5 Things We Know On A Friday: 8/13/10

1. Texas Tech announced Thursday that they’re producing a “reality show” based on Tech athletes and athletics called “The Ride”. This could very well be the biggest step forward in branding and marketing Texas Tech around the State and nation that we’ve seen in a decade. A slick, compelling well-produced show targeted not just at fans but recruits will go a lot farther in attracting attention than mere coaches’ shows. Add in the fact that the show is already cleared in a multitude of markets, this can only be looked upon as a giant positive. This is one more glaring example of the new way of thinking inside the department that we’ve seen over the last six months or so.

2. I’m disgusted by the revisionist history that permeates the discussion of the United States decision to end W.W. II by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. The fact remains and can never be obscured; President Harry Truman saved millions of American and Japanese lives by the use of those weapons. A land invasion of the Japanese homeland would have made the losses in those cities pale in comparison to the casualties that would have resulted on both sides had there been an American landing. I’m afraid to imagine some of the tripe that will be taught my son’s childrens’ generation years from now about those events. . .

3. Big 12 coaches Mack Brown and Bob Stoops have some company now when it comes to battles for the media spotlight. In July, Brown held his own “national” media day by going to the ESPN studios in Bristol and going through “the car wash”. That’s the affectionate term they use when a person goes on all the TV and radio shows all day long. Stoops got his shot this week but little ole Texas Tech countered by having Tommy Tuberville go national as well with shots on ESPN’s The Scott Van Pelt Show and then later on Jim Rome’s syndicated program. So far, when it comes to being out there and available, both locally and nationally Tuberville is getting the attention and being willing to spread the message of Texas Tech football. By the end of the year both Brown and Stoops may be complaining that Tuberville is stealing the close-ups!

4. Once again the Lubbock City Council is about to prove that the either don’t get it or don’t care when it comes to both transparency in operation, truth in government and the overall mood and will of the people. Go ahead, raise those rates and fees and see what happens. As KFYO’s Chad Hasty writes so well, the idea of being a public “servant” seems to be lost now.

5. Elliott Sadler is one of the coolest athletes that most folks don’t know about. Too bad.