Everyone knows our defense has been much maligned this season and several of the DTN faithful have called for a speedy exit by 'The Jeep.' I for one am willing to give him some more time. I think he's headed in the right direction and there are bound to be speed bumps with such a drastic transition between defensive schemes (though I would agree this season was more like driving off a cliff). Both Tuberville and Willis have talked about the need for more talent on both sides of the ball and our recruiting class seems to be shaping up to fill most of our needs - on offense. It doesn't appear, however, that the defense has gotten the attention it appears to deserve. Perhaps recruits are waiting until the last minute, maybe Willis hasn't seen anyone he really wants, I don't know. But, the four guys listed below seem like they would be excellent additions on the defensive side of the ball. They may only represent temporary fixes, but they would give us some talent on defense and give Willis a couple more years to recruit 'his guys.' Any thoughts, info, rumors, on the guys below? Thoughts on bringing in some JUCO talent vs. recruiting high school talent?

Cornellius Carradine
Strongside DE
Butler County C.C.
6’5" – 245 – 4.6/40
Comments: I've got my fingers crossed for this guy. Maybe Scott Smith can do some persuading...as long as he still wants to be here (which I also have my fingers crossed about).

Lavelle Lincome
Strongside DE
East Los Angeles College
6’4" – 275 -- ??/40
Comment: According to Rivals, it looks like it is between us and Miami, and that was before the Shannon/Muschamp switch.

Leon Mackey
Strongside DE
Hinds C.C.
6’5" – 260 -- ??/40
Comment: It looks like all his official visits have been to SEC schools thus far.

Princeton Jackson
Inside LB
Blinn C.C.
6’2" – 230 – 4.6/40
Comment: We haven't offered him, but based on raw stats, I don't see why.

I'm as frustrated/angry/disappointed/concerned as everybody else at this point, but just remember: it's only one loss, at least a few things are trending in the right direction, it was the first "big" game after a coaching transition, and there is a whole lot of season left. Keep those guns up.

To take my mind of all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, I took a quick stab at creating a really basic statistical analysis of the season thus far as compared to our previous performance (2005-2009) using data from a link (http://www.cfbstats.com/2010/team/700/index.html) that Seth C posted in a comment to kayakyakr's post "Good News/Bad News."

There are a ton of things that are jumping out at me, but I'll leave those points for the commentors to discuss. Do with this what you will (some of us have to get back to work). There is plenty of additional data that can be pulled from this (Completion %, Yds p/catch, etc), so if you feel like continuing where I left off, I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.
 

When he signed his LOI back in December, he was supposed to be a huge addition for Tech, but I have heard almost nothing about him since. With the loss of Boone and the misfires on Ferguson and Kitchens (fingers still crossed for Radley), I'd really like to know what's going on with one of the remaining crown jewels of this class.

All I've managed to find on him is an article by Jerry Moore (is this guy legit?), in which he claims Smith is petitioning the NCAA to nullify his LOI:

 "Tech's ranking is unlikely to get better but could possibly get worse, depending on what ultimately happens with four star DE Scott Smith. Smith signed a letter of intent with Tech and was supposed to enroll for the Spring semester. Once all the coaches changes occurred, he did not enroll and is reportedly appealing to the NCAA to get out of his commitment to Texas Tech." (see article here - http://tiny.cc/TzsFy)

I saw a teaser on Rivals/Scout (don't remember which) which mentioned someone trying to get out of their LOI, but hadn't seen anything more. Any updates on this situation would be much appreciated.

A big 'Guns Up!' to our new commits and as always, 'Wreck 'em Tech'!