by Tom Pennington - AP

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Wichita State: The Shockers haven't really played anyone other that Pitt, where they lost on a neutral court, 55-68, and creamed Iowa, 74-57. That's not a knock (Texas Tech has only played Washington and Oregon St.) so it's hard to determine what exactly the Shockers actually are. What we do know is that the Shockers have been fantastic defensively, ranking 37th in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency and have held opponents to 43.8% eFG% (anything below 50% is pretty good). That's really good. One other note, the Shockers and Red Raiders have both played TCU. WSU handled the Frogs 80-68, a 12 point win at home, and the Red Raiders beat the Frogs by 10, 80-70, on the road.

Texas Tech: The focus of the team has been an improved defense and that's certainly been true for the best part of the year. And despite the improved defense, the Red Raiders are also playing at a decent level offensively, shooting 51% eFG%. Leading the way are Texas Tech's most important players as John Roberson (51.7%), Mike Singletary (48.3%) and D`Walyn Roberts (61.2%) are all shooting at fairly high rates.

Wichita State: Much like Texas Tech, the Shockers are a fairly balanced team, but sophomore G Toure` Murry (6-4/194) is averaging 13.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.8 steals a game.  Murry is doing a ton for the Shockers this year, but junior F/C J.T. Durley (6-7/240) is second on the team in scoring and averages 11.0 points and 3.9 rebounds.  Just keep in mind that the Shockers have seven players who average at least 7 points a game this year.  Just think balance.

Texas Tech: PG John Roberson has been on a bit of a roll the last two games where he's averaged 23 points on 61.9% shooting. Roberson's shooting percentage overall, 44%, isn't outstanding, but it is an improvement on past years where his shots have seemed questionable and typically not in the flow of the offense. Seems like the Washington game (doesn't that seem like ages ago?) and the TCU game, Roberson took what the defense was giving him. That's a good sign for Roberson and the entire offense.

Wichita State:  Pretty tough to find much fault with either team here, but in WSU's only loss of the year, against Pitt, the Shockers were out-shot at the free throw line 30-18. Other than the free throws and the fact that Pitt shot slightly better from the field, I think it may have been the fact that Pitt simply wore down the Shockers.

Texas Tech: In these early games against non-conference opponents that may not have quality big men, PK has reduced the minutes given to Darko Cohadarevic and Robert Lewandowski (only about 8 minutes a game, compared with 2008 where Lew had almost 16 minutes a game). I know that PK is playing the guys that he thinks can and will get the "W" but I also tend to think that PK has to be somewhat careful not to eliminate the big guys prior to Big 12 play. The conference has quality post players and Darko and Lew need to be ready to play.

Year End Photos:  Hat-tip to SBN, the Boston Globe's best sports photos of the year:  Part I and Part II.  Part III is to post today.

Ease Up on the Fast Start:  FWST's Dwain Price writes that Pat Knight is not getting carried away about Texas Tech's fast start and gives credit to the players:

"I always tell people there’s no secret to coaching," he said. "If you’ve got good players it makes you a good coach. I really like this group of kids, and I think we’ve got a lot of good players."

PK has been really consistent with his stance regarding how the lack of athletes limited what he could do on defense and offense.  I think I like the honesty and for everyone watching the games from last year to this year, it's obvious that that there are more athletes on this year's squad.  PK also acknowledges that it's what happens in the conference that matters the most:

"No matter how well you do in the preseason, you’re still going to be judged on what you do in the conference," he said. "I just think these next five games are going to be important for us to get our confidence, to get our defense down.

"We’re still working on our rotation and just trying to get these guys more experience before we get into conference play."

Unexpected Hoops Success:  Storming the Floor's Eric Angevine writes that Santa delivered unexpected hoops success to this Texas Tech squad:

Texas Tech (9-0): Honestly, I thought Pat Knight taking over for his father had echoes of a previous Big 12 nepotism case: Sean Sutton's disastrous tenure at Oklahoma State. But the younger Knight has put together a canny schedule that gives his team challenges (Oregon State and Washington) mixed in with confidence-builders over decent mids. We'll know more in a couple of weeks, as the Red Raiders travel to Wichita State and New Mexico before starting the tough Big 12 schedule.

Shockers Getting to the Line:  Wichita Eagle's Paul Sullentrop writes that the success of Wichita St. has been their ability to get to the free throw line:

The Shockers are both making free throws and taking more. Last season, opponents shot 69 more free throws than WSU and made 56 more. After 10 games, WSU is outscoring opponents by 18 points (162-144) on one more attempt (212- 211).

"I know a good stat is being able to make more free throws than your opponent attempts," Marshall said. "My teams have not always done that, have rarely done that, because we shoot a fair amount of three-point shots. At the same time, I don't want there to be a (large) discrepancy."

Interview with Pat Knight:  ESPN's Andy Katz interviews Michigan St.'s Tom Izzo, New Mexico's Steve Alford and Texas Tech's Pat Knight.  PK starts around the 27 minute mark.

Big 12 and Miscellaneous Links:  Rush the Court's Patrick Sellars checks in on the Big 12 . . . Blogger So Dear (a Wake Forest blog) interviews StatSheet's Robbie Allen . . . former Texas Tech coach Bob Knight says things that really surprise no one and asks how in the hell can Kentucky's John Calipari be coaching at Kentucky despite leaving two schools on probation (I know, it's not Calipari's fault, it's someone else's fault) . . .

Smith to Sign, Langley Signed Up:  LAJ's Don Williams has a good update on the status of DE's Donald Langley and Scott Smith.  I probably won't get to a post about Smith until tomorrow morning, but Williams article is good insight as why there was a delay in Smith's LOI:

Two years ago, Scott Smith left the University of California, where his college football career started. But in choosing a new school, he remembered a piece of advice from one of the former Cal assistants: After going on a recruiting visit, take two days to think it over before making any decisions.

Snip

"Two days passed, and I thought about where I wanted to be, and that was Texas Tech," Smith said, adding that one of the former Cal coaches told him to impose a two-day waiting period after returning from a visit before making any pledges.

For those of you wanting to know a little more about Smith, he's coming from the same JUCO as DE Daniel Howard, Butler Co. CC and Smith is currently rated the 4th best JUCO player by Rivals.com and this isn't just by position, this is overall.

Langley has already sent in and the staff has received his letter of intent and he certainly is no lacking in confidence:

"If I can be recruited on a national level two times and go to a big-time program like Texas Tech, it can’t be just me talking a good game," Langley said. "The proof’s on film. I really am excited about the opportunity to go to Texas Tech and get coached by coach (Charlie) Sadler and coach (Mike) Leach and coach Ruffin (McNeill)."

As an aside, Langley is the 41st best JUCO in the aforementioned Rivals rankings.

More photos » by Sue Ogrocki - AP

26 days ago: Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones, left, passes under pressure from Texas Tech defender Colby Whitlock, center, in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009. Oklahoma's Stephen Good is at right. Texas Tech won the game 41-13. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

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SS Cody Davis vs. QB Kirk Cousins:

Cody Davis (Strong Safety / 6-2 / 200 / RS FR) :: There were a ton of question marks regarding how the Texas Tech secondary would perform, especially after the loss of three-fourths of the defensive backfield. In stepped Davis and FS Franklin Mitchem and although the numbers may not be too terribly impressive, 72nd in the nation in pass defense, but in comparison to the rest of the Big 12, the Red Raiders are better than average, good for fifth in the conference. Davis is tited for second, along with CB LaRon Moore and CB D.J. Johnson, with six passes broken up and is second on the team in tackles with 72. The general thought that when your safety is leading the team or near the top of tackles made, something is wrong with the defense, but I would guess that most Big 12 defenses suffer the same fate and the nice thing about Davis, and the entire secondary, is that he will hit. Davis was recently named to the second team All-Freshman Defense by CFN, an honor that is well deserved.

Kirk Cousins (Quarterback / 6-3 / 202 / SO) :: Cousins is only 6th in the Big Ten in passing, but he helped the Spartans lead the Big Ten overall. There's a lot to be said about the receiver situation, but Cousins still has his favorite receiving target in WR Blair White, while WR Keshawn Martin was Cousins' fourth favorite target. Cousins completed 61.5% of his passes, averaged, 8.2 yards per attempt and had a touchdown to interception ration of 2.57 : 1.00. There's this thought that the Spartans are purely a passing team, or perhaps pass a majority of the time, and the truth is that Michigan St. is about as close to even in terms of run to pass as you can get (387 runs and 393 passes). Cousins has only had two multiple interception games (two against Michigan and two against Penn St.) which means that he's not prone to having awful games and throwing multiple interceptions. Counsins best game of the year came against Minnesota where he completed 22 of 25 passes for 353 yards and two touchdowns.

So-So Running Attack: Despite rushing the ball almost fifty percent of the time, the Spartans don't necessarily struggle to rush the ball, but aren't running down opponents either. MSU ranks 79th in the nation in rushing offense and are 7th in the Big Ten at 135.92 YPG (for comparison purposes Michigan St. would rank seventh in the Big 12). The running game is really a committee approach in that the Spartans have 5 players that average more than 20 yards a game, including Edwin Baker (47.14), Larry Caper (40.27), Glenn Winston (34.00), Caulton Ray (22.29) and Ashton Leggett (20.83). The MSU suspensions play a part here as Winston and Leggett are suspended for the bowl game. I'm sure that this will have some effect on the role of the running game, but I'd imagine that the other three players will be more than capable of picking up any slack.  The truth of the matter is that MSU is their absolute best when they run as the Spartans average 172 yards rushing in their wins and only 99 yards in their losses and as you would guess, the Red Raiders are their best when they limit the opponent rushing the ball, allowing only 82 yards in Texas Tech's wins and over 210 yards in Texas Tech losses.

Solid O-Line: The MSU offensive line is actually pretty solid, especially from the sense that they allow Cousins to stay upright for most of the game as the unit has only allowed 1.08 per game. This is a fairly veteran bunch as LT Rocco Cironi, C Joel Nitchman and RG Brendon Moss are all seniors while RT D.J. Young is a junior. Texas Tech fans know that one of the keys to a successful season is keeping your quarterback up and having a fairly decent running game and the Spartan offensive line has certainly done that. This will be a pretty interesting matchup as the Texas Tech defense (detailed more below) is second in the country in total sacks and thirtieth in the nation in tackles for a loss. When we look back at the results of this game, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to think that how these two lines play will decide the game.

I honestly had no idea that Sharpe had this in him. In 2008, Sharpe played 10 games, had 1.0 sacks, 4 tackles and was virtually non-existent. Sharpe didn't have a ton of opportunities in 2008, but he certainly made the most of them in 2009. Sharpe, paired with fellow defensive ends Daniel Howard and Rajon Henley, has had a monster year terrorizing opposing quarterbacks, good for second in the country. In fact, Sharpe really didn't get going until conference play and I believe that he completely missed or played only a handful (maybe 5 or so) plays against TAMU. Of Sharpe's 15.0 sacks, 13.0 came against conference opponents, and although he was shut-out a few games, the defensive line as a whole had at least 1.0 sack every game and during conference play, the defense averaged 3.75 sacks per game.

Not So Fast My Friend:  LAJ's Don Williams wrote last night that although some of the recruiting services have reported that DE Scott Smith (4* / 6-7 / 275) has signed his letter of intent, as of 10:30 p.m. last night, the coaching staff has not yet received those letters of intent from Smith or from DT Donald Langley.  If Smith and Langley sign and send in the letters of intent, both would start school in January and participate in spring practices.  I don't subscribe to any recruiting services so I have no idea as to the actual status of either player.  If something happens and it's free information, please feel free to throw up a FanPost or FanShot.

The good news is that the Red Raiders did receive a letter of intent from Sulphur Spring's OL Beau Carpenter (6-7 / 275) who will also participate in spring practices.  Here's Carpenter on his commitment and the type of player he is:

"It’s definitely the place I’ve wanted to go ever since I started getting recruited,’’ Carpenter said. "It’s a similar offense, and when I visited I fell in love with it. It’s a great place with an amazing fan base, and I really love the town.’’

Snip

"I’ve been told I have a lot of good natural (traits) for an offensive lineman,’’ he said. "I have a good low pad level, I have real good feet and quick feet, and they like how I get after people. I’m really aggressive on the field.’’

Beau, welcome to Texas Tech.

Davis Q&A:  The SAEN has a Q&A with S Cody Davis and Davis talks about what a win against Michigan St. would mean:

What would a victory against Michigan State mean to the Red Raiders as you transition into next year? It’s a springboard ... It really means a lot for the offseason and jump-starting into next year. You really want to start it off right and have something to build off of, instead of having a bad taste in your mouth the whole offseason, so we look forward to ending it the right way, and sending the seniors off with a win.

Young 4-A Offensive Player of the Year:  Texas Tech commit QB Scotty Young was named as the 4-A offensive player of the year and first-team quarterback.  Here's Young on the honor:

He finishes his high school career with 8,964 passing yards and 129 touchdowns in two years at the helm of an explosive Ryan offense and remains a verbal commit to play at Texas Tech next year. The 129 career touchdowns is fourth all-time in the state of Texas.

"It’s exciting," Young said. "It’s a really cool award for the whole team. It’s great to be thought of like that. We had a really good offense last year, and we were able to take that as a foundation and make it even better this year."

Grabbing the Spotlight:  IndyStar's Terry Hutchens writes that Pat Knight and the Texas Tech Red Raiders are off to the Red Raiders best start in 80 years.  PK talks about what the national recognition means:

"The national exposure is great for the community, the university and the players' confidence, especially after coming off a down year last year," Knight said. "It just gives these kids some confidence that they can play with some of the better teams in the country, and it really helps us get prepared for the Big 12."

And PK believes that the Big 12 may be the best conference in the country:

"We've talked about this before, but we've got to publicize this league as a basketball league," Knight said. "I think we've always had one of the top two leagues in the country every year, but sometimes we get overlooked. We shouldn't be sitting there on (NCAA Tournament) Selection Sunday worried if we're going to get six teams in. We should always get six teams and maybe seven in a year like we have this year."I think, hands down, you could argue that this is the best league in the country."

KenPom's Scouting Report:  For those of you who don't visit KenPom, you should, especially if your a stats guy or gal, and yesterday, KenPom released their predicted record and player tempo-free stats.  Right now, KenPom's computer models have the Red Raiders winning 20 games, including 8 conference games.  I think I could live with that.

by Mike Fuentes - AP

about 1 month ago: Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach talks with his team in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Texas A&M in Lubbock, Texas, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

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I'm not sure why this hasn't been written or maybe it has and I just haven't read it:  It's not the system.

While eating dinner with my wife last night I realized or figured out or finally put two and two together that it's not the system.  I'm guessing that my brain was subconsciously mulling this concept over while I was ignoring the Heisman Ceremony last week. In any event, I thought back to last year's supposed Heisman snub as both Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree couldn't even get as much as an invite despite having incredible careers that may not have been deserving of a Heisman Trophy, but at the very least a Heisman invite. I've moved passed any resentment that I might have had and the truth of the matter is that it's really the uninformed Heisman voters, some of whom admitted that they didn't even watch some of the Heisman candidates. As a personal aside, this is the same moral dilemma that I have when voting in the BlogPoll, which I started to do at the beginning of the season, but I quickly realized that I wasn't watching enough games to truly be informed. I could watch some scores and see some highlights, but I could never vote with a good conscious if I knew that I had watched one game that weekend, that game being the Red Raiders. 

In any event, I started thinking about Harrell and Crabtree's careers and how truly spectacular each of their individual and team accomplishments last year actually were.  When the question of whether or not Harrell or Crabtree were even worthy of Heisman consideration last year, there were many that thought that they weren't worthy because they were merely products of the system.  I wish I could go back and find those thoughts (I believe there is sufficient interwebs evidence that would point to this general perception) and it's easy to say that Harrell and Crabtree's success was not a matter of their mental or physical talents, but rather some goofy little system that that lovable and quotable Mike Leach scratched out on some notebook paper and told both of them to just go out and play.

If there was ever a year that Texas Tech fans all need to ingrain in your memories, it is the year of 2009, where the Red Raiders did still have offensive success (the second best passing offense in the country and the seventh best offense in the country), but to those that watched the games closely, it just wasn't the same.

About a year and a half ago, I had just finished up reading Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and I was truly inspired. Inspired so much as to write up what I thought was a fantastic post about Blink, and in particular, rapid cognition, i.e. the ability to make correct decisions in a very short period of time and how this related to quarterback play (I apologize for the video no longer working, it's not my fault). For those of you too lazy to click on over (you should, because I spent a lot of time writing that post and I think it's good) there are three main tenants that I took from the book:

1. When talking about rapid cognition, experience may be the biggest reason for success, however, like anything else in life, that experience can fail you.
2. Sometimes experiences and circumstances can keep you from making what are typically good decisions.
3. Sometimes you can succeed more because you know less about your opponent, i.e. knowing too much information can impair understanding.

I could write and talk for hours about how I thought, and still think for the most part, that Gladwell thoughts regarding success of a player is highly dependent upon the repetition and physical ability that any certain player has. In fact, I think if you were to corner Leach prior to the season about his decision regarding Potts, I think he'd tell you that Sheffield, despite being a huge part of the program, that he didn't have the repetitions in the offense in order to be successful. It was no secret that Leach had been grooming Potts for the past three years to be Harrell's eventual successor and despite the fact that Sheffield having somewhat limited repetitions in practices, due to the fact that he was a walk-on, that he was playing better than Potts, which was on full display during the spring game. And this may be something to write about in another post, but Sheffield's ability to essentially take Leach's formula, repetition, repetition, repetition and more repetition (if you haven't read Hal Mumme's practice plan, then you need to do so to realize how true the fact that repetition is important to Leach and the Air Raid offense) and perform at a very high level is something that Leach hasn't experienced thus far in his coaching career. To say that Sheffield was an anomaly is an understatement. If Sheffield is given the reins next year, you might say that Sheffield's ability to recognize defenses without the hundred and hundreds of repetitions would make Sheffield a Leach-offense prodigy (again, this is probably a great off-season post).

This is the delicate balance in those three items listed above and to get back to the original point of this post, it's that 2008 was a culmination of those three factors from Blink coming together for Harrell and Crabtree (I do think it's humorous to look back what I wrote about Harrell in reviewing those Rice highlights, "In the Rice video, Harrell cannot throw off of his back foot. It's a disaster waiting to happen for any quarterback." Sound familiar?). As stated above, despite still being successful in 2009, it wasn't the same.

Perhaps Texas Tech fans are a bit spoiled, especially after what Harrell and Crabtree did in 2008, but maybe more than that I hope that writers, bloggers, and television commentators realize that the "system" is more than the system. Harrell wasn't blessed with a wicked arm or the ability to make every throw, but what he did have and what I think he perfected, was the ability to make very quick decisions and those decisions were right, especially in 2008, at an incredibly high rate. And for those that discount what Crabtree did on an almost every game basis for two years straight is undermining what an absolutely exceptional player and maybe even once in a generation type of player he actually was.  Both gentlemen had physical gifts, but it was Harrell's ability to make accurate throws, but even more than that make very quick decisions that made him successful, and as much as Crabtree was a physically dominant receiver, Leach has always maintained that Crabtree's recognition of space on the field was unmatched by any player he's ever coached.

Texas Tech fans can sometimes get caught in their own webs of whether to credit or blame the system. Was Crabtree a product of the system? Sure, he was, but being the product of a system and being a productive NFL player (at least thus far) are two completely separate questions. Was Harrell a product of the system? Again, yes, but it was probably those physical limitations that made it difficult for him to spend any real time in the NFL. Were Crabtree and Harrell in the same system? Again yes, each did things the other could not do and made the whole thing work and sometimes, credit needs to go to the incredible athletic and mental abilities of both.

Now we bring ourselves full-circle and we ask ourselves, where is Potts in this equation. I know that some Texas Tech fans will not go to games or support the team or support the player if Potts continues to start. Fine, whatever, you're entitled to your opinion and the right to support or not support the team, but I think the tough part, the part that none of us get to see is that Leach has probably always, and I mean always based his decision on those hundreds and hundreds of repetitions that a player takes during practice on who he thinks should start. Despite what we're seeing this year, Potts' performance during those three years he practiced the system, he was probably outstanding and the repetitions warranted him being the starter in 2009.

But things changed when the lights went on and the opponents were live.

If it was the system, then Potts would have been an All-American with 5,000 yards passing, 50 touchdowns and 10 interceptions because Mike Leach's system would have dictated that every quarterback be as successful as the last quarterback.

Again, this is something that Leach was truly unfamiliar with from the standpoint that his quarterbacks had almost always overcome those mistakes with stellar performances because of Leach's reliance on repetition in practice. Potts may be the exception to the rule and that's your problem with the quarterback position. Leach's system is nothing more than Leach trusting his eyes, and he did trust his eyes leading up to 2009, but the problem was that Potts' performance didn't match the repetitions he had in 3 years of practice. Meanwhile, Sheffield's lack of repetition in practice didn't match what Leach could have dreamed about in terms of production on the field.

And Texas Tech's 2008 and 2009 seasons are why either giving credit to or discrediting the "system" is not fair, either for writers, bloggers or fans . . . because it's just not true.  Sometimes it's the player and sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not as good as other years.

As I read this past, I realize that it's a rambling mess. For those of you who were able to stick through this entire post, thanks a ton.

Under Pressure:  LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that the men's basketball team is learning from previous pressure situations, and SF Mike Singletary thinks the team still has something to prove.

"We love to come in and be the spoiler, create upsets, just come in and surprise people," Singletary said. "This year it’s kind of different because we’ve been getting some recognition. We have the same mentality, but we have to come out and show people they’re not better than us."

And Singletary is ready to prove doubters wrong:

He’s heard people claim Tech is overrated. He’s heard it said about No. 23 Washington, which was ranked No. 12 when it lost 99-92 to Tech last month, a game that propelled the Raiders into the polls.

He said it doesn’t change anything.

"If they want to say Washington’s overrated, that we’re overrated, just let them talk," Singletary said. "We’ll prove them wrong."

Big 12 Power Poll:  CT's Steve Walentik has his weekly Big 12 Power Poll and the Red Raiders check in at #4:

4. Texas Tech (9-0)
This week: at Wichita State on Saturday
The Red Raiders are off to their best start since opening 12-0 in the 1929-30 season. John Roberson has had a stellar start to the season, averaging 13.6 points and 5.7 assists. But the biggest reason for Tech's improvement has come from its collective effort defensively. Coach Pat Knight's team is holding foes to 63.7 points, a vast improvement over last season.

All-Americans:  DE Brandon Sharpe was named to the Sporting News third team All-American team and Sharpe and RG Brandon Carter were also named to the AP's third team All-American team (also see Tall Mike's FanPost).

2010 Heisman Favorites:  FoxSports Pete Fiutak runs down a list of Heisman hopefuls for the 2010 season and I'm not sure how some of you will feel about this, but QB Taylor Potts is named as the 18th most likely candidate and joins fellow Big 12'ers: UT's QB Garrett Gilbert at #14 (Gilbert will be good, but I don't think there's any way that he'll be that good as a RS FR); OU's QB Landry Jones at #17 (I'm curious if the OU faithful still believe in Jones); and TAMU's QB Jerrod Johnson at #19 (he should be higher than every one of these players based on what he did in 2009).  I think Potts' inclusion is an indication that the mainstream media who probably doesn't follow the program closely and those that do as it appears the quarterback position may be at a crossroads during the offseason (a lot more on this later in the morning).

by Jerry Larson - AP

19 days ago: Texas Tech's Baron Batch, left, eludes the tackle of Baylor's Antonio Johnson during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/ Waco Tribune Herald, Jerry Larson)

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RB Baron Batch vs. LB Greg Jones

Baron Batch (Running Back / 5-11 / 205 / Jr.) ::You would guess that the offensive lines would have a little something to say about how this turns out, but I naturally thought that this would and should be a fantastic matchup through the game. It's no secret that the Red Raiders have struggled running the ball, but I would also guess that most Michigan St. fans would expect or assume that Texas Tech doesn't have talented runners, an assumption that could not be further from the truth. Batch may not rack up the yardage, but he may be the most gifted player on the Texas Tech offense and I would surmise that he might also be the hardest worker. Batch ran hot and cold, much like the offense as a whole the latter part of the season. Batch racked up pretty decent all-purpose yards the last 5 games of the year: 120 on 20 plays(TAMU); 136 on 22 plays(Kansas); 55 on 17 plays (Oklahoma St.); 204 on 32 plays (Oklahoma) and 71 on 20 plays (Baylor). Other than the TAMU game, the way that Batch has rolled is how the entire offense has rolled, and this may be the biggest challenge for the team and offensive line (more on the passing portion below), but the MSU defense is 24th in the nation in rushing defense, giving up only 112.75 yards a game. If the Texas Tech offense relies on Batch to make the offense go, then perhaps Leach is going to have to be creative to get Batch the ball.

Greg Jones (Linebacker / 6-1 / 228 / Jr.) :: Jones is one of those guys where you shake your head and try and figure out how a guy can make so many tackles on the field. Jones is averaging 11.75 tackles per game, 1.13 TFL, 8 QB hurries and 0.75 sacks per game. Jones is a one-man wrecking crew. And this isn't one of those instances where Jones only shows up against poor competition, does well and can't seem to make a play defensively. Jones' lowest output in terms of tackles per game was eight, against Michigan and Western Michigan, while Jones best performances came against and during the meat of the season in a 4 game stretch: 11 tackles, @ Illinois (W, 24-14); 14 tackles, Northwestern (W, 24-14); 12 tackles, Iowa (L, 13-15); 12 tackles, Minnesota (L, 34-42). Then, at the end of the season, Jones goes out against Penn St. and has 15 tackles in a 14-42 loss. Not exactly the way a player would want to go out in this sort of loss, but it doesn't appear that this was Jones fault.

Passing Advantage: I think the Red Raiders have a fairly decided advantage in the passing game, despite your opinions about QB Taylor Potts. The Spartans are 103rd in the nation in pass defense, allowing 251.58 yards per game, which is good for last in the Big Ten. Not only did MSU give up a ton of yards through the air, they also gave up a conference high 29 touchdowns and only had 5 interceptions for the entire year. The Texas Tech receivers aren't necessarily game-breakers, like a certain Mr. Crabtree, but there's certainly enough play-makers on the receiving end to make a difference. And much like it has been the entire year, it's not just one player that has dominated the receiving yards and I think that makes it tougher for opponents to game-plan for Texas Tech.I don't get the chance review other teams statistics very much, but there receivers have 410 total receptions for the year with 11 receivers who have 11 or more receptions:  Alexander Torres: 65; Detron Lewis: 55; Baron Batch: 51; Tramain Swindall: 48; Lyle Leong: 42; Austin Zouzalik: 32; Edward Britton: 32; Harrison Jeffers: 25; Jacoby Franks: 24; Adam James: 17; and Eric Stephens 11.  To think that this offense isn't diverse isn't at all accurate.  We've talked before about how this team may be missing a special play-maker, but almost every one of those receivers have led the team in receiving in a particular game.  Whether it was Torres against TAMU and Oklahoma or Lewis against Kansas St. and Nebraska or Swindall against Rice and Houston, etc. 

Getting to the Passer: So, despite a poor pass defense, the Spartans are 12th in the nation in sacking the opposing quarterback at 2.67 per game. The aforementioned Mr. Jones leads the team with 9.0 and it would be fair to say that the ability to get to the passer is a collective talent. Including Jones, 6 players have 2.5 sacks or more for the year and of those 6 players, 3 of them are linebackers, which probably means that the MSU defense will likely stunt and blitz to pressure the opposing quarterback. The Red Raiders were 92nd in the nation in sacks allowed, 2.50 per game, which was good for eighth in the conference. It's been mentioned before, that the Kansas game is when the offensive line started to have some consistency in the starting lineup and after the first half where the KU defense recorded 5 sacks (not a knock on Doege, just making the point that some sort of light turned on with the line or a change at quarterback, Taylor Potts played all of the second half and the team ran the ball) that the Red Raiders have given up only 4 sacks for the past 7 halves of football. I don' think anyone can claim that the protection has been perfect, but it's been better. In fact, cfbstats sorts sacks by months and the offensive line was 9th in the coference in sacks allowed in August/September giving up 6.0, the worst team in the conference in October giving up 20.0, but rebounded nicely in November giving up only 4.0 for the entire month.

To Pass or To Run:  It's no secret that Taylor Potts has struggled this year, at least by Texas Tech quarterback standards and it's also no secret that when this team is able to run the ball effectively, the more likely the win.  Again, turning to cfbstats, when Texas Tech wins, the Red Raiders average 87 yards a game and in losses, it's only 67.  The Texas Tech passing statistics back this up as well in that the Red Raiders average only 48 passing attempts in wins, but 56 passing attempts in losses.  The Spartans are a bit different in that in their wins, the Spartans hold opposing offenses to only 91 yards a game, but in losses, the defense gives 134 yards a game.  The same could be said for the pass defense for MSU as the defense gives up 207 yards passing in wins, but almost a full 100 yards more, 296, in losses.  These stats aren't necessarily eye-opening and they make sense, especially from Michigan St.'s perspective, but the one thing that does jump out at me is additional 100 or so yards the pass defense gives up in losses.  I don't know if the Texas Tech coaching staff is in a bit of a quandary in that the Michigan St. pass defense is obviously vulnerable, but the Texas Tech offense has had much more success when they run the ball (even if it's just 4 additional attempts a game).

Torres was not even close to the team lead in receiving yards or receptions, but over the course of the year, Torres has quietly been establishing himself as the the go-to receiver for the Red Raiders. Torres really didn't have a "break-out" type of game until the Texas A&M game, where he caught 8 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown. I never really thought that Torres was going to be capable of overwhelming a defense, but then Torres broke out for 163 yards on 11 catches and a touchdown against the Sooners. I still don't think that Torres is going to physically dominate an opposing defense, but he's incredibly reliable, which is probably the reason he's been near the top of the team in terms of receptions all year. Not to mention, Torres has shown the ability to make plays, and there were two spectacular catches, one against OU and one against Baylor, where he just went up and got the ball. That will certainly endear a quarterback to a receiver relatively quickly.

Red Raiders #16:  For the first time in a long time, the Red Raiders are #16 in the Associated Press top 25 and #20 in the Coaches Poll.  I'm happy for this group, but basketball rankings are funky early in the season and I tend to look rankings as a snap-shot of where teams are rather than where teams will eventually finish.  I don't think that by the end of the year, the Red Raiders will be the 16th team in the nation, but right now, I think the publicity is great.

LAJ's Courtney Linehan writes that Pat Knight is happy his team came through against TCU:

"Our whole goal is we want to see how long we can stay in the Top 25," Knight said. "Playing TCU on Tuesday after getting ranked on Monday, I was worried we were only going to be ranked one day. The kids came through."

And PK understands that the more teams that are ranked the better the chance of being picked in the field of 65:

"We’re always worried on Selection Sunday that the Big 12 is going to get four or five in, when we should get six in and this year maybe seven," he said. "It just helps us from a tournament standpoint the more we have in the Top 25, especially in the preseason, because then when you win in your own conference those games mean even more in an RPI sense. Probably the only time we all root for each other is in the preseason."

Get to Know Roberson:  ESPN's Andy Katz is showing the Red Raiders a lot of love recently and writes today that PG John Roberson is a player the nation should get to know:

• John Roberson, Jr., G, Texas Tech: The Red Raiders had a huge win at TCU to go to 9-0 under Pat Knight, and a lot of the credit has to go to Roberson. He scored 25 points last week in the win over Washington and then followed it up with 21 points and 10 assists and just four turnovers (and two steals) in the win over the Horned Frogs.

Looking Ahead to the Shockers:  Kansas.com's Paul Sullentrop writes that Texas Tech is a big test awaiting the Wichita St. Shockers:

Tech's visit is a rare convergence of a nationally ranked non-conference opponent visiting Wichita when a Shocker team is playing well. No. 21 Mississippi is the last ranked non-conference team to play at WSU, during the 1997-98 season. Since 2005-06, WSU has played six ranked non-conference opponents, all on the road or at neutral sites.

Texas Tech defeated WSU 72-69 last season in Lubbock. The Shockers tied the game in the final minute after trailing by 17 at halftime.

"It's been in the back of our heads since last year, because we felt we could have won that game," WSU junior J.T. Durley said. "We took a lot of games this year, in the non-conference, personal."

Big 12 Links:  FWST's Mike Jones writes that the Big 12 teams are making early statements . . . Big 12 Hoops with the Big 12 All Decade Team . . .