Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe :: 09.20.09
by Seth C on Sep 20, 2009 7:13 AM CDT
in Texas Tech News, Notes and Links
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Texas Tech Football
Texas Tech Did Not Give Up The Fight: I hate moral victories, but that sure as hell felt like one. For the first time in a long time last night's loss was okay from the standpoint that there was absolutely no give-up in this team despite the injuries, suspensions, etc.
The shot that Taylor Potts took was indicative of the attitude of this team, and I'm happy as hell that he's leading this team, in that this team is better than what everyone thought and the talent gap between the have's and the have-not's is growing less and less each year. There's no doubt that UT held the talent advantage Saturday night, and someone brought this up in the game thread, either Texas isn't as good as I thought they were, Texas Tech is much better than I thought they were, or it's a little bit of both. The latter is usually true in cases like this, but Texas Tech is on the rise.
Again, the emphasize the correlation between Potts and this team, I thought this quote from Mike Leach was perhaps the highest praise I've seen from Leach about one of his quarterbacks, but was true of the entire team:
"He got hit hard a number of times and got up,’’ Leach said. "I don’t think it affected his play to the negative. He’s a rare, rare, rare quarterback. There are a lot of great quarterbacks out there that ultimately have great careers that can’t do what I just described. That is getting hit really, really, really hard, and then come in the next play, the next series, and march down the field at 10 yards a clip. He did that twice.’’
I plan on watching the game again later this morning and then I'm sure you'll see a ton of content from me and the other authors over the next few days.
And to address the officiating, there were missed calls and calls that certainly affected the game. Fans can either live in the past and keep reminding themselves of things that could have or should have been called. Just like 2008 where UT fans complain about the holding from the Texas Tech offensive linemen or Texas Tech fans pointing to the block in the back on the Jordan Shipley punt return that was, then wasn't, but it really was. I hated to see the Sergio Kindle helmet-to-helmet hit, and there's a chance that the NCAA could punish Kindle for next week's game (probably not), but at the end of the day, being upset or blaming the refs for calls or non-calls is non-productive. Besides, I think I learned more about the character of Taylor Potts in that one hit than I might have the whole season.
Game Stories: I would love to link to every game story, but the ones you probably care about the most are LAJ's Don Williams, FWST's Dwain Price, and DT's Alex Ybarra. From Price's article, here's defensive tackle and now, defensive end, Richard Jones:
"It was hard with us not being deep at [defensive] line, but we had to suck it up and step it up and do what we had to do," said tackle Richard Jones, who also played a good portion of the game at defensive end. "I’m proud of everybody that played d-line.
"I think we played good and we fought to the end. That’s all we could do."
Texas Tech Looked Elite: LAJ's Don Williams with an excellent op-ed piece on how Texas Tech's performance did not discredit the thought that the Red Raiders are a program on the rise:
Back in the summer, blue-chip wide receiver Kadron Boone from Ocala, Fla., told me he watched last year’s Texas Tech-Texas game with a mixture of excitement and despair.
Excited, like anyone else, at a classic college football game.
Despair, because Boone thought what fun it would be to play for Texas Tech, and no way would the Red Raiders search for players as far away as Florida. He guessed wrong, of course. Tech coaches started recruiting him not long after, and he committed to the Red Raiders a while back, perhaps signaling a continued shift in the credibility big-time recruits give Tech as a college option.
You know what? I don’t believe the Raiders did much, if anything, to damage that perception here Saturday night. I’d guess that talented teenagers who tuned into the latest installment of Tech-Texas on national television saw the same thing they saw in last year’s 39-33 Tech victory – Mike Leach’s program legitimizing itself as an honest-to-goodness team on the rise. That ought to make a 34-24 setback in the rematch go down a little easier. Tech, so many times humiliated on national television, looked as if it belonged in front of the 101,000 in the stadium and millions at home.
Blogs: RaiderAde's ayleein with some really good questions concerning the officiating . . . Tortilla Retort's RRR with some thoughts on the game . . . Dr. Saturday's Matt Hinton on the Kindle hit . . . SI's Stewart Mandel with some thoughts on the game . . .
Texas Tech Football Notebook: LAJ's Don Williams on punter Ryan Erxleben taking over for Donnie Carona . . . the update on who played at defensive end . . . the offensive line shuffle . . . . SS Brent Dewhurst getting the start . . .
Texas Longhorn Links: The Statesman has a number of articles (duh) including that the Texas defense looks like a national champ, the Texas Tech gambles do not pay off, their pre-game five questions are answered,
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That helmet to helmet, which CAUSED the fumble just burns me the more I think about it. I’m convinced if our kid does exact same to McCoy, not only is it 15, keep ball, but they eject our player.
It burns me, too.
I replayed it and slo-mo’d it several times last night and Kindle clearly lowers his helmet so he can lead with the crown. No doubt, the losers from UT think it’s neat. I’d bet it’s posted all over the web by now. Typical.
Taylor Potts just looks awesome. I kept commenting the whole game about how he looked like he could get in bar fights and hunt with a bow. Then after that hit he proved how tough he really is. I’m loving this guy. He made one throw from the opposite hash to the far sideline that was incredible. Harrel could not make that throw. It was great. We can win with Potts.
Our D played great. They gave up 24 points as far as I’m concerned. 34- punt return minus 3 because after the big hit fumble TU was on the 19 yard line. Thats good enough to win. Even with everything that happened I say penalties on offense were enough to cost us the victory. We stalled on a number of drives because of penalties. When we were driving on our last drive and we converted a first down and they called one of our receivers for blocking too early, that was a horrible call. It is a textbook penalty I guess but who knows. When another receiver is thrown to every receiver on every team begins blocking. That ref called a penalty for a .2 second difference between block and catch. WTF??!?!?! I imagine if we analyze every play, both teams have receivers do this all game long. As well as every team every game all game long. This was a BS call that stalled our last drive.
This game helps our recruiting. We showed we can hang with anyone. I’m just so pissed we didn’t win.
And most all the penalties were our fault, I just highlighted one that wasn’t. The false starts started to get annoying. ALthough all but one by Carter were committed by new guys in their first road game start. Still it was annoying. And how do we hold every kickoff return? Was this another case of TU refs or do we not know how to block?
3 turnovers, a punt return, and the penalties. We really beat ourselves. Nothing for the whorns to be proud about.
Because we had nothing to do with those penalties...
And you earned every one of yours, right? Give credit where it’s due. It’s not like we played our very best. You guys played tough, and we’re not happy with how we played, but there are some good things we did that we CAN be proud of.
by TheElusiveShadow on Sep 20, 2009 6:06 PM CDT up reply actions
The false starts had me spinning in circles. Penalties were the only thing that bothered me about last nights game….well that and Jacoby Franks.
I feel much better about the rest of the season now. But wow…so close last night.
Did you check out the articles in the Austin paper? What game did they watch? Must have been something from the archives, probably something in black & white. Or maybe they’re just bucking for jobs at MSNBC.
As a complete aside, I notice that the 12th Man gameday thread consisted of 43 posts by 6 guys (not counting one whorn troll). Impressive.
Texas is clearly not the second best team in the land. If they are, we are number seven. That said, I have a complete new respect for Taylor Potts. He has the BJ Symons attitude and toughness. Once he figures out how to quit dancing like a ballerina in the pocket and to step into a throw, not back, he’ll be a great QB.
That punt return killed me. I turned to my wife and told her that would be the difference in the game. Whenever a team scores a non-traditional TD (i.e. through defense or special teams) the odds of winning skyrocket. We also played on a 150 yard field considering all the penalties on offense.
But aside from that (and a complete and utter failure of a running game), Tech accounted for itself very nicely.
Lots to work on, but lots to be excited about. I still think we lose a couple more games this year, but I am very optimistic about the future. Looks like the youngsters we have playing now will be studs very soon.
Than who is?
We certainly didn’t play that well, but Florida didn’t look so hot against Tennessee and USC lost. Sometimes, you have to win ugly.
I’m not going to make a big deal about rankings, since it’s too early to matter too much, but if we “clearly” aren’t, I want to know who is.
by TheElusiveShadow on Sep 20, 2009 6:08 PM CDT up reply actions
Dude, did you read what he said?
If they are, we are number seven.
Tech didn’t even break into the top 25. What really sucks about that is if somehow we end up in a three way tie again like we did last year, we’ll get the shaft once again.
Now tell me, where do you rank us?
I did read, very clearly
Texas is clearly not the second best team in the land. If they are, we are number seven.
With that logic, Tennessee should be ranked as well. Not as high as Tech because of their loss, but ranked just because they played the #1 team close at home.
Tech should be ranked. Not #7, but I think they should be ranked in the 20’s or high teens. A “good loss” doesn’t grant anyone a massive jump in the rankings.
by TheElusiveShadow on Sep 21, 2009 10:05 AM CDT up reply actions
Nest week will say a lot
As before, I am REALLY excited about 2010, our players will have more experience (obviously our O-Line needs it) and the “top 2” (UT & OU) will lose a lot of experience. (and we’ll get the ‘horns at home) But for this year we have a shot to do great things, Potts is growing up in a hurry and if we get our DEs back we just may be really stout in that area. That said, we get fired up for UT (and make no mistake, I am truly impressed with what we managed to do in their house) and we need to REALLY not have a let-down against Houston. They’re getting press today about having a shot to be a BCS buster, so beating them (after this performance) will reflect well on our program, but losing to them would hurt, badly. We need our boys fired up and we need to do everything possible to win this next game. I think if we do that, we get a little more respect, but more importantly, we get some confidence and strength before facing the rest of the Big 12 later.
The last we will see of Donnie Carona
In the first quarter, I was screaming at my flat screen tv, for Carona NOT to punt the ball to Shipley!!! And what did he do? Where is the coaching here?? Well, the answer from Coach Russell (special teams) was simply to pull Carona and insert Erxleben.
That’s fine with me; Carona hasn’t done much to warrant his scholarship.
Game Comments
I do not understand special teams play, as mentioned above, can we not run a return w/o a penalty ? Burned again by special teams, the Shipley return should not have happened. Coverge had to have broken down…add this one to the fake field goal play earlier. Alas !!!
Woe, oh woe, what has happened to the continuity we thought we had on O-line ? IMHO, in spite of my comments about special teams, our O-line play was more critical in determining the outcome of the game…include running back blocking in this thought.
I am simply amazed with Taylor Potts. He displayed great talent and great strength of character/leadership/toughness (mental and physical) last night. Very impressed. Anyone looking for a pure qb draft choice from TTU when the time comes can start preparing to enjoy draft day when the time comes for Taylor Potts.
Baron Batch is simply not the Baron Batch that I saw last season. He did have a great run early, looked like himself, then kind of fell off a bit…I know, I am understating what happened…
The depth at wr is there, even with all the youth on the field. Note that Detron Lewis did not play much, certainly his hammy was not ready.
I cannot help be somewhat a Jacoby Franks fan, I watched him play a lot during his senior year in hs and saw what a great hs athlete and football player he was. He demonstrated that with the eraly catch he made after being hit, losing the ball in the air and recovering it and getting it tucked in to finish the play…then he did a couple of really dumb things, one of which I will describe simply as thuggish and hurt his team. The penalty play late in the game is one I will not hold against him, he was guilty but I can understand it.
If ever a Defensive Cordinator and defensive staff ever demonstrated the result of their good coaching, last night is a prime example of good coaching having taken effect. The defense demonstrated knowledge, skill, talent, and the ability to adapt in the face of extreme adversity and manged to play very well as a team. A clear example of grit. Every person in that group has my unconditional admiration for last night’s performance.
I am disappointed with the results of the game. Even with a win, some of the comments above are applicable.
I find myself impressed with the competive game played in one of the great venues in Div1 football in a game that was hyped by fans and media as much as could be given the point in the season and standings. I am very proud of the TTU football players, coaches, and staff for their overall performance last night.
That should be our only loss this season,
we played our tails off last night! Potts is a leader and one hell of a QB. I never once lost faith in his ability to lead the team. I don’t think we’ll lose anymore games this season. We have a battle ready group that is out for blood…
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