McCarthy Interview: As always, I try not to push off-topic articles on you guys, but if you enjoy Cormac McCarthy then you'll enjoy this interview in the Wall Street Journal.

Wall and Williams Back:  LAJ's Don Williams writes that seniors CB Jamar Wall and LB Marlon Williams returned to practice yesterday and QB Taylor Potts took a majority of the snaps.  Also, RB Aaron Crawford and IR Cornelius Douglas were out during yesterday's practice.

Tough OU Defense:  DT's Alex Ybarra writes that the Oklahoma defense is still incredibly tough and head captain Mike Leach believes that it is because the Sooners are fundamentally sound:

"The biggest thing they do is the basic sound defense, the ultimate basic fundamental defense," Tech coach Mike Leach said. "They go out there with great fundamentals and energy. I think they do that as good as anybody."

And OU DT Gerald McCoy has this about the Texas Tech offense:

"Tech offense is Tech offense," he said. "It doesn’t really change much. You gotta be ready for it. They’re gonna get numbers. They’re gonna get a lot of points. We just gotta prepare for it. We’ve been playing pretty well on defense, so we’re just gonna try and continue to do that this week."

Oklahoma Sooner and Big 12 Links:  Oread Boom Kings (Kansas Jayhawk blog) has some of the backstory between KU head coach Mark Mangino and the athletic director . . . TR's dedfischer with an gameplan for the Texas Tech offense . . . Tulsa World's John Hoover writes his OU notebook and DT Gerald McCoy has a suggestion for Texas Tech fans:

"They throw tortillas?" McCoy said. "They better not throw me one. I'll be hungry. I'll eat it."

Actually, if Red Raider fans want to throw food, McCoy has a menu suggestion.

"They need to throw chicken," he said. "Hey, if they threw fried chicken — shoot, I'll provoke 'em on purpose. Aaahhh! Chomp!"

. . . Ha! . . . The Tulsa World also has a know the foe feature . . . NewsOK's David Ubben writes his OU football notebook as Bob Stoops stands by his former assistant, Mark Mangino . . . NewsOK's Jake Trotter writes that Big 12 spread offenses have taken quite a hit by the Oklahoma Sooner defense . . . LAJ's Adam Zuvanich features OU QB Landry Jones . . .

Game Tonight:  Northwestern St. Demons vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders
Time:  7:00 p.m. :: Location: United Spirit Arena
Preview and Game Day Thread:  Scheduled for 3:00 p.m. post

Cohadarevic Answers Critics:  LAJ's Courtney Linehan sits down with PF Darko Cohadarevic who hopes to answer his critics with better play this year.  As an aside, after reading this article, I'm not real sure what to make of Darko.  I see him as a bit defensive and hard-headed.  Here's a bit from the article:

That’s where the bad reputation began. He admits he didn’t really understand or care about the system coach Pat Knight drilled in practice. On rare occasions when he did pay attention, he says he got conflicting messages from different coaches, became frustrated and never quite understood what they were asking of him. By the time he settled into the Red Raider program, the season was wrapping up.

I'm trying to process all of this and for those of you who question signing JUCO players, this is certainly a feather in your cap.  But then Darko wins me back with this:

"I’ve got to buy into this motion offense more," Cohadarevic said. "I’ve got to do other little stuff besides scoring: setting screens, rebounding, having deflections, helping people get open."

I really want to see all guys succeed and I hope like hell that Darko does "buy into" the motion offense and man-to-man defense, but it seems like a shame that we're even having this conversation.

Demons Hit the Road:  DT's Mike Graham writes that the Northwestern St. Demons left from Natchitoche, LA on Tuesday and arrived in Lubbock on Wednesday (layover in Arlington).  G Nick Okorie expects that the Demons will be very athletic:

"I expect for them to be really athletic," Okorie said. "We just have to stay focussed, the thing that can beat us is ourselves. The single thing we pretty much have to do is play defense and if we play defense we’ll win the game."