DTN Daily Diatribe | Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | 2011-10-04

I mentioned this yesterday in the comments, but my wife and I finally received news that we're traveling to Ethiopia to finally pick up our son, Fitsum.  We're still finalizing travel plans, but it appears that we are leaving on Saturday and will return sometime next week.  If you'd like to write a FanPost and help me out in getting up some content this week and next week, that would be tremendous, just email me at doubletnation AT  gmail DOT com.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Big 12 Board of Directors Action - Big 12 Conference - Official Athletic Site
As expected, the Big 12 has agreed to equally share Tier I and Tier II revenue, upon each school committing to the Big 12.  That's the catch:

This action becomes effective after each member institution commits a grant of rights to the Conference for its Tier I and II television rights for at least six years.

Missouri is probably the last university to commit, and rightfully so, as they may have their sights set on the SEC.

Whether to trust Big 12 is at issue as Missouri curators meet today - KansasCity.com
The Board of Curators for Missouri meet today (this is like the Board of Regents for Texas Tech) and the thought is that they'll be deciding between the Big 12 and the SEC. 

Ohio State NCAA Investigation: Three Players Newly Suspended - SBNation.com
The stuff going on at Ohio St. is somewhat shocking.

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL
Red Raiders football notebook: Cobb, Hubert go with ones | Red Raiders
Interesting to see that LB Daniel Cobb and Cqulin Hubert run with the first team, although not surprising.  I thought they played well, but didn't play perfectly and Tuberville talked about that in the press conference yesterday.  They're just not as tentative and there was an improvement in terms of results when they were on the field.  I'm still incredibly optimistic that LB Blake Dees and LB Sam Eguavoen will be superb players, but the speed of the game is incredibly different than high school and I think Dees and Eguavoen are still adjusting to that.

In other news, WR Darrin Moore is highly questionable for this game, so the thought that he could play this week apparently isn't an option.  DE Scott Smith will play half the plays and Tuberville talks about what Smith will bring:

"It’s going to take a while for them all to come around," Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said, "but I’m glad we’re getting into a rotation where we can keep guys fresh and kind of get their wits about themselves and not have to play every snap at the speed they’re going to need to play the next eight games."

Snip.

"He’s excited," Tuberville said. "He’s been waiting for this for a year. I hope he plays well. He’s prepared himself. He’s gone against our offense a lot. He’s gone in our Sunday scrimmages with the younger guys, and he’s excited about playing."

Finally, Tuberville listed his players of the week:

POTW Offense:  RB Eric Stephens
POTW Defense:  FS D.J. Johnson
POTW Special Teams:  SS Terrance Bullitt
POTW Scout Team Offense:  WR Derek Edwards
POTW Scout Team Defense: DE Branden Jackson

Red Raiders defense showed improvement with Aggies coming to town | Red Raiders
Lots of quotes from DC Chad Glasgow here, where he talks about the linebackers:

"There’s great competition," Glasgow said. "You better not come out and have a bad day of practice because somebody is going to pass you up."

And the defensive end rotation:

"It’s going give us a chance to play at least four defensive ends up front," Glasgow said. "And the fresher we can stay the better pass rush we get."

A&M pass defense soft ... if you can avoid the rush | Red Raiders
Good stuff from OC Neal Brown as he talks about what to watch from the TAMU offense:

"They don’t outnumber you a lot," Brown said of the Aggies’ pass rush. "They try to confuse you. They usually only bring five or six, which we can protect, but it’s how they bring the five and six looks. They present to you like they’re going to bring seven, but they may bring only four, may bring only five.

"So we have to do a good job up front identifying who we’re going to take. Our backs have to do a good job identifying when they have to stay in protection and when they can get out. And then we’ve got to do a good job of actually staying in there and protecting."

Texas A&M football notebook | A&M tries to regroup on defense - Houston Chronicle
Catch up with the Aggies!