Good evening West Texans and all you good, fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were. . .
After all this time, do we finally know the true identity of the 2009 Texas Tech Football Team? After beating back Kansas 42-21 thanks to a late defensive surge and a rediscovery of the running game, do we finally have the true ID of this year’s Tech team.
After an afternoon of odd game-management decisions by the Lead Pirate, pulling a QB, staggering around offensively and putting another crowd to sleep, the Red Raiders of 2009 showed up. Those Red Raiders run the ball. They play smash-mouth defense led by a front that harasses the QB at will and then takes delight in the occasional penalty for crossing the line. The Red Raiders of 2009 are everything Mike Leach’s teams haven’t been in the past. They’re hard-nosed.
Don Williams has the solid write-up here for those that missed Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham grasping for straws on how to call this game. Hard to call it was because for the most part it strayed from the script for either team lately. Kansas never got their vaunted passing game under way thanks in no small part to Ruffin’s bunch and Seth Doege, getting his first start for Tech tried in vain to operate Leach’s offense behind a patchwork line minus Brandon Carter after the third play of the game.
More D. W. thoughts on the game.
Defense and bad game management decided the first half. Tech’s defense and Barron Batch decided the second half.
Speaking of the second half, welcome back Taylor Potts at QB. Remember him, Tech fans? The guy you booed and chanted, “No more Potts” about last week helped win you a game this week. It is a good thing he has a head injury. It probably made it easier to forget the fickle nature of the fans he was rewarding this week after last weeks bush-league treatment by a horde of anonymous souls. That the Lead Pirate had to go back to him shows how desperate he was for the win. Leach has done less defending of Potts this year than the Republican Party has of the latest Health Care Bill in Congress. But put him back out there he did, and win Potts did. Of course the credit will go everywhere else, but that is a subject for later.
For now, the big story is who these Red Raiders are. They’re tough. They’ve bounced back from the brink of a season on the edge and won. They don’t mind getting down and dirty. They’re everything but finesse this year. The question now becomes will the Pirate embrace the run-first for the better nature of who this team is? Steven Sheffield may or may not be back for the OSU game. I’m betting not. With Sticks Tech has looked like the old Leachian Tech, playing fast and loose with good tempo and blitzkrieg offense. Without him Tech needs to get physical like today.
Leach has an off-week minus a day of glad-handing and back-slapping at ESPN to redefine and retool this squad for the the final few games. If I’m Leach I’m backing Potts to the hilt and giving this team every reason to believe he is the man and can get it done; let alone giving the fan-base a reason to back the guy I think will be called upon to win in Stillwater and get Tech to a better bowl.
Leach has a chance here to do some things he hasn’t had to do in his tenure at Tech. He can rebuild a QB’s confidence and he can recharge a fan-base that was as BLAH as it has been in a longtime this past week. He’s got plenty of time between now and Stillwater. Less Fat Little Girlfriend talk and more frank talk about football will go along way for some Tech fans. We’ll see what happens after that.
In the meantime, Tech fans can enjoy a win that I don’t think would have happened five years ago. This Tech team showed again that they have a higher expectation of themselves and that they’re battled tested. Winning games on days you don’t have your best stuff are signs of a program on the rise. Five years ago, this team would have lost. Today, they’re getting to enjoy some time off knowing they can win when it gets ugly, even if the ugly is most of their own doing.
MORE LATER
HYATT
Latest Comments