Odds and Ends

DTN's Best of Lubbock

That went down much better than I ever would have thought. For those of you who didn't check in yesterday, here's the link to reader submissions for best Mexican food. I'll have a poll on Friday.

I'd also love to take any suggestions for topics. I was thinking as follows: pre-game bar; post-game bar; motel/hotel; hamburger; Italian; steak; etc. If anyone has one partucular subject close to their heart, put it in the comments.

DTN Schedule

I've scheduled the Red Offense and Red Defense to be posted at noon today and noon tomorrow. I've already done the White Offense and the White Defense. For those of you who can't wait until noon, check out Tortilla Retort's review of the defense. That will conclude the spring review for the football team and I'm going to have some basketball stuff coming up later in the week.

Texas Tech Football

Mike Leach Makes Friends

This is so delicious, I can hardly contain myself. Last night, I found a quote from TAMU head coach Mike Sherman questioning why Mike Leach would make a comment on QB Stephen McGee. Here's Leach's original comment on McGee, for those of you living in a cave:

"I'm happy for Stephen McGee," said Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, whose quarterback, Graham Harrell, was not drafted. "The Dallas Cowboys like him more than his coaches at A&M did."

Now, here's the quote from Sherman:

"I don't understand Coach Leach's comments about Stephen McGee," Sherman said Monday. "He was named our starter until he got injured. I've always believed in Stephen's character and I've always believed in his talent, and I always will. I see him having an outstanding NFL career. "Coach Leach is in no position to comment about my relationship with Stephen McGee."

First, I don't think Leach directly spoke to McGee's relationship with Sherman. In fact, he was very ambiguous, which was probably his intent as I initially read the comment, it was a shot at former TAMU coach Dennis Franchione. Second, I would tend to agree, I think that Leach probably believes that McGee wasn't utilized properly while under Franchione and the truth of the matter, despite his sprained shoulder, was that the Aggies were better off starting Jerrod Johnson.

But thankfully, Leach isn't about to let anyone else have the last word:

Monday night, Leach said he didn't intend anything derogatory toward A&M, its coaching staff or McGee.

Nor was he targeting McGee's relationship with Sherman or Franchione, Leach said.

"There's been far more rhetoric around this than I ever would have expected," Leach said. "Under the best of circumstances, there is some variance in how people assess and discuss quarterbacks because everybody is looking for different things. ...

"But based on all the fuss and commotion on this, I can't help but wonder what round Coach Sherman would have drafted Stephen McGee, given the fact he was once a head coach in the NFL."

As for an apology?

"I'm not sorry for what I said," Leach said. "I'm sorry if they feel offended."

So there it is, and this bleeds into yesterday's excellent conversation regarding whether or not it's beneficial for Leach to continually stick up for his players or if others look at it as whinning. What we can say is that there's no doubt where Leach stands:

"The truth of the matter is that the NFL drafts quarterbacks notoriously bad. That's indisputable. ... I don't have an answer for why they don't have a skill for drafting a quarterback. Well, I think the priorities are out of order. Accurate and makes good decisions needs to be a priority, not something they need to teach him, because they don't do that very well."

And:

"Michael Crabtree has been more successful as a receiver than that guy has as a coach," Leach said of Mangini.

"Michael isn't a diva. He's too shy to be like that. My definition of a diva is someone who's loud and self-absorbed. Michael is the furthest thing from loud that I've seen.

"Let's see how all those non-divas do up in Cleveland this year."

He absolutely thinks his players are the best and he'll stick up for his quarterback, hell or high water. I wonder too if Sherman will have the last word, and I hope he does. I'd love to hear from Sherman where he would have picked McGee. I'm sure that if Leach were in charge of the draft, he would have flipped a coin between Michael Crabtree and Graham Harrell and picked the other second.

Daniel Charbonnet and Stephen Hamby Get Tryouts

LAJ's Don Willilams reports that S Daniel Charbonnet and C Stephen Hamby will get tryouts with NFL Clubs. Charbonnet will get a shot with the Chicago Bears and Hamby with the Washington Redskins. Send a good thought both these guys way.

Texas Tech Basketball

Hardwood Series Games Confirmed

Per the DMN College Sports Blog, the pairings for the Hardwood Series was released yesterday and the Red Raiders will host the Washington Huskies on Thursday, December 3, 2009.

Texas Tech Baseball

Throwback Uniforms, Make Me Happy

Found this video via UniWatch Blog, which details the Red Raiders throwback uniforms from two weekends ago:

As an aside, I'd love to be able to buy one of those hats. Wink, wink, nod, nod.

Red Raiders Hoping to Regroup

DT's Jon Arnold writes that the baseball team tries to recoup after the 3-game sweep in Missouri. Head coach Dan Spencer hopes there's no effect from the series going forward:

"The obvious thing about the series was we couldn't get anybody out consistently," Tech coach Dan Spencer said. "I would like to think there wasn't any carry over effect over the games, but there might have been."