DTN Daily Diatribe | Texas Tech News, Notes and Links | 2012-01-20

WHAT'S THE DEAL, PART I | For those of you in the dark, it would be succinct to say that this FanShot got out of hand and there were some that contributed mightily to it getting out of hand. I said this as the last comment, but here's the deal, sometimes it's okay to let things go because you will not always be able to win the internet. Sometimes you will not be able to convince someone that you are right and at some point, you just need to let things go. So even though I asked you all to try to clean things up, the bickering continued and forced me to close the comments. So consider this your warning, everyone is on thin ice. Don't care if you've been around a long time or just a couple of days. I don't need extra headaches in my life. And I also asked (not a rule) that we actually discuss football in this post and it worked out pretty well. Don't get me wrong, I had to give two warnings, but I'll take it. Sometimes I get the impression that you all would rather not talk about what happens on the field and court. I know that DTN sometimes encompasses all things Texas Tech, but if you all can't handle those types of conversations and be mature about them, then I may stop any conversation that's not about what happens on the court or field. I've always been lenient about what you can write, but I'm more interested in being a writer than being a baby-sitter. Now, it's your choice.

WHAT'S THE DEAL, PART II | You've probably noticed by now that DTN has a new logo. I'm going to try to write something up over the weekend to explain why. It's sorta complicated and involves trademark and copyright issues, some of which are still not resolved. Again, it's more complicated than I just wanted a new logo, although I am glad that the response is positive as I somewhat obsessed over how it looked and probably went through too many drafts.

ODDS AND ENDS | Texas Tech owns all of the meat.

TEXAS TECH TRACK AND FIELD | I don't keep up with a lot of the track stuff, but Texas Tech will host their second meet of the year. See the link for details.

TEXAS TECH BASEBALL | The previews continue, this time it's Florida Gulf Coast.

RED RAIDER SOFTBALL | Per the official site, the Red Raider softball team is picked 7th in the conference this year. They finished 8th last year.

LADY RAIDER BASKETBALL | LAJ's David Just writes that the team is staying positive despite having three conference losses. Here's G Casey Morris:

"We will pick back up and we will stay positive and beat the next team we play and the next team after that," junior guard Casey Morris said after the loss. "We’re not going to hang our heads. We are going to keep playing hard."

RED RAIDER BASKETBALL | I very much enjoyed this RaiderPower video of assistant head coach Chris Walker. Good to know him as a human being. LAJ's Nick Kosmider writes that the team is still staying positive despite the 0-5 current losing streak and head coach Billy Gillispie said that he knew what the team would be facing:

"We knew what we were in for before we started," Gillispie said. "We have faced really good teams and the Big 12 is a really good conference, and it’s going to continue for 18 games. I don’t see any lack of confidence, but that’s an individual thing. You only know how a guy appears to be. You don’t really know how a guy is feeling.

"These guys are young, trying to get better and they’re improving dramatically, but not — so far — good enough to win Big 12 games."

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL | A couple of notes before we get to some other things. Turfburner's Jay Beck has the early list of players invited to the NFL draft combine and no Texas Tech players got an invite. I know that we've had some discussion about what type of talent is on the field and we've had the discussion that the recruiting ranks have been the same as in previous years, and I've just thought that the talent looked sub-par. I think it's probably a combination of both, but I think Texas Tech has had one invite to the NFL combine in the past two years, DT Colby Whitlock. I know that this isn't definitive of much of anything as Baron Batch was drafted, but not invited to the combine, but just something to think about.

LAJ's Don Williams has an editorial and an article on former Red Raider Mike Smith, who was recently named the defensive coordinator for West Virginia. You're going to roll your eyes, but I enjoyed the editorial, especially this part:

No matter how much Smith loves the Jets — and he loves them a lot — Holgorsen played a card the NFL couldn’t. Smith’s goal is to be a head coach in college. Head coach at Texas Tech is his dream. To get on that career track, he needed WVU as much as the Mountaineers needed him. He needs to recruit, needs to be in the college game.

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL RECRUITING | There are quite a few recruiting rankings out there, but I wanted to play the game of "guess the player" Here are the stats and I'll give you the three players, Reginald Davis, Dominique Wheeler and Keenon Ward:

Player A: 85.7 Passing YPG; 13 Passing TDs and 1 INT; 190.2 Rushing YPG; 31 Rushing TDs.

Player B: 71.0 Passing YPG; 5 Passing TDs and 4 INT; 166.3 Rushing YPG; 16 Rushing TDs.

Player C: 143.9 Passing YPG; 24 Passing TDs and 5 INT; 136.8 Rushing YPG; 35 Rushing TDs.

Discussion is after the jump.

Obviously you can look up the stats for each player, but I've always wondered why players are more highly rated than others. If I had to choose, I'd say that Player A might be the best player of the bunch, followed by Player C and then Player B. I know that everyone says that this class hinges greatly on whether or not Wheeler keeps his commitment, but here's the players:

Keenan Ward (YouTube) | Player A: 85.7 Passing YPG; 13 Passing TDs and 1 INT; 190.2 Rushing YPG; 31 Rushing TDs.

Dominique Wheeler (YouTube) | Player B: 71.0 Passing YPG; 5 Passing TDs and 4 INT; 166.3 Rushing YPG; 16 Rushing TDs.

Reginald Davis (YouTube) | Player C: 143.9 Passing YPG; 24 Passing TDs and 5 INT; 136.8 Rushing YPG; 35 Rushing TDs.

And you could argue that Ward is playing against the better competition and has better stats, but he's the lowest rated player. I've never argued that recruiting rankings mean everything, but I do think that there is something to the idea that Ward is a player that is tough for these scouts to take a look at because he's in the middle of West Texas rather than in East Texas. Again, to average almost 200 yards rushing a game is pretty amazing, and I'm not saying that Wheeler and Davis aren't deserving of their rankings, but Ward isn't a slouch and I think that he's comparable to the type of athlete of both Davis and Wheeler.

Dave Campbell's has a look at the early entrants in the college ranks, high school players and JUCO's. They've got a few things incorrect on the JUCO write-up, but I liked reading about the other teams.

RRS.com's Mike Graham has the story about Texas Tech commit DT J.J. Bynum changing his name from Bynum to Loller. I'd encourage you to read the whole thing, it's worth it.

Via the mothership, Spencer Hall has your recruiting glossary while Bill Connelly explains conference realignment.