Odds and Ends

Focusing on Football

As far as schedule is concerned, I think I'm doing a couple of more basketball posts, one today, and maybe one next week, and that's going to be it for a while.  Today's post focuses on the motion offense, and if you've heard of the motion offense, but aren't quite sure what it is, then I hope this post is helpful.

I don't want to ignore basketball, but with football starting to heat up, I've got to decide where I spend my time, and basketball is just going to have to go by the wayside as a weekly feature for now.

Texas Tech Football

Quick Links

If you haven't read this already, you should, Dr. Saturday's Premature Assessment of Texas Tech.  Definitely a fair look at the Red Raiders and there seems to be a problem accessing the link for Tortilla Retort's look at if Texas Tech is making the ascent to MNC status.

Reliving Texas vs. Texas Tech

RRS.com's Joe Yeager continues his look back to last year, and up this week is the Texas game.  Fox34 has the video recap:

Todd Walker Headed to IWU

Good luck to Todd Walker who will be playing receiver at Incarnate Word in San Antonio.  Walker still has a year of eligibility to play football remaining after obtaining his bachelor's degree from Texas Tech, but cannot start medical school until the spring, which means that he's going to get a secondary degree in chemistry. You could pay me a lot of money and I would never get a secondary degree in chemistry.  Not smart enough.

AAS Ranks Texas Tech #23

You guys might be shocked, but the Austin American Statesman is rolling out their Top 25 and has Texas Tech at #23:

The Raiders probably won't have Sept. 26 circled on their calendar, but perhaps they should. That's the Saturday they visit the Houston Cougars, who welcome back many of the key players from a team that won seven of its last nine games under first-year coach Kevin Sumlin, including a bowl victory over Air Force. But what makes the game especially tricky is that the week before, Tech visits Texas in the Big 12 opener, which has been moved up from November for a national television date on ABC.

After what occurred last year in Lubbock, the Longhorns, rest assured, will have Sept. 19 circled on their calendars.

I don't know about you guys, but that early two game stretch scares the piss out of me, especially for a young quarterback, left tackle and secondary.  I hate it when folks make assumptions about what Texas Tech fans think.  Not the worst thing that could happen, and you'll note that the AAS is one of the few publications that actually has Texas Tech ranked in the top 25, so there's that.

Scouting the Enemy

Rock M Nation's the Boy continues his Beyond the Boxscore look at Oklahoma State, this time focusing on the defense.  Good stuff, as always.

Crimson and Cream Machine's ccmachine previews the Sooners receivers and tight ends.  Aside from offensive line, the receiver position is where the Sooners lack experience.  They'll be fine, but if OU is going to struggle it's going to be at these two positions.

Texas Tech Basketball

Look at the Big 12 Recruiting

Slam Online's Joey Whelan (hat-tip The Ralphie Report) looks at the entire Big 12 basketball recruiting classes, including this look at Texas Tech's class:

Texas Tech was focusing on the perimeter with this class, signing two point guards, a shooting guard and two small forwards for their 2009 group. Three junior college transfers will be joining the roster this fall in David Tairu, Brad Reese and Theron Jenkins. Tairu, a 6-3 shooting guard originally from Philadelphia, is a great athlete who does his damage offensively with a smooth mid-range game and moves that he can execute in the lane. Reese is a very intriguing 6-7 small forward who comes to the Red Raiders from Gulf Coast CC. Originally an Oklahoma State recruit before going to the JuCo route, Reese is a very good athlete with an above average shot; his range is well out to the three-point line and will make him a match up problem for a lot of teams. Jenkins, a 6-6 small forward, is very much in the same mold as Reese but is better off the bounce going to the rim. The incoming freshman in this class are combo-guards Jaye Crockett from New Mexico and Aaron-Mike Davis, a Houston product. Crockett is a 6-5 athlete with good range on his jump shot, but the rest of his game is somewhat raw right now. Davis is a little shorter at 6-2, but is strong enough to deal with contact on the way to the rim and shows a good overall feel for the game. He has proven to be a catch and shoot threat from the perimeter as well.

Having not seen any of these guys, just reading as much as possible, I'll just make one quick correction, which is that Jaye Crockett is actually closer to 6-7 as he's grown since he committed as a junior.  Hopefully, we're going to see a different class of athlete at Texas Tech.  Very excited seeing these guys in action.