1. Josh Hamilton is human. Josh Hamilton may or may not have had a “relapse” as reported Thursday night by many media sources. It doesn’t change who he is or who he wants to be in the future or how people should look at him. He’s flawed. Just like you. Just like me. If you liked him before, like him even more now. Why? Like him because whatever it is in your life that you can’t quite master, he’s going through the same battle-just in front of the cameras, in the papers and on the internet. When that happens, it really doesn’t matter how much money you make or who you are. Think about it and get back to me…

2.  Les Miles has more to be ashamed of today than Josh Hamilton. Miles most likely was sober when he publicly ripped a kid whose greatest crime was not wanting to be mis-coached by Miles at LSU and have to be defended by Bobby Hebert. Maybe there is a reason why Miles never got his dream job. . .

3.The most impressive thing to me about Texas Tech’s signing class is that no one bailed. A brutal finish to the season, a tumultuous off-season that saw a contentious departure of your defensive coordinator and other position coaches yet they still didn’t lose and in fact added. Impressive. Texas Tech fans should feel good that recruits seem to be looking at the school, the program and the experience in total.

4.  If Texas Tech ever wears silver or red helmets under Tommy Tuberville I will lead any effort necessary to make sure he has to watch the Tech-OSU game tape for 24 hours straight.

5.  I have been told by two folks outside the Big 12 footprint that The Longhorn Network is going to undergo significant changes and restructuring and that it will no longer be a barrier to Texas joining the Pac-12 or other conferences in the future. Seems the House Of The Mouse has realized the Network is an albatross costing them not just money, but the ability to control college sports by using it as a bargaining chip. The Mouse hates that. Will it lead to a new round of realignment talk? Of course. Will anything happen? Ask @DanBeebe on Twitter…

I welcome your comments, thoughts and anything else you’ve got today. Post ‘em here and share with your friends.

Hyatt

Spent a lot of the weekend watching the 50th Rolex 24 from Daytona. What a great show! Even if you’re not into motorsports you’ve got to appreciate the team-work, endurance and just pure sporting nature of a guys and gals that want to get after it and compete for 24 hours straight. It was also a lot of fun to watch one of our favorite guests, Andy Lally, win his fourth Rolex-this time with Magnus Racing.

The folks at Magnus Racing did a tremendous job in the GT class putting together two strong teams They did an even better job representing one of their sponsors in The Children’s Tumor Foundation. What they did for those kids and the NF Heroes was fun to watch. The win was impressive but the work they all did at Magnus for those kids was humbling. We can all take a lesson! If you’re a fan of racing or just want to help, go to their facebook page!

As for the event itself, I wouldn’t mind seeing some other sports give the 24 Hour thing a try! Pocono already seems like that for the Nascar folks but I still think it would be cool to see the engine builders try and come up with a Nascar engine that could last that long. It would also be cool to see how long Kurt or Kyle Busch would last. . .

I’m not sure how to do a 24-Hour event for football but if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Undercover Boss

I just got done watching Undercover Boss with the President  of Kendall-Jackson. It may be stupid, but I’ll be more likely to buy their wine and products in the future after watching the show. Whether it be for TV or otherwise, I’m usually impressed with leaders that go on that show and are willing to make changes, admit that strategy might have been misaligned and then face the music. Rick Tinger seemed to fit that bill tonight.

Obviously the true test will be time. Will Tinger continue to be as open-minded and willing to listen to the people that make the company work? My bet is that he will. When you do a show like this, you not only make yourself accountable to your employees, you open yourself up to the scrutiny of the wine buying public. Pretty good way to hold yourself to your standards.

Texas Tech Football

National Signing Day can’t get here soon enough for Tommy Tuberville and the Red Raiders I’d imagine. They need something good to take everyone’s mind off the finish to 2011 and an off-season that saw the ugly divorce between the program and former defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow.

For what it’s worth, I think Texas Tech A. D. Kirby Hocutt did a fine job handling the mess back in December. Maybe now some fans will understand why Texas Tech was being so guarded in the responses to the media and others about Glasgow’s status. Hell, I’m not even sure Glasgow was sure of his own “status” after reading the e-mails in the A-J on Friday. He obviously wanted out, but he obviously wanted to make it look like he got fired. That comes in handy when making a cash-grab. Between college football coaches and city managers around here, I’ve got to figure out a way to get paid while leaving my job . . .

Speaking of the recruiting class, @AJ_DonWilliams has the latest on another California kid coming to play defense for the Red Raiders. I wonder if Robert Prunty put out a help wanted ad there. . .If the mid-term guys make an impact next year, and most have to, that alone with make the class a success. As it stands, it looks like Tuberville and crew will back-up last years strong class with another. That’s how it gets rolling.

Come Monday on The Show we look forward to taking your calls on about all of this and much more. We’ll have the obligatory Super Bowl hype as well as look back over a weekend that saw the Lady Raiders take down Texas (that never gets old), the men scrap pretty well at Mizzou but come up short again and we’ll even delve into the world of food and fun just because we can. Join us starting at 3p.m. on www.1340thefan.com. We’ll be taking your calls on The Domino’s Fan Line-1-866-984-5326.

Looking forward to hearing how y’all recap the weekend on the Good, Band and Ugly topic.

Rest well, get us your thoughts and drive Texas Friendly.

Hyatt

With a new year we almost bound by media laws to produce some sort of list of predictions for the coming year. Much like “giving a monkey a shower” on Phineas and Ferb, it has to be done. ( If you get that, I applaud you for your fine viewing habits )

So, keeping in mind that these predictions must be both bold and brave, here goes. We’ll check back this time 2013 and see how close we got.

12.  In March, Lubbock’s Tent City will incorporate. Tent City will then vote itself wet, and further drive down beer and liquor prices in the Hubbaplex. Seeing the huge success of Tent City, Lakeridge will secede from Lubbock, incorporate and name itself “GeorgeBushStickersStillOnOurTahoes”. It too will get wet, but only from 9-to-midnight at Market Street and only for the Methodists. Cards will be issued.

11.  Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt will find the secret panel on the desk in his office that Gerald Myers had installed years ago. Inside the panel Hocutt will find a book revealing all the secrets in the last 75 years regarding Texas Tech Athletics. Artifacts will include the pictures Bob Knight had on David Schmidly, a letter from Mike Leach to Donald Trump admitting he made up all the stuff about liking pirates just because it sounded better than telling folks what he really enjoyed was puffy, white shirts as well as the post-it note containing Jerry Moore’s play-book. Hocutt will find the actual number to Chad Glasgow’s cell phone the most interesting part of all. Turns out they’d entered it into the company directory wrong after-all. . . what a misunderstanding.

10.  Tommy Tuberville will mention the wind blowing during spring practice at Texas Tech and still somehow manage to sound shocked and amazed.

9.  Texas Tech Lady Raider Head Coach Kristy Curry will replace the phrase, “it is what it is” with, “I told you I could coach, now start coming to the games and supporting these kids-they’re damn good!”.

8.  Jerry Jones will do what he’s always wanted to do. In July he’ll announced he’s cloned himself and will serve as both Cowboys head coach and quarterback for 2012. With Jones leading the team the Cowboys fall one game shy of the Super Bowl losing in the NFC Championship game to Washington. The Tony Romo-led Redskins complete a 21-point comeback in the 4th quarter on a Romo to Daniel Snyder TD pass.

7.  Someone, anyone, will finally notice that a gallon of orange juice costs more than a gallon of gas and that oranges actually do grow on trees and don’t require drilling for dead dinosaur guts. . .

6.  Roger Goodell will suspend James Harrison 3 games and fine him Bolivia for slapping Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger too hard on the rump after a pre-season scoring drive.

5.  Dan Beebe will return to be the commissioner of the Big 12 after changing his name and sneaking past the hiring committee of Deloss Dodds, Deloss Dodds id, ego and super ego. The interview will be televised on The Longhorn Network to the delight of its subscriber, Mrs. Dodds. Upon his return to the Big 12, Beebe will announce that he’s invading the SEC in an attempt to regain Texas A&M and Missouri. Beebe’s forces advance as far as the hotel ballroom at SEC Media Days before being rebuffed by the hotel kitchen staff, all former SEC defensive players, proving once again the Big 12 can’t handle real defenses. . .

4.  The Texas Rangers Cy Young winner Yu Darvish will announce he hasn’t understood a damn thing Ron Washington said all year and that he’s demanding a trade to be with his homie and soul-mate, Ozzie Guillen ( the only one who really gets me, Darvish tells Eric Nadel in a gut-wrenching interview )

3.  Keith Olbermann will finally quit calling Dan Patrick late at night asking if he wants to come over and play, “read the teleprompter”.

2.  NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart will go vegan. Repulsed, Andy Lally orders a steak and says the hell with it…

1.  On December 31, 2012 Dick Clark will be wondering once again why he even bothers to do this thing if it means working with Justin Bieber and Ryan Seacrest. His New Year’s Resolution for 2013–Host the Rockin’ New Year’s Eve on The Playboy Channel–life’s too short–even if you’re 112 years old!

Happy New Year y’all. Be safe and make the most of it. It should be a grand one!

Hyatt

No professional sport puts their fans closer to the action and gives them more access to the participants than Nascar. It is one of the reasons there is so much loyalty amongst the fans. With that as a back-drop, 2-time Cup Champ Tony Stewart hosted his annual charity races last night at Eldora Speedway and if you missed it on PPV, you missed out on a great night of dirt track racing for great causes. With the money going to four different regional children’s hospitals Stewart’s “Prelude To The Dream” event brought in some of the best drivers in the world and let them put on a show for the fans.

Clint Bowyer won the feature looking just like a guy that had spent a little time on mid-west dirt coming up, but it was the children, the hospitals, the fans and even the drivers themselves that really won. For a such a pressure-packed week-in and week-out sport you can tell by the looks on the drivers’ faces how much they love racing just for fun. We need more of that in sports if we can get it.

For Tony Stewart, a guy oft criticized over the years for his temper, his behavior and surliness with the media, it shows a side of him as a track-operator, promoter, water truck driver and a guy with a big heart that many of his non-fans never see. You get the feeling he’s come to love this week as much as anything he does.

Too often professional athletes get criticized as selfish and uncaring about the fans. To me that’s unfair. Many do things that fans and media never know about. Many more put together events leveraging their wealth and fame that the average person with a big heart just wouldn’t be able to pull 0ff. That’s the great thing I think when I see an athlete or celeb realize that they do have a bully pulpit to do great things for other folks. Stewart gets that. Now, just don’t tell anyone that he may actually be a nice guy after all. We don’t want to ruin his image.

TEXAS TECH FOOTBALL RECRUITING

Texas Tech has added some more oral commits on the recruiting trail over the past week. Don Williams has a great round-up here in the A-J.

Make no mistake, there is more interest in Texas Tech this time of year in the recruiting process by top players than we’ve ever seen. Part of it is the success of the program over the past several years that has caught the attention of high school kids but a lot of it is the commitment by Tommy Tuberville and his staff to go toe-to-toe with the top programs in the Big 12 and in particular in Texas. Tuberville has brought a higher level of expectation to recruiting, the likes of which we may not have seen since Jim Carlen in the early 1970′s around here. It is fascinating to watch.

Today on the show we’ll examine the impact of the process of recruiting that Tuberville and his staff have put together. Look forward to talking to you on that Domino’s Fan Line starting at 3p.m. at 1-866-984-5326.

On that note it has been interesting as heck to see how some folks around the Tech fandom have had trouble with statements like that from Tuberville. It is as if saying that’s a goal of his makes is like saying it wasn’t of Mike Leach. It was, they just hadn’t gotten there yet. Know way of knowing if they’d ever have gotten there. For now, the challenge is Tubervilles.

MORE LATER.

HYATT

Tech’s former Lead Pirate, Mike Leach, is back in the news. The A-J reports that Leach will be in town Friday to give his first put your hand on the Bible and tell the whole truth statements about his firing. Not only will Leach be giving his side of the story but other Tech officials like Chancellor Kent Hance are expected to put their statements down for history as well. Of course if this thing gets settled in the next few weeks like some still believe we’ll probably never get to see the statements. Probably.

I say that because conventional wisdom has been thrown out the window when it comes to this story. Leach has taken a much more aggressive stance than most fired coaches ever do and Texas Tech seems firmly entrenched and more than willing to let this play out in court confident that they’ve got the facts on their side. That’s what makes this so interesting to watch.

The element of the story about Leach this week that has tongues wagging is that his legal team is apparently seeking records from Frenship I.S.D. about Tommy Tuberville’s childrens’ enrollment status. In other words, when did they show up and did it pre-date Leach’s firing.

Some view this as a thinly-veiled attempt to smear Tech and Tuberville and encourage more conspiracy thinking on the part of the Team Leachers that think Leach’s firing and Tuberville’s hiring had been pre-ordained in the Old Testament. To some it wreaks of a desperate fishing expedition by a desperate legal team that knows they don’t have a chance in court so they’ll try to go scorched-earth in the media.

Then there are those that think it is a shrewd move to force Tech’s hand to hand over the cash and scare them out of a trial.

Some one’s got to be right, some one’s got to be wrong here.

Either way, if it does settle and there is no releasing of details, both sides will claim the other side caved in and that they won. They’ll also claim their disappointed the “facts” never came out, but they have to abide by the decision of the court. That’s why so many want this to go to trial. I still think those folks will be left wanting more, much more, at the end of the day.

By the way, if you’re looking for good comedy you’ve got to read the comment section after the A-J story on Leach. I worry about some of those folks, I truly do.

MORE LATER ON THE SHOW

Hyatt

1. How is it possible, according to DoubleTNation and others, that there were huge turnouts in Houston and Dallas for Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville’s recruiting round-up and meet and greets? I thought Tech fans were angry and boycotting the program over the firing of Mike Leach? I guess that’s what happens when a few internet agitators with empty activism garner headlines. More sound than fury and little action.
2. Keep your eyes peeled today for some Tech Football news at redraiders.com . It should be quite interesting to say the least.
3. It was great to turn on Speed last night and see NASCAR LIVE back on the air and practice for the Bud Shoot-Out. I love the “new” plate and can’t wait to get rid of the wing and get back to the spoiler. We may actually get to see drivers race out there this year. Maybe.
4. Peyton Manning isn’t the best QB of all-time, but he’s getting closer. If the Colts win Sunday it should end all debate, if there is any left, about him being better than Tom Brady.
5. Every time you complain about the snow and rain on the South Plains lately just go back and read this story in the A-J and feel better. This is great for the area Ag-producers which means it is great for you if you live around the Hubbaplex. Enjoy.

Monday morning thoughts coming down

I can’t say that I’m surprised that Texas Tech Strength and Conditioning coach Bennie Wylie is moving on to Derek Dooley’s staff at Tennessee. When Tommy Tuberville was hired he kept Wylie on out of professional respect but also sent a clear sign that a six-month trial was in effect, virtually ensuring that if Wylie found something better in the meantime he’d be smart to take it.

Of course some Tech fans will overreact and claim that Tuberville has “run-off” another great Leach assistant, but that really isn’t fair to either side. Every coach in every sport usually thinks “their guy” is the best guy when it comes to S&Q. I’m sure Tuberville has an idea who he’d like to work with and that’s the main thing here. For both the head coach and the S&Q coach you need to be on the same page from the git-go.

Make no mistake, part of what Tuberville wants to and needs to do at Tech is change the culture. He must have coaches that can convey a new message. I don’t think that after years of telling the current players one thing under Mike Leach that Wylie would have as much credibility sending a different set of messages under Tuberville. Right or wrong, Tuberville needs someone fresh and at the same time Wylie needs to work with a coach he’s comfortable with. I hope he gets that in Knoxville.

For the most part Wylie improved things greatly at Tech in his department. That isn’t to say he didn’t have his detractors though, both around the program and outside it. That may surprise some Tech fans.

Many folks in the know will tell you they thought Wylie did a great job making players stronger and more powerful, but at the same time they had reservations about his commitment to the quickness side of things. The word was that Wylie focused so much on “stats” and power numbers that jump off that page but that there was a disconnect at times to how that translated onto the playing field for all positions.

I’m not smart enough to say whether that is true or not.

I’ve also heard from many that there was a caste-system at Tech in the weight room and that if you might be able to make the coach look good, you’d get more help and that certain players got more attention. Sounds like a typical set-up to me where you focus on starters more than scrubs but we’ve also heard it created a disparity amongst work-ethic on the team.

This isn’t to say Wylie isn’t a loss to Tech or that he isn’t a very good S&Q coach, because he is. It is saying that it is very hard for a S&Q coach to be everything to every coach. It’s difficult to straddle the line between power and strength and quickness and conditioning.

Tuberville made it very clear early on at Tech that he wanted to get the Red Raiders faster and quicker. He didn’t care so much about size as speed. That may or may not run counter to what Wylie does best, I don’t know. I do know that both coaches need to be comfortable with each others’ process and I had a feeling from day one that Wylie would be moving on as it is just the nature of the game.

So, thanks for everything Bennie and thanks for being a great Red Raider. I hope you figure out a way to rock the orange as well as you did the scarlet but you’ve got a challenging color scheme to deal with there on the sidelines!

MORE LATER

HYATT