Texas Tech Tuna

So Texas Tech vs. Texas.. DAMN what a game with a piss-poor ending. My take? Classic Texas Tech football. The team played their asses off and still wound up with the loss. Why? No, not the officiating – although that was horrendous. I place “blame” on two things: bad play calling and a lack of discipline.

Bad play calling – Mike Leach calls a timeout in the 4th quarter with (I think) around six minutes remaining. Why? The offense had momentum. They were driving the field with exceptional poise. Maybe Leach saw something he didn’t like in the defense; I don’t know. But let your quarterback, who has played an outstanding game, run the offense. That leads into the actual play selection. Throughout the game, the fade wasn’t working. What WAS working were the 10-15 yard slants, the curls, and the screens. So why in the fourth quarter did we start throwing fades? Doesn’t make sense.

Discipline, or lack thereof, was huge on defense. The four facemask penalties for 50 yards KILLED us. Period. Overall we had twelve penalties for a total of 127 yards. That’s unacceptable.

The fix? In my opinion, Leach’s time is over. While he has taken Tech to the next level from where Spike Dykes left off, he’s not the one to take us to the next higher level of play. I still don’t think he understands that defense wins games. This Texas game definitely impressed me on how all three sides of the ball played. But I don’t think it’s here to stay. We have a problem on our team in that we don’t have a team. We have a group of student athletes playing football together. Too many egos. Playing four square in the locker room won’t make a team. It starts at the top, and I don’t think Leach is the man to lead this team.

My solution? Approach Bill Parcells and persuade him to come back to Tech. After the year the Cowboys have had, and the fact that Jerry Jones is a moron, I don’t think Parcells will take too much more of it. He wants to win and has the drive to make it happen.

We got Bob Knight to come here; why not Bill Parcells?

On a happier note, Tuesday marks the beginning of a new era of Lady Raider basketball. Marsha Sharp retired and Kristy Curry has the reigns of the most storied sports program at Tech. Monica and I will be there again this year with season tickets. Go Lady Raiders!