Double-T Nation Daily Diatribe | 2011-02-19

TTURed runs the blog Totally Texas Tech and he's posted some new pictures.  For those of you who don't get out to Lubbock as often as you'd like, Totally Texas Tech is a great place to keep track of what's going on around the campus . . . I don't know if you remember Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand, but he was previously thought to be completely paralyzed after playing in a game against Army in October of last year, and SB Nation's Holly Anderson reports that LeGrand will be appearing at a charity function and has some movement in his upper body (think a good thought for LeGrand this morning) . . . Alabama fans are rallying a bit (hat-tip Team Speed Kills) and have set up a Facebook page to raise funds for Toomer's Trees . . .

Much of the talk this morning is around the idea that head coach Tommy Tuberville and offensive coordinator Neal Brown have said that QB Seth Doege has a lead in the quarterback competition.  LAJ's Don Williams, DMN's Mike Graham and Graham has a free article on RRS.com all on the quarterback competition.  Here's the money quotes:

"He’s definitely ahead," Brown said after Friday’s workout, "and he’s probably not just a little bit ahead. He’s probably a decent margin ahead."

Snip.

"I thought he showed his maturity today," Brown said. "He’s got a lot more experience than those other guys. But Karam and Scotty and Brewer, we’re going to give those guys an opportunity to compete and win the job and push Doege."

Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said Young needs to build arm strength, Karam needs to play with more consistency and Brewer has to learn the offense. He didn’t disagree when asked if the job is Doege’s to lose.

"Right now, it’s obvious Seth has the leadership qualities and he’s got a little bit more experience than the other guys," Tuberville said, "but that can change very quickly."

It's not over until it's over and I do think that there will be a competition for the spring and a good part of the fall.  I'm a fan of Doege, but I think I'm in the minority there.  Doege is excited for the opportunity:

"I'm not named yet," Doege said. "I'm still working on that. I'm just excited for the opportunity to compete."

Young said that he's got to improve on the speed of the game:

"We've all got some work to do," Young said. "I know personally I've got to catch up with the speed, getting used to how fast we run this offense and just the speed of everything with the play calls and all my responsibilities."

While Karam knows that this is about competition:

"I don't think it would help us at all if we weren't friends and had negative feelings for each other," Karam said. "We all help each other out, we all talk to each other and it's a little bit of a fraternity. And Texas Tech, we've had a tradition here the past 10 or so years that we're very deep at quarterback and that's just the way it is. There's good and bad to everything and the good thing is we all bring something to the table and help each other out and we can all learn from each other.

Also in Williams article, he has some notes, which include that WR Jacoby Franks is still re-habbing his broken foot, S Desmond Martin, DT Coby Coleman, DE Aundrey Barr and DB Will Ford are all participating in football activities.  

So much more after the jump, including stuff on DC Chad Glasgow.

Defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow was front and center yesterday, with a really good two-part interview with ESPN's David Ubben (Part I and Part II) and in Part II of the interview, Glasgow answers every fans burning question:

Are you for sure planning on installing a 4-2-5? I've heard a few different things.

CG: Oh yeah, that's what we're going to do. We'll have some ability to play three-man front stuff, and we'll have the ability to do a 4-3 because of how we teach those concepts. It'll carry over within it that way.

And I really liked this answer:

How does that fit in to how you want to go about fixing the problems that did arise last year?

CG: I think we addressed some of our needs, and we've got to get more speed on the field, and that goes through recruiting. I think we addressed some of those needs with this year's signing class. But at the same time, we've got to preach good position and stress those things, when I've got a chance to go make a play, I've got to go make a play. The difference in a football game is going to come down to seven or eight plays, but you don't ever know which one of those seven or eight plays it's going to be. But over a 150-play game, seven or eight of those plays are going to be the difference in it. We've got to approach every play like it's the most important play and find a way to go win that play. And once that's play is over, I can't look back on it, I've got to go play the next play, because that's the most important one.

LAJ's Don Williams writes about Glasgow (included in the article is a photo of Tuberville talking with West Virginia head-coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen, who visited practice yesterday and has the very sexy second button unbuttoned for all the ladies) and reports on some important position changes:

Junior D.J. Johnson, a cornerback the last two years, played free safety on Friday. So did sophomore Tre Porter. Junior Cody Davis and senior Brett Dewhurst lined up at weak safety, and sophomore Terrance Bullitt got most of the action at strong safety.

The free safety spot at which Johnson is getting a look is a center-field position.

"We’ll put a lot on that guy," Glasgow said. "D.J.’s a very smart football player that can go and communicate."

I'm glad to see Johnson at safety because I think that's a better fit for him and I think that last year he was forced to play cornerback for a variety of reasons.  This is a good move and I'm going to write more about the 4-2-5 later in the spring. 

You should also check out FSSW.com's Brian Smith (hat-tip jdhud's FanShot) and his spring football questions for Texas Tech and Turfburner's Jay Beck with a look at the Red Raiders.

 KLBK has some video of yesterday's practice which includes some video of the quarterbacks and a fiery DC Chad Glasgow.

We had a reader from a DTN reader, IndianaGuy, who coached against DT Donte Phillips (although I really did do a Google search and couldn't find anything for free) and had quite a bit to say about Phillips:

You all got a steal, if Phillips had not committed to IU so early and stopped going on the camp/combine circuit this kid would have many more offers then he did, in one of his articles it stated that the penn state staff didn’t even know who he was until he decommitted and he still came away with an offer in that short amount of time. This is a legit 6 3 260 kid with a motor, good feet, and if you’ve seen his interviews definatly has the right mindset. On top of that his athleticism is ridiculous.

Thanks a ton for the info IndianaGuy and I'll speak for myself, I appreciate your contribution . . .

Again, no time for a preview, but I will have a game day thread go up at 6:30 p.m.  I know that you can't wait.  And I should mention that on campus, the Lady Raiders will also face Baylor and the return of Britney Griner, you know the Baylor basketball player that punched a Texas Tech player, Jordan Barncastle, and was suspended for 2 whole games.  Meanwhile, in college football, LaGarrett Blount punches a Boise St. player and is suspended for the remainder of the year for Oregon.  Baylor is know to have really tough punishments for their athletes. 

Back to the men's team, they'll travel to Waco tonight and not surprisingly, SF Mike Singletary might not travel to Waco with the team, which means that LAJ's Adam Zuvanich focuses on his possible replacement, SF Jaye Crockett:

"It’s going to be huge," Tech head coach Pat Knight said. "Now he knows he can play at this level. He’s played against some really good teams in this league, and the rest of these games from here on out are really going to benefit him from a confidence standpoint."

Snip.

"I feel I’ve got a lot better (since then). I feel I learn every game," said Crockett, who for the season is averaging 5.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and shooting 50 percent from the floor. "I feel I’m getting more comfortable with the game and how the Big 12 is played."

During Monday’s Big 12 coaches teleconference, Knight praised the 6-foot-7, 200-pound Crockett for his versatility. He has the size and wingspan to play inside, the ball-handling skills of a slasher and the shooting ability of a perimeter player.

Go Raiders . . .

I should also mention that for the gamblers out there, Big 12 Hoops has Big 12 point spread predictions and takes a look at this weekend's games.

I love nothing more than to see a shut-out to start the season.  As a team, the Red Raiders allowed only 2 walks and had 10 strikeouts.  Starter LHP Daniel Coulombe (4.0 IP; 2 BB; 5 SO) was pretty darned good, but John Neely (4.0 IP; 0 BB; 4 SO) gets the win.  That's an excellent start.  At the plate, CF Barrett Barnes (2-3, 2 BB, 1 HR; 2 RBI) hit a homerun in his first at bat.  You need to make the time to watch Barnes while he's in Lubbock.  He's good.  2B JaModrick McGruder (3-5; 1 RBI) and true freshman RF David Paiz (3-4; 1 BB; 2 RBI) didn't seem to be affected by being a freshman.  There's some post-game video here and KLBK has some video from the game.  Here's head coach Dan Spencer:

On Tech’s opening day performance:
"I would have drawn up more runs in those middle innings where we left some guys on base, but I thought our players did a good job. I thought we were a little amped early in the game. I thought Daniel (Coulombe) was a little amped, and I thought Kelby (Tomlinson) was a little amped early in the game. It’s all the guys that we have been looking at in the spring. Those are two pretty good players."

LAJ's George Watson (one of the best in the business in my opinion) writes his game story:

Coulombe, who pitched only one game last year for South Mountain Community College due to an arm injury, got the start and proceeded to walk the first batter of the game. But the next pitch he threw as a ground-ball double play, and he proceeded to retire nine of the next 10 batters.

"I hadn’t been in a competitive game in two years so I had some jitters, but I was able to settle down and throw strikes after that," said Coulombe, who scattered one hit and two walks while striking out five over the first four innings. "We could potentially be very good as a staff.

For a full recap, go read the whole thing.  I should also mention that College Baseball Daily has a rundown of all of the teams in action in the Big 12.

*Click on the score for boxscore. Texas Tech series preview (pdf).