Double-T Nation: FanPosts

Big 12's Total Offense Rank - Thru Week 6.

Tech Pirate — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:40:30 -0000

I saw an article in the Tupelo Daily Journal, and thought I would summarize it for this post.

Does the SEC's horrible offensive play make their Defense seem tough!? (ESPN's philosophy!?! Makes you think, doesn't it?)

I have watched a ton of SEC football (I'm stuck here in SEC land) and its obvious to me that their offenses are not as stellar as they used to be this year. TECH ALL THE WAY!! GET YOUR GUNS UP!

Total Offense

Texas Tech 2nd
Missouri 3rd
Oklahoma 5th
Oklahoma St. 6th
Texas 12th
Kansas 14th
** LSU 28th
** Georgia 30th
Kansas St. 36th
Nebraska 40th
Baylor 42nd
** Florida 47th
** Mississippi 52nd
** Alabama 57th
** South Carolina 72nd
** Arkansas 73rd
Iowa St. 74th
---- Ohio St. 81st = haha
** Kentucky 82nd
Colorado 89th
Texas aTm 95th
** Tennessee 97th
** Mississippi St. 103rd
** Auburn 104th
** Vanderbilt 114th

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/natlRank.jsp?year=2008 NCAA Website Link

http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=280292&pub=1&div=Sports Tupelo Daily Journal Article ----

And a Quote from Mike Leach at the bottom of the article....

Since great offensive play draws more attention than great defensive play, the chasm between Big 12 and SEC offenses has tilted the balance of opinion in regards to which conference is stronger.

The best way to answer that question, short of a playoff, is to have the respective conference champions meet in the BCS national championship game, along with any other bowl matchups.

And you know what they say: Defense wins championships.

The Big 12 coaches are certainly mindful of that truism.

"I think the offenses maybe have a lot of attention right now, but I think there's definitely some good defenses in this league," Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said. "I think it's going to be very hard to come out on top without a real good defense."

BY BRAD LOCKE
Daily Journal

Real reason to be offended

crabtreeforheisman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:22:10 -0000

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/clubhouse?teamId=2641

So this clip is on the Texas Tech home page on ESPN. Apparently one guy thinks Tech is overrated and will lose 3 out 4 games starting with the Kansas game. His main argument is Tech hasn't played anyone. Remind me who Texas and OU have played so far??

Its typical ESPN saying something that is contradictory to what they said 5 minutes before hand. I am glad they are giving us the "overrated" tag because it will make Tech go into every game with a chip on its shoulders and that is something I think we need.

Easily offended

TracySaulRulz — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:02:29 -0000

I will now play the part of the over-sensitive Red Raider fan (not for the reals but I thought it would be fun).

I was watching the FAU/Troy game on ESPN tonight (I loves me some Tuesday night NCAA football! I don't care who's playing) and the talk shifted to the Red River Shootout. While discussing the prospects of OU running the table on the season, they flashed up their remaining schedule. On that schedule they had, of course, #5 Texas, #16 Kansas, some unranked ones and then, lastly, #21 Okie State. I did a double-take and confirmed my suspicion. The schedule had Tech listed on it but not the #7 next to our glorious name.

Now let's all be over-sensitive and talk about getting disrespected! Let's pull a screen shot of that schedule and post it in Darcel McBath's locker! : )

Graham Harrell for ESPN All-American Player of the Week

Boarder — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:52:38 -0000

Graham Harrell is nominated for the ESPN All-American Player of the Week (week 6). He won week one and Crabtree won week three so lets give him some support. If Harrell wins this, Tech will hold half of the spots so far this year. This would be very good for Tech, helping us become more visible and well known on the national level.

Go Tech Go Tech Go Tech Go Tech Go Tech Go Tech Go Tech Go Tech

The Impression that I get

NM99 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:29:46 -0000

I’m not a coward, I’ve just never been tested.
Id like to think that if I was, I would pass.
--The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Reflecting on the Kansas State game, I keep wondering how much skepticism Tech dispelled, despite winning by 30 points on the road. I expected a much closer game, and so I find myself asking is Texas Tech really that good, or was KSU really that bad?

Going into the game, I honestly thought that KSU, based on prior seasons, would be a fairly good team. However, leading into this weekend, they posted a fairly modest victory over U-La-La, lost to what looks to be a mediocre Louisville team, and beat up on North Texas and Montana State – both of which are only marginally better than most high school programs. Last week the Bring on the Cats contributors were brutally honest about the state of the Wildcat program this year. Though Tech dominated the scoreboard and showed some flashes on defense, I am not sure that this game was the litmus test that it was supposed to be (I would like to see K-State play Nevada).

My impression of the Offense:

In general, the Tech offense seemed to click better this game; however, I think that was party due to the Kansas State defense operating more out of fear of the Tech offense than having any real game plan. At the start of the game, Kansas Sate was playing a 4-3 in a very soft cover 2, which Tech exploited for 3 straight running plays for 35 yards. I think the last time Tech opened with 3 running plays, Rob Peters was the starting QB and Ricky Williams was in the backfield. If they went for 35 yards, it was probably against North Texas. According to BOTC, this is not the defense that KSU had run in their previous games, and it showed.

On the next two offensive drives, KSU gave the same look, but then brought the strong safety up when Tech set their formation. The run didn’t work quite as well after that, but Harrell recognized what they were doing pretty quickly and went to the pass. KSU changed defensive strategies again and began blitzing on every play for a stretch, leaving the Tech receivers 1-1 for plenty of YAC.

Positives: 5 sustained drives used up almost 28 minutes of clock, 0 sacks, the offensive line was able to recognize the blitz, good recognition by Harrell of what the defense was doing, Harrell moved around just enough to avoid the worst of the pass rush, still over 100 yards on the ground, ore receivers involved than I could count, and we actually ran a successful hand-off with Harrell under center.

Negatives: Though Harrell was never sacked and the offensive line did at least acknowledge the blitz and make contact with the defenders, I noticed that Harrell was doing a lot of back-peddling in the pocket. Texas or OU would have dropped him for at least three 10 yard losses and probably a fumble for a touchdown. Even when K-State abandoned the blitz, there was a lot more push from the K-State defensive line than I would like to see. Perhaps Vazquez and Reed are not fully recovered yet, but let’s hope they get there soon.

It may have been a function of the back-peddling, but Harrell did not do a good job of planting his feet and stepping into his throws all day. Harrell was lucky not to have thrown any picks on Saturday, but then again he never needed to throw the ball more than about 12 yards. If he ever needs to beat any other DBs downfield, he’s going to have to step up and deliver the ball, even if it means taking a hit. If he keeps trying to throw with just his arm, every defense in the conference is going to have a field day for INTs. He also made me nervous when he threw the ball while rolling out with a defender hanging on his jersey. The completion was lucky. It was a dumb throw, though. He should have thrown it away. That would have been fumble #2 against Texas or OU.

I also recall 3-4 drops that I’m sure Leach is talking to his receivers about today.

My impression of the Defense:

I have been skeptical of the Tech defense because of the (lack of) pass coverage. After seeing this game, I think it has to do with the scheme being called from the sideline more than the players not making the plays. Since K-State had already resigned themselves on defense, their only hope on offense was to try and make the game a shoot out. I know K-state put up a lot of points against North Texas, but come on – did they really think that was how they wanted to play Tech? Apparently so. So while overall the defensive effort looked good, I’m not sure that pass-pass-pass is what KSU is best at. They have a pro-style QB that is best at running a pro-style offense, not running a west coast offense. There’s an old saying about not changing horses mid-stream. I think this also shows a lack of a solid game plan by KSU, and it did not play to their strengths.

The Tech defense started out the game playing the run with the corners 10 yards off the line, and K-State came out passing. Fortunately on their 2nd drive, K-state dropped the ball on 3rd and 8, forcing a punt. The Tech defense gets some credit there for forcing Freeman out of the pocket, but I thought the pass should have been caught. On their 3rd drive, K-State received a gift after Tech failed to convert on 4th and inches from its own 29. I won’t discuss the decision to go for it here. KSU comes out passing again and Tech is still playing the run. 4 plays later they score.

After 3 series in which 60% of the plays run by KSU were passes, Tech finally adjusts and starts playing the pass. The corners started playing tighter, and the d-line was unleashed to try and pressure the QB instead of plug holes. The result was 3 straight punts by K-State (would have been 3 straight 3-and-outs were it not for a sideline infraction).

In the second half, up by 24 points, Tech reverted to playing the same coverage as at the start of the game, but continued to allow the defensive line to pressure the QB. Other than 1 off-sides by Whitlock, the defense also did a great job of not beating themselves. They only gave up 1 TD in the second half (though I am not sure how impressive that is, given the quality of the K-State play) and seemed to be content to let K-State beat themselves by burning the clock.

Positives: DBs showed the ability to play tighter coverage, pressuring the pass with only the front 4, no stupid penalties, held a good QB to under 50% completion and 21 points (7 of those were practically a gift from the offense), d-line was able to get off their blocks and make plays.

Negatives: it took 3 series for Tech to adjust their coverage, Wall continues to get picked on, failed to stop the long drive after halftime, overplay by the front 4 - in a different situation this might invite the screen. I also think that Colt McCoy will exploit this if he comes out of the Texas-OU game in one piece.

It is hard to say how Tech might have faired had K-state mixed in the run on their 3rd and 4th series in first half as they did in the second half, chewing up clock and keeping the Tech offense off the field. Other teams have used this technique effectively against Tech in the past. While I know that the defense had shifted mostly to prevent at this point and they were rotating in a lot of newbies, I don’t understand not employing the pass coverage that was successful in putting the game away in the first half. Seriously. KSU was down by 24 points. It is obvious that the only hope K-State has is to pass their way back into the game. While things worked out OK in the end, it is better for your offense to be running out the clock when you are ahead, not the opposing team. There were 30 minutes left in the game, not 30 seconds when they reverted to prevent coverage. Continue to do what worked and get them off the field. The coverage scheme has to do with what is being called in from the sideline and not with the players on the field failing to execute. So I guess I will quit being so hard on the players and direct my ire towards McNeil when I am yelling at the TV in the future (come on you do it, too).

My Impression of Special teams.

Positives: Corona made a FG.

Negatives: In general, they were HORRIBLE. It is obvious that Leach has ZERO confidence in the special teams. People have suggested that it is the kicker/punter. I think it is coverage. They were terrible. I’m not sure what the average starting point was for K-state, but it had to be close to the 40 on kickoff, and there was the blocked punt for a TD. If punt coverage is as bad as kickoff coverage, kicking into a 30+ mph wind with 4th and inches to go and the propensity to give up the block, I might go for it as well. This will cause us to loose a game if something dramatic doesn’t happen to turn it around.

General notes:

A pretty clean game by Tech standards, penalty wise. No turnovers. The players seem to be executing well, which is what you want in this type of game. My impression of KSU is that they are well short of their prime. BOTC was right – they are realistically looking at a 5-7 year. With this in mind, I don’t think I know any more about where Tech should really fit into the rankings than I did last week. KSU is only marginally better than Iowa State and Baylor, and probably on par with A&M this year. Nebraska seems to be in about the same place, so I think Tech’s first real test will be Kansas.

That’s the impression that I get.

My Top 25 End Week 6

Pablo M — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:58:41 -0000

Here is my Top 25 as I see it. All Based on actual performance rather than preference.

We will see our Red Raiders crack the top 5 next week as Oklahoma or Texas has to lose.

1. Oklahoma

2. Missouri

3. LSU

4. Alabama

5. Texas

6. Texas Tech

7. Penn State

8. Oklhoma State

9. USC

10. BYU

11. Ohio State

12. Utah

13. Georiga

14. Kansas

15. Florida

16. Ball State

17. Tulsa

18. Vanderbuilt

19. Boise State

20. Illinois

21. Northwestern

22. South Florida

23. California

24. Cincinnati

25. Florida State

Next 10

26. Virginia Tech

27. Pittsburgh

28. Auburn

29. Boston College

30. Clemson

31. Navy

32. Oregon

33. Maryland

34. Fresno State

35. Kentucky

I hope Tech Defense reads this quote

Plano Jeff — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:17:17 -0000

http://www.kansas.com/sports/story/545869.html

"I think we can put 40-plus points on them," junior wide receiver Brandon Banks said.

This is quoted from the Wichita Eagle, September 30, 2008. I used to live there so I read the paper online occaisionally. I am, however more concerned with our offense playing up to their potential. I think the defense is steadily improving, but like many sports writers and fellow Double T Nation members, I am not happy with Harrell's progress this year. Saturday could be a great day for us or it could be last year's Oklahoma State game, though I don't think K-State has OSU's fire power.

My End of Week 5 BCS End of Season prediction

Pablo M — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:46:40 -0000

This is the pick that I pit against Vegas. The test is to see how close my prediction is now verses the money men in Vegas as compared to where the teams actually finish the regular season. This does not include bowls because of how conferences may finish and because of how some bowls are locked with certain conferences which guarantee them a higher finish then they really deserve.

As much as I want to, I can not interchange Oklahoma with our Red Raiders. Oklahoma has the better team and a game plan which will cause all teams the face a headache. Its not that Oklahoma is completely better. But their game plan on offense is damn good. An example is that Oklahoma averages 16 seconds between plays. Thus Oklahoma puts a new meaning in the idea of hurry up offense which causes all teams they face this year to get caught with 12 men on the field penalties and it prevents defenses from switching out Personnel for the majority of the game. Thus creating some very big mismatches. I have not seen enough to remove them as top team until someone can come up with a solution or if they have an internal offensive meltdown like they did last year.

MY BCS end of regular season top 25.

1. Oklahoma

2. Alabama

3. Penn State

4. LSU

5. Missouri

6. USC

7. Ohio State

8. South Florida

9. Texas Tech

10. Auburn

11. Utah

12. Maryland

13. Florida

14. Texas

15. BYU

16. Gerogia

17. Oregon

18. Kentucky

19. Wisconsin

20. Kansas

21. Ball State

22. Northwestern

23. Oklahoma State

24. UConn

25. California

My Top 25 end week 5

Pablo M — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:33:47 -0000

Here is my week to week top 25. I will post my end season BCS pick in another post. The BCS one is the one I pit against Vegas.

1. Oklahoma

2. Missouri

3. Alabama

4. LSU

5. Texas

6. Texas Tech

7. Penn State

8. BYU

9. Ohio State

10. South Florida

11. Oklahoma St

12. Kansas

13. USC

14. Georgia

15. Auburn

16. Utah

17. Florida

18. Boise State

19. Ball State

20. Maryland

21.Kentucky

22. UConn

23. Tulsa

24. Vanderbilt

25. Oregon

Next 10

26. California

27. Fresno State

28. Northwestern

29. Illinois

30. Clemson

31. Florida State

32. Virginia Tech

33. Cincinnati

34. Kansas State

35. Boston College

our ranking

Plano Jeff — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:34:15 -0000

So USC, Florida and Wisconsin lost. Either Georgia or Alabama HAS to lose. Now, I know if Penn State beats a ranked team, they probably leap-frog us, but does that leave us at 7 possibly 6? I sure hope, either way, we put a whipping on K-State and play up to our talent and intelligence. Looks like Big 12 could have 4 of top 7 seven teams for a few weeks. How awesome.

What have we learned - the defense

NM99 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:48:07 -0000

First, I want to acknowledge that statistics are just numbers unless there is something meaningful to compare them to. Nonetheless, I like trying to make sense of them. Second, I will admit a bias towards normalized stats - that is statistics that allow comparison of apples to apples such as yards per attempt versus just total yards, etc. Third, though I will present some numbers below, I won't discuss them because I think they are meaningless and really just something for commentators to use to fill time on the air.

I took a look at the first 4 opponents that Tech played and compared the box score of Tech games versus other Big XII teams to see how Tech compared against common opponents. I focused on the defense because the performance of the Tech offense was very inconsistent. If I hve time, I'll address the questions that I have regarding the offense in a separate post.

So what can we glean from these games regarding the defense? Nobody else in the Big XII plays SMU or U Mass, so I have nothing to compare those games to. EWU played Colorado. Here's how Tech Stacked up.

Stat	CU	TT	Adv.
Points Allowed	24	24	Push
Yds/Att Allowed	5.9	5.4	Slight Tech
Yds/Carry Allowed	2.1	1.0	Tech
Yds/Rec Allowed	9.5	9.0	Slight Tech
Turn Overs	3	3	Push
1st Downs Allowed	18	24	CU
3rd Conv. Allowed	11-19	3-15	Tech
Plays/Possession	5.3	5.4	Push
# Plays	74	87	CU
Total Yds Allowed	350	364	Push
Yds/Play Allowed	4.7	4.2	Tech

One important difference relating I think less to the defense and more to the offense is the number of plays run by EWU. Versus CU, EWU only ran 74 plays, while they ran 87 versus Tech with 2 more possessions. Why is that a big deal? It gives them more opportunities to score. It also shows why normalizing the statistics based on the number of plays is important. The Tech offense struggled a little and relied on a couple of big plays which took little time off the clock. Without the 2 extra chances, I think that the points allowed by TT would have been lower. The total yards would have also been a little more reflective of the quality of play by the Tech D.

All of this to say that the most important things besides score are plays per possession and yds per play. Total yards, 1st downs, 3rd down conversions are at best very indirect measures of the defensive performance. I can give you a number of scenarios where a team puts up over 400 yards in offense and never crosses the 50 yard line. Total yards is also a weak statistic because it is related to the number of plays. And while situationally 3rd down conversion rate might be interesting, how many times does a series make it to 3rd down? The normalized statistics are much more meaningful (yds/play, plays/possession, yds/rec). But I digress.

The Tech D was fairly stingy in yards per play, forced some 3 and outs, and cut some drives short with interceptions. Conclusion: When you look at the normalized stats, the Tech D is significantly better than CU. Looking only at yards, you wouldn't reach the same conclusion.

Nevada played Missouri. (I was very interested in this one):

Stat	Mizzou	TT	Adv.
Points Allowed	17	19	Push
Yds/Att Allowed	4.5	7.5	Mizzou
Yds/Carry Allowed	4.1	4.8	Mizzou
Yds/Rec Allowed	8.6	11.0	Mizzou
Turn Overs	1	2	Tech
1st Downs Allowed	22	28	Mizzou
3rd Conv. Allowed	7-19	3-16	Tech
Plays/Possession	6.5	6.2	Tech
# Plays	85	87	Mizzou
Total Yds Allowed	362	488	Mizzou
Yds/Play Allowed	4.3	5.6	Mizzou

Given how close the points allowed were, I was surprised by how much Mizzou dominated almost every other category. The difference came in that Tech only allowed FGs, whereas Mizzou gave up a couple of TDs. Nevada had one more possession in their Tech game than in their Mizzou game. Playing Tech in Reno may have helped the Wolf Pack, but I think it's pretty clear how Tech's D compares to Missouri's. If Tech does make it to the Big XII championship, we better hope that the offense figures out the cure for what Mizzou did to them last year and the turnover margin continues to be in Tech's favor.

Against Mizzou, Nevada found themselves in a 14-0 hole 3 minutes into the 1st quarter and seems to have felt the need to try and pass their way back in the game. Mizzou not only held them to 8.6 yds/catch, but the completion rate was only 53% resulting in a paltry 4.5 yds/att. Tech on the other hand allowed 11 yds/catch and a 69% completion rate.

The yards/attempt and yards/reception also helps to make sense of the number of break-ups and interceptions that Tech has had compared to other teams in the Big XII. Teams are going to throw a lot if they think they can pick up that kind of yardage. The bend but don't break philosophy on defense essentially waits for the other offense to beat themselves by stalling out or making mistakes. This is what we see in Nevada V. Tech with the 2 interceptions and all of the field goals from Nevada. The flaw in this is that better teams make fewer mistakes and are not as likely to stall.

I think that yards/play and plays/possession are very telling. They indicate how long the other team is moving the ball and sustaining drives. I also like yards per reception because it tells us how well the defense is covering and is not dependant on how good the QB is. Tech should be embarrassed by how this statistic compares to Mizzou. It also is an indication of why Mizzou was able to defend Tech so well in the past. People have been screaming it in the posts for the past 4 weeks. Now here's the data to back it up. Our secondary needs to play tighter.

USC

TTpilk645 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:53:57 -0000

just lost to Oregon State....Yea, That's right! 0-2 OSU beats 2-0 & #1 USC!

Now, that takes USC and the PAC-10 completely out of the National Championship chase. Oklahoma, Penn State (who drilled Oregon St.), Mizzou, Texas, Wisconsin, Alabama and Georgia are all high fiving about now. Maybe Texas Tech should join in. This is BIG! I for one had considered it a forgone conclusion that USC would win the PAC-10 with nobody giving them any problems. I am happy to say I was wrong!

OU has @24 TCU this weekend. If they aren't careful, this same thing could get them. Well, sort of. OSU was not even ranked. UT, Mizzou, Kansas and the Big-12's own OSU could make jumps, as well as Kansas & Colorado.

Unfortunately, Tech is off this week and could lose out on making a quantum leap up the charts. Let us all hope for the best. And when we resume play in Manhatten next week that Tech will be ready and not be blindsided like USC.

So, put your guns up and yell "GO TECH!"

Vote for Graham Harrell for the Davey O'Brien Award

themike — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:10:52 -0000

Vote for Graham Harrell and Texas Tech for the Davey O'Brien Quarterback Award..

http://www.voteobrien.org/login.asp

Colt McCoy of UT is beating Graham Harell in this online award.

Please add your vote daily....I am!!!

If we add our votes each day the Texas Tech fans can pull ahead and bring the well deserved award to the Texas Tech campus.

Davey O’Brien’s longtime friend and business partner, Charles Ringler, believed that the accomplishments and commitment of one of Fort Worth’s finest sports heroes deserved to be honored and remembered. In November 1977, just before O’Brien passed away from cancer, Ringler and other members of The Fort Worth Club established the Davey O’Brien Foundation (the Foundation) and the O’Brien Memorial Trophy.

The O’Brien Memorial Trophy was to be presented annually to the most outstanding player in the Southwest Conference. Four years later the award was expanded nationally in scope and limited to quarterback, the primary position of its namesake. The Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award® is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious award for college quarterbacks.

The Foundation’s goal is not only to honor the nation’s best college quarterback, but to inspire student-athletes to triumph both on and off the field.

Over the years, the Foundation has created three additional awards to complement the O’Brien Quarterback Award: the Davey O'Brien High School Scholarship Award, the Davey O'Brien Legends Award and the Charles Ringler Founder’s Award.

The Foundation recognizes athletes who have transformed leadership on the field into leadership in life, and, in the spirit of O’Brien’s enduring character and leadership, aims to instill a lifelong strong moral fiber in each of them.

The Davey O’Brien Foundation is a Section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in downtown Fort Worth. The Foundation’s programs are administered by a volunteer Board of Trustees and daily operations are handled by executive director, Danielle Moorman.

Many Texas fans like our style....

jwhitettu — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:33:18 -0000

I graduated from Tech in '04. I live in Austin now. Austin is a really fun town, sure. The people are unique, and there's a lot of love in this city. But, there happens to be a lot of hate too. Texas fans hate OU and a&m way more than I ever imagined. Loathing their inner respective cores. As for their feelings on Tech, however, they seem kind of amused by our success... It's a comfort brought on by consistantly pounding our Raiders, coupled with schaddenfreud enjoying a&m's decline despite recent losses to the aggies (which silently fires Texas fans inner rage). I can't convey the level of hate. Of Tech though, most Texas folks I've spoken to, including Mack Brown, (who by the way is a great great guy, funny, cool, can talk trash, and kid, but is really nice) most Texas fans are respectful of Tech and think we can break through this year. Not only that, they love Capt. Leach. All I'm sayin' is..... I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm feelin' it this year! I say, let yourselves get excited..... and if we get let down, we get let down. So be it. But enough apprehension already. Remember when we knew we weren't really real contenders? I say, wreck em! Our boys can do it! Belive in Capt Leach, and the West Texas Red Pirate Raiders.

Preseason is Over

LondonRaider — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:15:23 -0000

Looking ahead to our next few games, I’m feeling alot better this week than I was after the Nevada game.

It’s never 100% accurate to look at how your competition fared and extrapolate those results to how you might might play against the same teams, but nevertheless, I’ve always found it to be a useful indicator.

Missouri’s dismantling of Nevada still greatly concerns me, especially considering our struggles against Nevada’s inexperienced defense. Our defense surrendered 488 yards to Nevada, while Missouri’ defense allowed 362 yard. Fortunately, we won’t be playing Missouri until the Big 12 Championship game, and even Missouri is capable of having a bad day (see this week’s Buffalo game).

Kansas State lost badly to Louisville this week. Their three touchdowns, however, came on 50+ yard passing plays, so our defense will have to be sharp. We’ve shown a weakness against the big play in our first two games, and I hope we’ve gotten better in this respect.

Nebraska has done nothing to impress me just yet – pedestrian wins versus Western Michigan, San Jose State and New Mexico State. Let’s see how they do against Virginia Tech next week, before we’re really able to say anything (you might same the same thing about us, but I’d like to believe we’re a much better team).

Texas A&M just looks awful. I don’t think we’re looking at a ‘Norman Dale at Hoosiers turnaround scenario’ . They remind me a lot more of Notre Dame and Charlie Weiss.

Finally, Kansas lost a tough one to South Florida. But this week, South Florida beat Florida International (hey, didn’t we hang 70 on those guys recently?) by a paltry 17-9. Although I am still convinced that Kansas will suffer a big drop off this season, Kansas looks more beatable to me than they did a couple of weeks ago.

If we play to our potential, I think we’ve got a legitimate shot at 8-0 heading into the Texas game, but now we’re playing against ‘real’ teams, so let’s hope a lot of the kinks have been worked out of the offense (I thought the earlier post on the route running problems by the inside receivers was really interesting).

Let’s also be honest, our defense remains a big question mark. Even though they’ve played well against SMU and UMass (I would characterize the perfomance against Nevada as ‘gutsy’, but that’s different than being dominating or even solid), I don’t think we know enough still.

Go Red Raiders. Stay focused!!

(I posted this in another section, but I am not sure if it got posted, so sorry for the duplicate)

My Top 25 week 4

Pablo M — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:39:46 -0000

Here is my list for top 25 after week 4 of play.

The real test will come after Week 5 when I hope to have my top 20 pretty much sealed up.

Note: Week 5 may look radically different because I will be doing some projections into conference finals. Its impossible for example for Big 12 or SEC to have 4 teams each in the top 10 and remain in the BCS standings. It just does not work that way.

Even though Big 12 South is the absolute toughest place to play in the country and is why they have so many in the top 10. You have to play at that level just to have a decent record and bowl offer. Big 12 is does not have automatic bids like the SEC which can send average to poor teams to a high level bowl requiring their pundits in the AP and ESPN to overrate them to sell more advertisements.

But I will consider putting out 2 polls after week 6. The BCS race poll and the real power poll which is based on how good a team really is. There really would not be that much difference between the two polls in general other than some teams will be in the top 10 or top 25 that can not be under the BCS system by how the calculations are done along with other ratings which prevents teams from the same conference or even conference subdivition from locking up for example 1. 2. 3. in reality. An Example would be Texas Tech winning out and playing against USC and beating them in the NC. under the BCS, Oklahoma and Missouri are prevented from being 2, 3 because USC would get the 2 position even though Oklahoma and Missouri also could have beaten USC. Just another reason why there should be a playoff like the AA side with the top 32 teams play over the final 4 weeks with the NC game played on time in January. The Bowl system would still work. as you would use the bowl system to used within the playoffs with the lower tier bowls being used early with the latter bowls being used as a elite 8 final 4 and so forth.

My top 25:

1. USC

2. Oklahoma

3. Missouri

4. Florida

5. Georgia

6. LSU

7. Texas

8. Texas Tech

9. Alabama

10. Wisconsin

11. Penn State

12. BYU

13. Ohio State

14. South Florida

15. Clemson

16. Wake Forest

17. Illinois

18. Kansas

19. Oklahoma State

20. Boise State

21. TCU

22. Tulsa

23. Nebraska

24. Ball State

25. Auburn

Next 10

26. Vanderbilt

27. Colorado

28. East Carolina

29. UCONN

30. Maryland

31. Northwestern

32. California

33. Virginia Tech

34. Georgia Tech

35. Florida State

Big 12 completion mark (not?)

TracySaulRulz — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:40:11 -0000

So I saw that Chase Daniel (allegedly) set the Big 12 record for consecutive pass completions today at 20. I went to the play-by-play for the game on Yahoo (http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/boxscore?gid=200809200022&page=plays) to do some research but couldn't find any stretch more than 11 completions before it said he had an incompletion. I wasn't researching to see if he actually completed 20 in a row but, rather, I wanted to see what the yardage was for each one. But now that I found this other tidbit, I wonder if it could be verified with some other source (feeling too lazy to look at some other play-by-play on ESPN or CBS).
But, back to my original reason for looking at the stats. His completions during the ELEVEN straight completions were 4, 5, 13, 8, 4, 6, 13, 10, 15, 9, 11. What I wish was shown was how far the pass was and how far the run after catch was. Either way, the yardage on these completions don't exactly blow anyone away, which leads me to my main point. The national media will be absolutely FAWNING over Daniel and this record because he is such an AWESOME quarterback. Now, is it just me or, if any number of Tech quarterbacks would have completed this same feat, it would be QUICKLY and THOROUGHLY dismissed as a product of the dink-and-dunk offense and the "system quarterback"?
Excuse me for all of the yelling. I just hate the derogatory "system" label for our quarterbacks when others are hailed for doing the exact same thing.

Big 12 Championship Tickets

RRsoonerFan — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:28:55 -0000

I have 2 Big 12 Championship tickets Dec 6th at Arrowhead that a will let go for exactly what I paid for them IF the Sooners and I do not attend. I want them to go to real Big 12 football fans if things don't work out for the Sooners.

Tickets are section 120, row 21, seats 11 and 12 at Arrowhead. I bought the tickets early expecting the Sooners to be there. But you never know what will happen in the Big 12...and yes, I was in Lubbock last year when the Sooners visited. Email Mike at Sgtgibson@cableone.net if you want me to put you on my list. First come - first serve.

ESPN All-American Player of the Week

Boarder — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:48:18 -0000

Michael Crabtree was named ESPN All-American Player of the Week this past week (week 3). Graham Harrell was the first player of the week this year so we have two out of three spots so far. Not to shabby. Check IT out. I wonder if this is actually due to his performance or rather more and more Tech fans are getting involved and voting in stuff like this. Either way is fine in my book. Go Tech

Colorado Smacks West Virginia in OT

Pablo M — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:39:09 -0000

It was a sloppy game. However Colorado was able to put in a field goal to win the game in OT 17-14.

I have to say that the Colorado D step up strong in OT to keep WV out of the endzone and Special teams play killed WV. WV missed their opportunity to kick the field goal with a miss as it banged off the left upright which pretty much sealed their loss.

Colorado drove it down to the 7 yard line where they were stopped and they were able to kick their field goal to win the game.

Colorado put up 2 TDs in the first Quarter which look very impressive. They got two very quick TDs from their passing game. The second off of a very good hit causing a fumble. Then they passed for another TD. Both scores coming in the first 5 minutes of the game.

Colorado after that second TD seemed to lose their passing game. They really could not get their offense going and could not convert their 3rd downs. However, Colorado's defense was able to stuff the WV offense and pretty much kill White's passing game all day.

West Virginia got their 2 TDs from White who did it on the ground with the Standard QB draw play that he does. Right now, White is the offense for WV. If White has a bad day, they have no offense at all. Both of White's TDs came in the form of long runs of 40+ yards. The first came in the 1st quarter 2 minutes after the second Colorado TD. The second came late in the 3rd quarter.

WV tried to get a punt return before the half by calling some Time outs with less than 10 seconds to go in the 2nd quarter. Colorado had been taking a knee but then ran the ball on both 3rd and 4th downs to run out the clock. Interesting use of Time outs by WV to try and either block a punt or get a return for a TD. Colorado showed good counter with good clock management to run out the clock deep in their own side of the field.

With this loss, WV drops out of the top 25. Depending on how other teams do come Saturday, they could drop as low as 34th or just hover just out of the top 25. I will run the stats Saturday night/ Sunday Morning to determine where they fall in my formula that I use.

It was a sloppy game with an exciting OT win. Colorado's win over WV only helps the Big 12 cause that they are the best conference this year. No matter how much ESPN tries to make the SEC seem like they are the best, the Big 12 has dominated early in the season and has played very respectible. Other than Iowa State and Kansas State the Big 12 has done extremely well out of conference.

With Baylor on TV today should handle UConn and give another good showing for the Big 12 one more week.

If all the teams win this saturday in the Big 12, it will boost the SOS for the whole conference by a significant margin.

Let just hope that Iowa State wins against UNLV and Texas A&M can suprise Miami Fl with an underdog win.

Go Tech this saturday and lets hope that we will see a great game with the offense finally looking like they are supposed to. I also am hoping that the Defense mainly the secondary will start jaming the receivers for a change off the line because its just horrible to our CBs give up 15 yards as a freebee. Wall's Interception came when he did jam his receiver on the line. Just something to point out.