Pretty Please:  I'm going to be gone all day, and I'd just ask you guys to do me one favor.  Please do not post premium content.  I'm not going to be near a computer for most of the day and evening and this would make my life infinitely better.  If a kid de-commits or plays another sport at another school and it's made it to the public arena, then feel free to discuss, over-react, type out "OMG!!!" a bunch, etc.  In fact, I'll give someone $1 million DTN Bucks for the first person to find the information without relying on a subscription based service (Disclaimer:  DTN Bucks is not U.S. legal tender or legal tender anywhere and is completely worthless).

  Back at Practice:  LAJ's Don Williams writes that things were a little rusty, but the Red Raiders are getting more healthy.  Here's Williams:

The open week, as it is designed to do, might have helped the Red Raiders heal. Offensive guard Brandon Carter and defensive backs Will Ford and Brett Dewhurst, all battling injuries lately, were in pads at the end of Saturday’s workout.

Quarterback Steven Sheffield remains out with a broken left foot and isn’t likely to return before the Nov. 21 home finale against Oklahoma, if then.

And Captain Mike Leach is going to start focusing on fundamentals:

"The biggest thing is just figure out what’s the most advantageous for your team, and so it wasn’t a real struggle,’’ he said. "Now we just want focus on fundamentals and being sharp at the little things.’’

  Second Closed Scrimmage:  LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes about how the team has already had one closed scrimmage against Arizona St. and will have a second closed scrimmage against New Mexico St. today.  Head coach Pat Knight let his players just play against the Sun Devils and is going to have a more structured approach to today's scrimmage:

"We’ll treat it like a game so they get used to what they’re going to have to go through next week from a scouting standpoint," Knight said. "But I wanted one game where they just went in on their own against a good opponent to see how they can handle themselves."

And the staff hopes to utilize the scrimmages to improve the team:

About one fourth of the game looked good on both ends of the court. During the other three quarters, however, Knight saw some regression.

"For the rest they went back to some bad habits they had from last year or high school or junior college," he said. "It was good. It gives us a week of tape to really get on them."

Using that tape as a teaching tool led to several good practice sessions last week. Today the coaching staff will reassess the team’s progress based on its improvements during the last seven days.