Double-T Nation News:

I'd like to take a second to give a big thank-you to the DMN College Blog for linking to a number of college blogs, but most notably some Red Raider blogs, including yours truly, Disco Tech! and Flags Over Raiderland (sorry Classless Clowns - perhaps this mention will get you on the blogroll). It's still somewhat rare to see newspapers acknowledge that blogs exist and it's nice to see that DMN "gets it". We're not in competition, we're all working together and having fun, with sports.

Texas Tech Football:

Some recruiting news, from LAJ's Don Williams, a number of junior college players and freshmen are beginning classes in the spring semester at Texas Tech. The link isn't live, i.e. no permanent address, so you may have to go to the LAJ page to read the article at some point. Here's the list of commitments:

• McKinner Dixon (JUCO), DE, 6-3/275
• Brandon Sesay (JUCO), DE, 6-6/265
• Jarell Routt (JUCO), DB, 6-0/205
• Seth Doege (HS), QB, 6-2/200
• Ryan Haliburton (HS), DE, 6-4/234
• Joey Fowler (HS), 6-4/260

Don notes that earlier in the year Texas Tech might have received commitments from 3 Cisco JUCO's players, but it ended up just being Dixon who made the commitment. Jocques Crawford, the half-brother to current starter, Aaron Crawford, did not want to compete with Aaron and will now be going to TCU, and Dimitri Lott decided that Texas Tech was not the place for him. Here's Cisco's head coach, John Parchman on Lott:

I don't think the loss of Lott is that big a deal, especially considering the relative youth of the offensive line and the fact that last year's recruiting class had a number of highly ranked linemen. I guess it's possible that he saw the writing on the wall.

Parchman did have some glowing things to say about Dixon:

Quarterback Seth Doege, who I believe only played as a sophomore and was injured last year and this year will also be taking classes this spring. Doege's high school coach Brad Davis had this to say about Doege, who never coached Doege in a game:

Good stuff from Don this morning.

One disclaimer, I do not subscribe to RaiderPower or Red Raider Sports, those guys do a hell of a better job on recruiting than I ever could. I cover signing day and at some point during the offseason I like to take a look back at recruiting classes, and how they panned out as well as attempting to dissect how a current class will play out for that year. I make an attempt an analysis, however, I just don't have the contacts or resources that they have at least in terms of up-to-the-minute information.

Hat-tip to FWST's Wendell Barnhouse, for the ESPN Bowl Gator Bowl's Stadium Guide for Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. This is for all of you who are going to the game.