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Merry Christmas from Collegefootballtopten.com

December 24, 2008 By toddler 1 Comment

Merry Christmas from Collegefootballtopten.com to all my friends, family, readers and blogosphere friends.  I have decided to offer a Christmas Wish List, much like I did at Pegasus News (it will be up Christmas Morning), for some of my blogger friends.

John Paul Mitchell Hosts Annual Party

For the Finch at Spitbloodtcu.com
A win for TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl against Boise State.  Wait, that already happened.  O.k., for rest after returning home from San Diego where you watched the Poinsettia Bowl.

John at the Nebraska Sports Journal
I wish for you a win for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Gator Bowl against the Clemson Tigers.  Go Huskers!

For my friend Thomas at the Mean Green Cougar Red blog
A win for the Houston Cougars against Air Force in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl here in Fort Worth.  I usually root for the Mountain West Conference team, but in the case I will make an exception.  I know you have had a tough year this year with a hurricane, snow a few days ago, and a family member in a major accident.  I hope you get some good cheer.  By the way, I just noticed that I hadn’t put your site on my blogroll.  I am not sure how I left you off, and I am sorry.

Brian at Inthebleachers.net
I hope that your site continues to become king of the college football blogosphere because you are all class.  Also, I hope that Penn State upsets USC in the Rose Bowl.  I would love to see that, wouldn’t you?

For Doug at college football walk on
I hope that you are able to get enough nominations for the walk-on award so that we can get that first award out to a deserving kid.  Keep at it, it is a worth while award.

For Seth at Double T Nation
I hope that you keep on doing your stuff.  You may have one of the best school-centered blogs I’ve seen.  Also, here’s to hoping that Mike Leach teaches Houston Nutt how to run an offense.  “Guns up!”

Eddie at The Red Zone Report
Your site/blog may be the most comprehensive, mega-site I have ever seen.  I hope that you keep it going and are real successful.

To Josh at BigPurpleNation.com
Josh does a real good job of covering all things TCU.  Josh is also a stand-up guy.  My hope for you is that you can keep it up.  I also hope for continued success.

For Harry at GoMeanGreen.com
Keep up the good work Harry.  You guys do good work and you are really dedicated.  I hope that the dedication pays off in a successful football season next year for UNT.

For my readers like Lee Cochenour, and all of you who played in the DFW Pickem, have a very Merry Christmas!  God Bless and a happy new year!

Filed Under: 2008 Archives Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Sunday Night Rewind: Week Ten

November 2, 2008 By toddler Leave a Comment

Kudos. . . .  . Congratulations to the Texas Tech Red Raiders for their thrilling victory over the Texas Longhorns.  Most are saying that this win is the biggest win in Tech’s history.  Texas, of course, was ranked number one and Tech number five, six or seven depending on your poll of choice.  The Double T Nation was euphoric with the Raider win and stormed the field.  I even got a “guns up” symbol from a friend at church.  Ironically, this week, I was reading about another upset of Texas in Lubbock (2002) in the new book Rose Bowl Dreams by Adam Jones.  I hope Adam doesn’t think that I caused his Longhorns to lose.  Great win for Mike Leach and Texas Tech.  They did by stopping the run and running the ball, among other things.

BCS Busted. . . . . Another potential BCS Buster went down on Saturday.  I like to point this out because it was my Arkansas Razorbacks that knocked off the Tulsa Golden Hurricane in Fayetteville, AR.  That was probably another win that fans didn’t expect to get, but I know it was a tough blow to the Tulsa fans.  Maybe next year, huh?

Thursday night thunder. . . . . . . All year, upsets have happened on Thursday night.  TCU has been a part one of them.  This Thursday night, TCU fans hopes it will happen again as the Horned Frogs travel to Salt Lake City, UT to take on the Utah Utes.  As it stands, Utah has the best chance of being a BCS buster.  The Utes are undefeated, and if they win out, will have beaten three top 25 ranked teams.  But, TCU and its fans are doing some dreaming of their own.  The Frogs have only played one bad quarter in a loss at Oklahoma while upsetting BYU a couple of weeks ago and routing Wyoming and UNLV in consecutive games.  Beat Utah on the road, and beat Air Force a couple of weeks later, TCU will be 11-1 with its only loss at Oklahoma and wins over two ranked teams.

Gator High. . . . . . The Florida Gators may be the hottest team in Football.  The Gators have made LSU, Kentucky and Georgia look silly in consecutive weeks.  The Gator offense has averaged 55 points against those three teams.  The defense has only given up 15 total points in the past two weeks.  When I did my most recent top ten update, I ranked Florida ahead of the other one-loss teams.  Now you know why.

Rankings

AP Top 10

  1. Alabama (46)
  2. Texas Tech (12)
  3. Penn State (6)
  4. Florida (1)
  5. Texas
  6. Oklahoma
  7. USC
  8. Oklahoma State
  9. Boise State
  10. Utah

Coaches Top 25

  1. Alabama (40)
  2. Penn State (14)
  3. Texas Tech (6)
  4. Oklahoma (1)
  5. Florida
  6. USC
  7. Texas
  8. Oklahoma State
  9. Utah
  10. Boise State

Filed Under: 2008 Archives, Sunday Night Rewind Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Texas Tour: Texas Tech

August 9, 2008 By toddler 1 Comment

We start our Texas Tour this weekend with a visit to Texas Tech.  Joining us as guest blogger is Seth who is the brains behind Double T Nation.  If you want to know more about the Texas Tech Red Raiders, I highly recommend visiting Double T Nation for your Red Raider fix.

By Seth of Double T Nation

OFFENSE

This may be the most explosive offense in Texas Tech history and much of the reason for that is the return of Graham Harrell at quarterback and Michael Crabtree at receiver.  For the first time in the Mike Leach era he returns a quarterback for the third year, making Graham Harrell’s tenure with the Texas Tech offense unprecedented.  Harrell (512 completions; 713 attempts; 5,705 yards; 48 touchdowns) returns as the NCAA leader in total offense and is primed to have another outstanding year at Texas Tech.

Harrell’s options at receiver begin with Michael Crabtree, who led the world in recieving (134 receptions; 1,962 yards; 22 touchdowns).  Crabtree is a true difference maker, who is incredibly gifted in the open field, probably because his background is a quarterback in high school.  In addition to returning Crabtree, the Red Raiders also return Eric Morris (75 receptions; 767 yards; 9 touchdowns) and Edward Britton (48 receptions; 631 yards; 4 touchdowns).  The lone starter that Texas Tech has to replace on offense is Danny Amendola and many are expecting Detron Lewis (10 receptions; 120 yards; 3 touchdowns) to be an upgrade over Amendola as he may be a more athletically gifted receiver.

Running back is still a three horse race, and possibly a 4 horse race depending on how things shake out during fall practices.  The Texas Tech running game last year was poor, even for Texas Tech standards, only 59 yards per game, however, this year the Red Raiders hope than Shannon Woods, Aaron Crawford, or Baron Batch will all be able to carry the load and increase the rushing production.  Woods is perhaps the most talented of the three runners but has had off-field issues.  Crawford has the size that most Texas Tech running backs haven’t had but lacks the speed of Woods.  While Batch is an attractive combination of both Crawford’s size and Woods’ speed.

The entire offensive line returns for Texas Tech, led by all-conference Louis Vasquez (6-6/335) at left guard.  Rylan Reed (6-7/305), who is a cancer survivor, played minor league baseball, shattered his ankle against Virginia in the Gator Bowl and recently broke Texas Tech’s bench press record at 625 pounds returns at left tackle.  Rounding out the massive Texas Tech offensive line is Brandon Carter (6-7/354) at right guard and Marlon Wynn (6-6/325) at right tackle and the lone position battle along the line is at center where Stephen Hamby (6-3/292) and Shawn Byrnes (6-4/295) are battling it out this fall to determine the starter, although both expect to play quite a bit this fall.

DEFENSE

Much like the Texas Tech offense, the Texas Tech defense is returning almost everyone.  Gone is Joe Garcia at safety, Paul Williams at linebacker, and Chris Parker at cornerback.

Starting up front, Colby Whitlock (47 tackles; 8.5 tackles for loss; 2 sacks), a freshman All-American, returns for his sophomore season at nose tackle while junior Rajon Henley returns at defensive tackle (45 tackles; 7.5 tackles for loss; 4.5 sacks).  At the defensive end position, incumbent starter Jake Ratliff (26 tackles; 3 tackles for loss; 1 sack) could be replaced by Brandon Sesay, a highly recruited junior college end.  Also at the left end position is Brandon Sharpe, another JUCO recruit who redshirted last year due to injury.  Brandon Williams (44 tackles; 12 tackles for loss; 5.5 sacks) hopes to build on a strong sophomore season and returns at the other defensive end position, while Daniel Howard (23 tackles; 6 tackles for loss; 3 sacks), a guy who’s motor continually runs and never stops, is Williams’ top backup.  Currently, McKinner Dixon is a question mark at defensive end due to eligibility issues.

The linebacker position returns quite a bit of experience and youth all at the same time.  At the strong side, true sophomore Bront Bird (16 tackles; 1 tackles for loss) is your starter, while redshirt freshman Tyrone Sonier backs him up.  Brian Duncan (69 tackles; 4 tackles for loss) is your starter in the middle, while bowling ball Victor Hunter, at 5-11/265 (28 tackles; 4.5 tackles for loss) backs up Duncan and Sam Fehoko, another redshirt freshman, and former Hawaii defensive player of the year expects to see some action.  Marlon Williams (81 tackles; 1 tackles for loss) is your weakside while uber-fast Blake Collier (11 tackles; 2 tackles for loss) backs up Williams.

In the secondary, another All-Big 12 player, junior cornerback Jamar Wall (54 tackles; 5 interceptions) returns on one side.  Wall is tremendously gifted and the Red Raiders are set at this left corner spot.  As fall practices started, the coaches determined that former receiver turned safety, now turned cornerback senior L.A. Reed was running with the first team.  Reed adds quite a bit of size to the right corner spot, 6-2/212.  Despite Reed’s emergence, expect LaRon Moore (8 tackles), Brent Nickerson and Pete Richardson (4 tackles) to all see quite a bit of action at cornerback, irrespective if Reed struggles or not.  Darcel McBath (73 tackles; 2 interceptions), perhaps one of the more underrated players in the Big 12 returns for his senior season at free safety.  The current depth chart has Daniel Charbonnet (34 tackles; 1 interceptions) backing up McBath, but could see quite a bit of time considering the number of teams running spread offenses in the Big 12.  At strong safety, there are still a number of candidates vying for the job, with senior Anthony Hines (24 tackles; 1 interceptions) hopefully recovered from an injury suffered against Oklahoma and senior Lance Fuller (9 tackles) also expected to see quite a bit of time.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Sophomore Johathan LaCour is your punter and finished 3rd in the Big 12 in average (42.6) and should be even better in his second full year.  Kicker is still yet to be determined as freshman Donnie Caronoa is competing with senior Cory Fowler to replace the departed Alex Trlica.  Carona has the stronger leg and should assume kickoff responsibilities, however, Fowler may be a little more steady.

For more of Seth’s posts, visit Double T Nation, an Unofficial Texas Tech Red Raiders blog.

Thanks for the tour Seth!

Filed Under: 2008 Archives, Texas tour Tagged With: , , , ,