DTN Daily Diatribe | Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | 2011-10-05

Step 1:  Sell house.  Step 2:  Move in with parents.  Step 3:  Buy house.  Step 4:  Go pick up kid.  Step 5:  Profit.  As you can see, selling your house, finding a new one and adopting a kid is easy.  My wife and I have completed steps 1 through 3 and would like to give mad props to our realtor, Matt Malone with Century 21 Millennium Group.  This is not a paid advertisement, this is heart-felt thanks for helping out with steps 1 and 3 and because I am not very good at expressing myself, this is my way to say thank you.

LADY RAIDER SOCCER
Esson Makes History with Fourth Big 12 Weekly Honor - Texas Tech Red Raiders Official Athletic Site
Congrats to Victoria Esson!

LADY RAIDER CROSS COUNTRY
Tanui Named Big 12 Cross Country Runner of the Week - Texas Tech Red Raiders Official Athletic Site
Awesome!  Maybe Rose, from Kenya, will be yet another Sally Kipyego for Texas Tech.  Congrats to Rose!

CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT
Missouri will explore conference options - Sports | The Columbia Daily Tribune - Columbia, Missouri and Curators tell Missouri to look beyond the Big 12 - KansasCity.com
As I somewhat expected, Missouri will be looking elsewhere, most likely the SEC to complete them.  I've said it last week and I'll say it again, I don't blame them one bit and don't give one wit as to whether or not Missouri started conference realignment two years ago.  They knew that partnering with UT wasn't going to be fun down the road and I agree with them.  And yes, apparently the Longhorn Network is still a problem, per OB.com's Chip Brown:

But two sources close to the situation said a deal was nearly brokered on Tuesday that would have had the nine remaining schools in the Big 12 granting their TV rights on the Tier 1 and Tier 2 level for more than six years.

One source said the granting of rights would have been closer to the length of time left on the Big 12's Tier 2 TV deal with Fox, which has 13 years remaining.

But as part of the agreement, there were restrictions proposed on Tier 3 content, and Texas balked, the source said. The restrictions had to do with any and all high school content, the source said.

Texas' Longhorn Network has been at the center of debate over the airing of anything having to do with high schools. Currently, the NCAA has said LHN can show high school highlights in a news format. But LHN, which launched on Aug. 26, hasn't even been doing that - to avoid more controversy as the league works out its issues, sources said.

I've read comments from yesterday about how this is a mistake for Missouri in that they could be playing in front of empty stadiums in the SEC and that in the Big 12, they are one of the better programs.  Absolutely, that could all happen.  "Could" is the operative word.  What "will" happen is that Missouri and Texas A&M will share all revenue with their conference partners equally. I don't know if it's going to work out for the Tigers and Aggies in a new conference and most likely, they won't be winning national championships any time soon, but they'll be on equal footing with the other universities in their conference.  Meanwhile, UT fans continue to hold up their hands and say, "What? How could this happen?  This is crazy, four universities have now left the same conference as us Longhorns.  This must be a coincidence and have nothing to do with the Longhorn Network wanting to report real news, like high school football highlights, never mind that it could give UT a recruiting advantage, it's about America!"  Whether you think that high school highlights are a big deal or are not a big deal is obviously your opinion, but these schools dislike something about the way the Big 12 was being handled and wanted to go somewhere else.  I guess you could also say that Kansas St. and Texas Tech have also been in the same conference, so maybe they'reto blame.  I don't know.

Texas Tech football links are after the jump.

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL
Texas Tech, Will Rogers and the legend of A&M | Red Raiders
As some of you de-bunked the history lesson yesterday, would love to see you debunk anything here as well. 

Tech CB remembers tough time with Aggies' Fuller | Red Raiders
I think we all remember this and would guess that CB Jarvis Phillips remembers this too:

"It was pretty much the worst day in the whole season for me," said Phillips, who led the team with four interceptions and 10 pass breakups. "There were other losses, but that loss particularly was one of the worst, because I kind of felt like it was my fault. He had a good game, and I kind of let the game get out of control, so I definitely don’t want that to happen again."

Phillips sounds like a kid that is trying to get better.

Red Raiders football notebook: High expectations | Red Raiders and Football notebook: Tech receivers share thoughts on A&M, avoiding slow starts - The Daily Toreador: Sports
Notebooks!  In the LAJ article, LB Daniel Cobb talk about DE's Leon Mackey and Scott Smith:

"Leon Mackey and Scott, they’re grown men," linebacker Daniel Cobb said Tuesday. "Those are men. That helps tremendously. The push off the edge, their speed, their power, that’s a big difference, and it helps a lot."

In the DT article, IR Bradley Marquez talks about the Texas Tech and Texas A&M rivalry:

"Honestly, my very first collegiate football game I attended was a Texas A&M-Tech game here," Marquez said, "when Dwayne Slay was (a Tech) safety and Jorvorskie Lane was (A&M’s) running back. It was definitely a fun game to watch. I enjoyed every bit of it."

Data Sharing: Targets And Catches (Through Five Weeks) - Football Study Hall
This is terrific, you can go here and find the Texas Tech targets and catches.  WR Eric Ward is at a 90.9% catch rate and WR Darrin Moore was at a 84.0% catch rate.  Ward is catching just about everything thrown to him.

Big 12 Power Poll: Week Five - Turfburner
Catch up with the Big 12 with Turfburner's Jay Beck!

Aggies now have to stop Red Raider QB Doege | AggieSports.com | Bryan/College Station, TX
TAMU defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter talks about their defense:

"We've been awful in takeaways," A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter said. "Flat awful. Part of that is not rerouting receivers, to get them where they're not where the quarterbacks need them to be. We're getting some decent pressure at times. Most of it we have to manufacture, and we have to do a better job in that."

Aggies try to move on after 2 tough losses - San Antonio Express-News
TAMU coach Mike Sherman:

"I think we're a better team, but we're missing on a couple of cylinders right now and we have to get those cylinders working," he said. "I think I have more optimism. I was optimistic last year, but I know our guys. I know what we have. I think we have a good pulse on things and I'm confident we can fix what needs to get fixed."

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
College Football Schedule, Week 6: Texas Vs. Oklahoma The Clear Game Of The Week - SBNation.com and The Alphabetical, Week 5: The Annual And Variable Invincibility Of Alabama - SBNation.com

Love both of these links, unfortunately I'll be missing almost every game this weekend so they'll do me no good, but at the very least you should keep them in mind for the weekend.