SB Nation User Blog: kayakyakr

Texas Tech baseball wins first road series since 2004

kayakyakr — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:19:05 -0000

Texas Tech baseball wins first road series since 2004

Way to go Tech baseball team! Congratulations go out to Dan Spencer and the rest of the staff and the team for breaking this 5 year streak.

Considering the youth of this program, I'm very happy with where they're heading.

Don't forget to vote!

kayakyakr — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:32:46 -0000

Saturday, May 9th is an important day for the city of Lubbock: Two ballot items that would legalize the sale of alcohol inside the city limits are up to be voted on. If you support this legalization, you should vote yes on each one.

Here's a myspace blog chronicling the campaign: Make Lubbock Wet!

I don't see why you shouldn't be out on Saturday to vote for this proposition if you live in the city of Lubbock.

Academic Progress Report

kayakyakr — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:19:30 -0000

Academic Progress Report

Results for 2007-2008, released 5/6/09

Mike Leach weighs in on Somali pirates (for real this time)

kayakyakr — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:31:45 -0000

Along with some other things in a chat with Tim Griffin:

The Somali pirates have had some struggles in recent days. What's your take on what has happened in that part of the world?

ML: I've got to believe their own will take care of some of those guys pretty quick. I don't know if they have a couple of loose cannons [as leaders] or what. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. Heck, we are already down in that part of the world and a little bit irritable as it is. You would have thought they would have recognized that.

Me personally, I'd rather give the Navy Seals a weekend and just let them have their fun. Plus, it could be a valuable training exercise for them.

ESPN Interview

Scotty Young Commits

kayakyakr — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:29:45 -0000

Of note, last night 2010 QB Scotty Young committed to the Red Raiders.

6'2.5"
185 lbs
4.8 40
Rivals Profile

Scotty is coached by Zac Harrell at Denton Ryan and Harrell loves drawing up comparisons between his younger brother Graham and Scotty. Film says Scotty has a bigger arm as a junior. He also throws a 90+ mph fastball in baseball.

Likely will be a 4* on both sites (Rivals hasn't rated its players yet).

Welcome aboard Scotty!

(Broke this here because RaiderPower is being broadcasted on all the news sites with the headline, "Scotty Young Commits." Serves them right.)

Leach's letters

kayakyakr — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:47:33 -0000

Leach's letters

An A-J look at Mike's frustrations with his contract situation.

Eric Ward Switches Commitment to TTU

kayakyakr — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:22:08 -0000

A buzz started developing around the net last night with the rumor that TTU was going to receive a surprise commitment. In truth, it turned out to be more of an enrollment than a commitment.

Wichita Falls Rider WR Eric Ward has decided that his best school option is Texas Tech and has in fact enrolled in spring courses. Welcome to the Texas Tech family Eric!

Wichita Falls newspaper breaking the news

Special thanks to rivals.com for images. Those guys are the best.

Eric Ward

WR - 5'11" 190 LBs
40m: 4.4 s
Rivals Profile
ESPN Profile

Glad to have you aboard!

Looking on the Bright Side with Kayakyakr

kayakyakr — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:44:18 -0000

Usually, when I'm angry, dissapointed, upset, I tend to see only the dark side, how things are bad and not the bright side of the situation. That usually comes later. I've decided to change that so, tonight, while I'm all pissed off about the poor performance that I witnessed today, I would like you to join me as I take a look at all the things that we have to look forward to and be thankful for after this football season.

We had a great 11-2 record this season. Let's face it, most of us predicted a 10-2 record this season and a bowl win. We got that. 11-2 is still the best Tech season in history.
We also have a great recruiting class, as far as verbal commitments go, in place for the next year. There are a few players that may come in and have an immediate impact, especially on defense.
We left the season with things to work on. Losing our bowl game may be a blessing in disguise because the team will be able to refocus and get pissed off about the 3 straight poor games to end the season. There's plenty to work on and it may prove the motivating factor that the team needs to start what many consider a "rebuilding" year with a chip on their shoulder and the attitude to prove it.
We got to say goodbye to an excellent senior class. And while I may miss Graham Harrell and will certainly miss the elf, Eric Moris, there are more players on our roster that may be better.
This probably ended any Mike Leach bargaining chips. It probably also ended the mention, at least for a few years, of his name in every dumb coaching search article. Sign the extension Mike, be happy in Lubbock, give us a few more 10-14 win seasons, and solidify your position as coach/captain for life. I know many people are unhappy with Mike Leach right now, but we have the best coach for our school and the stability that our program has achieved under him is more than we have been able to attain at any period in the past.
This loss may have left such a sour taste in Crabtree's mouth that the competitor in him will be driven to come back for his junior season at Tech. There's a lot of money to be made in the pros, but there isn't a worry of a rookie salary cap any longer as Roger Goodell, the NFL Commisioner, made a statement to the point that the earliest a rookie salary cap could be in place is in 2011 and that would be up to the CBA.
That is the last Cotton Bowl that has to be played in the Cotton Bowl stadium. That place is a dump, even after renovations.
Running Backs. Oh my god, running backs. On the roster next year (and hopefully healthy) will be Baron Batch, Harrison Jeffers, and the bruiser Aaron Crawford. This is a talented stable of backs and it will certainly ease the transition for Taylor Potts or Seth Doege or whomever wins the starting job next season.

I've started to grasp at straws so I think that it's time to end this listing. No negative nancies in the comments, I only want people who are looking on the brighter side of life. You'll have your chance to join me on the dark side tomorrow or whenever I get around to it.

Women's College Volleyball

kayakyakr — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:11:10 -0000

I just wanted to write this short post in appreciation for Women's College Volleyball.

I'm not sure how many of you guys keep up with this stuff, but Texas Tech is really bad. We didn't win a conference match all year. We are currently looking for a new coach (and almost pulled the coach of the men's national team before he decided to be the next women's national coach).

That said, watching these two teams, Nebraska and Penn State, go at it is an event every bit the match in excitement as a football game between two teams you don't really care about. Penn State has 108 straight wins and 0 losses. Before tonight, they hadn't lost a set all year. Nebraska came back from 2 sets down to tie it at 2-2. They wound up losing in the 5th set after a valiant effort, but still. What a great match.

I write this in the hopes that Texas Tech Women's Volleyball can build a program to compete with these big boys... err girls.

BCS Selection: Clearing up Confusion

kayakyakr — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:07:48 -0000

This is a rundown of the BCS selection process and where Texas Tech fits into that. Let me start off by stating that it is highly, highly unlikely that Tech can make a BCS bowl at this point. With UT in the top 4 and not in the Big XII championship game, it virtually means "game over" for Texas Tech's BCS hopes.

Read on after the break to find out why

The blockquotes are from the selection rules on the BCS's own site (provided by Fox Sports). You can see that here.

The first thing to remember is that there is only one way that the BCS will allow more than 2 teams from the same conference. That is if the #1 and #2 teams in the final BCS standings are from the same conference and are both not the conference champion.

No more than two teams from a conference may be selected, regardless of whether they are automatic qualifiers or at-large selections, unless two non-champions from the same conference are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the final BCS Standings.

It doesn't look likely that this will happen since we are a ways out of the #2 spot, sad story there

Automatic Qualification 1. The top two teams in the final BCS Standings shall play in the National Championship Game. 2. The champions of the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern conferences will have automatic berths in one of the participating bowls after the 2008 through 2013 regular seasons.

These are the first two things that happen and this is where the Sooners would first qualify were they to win Saturday. If they manage to lose to Missouri, both Missouri and UT would qualify under these two provisions (UT in the top 2, Missouri as the Big XII champion).

5. If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 4, and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 3 in the final BCS Standings, that team will become an automatic qualifier, provided that no at-large team from the same conference qualifies for the national championship game.
6. If any of the 10 slots remain open after application of provisions 1 through 5, and if no team qualifies under paragraph No. 5 and an at-large team from a conference with an annual automatic berth for its champion is ranked No. 4 in the final BCS Standings, that team will become an automatic qualifier provided that no at-large team from the same conference qualifies for the national championship game.

In short, teams #3 and #4 become automatic qualifiers if there is space left (with 10 slots, this will almost always be the case unless both #1 and #2 are non-champions, a non-BCS team and Notre Dame become automatic qualifiers). This is how UT is most likely going to qualify, provided OU does beat Missouri. UT qualifying here, would eliminate TTU from any possible BCS bowl. That's it, the end of it. If UT is in the top 4 of the final BCS, there is no chance whatsoever of TTU going anywhere beyond the Cotton Bowl.

I did see one possibility that allows TTU into a BCS bowl: Alabama and Florida play in a close game while USC blows out UCLA and OU blows out Missouri. Texas not playing drops them to #5. This opens the smallest door for TTU to be available to a bowl, should they so choose. In all honesty, I doubt that anyone would choose TTU over UT, larger market and all that.

So there you have it. TTU is heading to the Cotton Bowl. Unless OU loses to Missouri and they choose to take OU over us.