and Leach have been coaching those two programs have excellerated and we have been basically stagnant.
I want to know what you guys think about this, all hyperbole aside.
Those 2 schools have a huge advantage in resources
As a matter of fact, most schools in the Big 12 have an advantage monetarily over Texas Tech.
Total Athletic Budget for Big 12 South Schools
U of Texas———-$120,288,370
Oklahoma St.——$88,554,438
Oklahoma———-$77,098,009
Texas A&M———$74,781,640
Baylor —————$44,151,763
Texas Tech———$42,844,855
Total Athletic Budget for Big 12 North Schools
Kansas ——-$86,009,257
Nebraska——$75,492,884
Colorado——$52,631,896
Missouri——-$49,113,786
Kansas St.—-$48,160,113
Iowa St. ——-$38,642,013
Source: US Department Of Education
With the huge disparity in funding between Texas Tech and other schools in the Big 12, it’s a wonder we even compete at all.
I'm not worthy. Really.
I have always wondered
what exactly does athletic budget have to do with recruiting? Does it mean less scholarship athletes? I’m not arguing with you here, I really am just curious as to what all it affects.
Bigger Budget also means they can pay ALL their coaches more
it makes a big difference in attracting and retaining good coaches at all levels in all sports
by jeffinhouston on Oct 25, 2009 11:07 PM CDT up reply actions
great research
that kinda sums it up. Is there anything we can do to equalize this? Would achieving flagship status help? I still can’t figure out why public schools aren’t budgeted equally. We use robin hood at the high school level, maybe it’s time at the collegiate level?
they aren't budgeted equally because the athletic department is a separate entity from the school
and robin hood is a bunch of socialist crap that helps no one. throwing money at it doesn’t solve the problem.
Even if Tech was the wealthiest athletic department in the nation, I don’t think you’d overtake OU or texas or A&M in recruiting.
With all due respect
I find this argument a stale one and a bit of an excuse.
Notable Schools with smaller budgets:
Cincinnati – -
Houston – -
Utah – -
Hawaii – -
Tulane – -
Notable Underachievers with larger budgets (a much longer list)
Tennessee – -
Wisconsin -
Michigan – -
Stanford -
TAMU – -
Georgia – -
Duke – -
UCLA —
Kansas – -
Virginia
South Carolina
Arkansas
Michigan State
Nebraska
Michigan State
Boston College
North Carolina
Notre Dame
Oklahoma State
Clemson
Minnesota
Washington
Maryland
Louisville
Arizona State
Purdue
Oregon
UConn
Rutgers
Indiana
Colorado
Oregon State
Vanderbilt
Syracuse
NC State
Arizona
Let’s stop using the budget argument as a fall back. Smart coaching (like smart companies) outperform the larger schools all the time and ultimately is the great equalizer. TCU’s budget is about $1 million more than TTU’s and, thanks to excellent coaching and in spite of far inferior recruiting, is perenially in the top 15.
You can argue that the Big 12 offers more difficult competition to a point, but this is a down year for the conference and TTU has hardly benefited. Also, against non-conference opponents the aforementioned schools with smaller budgets have more than held their own over the years.
Leach has been great for Texas Tech, but his lack of attention to defense and lazy game preparation is the source of the program’s inconsistency and is what is preventing Texas Tech from breaking through to the next level.
I cannot think of another top 30 program which consistently surrenders 50-60 points at least once each an every season.
Also I think we all underestimated the impact of losing 2 All-Americans on the OL Line, the transitions from Harrell to Potts/Sticks, and downgrading from Crabtree to the current receiving corp. Further, for the first time in 10 years Tech is struggling through injuries and underperformance at the QB position.
The defense perennially underperforms. Last year we finished 80th in the country. Right now this years’ unit is ranked at 73. Let’s stop deluding ourselves about the performance of the defense or clinging to (as Don Williams is far too prone to do) one or two positive defensive statistics which are ultimately meaningless.
That’s the sobering reality. So if you’re the Athletic Director, what’s your next move to improve the program a) getting rid of Leach? – not at all likely , b) gettiing rid of McNiel? – a more obvious choice which regularly loses out to sentimental arguments for allowing him more time to turn the unit around, and c) build more chairs in the stadium?
The choices are pretty limited, so the obvious outcome is usually the easiest – keep building chairs.
by LondonRaider on Oct 26, 2009 2:09 AM CDT up reply actions
Exactly
the only thing that really makes a huge impact on recruiting is the program’s history and the players moving on to the professional level. Which is a good reason for us to use the run more. Baron Batch has the talent for the NFL. Maybe not the talent to be an elite back, but definitely enough to take some handoffs. When all else was a loss, he averaged nearly 6 yards a carry against aTm (with virtually no blocking). Giving him more touches will help our recruiting by not only making us better as a team, but giving him a chance to play on Sundays. Put yourself in a high school recruit’s shoes. Are you going to sign with the school that has a nice stadium in the middle of no where, settles for mediocre seasons, and rarely has anyone drafted to the nfl? Or are you going to go to the school where any year that is not a national championshp game is a bust, and has several players going to the NFL ever year? Seems an obvious choice to me. I hate it, but we have to focus on the team getting that one step better to get recruits, not how much money we have.
Yeah, right
Money doesn’t really matter in college football.
I didn’t know that.
Thanks…
I'm not worthy. Really.
those numbers are off
there hasn’t been a year since Stoops has been at OU that they’ve had a lower budget than OSU
Playing with Numbers is deceptive
We can throw in different numbers and cite difference sources, I have one here which is more recent and shows that Tech actually has the 6th highest budget in the BigXII. A&M actually doesn’t have much more resource as they claim they do:
http://www.fanblogs.com/big12/005324.php
Interestingly, Tech’s football budget in the recent years has been the highest in the big XII.
These Numbers are wrong
These numbers are wrong. I went to your source and the athletic budgets that I got put Texas Tech at number 6 and A&M is not that much higher up at 5th. Also, the numbers that you have cited don’t come up. I wonder where you got your numbers from. Here are my sources that lead directly to the listing:
http://www.fanblogs.com/big12/005324.php
Here is a more recent number:
http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/general-college-sports/30320-directors-cup-athletic-budgets.html
The point is these numbers don’t mean anything. There are plenty of good schools, some in the top 10 with less athletic budget than ours. Also, A&M, Cal, Notre Dame and Michigan are examples of complete blunders and utter flops recently with huge athletic budgets.
The bottomline is you can’t throw money and get a good program, its the culture that’s more important..
Hmmmm...I offered a link. Did you check it out?
Would you like for me to walk you through it?
The source I used (US Department Of Education) has the most updated information I could find.
Your link is dated July 19, 2005. Dude, that’s out-dated.
I'm not worthy. Really.
I thought you were being sarcastic in that post.
But then I like Beer gut. So I don’t know if you want my support.
It was just one game. A game I didn’t lose hope on till the last fumble. I didn’t lose hope because I’ve seen Texas and Michigan come into a tail whipping flat, but pull it out, simply because they are the better team. This game, to me, had that feel. But we weren’t good enough, in the end.
The Aggies wanted it real bad. Not just this season, but the short-term future of their program was up against a wall. Coach Leach failed to prepare the team, perhaps even the coaches thought about the previous two weeks’ scores too often.
So short in sweet. I don’t see that one game as an indictment of the program, only a data point.
Stoops and Brown enjoyed stepping into two programs that will require a couple of decades of losing seasons before they stop getting their choice of recruits.
no sarcasm tonight
this was that ever present bad loss. I was accused last night of wanting to emulate the snobishness of UT. Not true, I respect their football program and want that level of success.
Stoops and Brown built those programs to their current level. Do we need a coaching change to have that same level of improvement? I don’t know…
I’ve pondered the coaching change idea…and I don’t think Leach is the issue so much as who he surrounds himself with. Does Leach have the offensive smarts to post a championship offense? Absolutely. He’s had that since his second season. But until we get a defense that can really play with consistency and fire each game, results like last night are always a real possibility when we play teams who have any offensive chops at all.
Games like this blowout will happen. The issue with Tech is they happen every year. Without fail. For argument’s sake, let’s call a loss by 21 pts or more a blowout…
2000: Neb 56 Tech 3
2001: Texas 42 Tech 7
2002: Ohio State 45 Tech 21; Colorado 37 Tech 13; OU 63 Tech 15
2003: NC State 49 Tech 21; Missouri 62 Tech 31; OU 56 Tech 25
2004: Texas 51 Tech 21
2005: Texas 52 Tech 17
2006: Colorado 30 Tech 6
2007: Missouri 41 Tech 10
2008: OU 65 Tech 21
2009: A&M 52 Tech 30
I realize a lot of these losses are to really good teams. But at the same time, I wonder how many other teams who want to be considered elite, or at least very good, have a consistent pattern like that? There really is no shame in losing a game. But the way we seem to lose one every year blows my mind. This goes beyond Leach and back into the Spike years as well, so it’s not all Leach…but it still aggravates me.
Makers Mark
After I polished off 3 Guinesses and 3 Harps(Black and Tans I think they call them or Half and Halfs), I thought about breaking out the Kentucky Bourbon, but than wax seal didn’t get broken. Water won the night, I just realized they were kids caught up in a sh!+ storm and they didn’t know how to respond.
by Plano Jeff on Oct 25, 2009 11:28 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
IMO, getting to elite status takes time
I think you can sum up the success of programs like OU, UT, LSU, USC, etc. by just looking at talent level and recruiting. Bigger picture would include things like level of talented coaches, facilities, location (in some cases but excluding OU). But it all boils down to the level of talent you can attract and that takes time.
When you look at these programs, they have a reputation that opens doors in recruiting. Other programs have to work hard to get a little better each year. What will get Tech over the hump is going to be our ability to sign talented classes who perform over a period of time.
But I think we are on the right track. See season results as proof:
1996 = 7-5
1997 = 6-5
1998 = 7-4
1999 = 6-5
2000 = 7-6
2001 = 7-5
2002 = 9-5
2003 = 8-5
2004 = 8-4
2005 = 9-3
2006 = 8-5
2007 = 9-4
2008 = 11-2
So there has been steady improvement. But I think the only way we get to the point of double-digit wins every year is to continue improving the talent level of the team.
The year has not gone the way I had hoped. Big picture, I still believe we are headed in the right direction and the best days are ahead of us!
it looks like a plateau
our record in the spike years had plateaued. Leach came in and moved the plateau higher, but it too looks plateaued. Last year was the exception and I for one raised my expectations to that level. Probably too high but if we don’t have high expectations, we won’t rise to meet them.
Another Budget story
Don’t throw budgets around. Texas Tech’s budgets actually look very competitive when compared with other programs. In fact A&M’s seems to be more of misallocation of resources. Here is another link:
http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/general-college-sports/30320-directors-cup-athletic-budgets.html
There are plenty of schools with our type of budget that are top 10 football, basketball programs.
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