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  • 2008
    • August
      • Actually, the second-string O didn't have it all that bad
        08/17/08
        There were a handful of players who got to spend time after practice pushing strength coach Bennie Wylie through the sand pit as Wylie steered one of those John Deere Gator mini utility vehicles.

        And I don't mean they pushed him up and back and he turned it around at the end of the

      • I'm glad I'm not on the second-string offense
        08/17/08
        The second-team offense got all discombobulated at the end of Sunday's workout, during the sequence where they work on goal-line offense. In stepped a frustrated Mike Leach to order up-downs for all involved.

        And, come to think of it, Leach said, the scout-team defense had been lousy

      • Lewis, Dixon on the side again today
        08/17/08
        Detron Lewis and McKinner Dixon didn't practice again today. Assume Dixon is resting his problem knee. Not sure of the specifics on what's bothering Lewis, but he was doing some conditioning work.

      • Kickers' day: Round 14 to Fowler
        08/17/08
        Cory Fowler went 4-for-4 today and made his simulated game-ending field goal at the end of practice. (Off the upright on the latter, but it caromed through.) Donnie Carona was 2-for-4 in special teams.

        Fowler needed that, because Carona had been the better of the two each of the previous

      • Do you like Brandon Sesay as a DT?
        08/17/08
        You're probably going to see some of that this year. Sesay worked at defensive tackle throughout Sunday's practice.

        One thing to be stressed here is it's not a position switch. Sesay remains a defensive end, but they want to see what he can do at both. Sesay says he's

      • Saturday's practice notes
        08/16/08
        --Freshman running back Brandon Reid returned to preseason camp Saturday after a week-long absence. He had gone home to deal with family issues.

        --Those sitting out today included IR Detron Lewis and DE McKinner Dixon. Lewis was doing conditioning work. Dixon's Friday practice ended

      • Sounds from practice
        08/15/08
        I don't generally do much quote-of-the-day stuff. If I did, there would be several candidates today.

        Ruffin McNeill was giving Sam Fehoko all the tough love Fehoko could take during the inside running drill. McNeill wasn't pleased with Fehoko being misaligned and yelled at him

      • Injury report
        08/15/08
        Jordy Rowland's day ended early. He got poked in the eye as he came up in run support during one of the plays in team period and was out the rest of the time.

        Seeing Rowland outside the locker room after practice, looks like he'll be OK. And he needs to be. Though guys who walk

      • Just tired of each other or team chemistry issue?
        08/15/08
        Marlon Williams and Brandon Sesay were sniping at each other today during the team period. No punches thrown or anything like that. They were several yards away from each other. But still seemed genuinely peeved as they jawed back and forth. And DL coach Charlie Sadler called Sesay aside and talked

      • Practice time changes
        08/15/08
        Tech's weekend practices have been moved up: Saturday's is at 1:30 p.m., two hours earlier than listed. Sunday's is at 3:30 p.m. It had been listed at 8 p.m.

        The reasoning: After tonight, coaches are dropping the 8 p.m. team meeting that they've had nightly throughout

      • First scrimmage summary
        08/13/08
        I'll have more to come later, but here's a quick synopsis of Tech's first scrimmage this afternoon at Jones Stadium.

        The scrimmage was only 30 plays (29 actually), with Taylor Potts getting 15 snaps and Graham Harrell 14 snaps. The offense was sharp, sharp, sharp. Potts

      • Ticket updates
        08/12/08
        Got this today from Dave Welsh from the Tech ticket office ...

        Texas Tech has sold at least 43,000 tickets for all seven of its home games, according to Dave Welsh, assistant athletic director for ticket operations.
        As of Tuesday afternoon, tickets sold were: Aug. 30, Eastern Washin

      • Freshman RB gone ... for how long?
        08/12/08
        Freshman RB Brandon Reid has been missing from practice for the last three days. Tech coach Mike Leach said Reid went home to El Paso for a family situation.

        "He's supposed to come back,'' Leach said. "He's going to go tend to something -- a funeral or someth

      • Dixon good to go, but hardly in Leach's good graces
        08/12/08
        As you might have seen on lubbockonline.com earlier this afternoon, Tech established for certain today that McKinner Dixon is eligible to play this season.

        My impression is many Tech fans had been holding their breath and hoping for the good news that they got on Dixon. Thing is, Mike Lea

      • More notes from Sunday's practice
        08/10/08
        --Taylor Potts completed only three passes in a 10-play sequence of 7-on-7. Some targets, he just missed but other people contributed to the missed connections. Ed Britton dropped one with S Franklin Mitchem closing in on him. MLB Brian Duncan intercepted Potts, but Mike Leach hollered that the rece

      • Celebrity death hits home
        08/10/08
        Just before we went to practice Sunday, reports started to come in about the death of Isaac Hayes, the legendary soul musician and Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Famer.

        Hayes and Tech WR coach Dennis Simmons both are from Memphis, Tenn., which is where Hayes was found dead early Sunday a

      • Who says this team doesn't care about penalties?
        08/10/08
        During 7-on-7, OLB Blake Collier made a sloppy tackle up around the neck on SE Rashad Hawk, and boy did that set off Ruffin McNeill.

        McNeill yelled out that it would be a 15-yard penalty in a real game, and he didn't drop the subject.

        "Tackle the way we tackle! None

      • Another hot one
        08/10/08
        For the second day in a row, it was 94 degrees when practice started. The intensity, though, was much better to begin with. That's key. Don't think the players wanted to test Mike Leach's patience if what he subjected them to yesterday.

      • Leach checks in
        08/10/08
        As mentioned earlier, Mike Leach didn't allow any interviews -- himself included -- after practice Saturday. But after a few hours of cooling off, Leach gave us a ring later.

        He said he was generally pleased with the week's first five practices, but thought the team showed "

      • If Leach ain't happy, nobody's happy
        08/09/08
        Not a good practice today for the Red Raiders. After five straight 8 p.m. workouts, Tech went at 3:30 p.m. today, when the temperature was 94 degrees and didn't rise to the occasion.

        Mike Leach ripped pretty much the entire team during the huddle-up after the 11-on-11 team period. To

      • And a few other things from practice
        08/08/08
        -- IR Tramain Swindall made the play of the day. He got behind CB Brent Nickerson and S Anthony Hines during team period and pulled in a 55-yard bomb from Graham Harrell. Touchdown.

        -- S Daniel Charbonnet made a bunch of plays in the spring, making a pretty strong case for the starting jo

      • Notes from Thursday night practice
        08/08/08
        --Tech's defensive front seven generally got the better of the offense during the inside running drill. There was a stretch of 10 plays in which the "O'' netted more than 2 yards on only eight plays -- and those were for gains of 5 and 7 yards. It has to be noted, though, that Sh

      • The picture at defensive end
        08/08/08
        I'm sure many people want to know the bright side on a day when Mike Leach said McKinner Dixon is likely to be ineligible.

        For one thing, Brandon Sesay is good to go. He had to finish up a summer-school class this week, and he found out for sure on Thursday that he'll be able to

      • Dixon expected ineligible; Leach not happy
        08/08/08
        The big news out of Texas Tech camp Thursday is that DE McKinner Dixon apparently has fallen short again in his efforts to regain his academic footing and play for the Red Raiders.

        Dixon was at practice Thursday night, but Mike Leach said it's doubtful he'll be playing this seas

      • From Wednesday night's practice
        08/07/08
        --Remember that intro from "Batman,'' not the movie, the old television series? "Another glorious day in Gotham City ... ''
        Well, it was another glorious evening in Lubbock. Heat-wave temperatures during the day but back into the 70s and calm for tonight's Tex

      • Detron Lewis up to his old tricks
        08/06/08
        In doing the Texas Tech section for Texas Football this year, I picked Detron Lewis to be Tech's "Breakout Player of the Year.''

        I'm hoping Lewis makes me look good after I dropped the ball last year. See in 2007, as Tech's "Breakout Player of the Year,

      • Todd Walker out
        08/06/08
        Todd Walker hasn't practiced the first two nights. As you know, Tech is hush-hush with injury information. However, Todd came into the Football Training Facility on Sunday, players reporting day, and looked groggy and not well. I was told it's a respiratory infection or something of that n

      • Faces in the crowd
        08/06/08
        Former Tech LB Mike Smith and former Tech WR Jarrett Hicks were at practice on Monday night. Tuesday was basketball coaches night. Tech basketball coach Pat Knight stopped by as did longtime Shallowater basketball coach Ray Morris, who checks in when time permits to see how his son, Eric, is doing.<

      • Let there be tackling
        08/06/08
        With day three of college football practice comes shoulder pads. With shoulder pads comes tackling.

        That's what's in store for Wednesday's Texas Tech practice.

        "We'll tackle every day as long as coach (Mike Leach) allows me to be defensive coordinator,

      • To clarify on Crabtree
        08/06/08
        Special teams coach Clay McGuire said tonight that Mike Crabtree is being considered to return kickoffs, but not punts. Nothing's set in stone; it's just an experiment. But the thinking is if Crabtree can touch the ball another two or three times a game, then that could be another six poin

      • More duty for Crabtree
        08/05/08
        Mr. Everything Mike Crabtree got some work returning kicks on Monday night. It's something that Tech coach Mike Leach evidently has signed off on.

        "I think he'd be good at it and have (thought so) for a while,'' Leach said. "I think he'd have a chance t

      • Another new position for L.A. Reed and reasons why
        08/05/08
        The Raiders made a position switch Monday that they had kept under wraps for the last couple of weeks. L.A. Reed, who went from WR to S in the offseason, is now going from S to CB.

        Lest anyone wonder, Reed said it's not a first-week experiment.

        "I'm staying at co

      • Opening night: Pleasant -- and not even any wind
        08/05/08
        First off, Tech players couldn't have had a much better setting for the first night of practice. Even in the middle of a heatwave, Lubbock's usually known for having cool nights and mornings. Sure enough, it was pleasant as the Raiders worked out from 8 to 10 p.m. Monday. No wind, even.
      • From the reporting day front
        08/03/08
        Reporting day's not what it used to be. Oh, sure, it's still as good a place as any to sound the bell for a college football team.

        But not too many years ago, it was the day where players moved into a dorm or moved into University Plaza, luggage in hand, and you'd see moms

      • Defensive end depth
        08/03/08
        A reader asked if Tech is so good at defensive end that Brandon Sesay and McKinner Dixon are only third string.

        Well, that's how Ruffin McNeill listed them to me the other day when we were going over the depth chart in the front seven.

        There are a lot of things to conside

      • Sesay silent (by design), but here
        08/03/08
        Texas Tech officials asked that new DE Brandon Sesay not do media interviews until he's finished with his summer-school class, so that means it could be a week or thereabouts before you see anything from him put in quotation marks.

        The good news is Sesay is here and in good spirits.

      • Depth chart at beginning of camp
        08/02/08
        Here is the Texas Tech depth chart going into the beginning of preseason workouts on Monday. I talked to six Tech coaches in assembling it, so this is straight from the coaches' mouths at nearly every position.

        Keep in mind that there's competition at a lot of spots. And some pl

      • Freshman impact could be limited ... which is a good thing
        08/02/08
        This could be a different sort of August in that A) the Tech freshmen class is small to begin with and B) the team's experience and depth is such that there's not much need for the young guys to play right away.

        It wouldn't surprise me if K Donnie Carona is the only true fr

      • Where were you in the summer of 1977?
        08/02/08
        I was just thinking ... The last time Texas Tech went into a season ranked as high as the Red Raiders will this season, I was rooting for Tech and getting ready to start my school-sports career going into the seventh grade at Kress Junior High.

        We put on the pads for the first time in sev

      • Tech lands at No. 14 in coaches poll
        08/02/08
        Texas Tech fans, a good many of them anyway, finally have what they want. By being ranked 14th in the USA Today coaches poll released Friday, the Red Raiders are receiving acknowledgment of their worth on a broad scale.

        A No. 14 ranking sounds about right to me, taking into account how t

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