So much has happened since yesterday, when we discussed the idea that Texas A&M was having a Board of Directors meeting to discuss the Big 12.  This meeting was supposed to happen today.  In any event, things escalated yesterday.  To back up a bit, Sports By Brooks transcribed an audio clip from the Longhorn Network Vice President, Dave Brown, who said this last week (and to give credit where credit is due, miketag from IAT12M found the audio first) about airing high school football games:

"We’re going to follow the great [high school] players in the state. Obviously a kid like [unsigned Texas verbal commit] Johnathan Gray. I know people [Longhorn Network subscribers] are going to want to see Johnathan Gray, I can’t wait to see Johnathan Gray.

"Feedback from our audience is they just want to see Johnathan Gray run whether it’s 45-0 or not, they want to see more Johnathan Gray. So we’re going to do our best to accomodate them [Longhorn Network subscribers] and follow the kids who are being recruited by a lot of the Division I schools. Certainly some of the kids Texas has recruited and is recruiting and everyone else the Big 12 is recruiting.

"One other thing, you may see us, I know there’s a kid [unsigned Texas verbal commit] Connor Brewer from Chapparal high school in Arizona. We may try to get on one or two of their games as well so people [Longhorn Network subscribers] can see an incoming quarterback that’ll be part of the scene in Austin."

I mentioned yesterday that although the Longhorn Network VP may not be an employee of the University of Texas, but it was a gray line as to whether or not a person associated with a university could even so much as mention the names of high school players that haven't signed a letter of intent. 

Yesterday Texas AD DeLoss Dodds had this to say about the Longhorn Network:

"We do not want to use it as a recruiting advantage. We don't want it tied to Texas," Dodds said. "ESPN knows we don't want to violate any NCAA rules and they don't want to."

Once folks started to put 2 + 2 together, i.e. if you commit to the University of Texas then we'll put your high school game on the Longhorn Network, then folks started to get  upset.  College Football Talk's John Taylor:

And, if the NCAA decides to continue sitting on its hands when it comes to the UT/ESPN/high school football relationship?  The Association needs to never again bring sanctions against any Div. 1-A football program for "recruiting violations".  Simply put, if televising potential in-state — and specifically targeted out-of-state — recruits on your own television network is not a violation, how could The Association ever again look any school in the eyes in the future and accuse them of doing something illicit in gaining an advantage in recruiting?

This led to a report from Sporting News' Matt Hayes who said that OU and TAMU may look at moving to the SEC:

A source told Sporting News on Wednesday that both Texas A&M and Oklahoma are so concerned about rival Texas gaining a recruiting advantage with the newly formed Longhorn Network, the two institutions could turn to the SEC if the problems can’t be figured out. The core issue: The Longhorn Network will televise live high school football games in the state of Texas, an obvious recruiting advantage for Texas.

I thought yesterday it would take the NCAA too much time to do anything about the Longhorn Network, but DMN's Chuck Carlton reported yesterday that the Longhorn Network airing high school football games is on old:

Commissioner Dan Beebe announced a temporary compromise Wednesday. Telecasts of high school football games on the Longhorn Network are now on hold, pending decisions by the NCAA and the Big 12 about how to handle school and conference networks. The Big 12 also delayed the possibility of a conference game on the Longhorn Network, announced earlier this month as part of a side deal with Fox.

"It’s not going to happen until and unless the conference can make it happen with benefit to all and detriment to none," Beebe said.

Meanwhile, what are the Big 12's conference brethren saying about the whole deal?  Rock M Nation is having fun in a roundtable where they briefly discuss the issue at hand.  Beergut IAT12M is claiming that UT needs TAMU and OU more than TAMU and OU need UT.  Peter Bean at BON writes that UT should bluff TAMU and OU's threat to move to the SEC and also writes that by making all of this public, resulting in Beebe making a statement yesterday was a well played move by OU and TAMU.  CACRM's ccmachine writes that the Sooners and Aggies flexed their muscles.

This is all well and good, but I think the key is, and I think it's what the NCAA is deciding isn't whether or not UT can have the Longhorn Network.  That's not the issue.  The issue is whether or not the LHN, or a VP from the LHN, can specifically mention players that are being recruited by UT and can air high school games, which, potentially, could turn into a commit for UT.   I still think that the best possible scenario for the other nine universities is to form their own television network that then forces UT fans to purchase the LHN and the Remaining Nine Network.  At the very least, it would at the very least create a situation that would force UT fans spend more money to watch their team.

I'm officially out until June 25th.  If I can, I might check in the comments, but I have no idea how quality the internets will be in Ethiopia.  I would very much encourage you all to write FanPosts or FanShots.  Help me help you . . . or something like that.  As a parting gift, here's a montage (shout-out to email sender) of a certain game in 2008 that will hopefully give you some happy thoughts. 

Untitled from McGyver8 on Vimeo.

Wreck' Em!

This is the second annual "Double-T Nation's Post Season Awards". The categories which the DTN community will be nominating and voting are as follows: Offensive Rookie of the Year; Defensive Rookie of the Year; Most Improved Offensive Player; Most Improved Defensive Player; Special Teams Player of the Year; Offensive Player of the Year; Defensive Player of the Year; and Most Valuable Player. I'll be doing a post where you nominate players for the specific category and then I'll open up the poll the next day.

I don't know if there's much point in even writing about the candidates, but I will. It's pretty clear to me that Texas Tech legend, Matt Williams is the leading candidate, but it's really up to all of you. We'll talk about Williams first, who made 9 of 11 field goals and 56 of 56 extra points. That's pretty darned good, and despite having a solid senior season, I thought I'd take us all down memory lane and remind everyone that Williams was asked to kick for free rent during the 2008 season, against UMass. It took about a month before Williams was traveling with the team and the rest is history.

And Williams was solid for the entire time that he kicked and he made extra points uneventful because he nailed them through the uprights.

And now we get to the guy that did make extra points eventful, and he's the kicker for the forseeable future, which makes me nervous, Donnie Carona. Carona was mainly the kickoff kicker, where he had 78 kickoffs for a 63.40 average and had 21 touchbacks at a 26.92% rate. He also had 10 punts (which I don't remember at all) for a 47.50 average. And to the field goals, he was 1 of 4 (although to be fair, Carona really only kicked the long field goals) and didn't kick any extra points.

Last, but not least, Jonathan LaCour was responsible for the punting duties, after being suspended for all of the 2009 season, LaCour punted all of last year, allowing 2009 punter, Ryan Erxleben, to redshirt last year. LaCour was okay and certainly not great by any means as LaCour had 57 punts for a 39.30 average. Meh.

The returners were okay, but nothing special. Detron Lewis had 10 punt returns last year while Austin Zouzalik had 6. Lewis average 6.20 YPR, which isn't great, but I'm guessing that the thought was that Lewis is sure-handed and won't botch away any punts. Zouzalik didn't even average 1 YPR. Eric Stephens averaged 24.34 yards per kickoff return which is okay, but overall, Texas Tech had the 6th best return game in the conference.  Maybe I'm biased, but I just didn't think the return game garners a candidate for this award, but I decided to add them anyway because there just aren't many candidates.

If I've missed someone, I've got a space for you to vote for "Other" and you'll need to have a comment with the subject line "Other" and then list the player that you think deserves the award.

DTN Post Season Award Winners

• Offensive MVP |
• Defensive MVP |
• Special Teams MVP |
• Offensive Most Improved Player | WR Lyle Leong
• Defensive Most Improved Player | LB Sam Fehoko
• Offensive Rookie of the Year | RB Ben McRoy
• Defensive Rookie of the Year | S Tre' Porter

This is the second annual "Double-T Nation's Post Season Awards". The categories which the DTN community will be nominating and voting are as follows: Offensive Rookie of the Year; Defensive Rookie of the Year; Most Improved Offensive Player; Most Improved Defensive Player; Special Teams Player of the Year; Offensive Player of the Year; Defensive Player of the Year; and Most Valuable Player. I'll be doing a post where you nominate players for the specific category and then I'll open up the poll the next day.

Today, we're voting for Offensive Most Improved Player. This list would NOT include freshmen or redshirt freshmen or first year JUCO players since they were up for Rookie of the Year. So, who improved the most from 2009 to 2010? Here's my short-list: RB Eric Stephens, QB Taylor Potts, WR Lyle Leong, LT LaAdrian Waddle, LG Lonnie Edwards, C Justin Keown, RT Mickey Okafor and RG Deveric Gallington.

Let's first talk about the offensive line as a whole, because none of them were redshirt freshmen and they all played or started a majority of the 2009 and 2010 seasons.  In 2010, the line had to replace Brandon Carter, Shawn Byrnes and Marlon Wynne, but a lot of the 2010 linemen played a good part of that year. In fact, the line gave up only 21 sacks in 2010, which is good for 1 sack for every 29 pass attempts, and 31 in 2009, which is 1 sack for every 21 pass attempts. In addition to that, the running game increased from 141 yards a game, which was up from 84 yards a game, and don't forget that the YPC went from 3.42 in 2009 to 4.20 in 2010. Thus, with your humble permission, I'd like to submit to you the entire offensive line, as a whole, for this particular DTN award. It's hard to say that one offensive lineman deserved it over another and collectively, they did do a better job of protecting the quarterback and rushing this year.

As far as skill positions, positions that can be quantified by numbers, RB Stephens went from 254 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns, with 113 receiving yards and 1 touchdown while in 2009 to 668 yards and 6 touchdowns while catching 212 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2010. Yes, there were fumbles, but he was pretty solid for a good part of the year.

In 2009, QB Potts completed 65% of his passes for 3,440 yards (312 YPG), 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. While the 2010 version of Potts, he completed 67% of his passes for 3,726 yards (286 YPG), 35 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

WR Leong practically doubled his production from 2009 to 2010, in 2009, Leong had 45 receptions for 571 yards and 9 touchdowns while his 2010 was awesome, catching 74 receptions for 926 yards and 19 touchdowns. Just amazing that he had that many receiving touchdowns.  I don't know where this offense is without Leong in 2010, he was just incredibly important as far as offensive production and scoring touchdowns.

If I've missed someone, I've got a space for you to vote for "Other" and you'll need to have a comment with the subject line "Other" and then list the player that you think deserves the award.

DTN Post Season Award Winners

• Offensive MVP |
• Defensive MVP |
• Special Teams MVP |
• Offensive Most Improved Player |
• Defensive Most Improved Player | LB Sam Fehoko
• Offensive Rookie of the Year | RB Ben McRoy
• Defensive Rookie of the Year | S Tre' Porter

This is the second annual "Double-T Nation's Post Season Awards". The categories which the DTN community will be nominating and voting are as follows: Offensive Rookie of the Year; Defensive Rookie of the Year; Most Improved Offensive Player; Most Improved Defensive Player; Special Teams Player of the Year; Offensive Player of the Year; Defensive Player of the Year; and Most Valuable Player. 

This is another short list, in part because there were either freshmen or redshirt freshmen playing, which would make them eligible for the rookie of the year award or they were mostly upper-classmen and established players, i.e. Colby Whitlock, Bront Bird, Brian Duncan, etc.  So in trying to figure out nominees the three players that I thought qualified for this award were the following:  S Brett Dewhurst, LB Julius Howard, LB Tyrone Sonier, and LB Sam Fehoko.

So how much better were these players.  Fehoko finished 2010 with 40 tackles, 3.5 TFL (tackles for loss) and 2.0 sacks compared to just 19 tackles, 1.0 TFL and no sacks in 2009.  Dewhurst finished the year with 35 tackles and 4 PBU (passes broken up) compared to 26 tackles and 4 PBU in 2009.  Howard, who switched positions for the 100th time, finished 2010 with 33 tackles and 4.0 TFL while having 29 tackles and 1.0 TFL in 2009. Last, but not least, in limited time, Sonier had 22 tackles, 1.0 TFL and 1.0 sacks in 2010 while having only 4 tackles in 2009.

Let me know if I've forgotten someone and even though I've listed these players, I'd still like for you guys and gals to nominate players in the comments and vote for other if you feel like I've missed someone.

DTN Post Season Award Winners

• Offensive MVP |
• Defensive MVP |
• Special Teams MVP |
• Offensive Most Improved Player |
• Defensive Most Improved Player |
• Offensive Rookie of the Year | RB Ben McRoy
• Defensive Rookie of the Year | S Tre' Porter

Texas Tech has released the post spring depth chart.  If you need a point of reference, I'm going to refer you to the positional write-ups from this spring:

PREVIOUS ROSTER REVIEWS
Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Offensive Line | Receivers
Defensive Line | Linebackers | Secondary | Special Teams

This is more about you than it is about me and love to know your thoughts on the depth chart.  I've done some tables after the jump to hopefully help you visualize the positions. 

So much internet good-good is after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

This is the second annual "Double-T Nation's Post Season Awards". The categories which the DTN community will be nominating and voting are as follows: Offensive Rookie of the Year; Defensive Rookie of the Year; Most Improved Offensive Player; Most Improved Defensive Player; Special Teams Player of the Year; Offensive Player of the Year; Defensive Player of the Year; and Most Valuable Player. I'll be doing a post where you nominate players for the specific category and then I'll open up the poll the next day.

We'll be starting this list from the bottom and move up. Today, we're voting for Offensive Rookie of the year. Eligible players would include freshmen, redshirt freshmen or the first year for a JUCO player. Even if a player only played a handful of plays as a freshman, he's not eligible.

Here are my nominees: RB Ben McRoy, WR Darrin Moore, WR Eric Ward, and WR Aaron Fisher. This is a pretty short list, and I ran through the offensive linemen, but there there really wasn't a young offensive lineman that saw any significant playing time. If I've missed someone, I've got a link for other and you'll need to have a comment with the subject line "Other" and then list the player.

Let me know if I've forgotten someone and even though I've listed these players, I'd still like for you guys and gals to nominate players in the comments.

DTN Post Season Award Winners

• Offensive MVP |
• Defensive MVP |
• Special Teams MVP |
• Offensive Most Improved Player |
• Defensive Most Improved Player |
• Offensive Rookie of the Year |
• Defensive Rookie of the Year | S Tre' Porter