SB Nation User Blog: LondonRaider

Thought Provoking Read on Football-related Brain Injuries by Macolm Gladwell

LondonRaider — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:36:29 -0000

This was a sobering article for me.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell/

Much of the attention in the football world, in the past few years, has been on concussions—on diagnosing, managing, and preventing them—and on figuring out how many concussions a player can have before he should call it quits. But a football player’s real issue isn’t simply with repetitive concussive trauma. It is, as the concussion specialist Robert Cantu argues, with repetitive subconcussive trauma. It’s not just the handful of big hits that matter. It’s lots of little hits, too.

My Name is Leach

LondonRaider — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:11:16 -0000

My Name is Leach

My Name is Leach. ----- When I'm up by 5 points. When its the fourth quarter with 9 minutes to go. When its fourth and 1 and I am on the road. I don't do field goals. ----- When I am rallying back and down by a touchdown in the third quarter to a top 5 team on the road, I'll take the onside kick everytime. ------ And when its any Saturday in the college football season, whether I'm 0-8 or 8-0 and A&M is on my calander home or away, I never, ever lose to the frickin' Aggies. ----- Sherman will wish he was leaping at Lambeu with the rest of the cheeseheads. ----- There will be no let down. ----- My Name is Leach -----

Week 4: Big 12 Power Rankings

LondonRaider — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:25:08 -0000

Source: cbssportline.com

Updated Power Rankings (and a mind-boggling outcome) after the break.

Texas Tech dropped 10 points in the Power Rankings after its loss on the road to second ranked UT - the largest fall in the polls among Big 12 teams.

Meanwhile USC dropped just 9 points after its pathetic performance against unranked Washington.

Did anyone actually watch the game?

Does anyone credibly believe that UCLA (which struggled to win over ULL defeated Kansas State at home), or Kentucky, West Virginia, Washington, South Florida or Notre Dame are actually better teams?

Meanwhile, OSU’s lackluster win over Rice enables it to move up 1 spot to 17 and Missouri moves up 4 spots because of its win over Furman.

This ladies and gentlemen is the perfect of example of why teams decide not to schedule tough non-conference opponents, because they are disproportionately penalized for losses while wins over teams like Furman offer the opportunity to move up 2 to 3 points every week.

Week 4: Big 12 Power Rankings

	Week 4	Week 3	Week 1	Change from previous week	Change From Start of Season
UT	2	2	2	0	0
OU	10	12	3	2	-7
OSU	17	18	7	1	-10
KU	19	20	20	1	1
MU	26	30	47	4	21
NU	27	21	21	-6	-6
TTU	39	29	29	-10	-10
BU	59	54	69	-5	10
TAMU	63	68	74	5	11
ISU	78	85	93	7	15
KSU	90	88	80	-2	-10
CU	92	101	49	9	-43

Week 4: Big 12 Strength of Schedule

In the ever-volatile world of Strength of Schedule which seems to change by as much as 59 points from week to week, your Red Raiders have escaped the cellar and graduated to the 80s along with UT – for now.

	Week 4	Week 3	Week 2	Change from previous week	Change From Week 2*
BU	20	3	13	-17	-7
KU	35	81	81	46	46
KSU	45	104	104	59	59
OU	54	35	79	-19	25
MU	56	11	19	-45	-37
OSU	63	13	98	-50	35
ISU	66	105	105	39	39
NU	76	52	38	-24	-38
UT	84	54	10	-30	-74
TTU	86	106	106	20	20
CU	105	95	62	-10	-43
TAMU	116	57	82	-59	-34

* Week 1 figures not available

Week 3: How Our Opponents Fared

LondonRaider — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:12:59 -0000

What did we learn about our Opponents after Week 3?

More after the jump!

The Good: Nebraska, UT, Oklahoma

The Overrated: Baylor

Least Likely to Succeed: Texas A&M, Oklahoma State

Combined Season Wins and Losses: 21-13
Week 3 Wins and Losses: 6-5
Most Significant Win: UT survives TTU.
Most Significant Loss: Baylor losing to UConn. I think its safe to say that BU's preseason hype is officially over.
Least Impressive Win: Tie. TAMU surrendering 521 yards to the 115^th ranked Utah State in a 38-30 victory at home. OK State surrendering 301 passing yards to 108^th ranked Rice in a 41-24 home victory.
Worst Loss: The Nebraska loss to Virginia Tech was a heart breaker. To surrender an 81 yard pass with 1 minute to go. To give back a touchdown due to one penalty after another. Ouch.
Biggest Upset Win: TAMU over Utah State? It sure seemed like it.
Biggest Upset Loss: Games played out as most projected.
Number of Opponents in the Top 25: Three. Record 0-3.
Number of FCS Opponents (ex UND): Zero. Fortunately KSU scheduled Tennessee Tech and OSU has Grambling on the schedule next week.
Number of Opponents in the Bottom 40: Three. Record 3-0.
UND Fighting Sioux Update: The Fighting Sioux pull out a tough victory over NW State in Natchitoches. Next game on the road at Stephen F. Austin who beat NAIA school Texas College 92-0 two weeks ago.

Team	CBS Sportline Power Ranking	Outcome	Opponent	CBS Sportsline Opponent Ranking	Final Score	Comments	Next Opponent
Texas Tech (2-1)	30	L	Texas	2	24-34	Credit where credit's due. Ruff and his boys played a hell of a game. Bring on the Coogs!	Houston

Texas (3-0)	2	W	Texas Tech	30	34-24	As for those 50 point predictions...	UTEP

Houston (2-0)	17	-	Off	-	-	After last week's performance, I like our chances. A lot.	Texas Tech

New Mexico (0-3)	86	L	Air Force	63	13-37	For UNM its always about the next week.	New Mexico State
Kansas State (1-2)	88	L	UCLA	37	9-23	Is it just me, or did UCLA look terrible. Again. I see a rare W on KSU's horizon.	Tenn Tech

Nebraska (2-1)	21	L	Virginia Tech	15	15-16	The one that got away. The Huskers D looked impressive except for 1 play.	ULL

Texas A&M (2-0)	68	W	Utah State	115	38-30	The Ags surrender 521 yards to the 115th ranked Ags.	UAB

Kansas (3-0)	20	W	Duke	95	44-16	KU's dreams of another cream puff-schedule-driven Orange Bowl run are alive and well. Southern Miss could be a tough out.	Southern Miss

Oklahoma State (2-1)	18	W	Rice	108	41-24	How unimpressive does OSU look right now? A 17 point win at home over Rice?	Grambling

Oklahoma (2-1)	12	W	Tulsa	59	45-0	OU outcored its last two opponents 109-0. Bradford on his way back? A week off and then Miami.	Off

Baylor (1-1)	54	L	Uconn	61	22-30	From last week: "This should be a close game." BU never threatened after the 3rd quarter. Let's put the Baylor hype to bed now.	NW State

Rice (0-3)	108	L	Oklahoma State	18	24-41	OK State surrendered 301 yards passing to Fanuzzi and Shepherd.	Vanderbilt

North Dakota (1-1)	FCS –unranked	W	NW State	FCS-unranked	27-20	UND's defense recovers 3 fumbles, blocks a XPAT, and registers a safety.	Stephen F Austin

Week 3: Big 12 Power Rankings

LondonRaider — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:35:49 -0000

Colorado is in Nose Dive.

Baylor boasts the Strongest Schedule

Rankings after the jump!

Source: CBS Sportsline 120

Power Rankings: Week 3

Colorado is in disarray. Somehow MU is ranked one spot below us despite a 7 point victory over Bowling Green. Hmmmm....

	Week 3	Week 2	Week 1	∆ from Week 2	∆ from Week 1
UT	2	2	2	0	0
OU	12	13	3	1	-9
OSU	18	6	7	-12	-11
KU	20	19	20	-1	0
NU	21	20	21	-1	0
TTU	29	30	29	1	0
MU	30	31	47	1	17
BU	54	53	69	-1	15
TAMU	68	70	74	2	6
ISU	85	83	93	-2	8
KSU	88	76	80	-12	-8
CU	101	77	49	-24	-52

Strength of Schedule

Your Red Raiders occupy the cellar for two weeks running!! (If it makes you feel any better, 5 of the Top 25 teams have worse SOS than we do, including Florida, which for some reason has the worst SOS in the the FBS.)

	Week 3	Week 2	Week 1	∆ from Week 2	∆ from Week 2*
BU	3	13	-	10	10
MU	11	19	-	8	8
OSU	13	98	-	85	85
OU	35	79	-	44	44
NU	52	38	-	-14	-14
UT	54	10	-	-44	-44
TAMU	57	82	-	25	25
KU	81	81	-	0	0
CU	95	62	-	-33	-33
KSU	104	104	-	0	0
ISU	105	105	-	0	0
TTU	106	106	-	0	0

* I do not have Week 1 figures.

Week 2: How Our Opponents Fared

LondonRaider — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:57:34 -0000

An unimpressive week for our opponents.

More After the Break!

Not a great night for our opponents as a whole.

Combined Season Wins and Losses: 15-8
Week 2 Wins and Losses: 6-4
Most Significant Win: UH defeats OSU.
Most Significant Loss: See above. OSU begins its descent out of the Top 20.
Least Impressive Win: The winning teams did what they had to do (we could nitpick about Kansas). It was a particular loser who really stunk up the joint.....
Worst Loss: KSU (ranked 76) loses to ULL (ranked 95). I don’t count the UH v OSU game, because I’ve thought from the beginning of the season that UH is that good. If any team is ‘this year’s Texas Tech,’ its definitely UH. OSU and Gundy are the great pretenders.
Biggest Upset Win: None this week. I expected UH to be good, so their win doesn’t really count as an upset
Biggest Upset Loss: See KSU.
Number of Opponents in the Top 25: Only 1 (UH v OSU)
Number of FCS Opponents: Just 1 (OU v Idaho State). Interesting Factoid: Half of the Big 12 has played more FCS teams at this point than UND.
Number of Opponents in the Bottom 40: Five. Aim High!
UND Fighting Sioux Update: Joel Schwenzfeier named Great West defensive player of the week after his 3 interception, 7 tackle performance against TTU. From now on, whenever Potts makes a bad play, maybe we should call it a "Schwenzfeier Moment’ or ‘Potts pulls another Schwenzfeier...’’ ":)

Team	CBS Sportline Power Ranking	Outcome	Opponent	CBS Sportsline Opponent Ranking	Final Score	Comments	Next Opponent
Texas Tech (2-0)	30	W	Rice	106	55-10	Hold your breath....	Texas
Texas (2-0)	2	W	Wyoming	91	41-10	Here comes the big one!	Texas Tech
Houston (2-0)	27	W	Oklahoma State	6	45-35	UH takes a week off to reload for Tech. Yikes.	Off
New Mexico (0-2)	84	L	Tulsa	61	10-44	A chance for TTU to take an easy W (chance of a letdown? Nah!!)	Air Force
Kansas State (1-1)	76	L	ULL	95	15-17	Is it conceivable that KSU goes winless for the rest of the year?	UCLA
Nebraska (2-0)	20	W	Arkansas State	81	49-3	NU will be stretched. Should be a great game.	Virginia Tech
Texas A&M (1-0)	70	-	Off	-	-	Tune up for Arkansas in Week 4.	Utah State
Kansas (2-0)	19	W	UTEP	89	34-7	KU will be 6-0 heading into their first real game on Oct 24 against OU and will proceed to be 0 for November.	Duke
Oklahoma State (1-1)	6	L	Houston	27	35-45	How much patience does T. Boone have for Gundy?	Rice
Oklahoma (1-1)	13	W	Idaho State	FCS	64-0	The Tulsa game has trap written all over it.	Tulsa
Baylor (1-0)	53	-	Off	-	-	UConn gave UNC everything they could handle. This should be a close game.	UConn
Rice (0-2)	106	L	Texas Tech	30	10-55	Rice will play red headed step child once again.	Oklahoma State
North Dakota (0-1)	FCS –unranked	-	Off	-	-	UND’s away games include the states of TX (x2), LA, UT, CA, AK. Come on Fighting Sioux!	NW State

Week 2: Big 12 Power Rankings

LondonRaider — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:51:39 -0000

Source: cbsports.com 120

Here’s another column that I hope to keep updated throughout the year. Over the summer we had a good discussion on what alot of this is supposed to mean if you would like more background.

Charts after the jump!

Strength of Schedule

(I was unable to find Week 1 figures. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I will update the chart. It will be interesting to see how this changes over the season.)

The inaugural doghouse occupant is none other than your very own Red Raiders (closely followed by Kansas State and Iowa State).

Week	TTU	OU	UT	TAMU	OSU	BU	KU	MU	KSU	CU	NU	ISU	Big 12 Average SOS	Highest	Lowest
1
2	106	79	10	82	98	13	81	19	104	62	38	105	66	UT	TTU

CBS Sportsline 120 Power Rankings

Highest Ranking: UT (2)

Lowest Ranking: Iowa State (83)

Biggest Gain: Tie. Baylor (up 16 from 69^th to 53^rd); Missouri (up 16 from 47^th to 31^st)

Biggest Drop: Colorado (down 28 from 49^th to 77^th)

Week	TTU	OU	UT	TAMU	OSU	BU	KU	MU	KSU	CU	NU	ISU	Big 12 Average	Highest	Lowest
1	29	3	2	74	7	69	20	47	80	49	21	93	41	UT	ISU
2	30	13	2	70	6	53	19	31	76	77	20	83	40	UT	ISU

How our Opponents Fared: Week 1

LondonRaider — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:12:38 -0000

A look at our 2009 opponents' performance which I hope to keep up with every week.

Week 1 Theme: Bradford and OU's Title Hopes Take a Serious Blow

Most of our 12 opponents had good opening nights.

· Combined Wins and Losses: 8-4

· Week 1 Wins and Losses: 8-4

· Most Significant Win: OSU defeating Georgia 24-10

· Most Significant Loss: OU losing to BYU (and losing Bradford for who knows how long)

· Least Impressive Win: Kansas State eking one out against UMass, 21-17

· Worst Loss: Rice (ranked 97) losing to UAB (ranked 115). Seriously?

· Biggest Upset Win: Baylor (ranked 69) beating Wake Forest (ranked 40)

· Biggest Upset Loss: See OU.

· Number of Opponents in the Top 40: 4

· Number of FCS Opponents: 3. The Big 12 has no shame feasting on the weak

· Number of Opponents in the Bottom 40: 4. See Above.

Week 1 Results

Team	CBS Sportsline Power Ranking	Outcome	Opponent	CBS Sportsline Opponent Power Ranking	Final Score	Comments	Next Opponent
Texas Tech (1-0)	29	W	UND	FCS	38-13	Pedestrian start. Bring on the Owls!	Rice
Rice (0-1)	96	L	UAB	115	24-44	Rice looks awful.	Texas Tech
Texas (1-0)	2	W	ULM	112	59-20	Only two weeks left.	Wyoming
Houston (1-0)	25	W	NW State	FCS	55-7	Next game is a big measuring stick for TTU, UH and OSU.	Oklahoma State
New Mexico (0-1)	84	L	Texas A&M	74	6-41	This is a W we need for so many reasons.	Tulsa
Kansas State (1-0)	80	W	UMass	FCS	21-17	Unimpressive start for Snyder Take II and Co.	ULL
Nebraska (1-0)	23	W	FAU	85	49-3	First real test is Virginia Tech in week 3	Arkansas State
Texas A&M (1-0)	74	W	New Mexico	84	41-6	First real test is Arkansas in week 4.	Off Week
Kansas (1-0)	20	W	North Colorado	FCS	49-3	First real test is CU in week 6 (Don’t be seduced by a 5-0 start)	UTEP
Oklahoma State (1-0)	7	W	Georgia	16	24-10	Big Win. But OSU doesn't look invincible.	Houston
Oklahoma (0-1)	3	L	BYU	17		Bradford loss is huge. Here’s to a speedy recovery	Idaho State
Baylor (1-0)	69	W	Wake Forest	40	24-21	Hats off to Baylor. Very nice win.	Off Week
North Dakota (0-1)	FCS	L	Texas Tech	29	13-38	Great effort by UND. You guys came to play.	Off Week

Part 1: Assessing the First W (in context)

LondonRaider — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:24:34 -0000

The Red Raiders looked pretty mediocre in their first game of the season. A lot of rust. A lot of mistakes.

When asked how Leach would grade his team’s performance, the Captain replied. "Average. Slightly above average possibly."

Are his sentiments accurate?

Well, looking back at Leach’s career season openers over the years, we can observe the following:

With the exception of Ohio State in 2002, Leach and Tech have historically scheduled some serious cream puffs to open the season. Therefore, we have 9 games (actually 8 games, because I couldn’t find data on the 2001 New Mexico game) against which we can compare the most recent performance
In Tech’s case the first game has never been an accurate predictor of future performance
Leach’s comments are, on the whole, right on the money. Although some areas clearly need more work than others.

Implications for the Rest of the Season

Year	Opening Opponent	Points Scored	Points Allowed	Margin of Victory	Overall Winning %
2000	New Mexico	24	3	21	54%
2001	New Mexico	42	30	12	58%
2002	Ohio State	21	45	-24	64%
2003	SMU	58	10	48	62%
2004	SMU	27	13	14	67%
2005	Florida Intl	56	3	53	75%
2006	SMU	35	3	32	62%
2007	SMU	49	9	40	69%
2008	East. Wash.	49	24	25	85%
2009	N. Dakota	38	13	25	1-0
	Averages (ex OSU)	42	12	30

Conclusions: Tech’s performance in the first game is not a predictor of much of anything.

As Seth has already pointed out, last year’s game against Eastern Washington was pretty average (for the reasons you’ll see below). Nevertheless, Tech finished with its best season under Leach. We’ve also had our share of clunkers (2004, 2008, 2009?) in which we’ve ended the season winning over 67% of our games.

Total Points Scored against North Dakota were 10% less than our normal average, but higher than 4 previous performances (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006).
Total Points Allowed against North Dakota was 1 point higher than our 10 years average of 12 points per game.
Margin of victory was 20% lower than our typical performance, yet better than or equal to five previous performance.

In other words, overall , this game was about as average a performance as you might imagine.

Continue to Part II

Part 2: Assessing the First W (in context)

LondonRaider — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:12:41 -0000

Continued from Part 1

Passing Performance

Was Tech’s North Dakota performance predictable given certain circumstances (i.e. first time starting quarterback)?

Year	Opponent	Starting QB	Passing Yards	Pass Yds/Attempt	Turnovers
2000	New Mexico	Kingsbury	186	4.0	1
2001	New Mexico	Kingsbury	NA	NA
2002	Ohio State	Kingsbury	341	7.8	1
2003	SMU	Symons	314	12.1	2
2004	SMU	Cumbie	470	7.1	0
2005	Florida Intl	Hodges	518	11.5	0
2006	SMU	Harrell	363	6.7	1
2007	SMU	Harrell	473	9.5	0
2008	East. Wash.	Harrell	536	9.2	2
2009	North Dak	Potts	405	8.4	3
	Averages (ex OSU)		408	8.6	1.1

Conclusions: Potts’ performance, with exception to the turnovers, was about average.

Overall, Potts' Total Passing Yards registered better than 4 previous performances.
Comparing his production with 5 previous first year starting qbs, Potts performed better than 3 of them (Harrell, Symons, Kingsbury).
In terms of passing yards/attempt, Potts was also average. With the exception of Hodges and Symons, Potts’ performance was better than two other first year starters.
The turnovers are a legitimate concerns. Let’s hope Potts improves here and fast. Otherwise, we might be looking at Tech’s version of Ebby “Nuke” Laloosh of Bull Durham fame (kidding aside, I seriously doubt this is the case, or we might have to resort to calling Potts ‘Meat’)

Rushing Performance

If the Tech rushing game looked as bad as you've ever seen, that's because it was.

Year	Opponent	Rushing Yds	Rushing Yds/Attempt
2000	New Mexico	69	2.9
2001	New Mexico	NA	NA
2002	Ohio State	31	1.5
2003	SMU	123	5.3
2004	SMU	67	3.0
2005	Florida Intl	135	5.9
2006	SMU	138	6.0
2007	SMU	80	4.4
2008	East. Wash.	103	4.1
2009	North Dak	40	2.1
	Averages (ex OSU)	94.4	4.2

Conclusions: If there is a major area of concern on the offense, in addition to Potts’ interceptions, it was the dismal performance of the Tech running game.

Tech’s rushing effort represented its second worst performance ever and worst performance by far against previous similar cannon fodder.
This game exposed big questions on the offensive line. Our goal line performance was unacceptable and given our talented rushing backfield, including the take-no-prisoners running style of Baron Batch, this effort was a real disappointment.
Our 10 year average in opening games is 4.2 yards per carry, and we averaged less than half of that figure in this game. Given that our 10 year yards per carry over the entire seasons is also about 4.2 yards per carry, you can easily figure out how much more work needs to be done here.
O-Line, I was gushing about you guys this week!! We need you to step it up and live up to your potential.

Continue to Part 3