RED RAIDERS COME HOME AGAIN

TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS

Projected 2013 Conference Finish: 8th

RED RAIDERS @ A GLANCE:

Head Coach: Kliff Kingsbury (1st Year)
Stadium: Jones AT&T Stadium (60,862)/ Lubbock, TX
2012 Record: 8-5 (4-5)
   2012 Home 4-2
   2012 Away 4-3* (lost to Baylor in Dallas)
2012 Bowl Game: Meineke Car Care Bowl / Beat Minnesota 34-31
Returning Starters 15
   Offense 6
   Defense 9
Players to watch: Coach Kliff Kingsbury not a player
Key Games: October 19th @ WVA…winner of this game probably makes a bowl game and climbs out of bottom third of Big 12
2013 vs. OU: October 26th in Norman

Did You Know?

Both my parents and my Aunt Kay and Uncle Clark went to school @ Texas Tech. My dad played football there for two seasons and my uncle was on the swim team. I attended Texas Tech football camp in 1977 after my 6th grade season. Head Coach Rex Dockery was evidently not impressed since I left without a scholarship offer. Any wonder he was fired soon after?


My dad @ Texas Tech.
Looks like he might have a
mouth full of Lubbock water! 

THERE OUGHT TO BE A SIDESHOW ACT

FOR FREAKS LIKE ME

I will say this about the athletic department at Texas Tech University…they aren’t scared to take a chance on hiring somebody. It’s almost like they put a cardboard sign in the bottom corner of a window at the athletic offices that says: The eccentric, controversial, inheriting, out of favored and unwanted need apply.

Over the last few years the athletic department has hired a want to be pirate (Leach), a tyrant (Gillispie), a dictator (Knight), a descendant (Pat Knight) and a slapper (Tuberville). Hell, I say why stop there? Just hire grumpy (Bill Parcells) and sleazy (Lane Kiffin) and give Betty White a call and they would have the antithesis of an iconic fairytale. They could call it ‘Betty White and the Seven Remorse’s.’

But that didn’t happen. Instead of a sideshow act they went for character…instead of an exotic gamble they invested in a solid foundation. Less short term fixes, more long term solution. Instead of losing their minds, they finally used their heads. Kirby Hocutt decided enough is enough and decided to cut his losses. Goodbye Billy Gillispie, good-bye drama. Damn, would have been fun.

Kirby Hocutt was named Athletic Director at Texas Tech in 2011. The sign on his door and title on his business cards will confirm that to be his position, but only because it would take a highway billboard to define his real job description. To be successful, Hocutt is going to have to be a Mediator, a Therapist, a Good Will Ambassador, a Fundraiser and a Hand-Holder. Hocutt’s job is to not only restore order to the Tech Athletic Department, but also to reunite a Tech fan base that has been fractured since the firing of Mike Leach.

After a slow start…it looks like Hocutt might be getting it right.

NOTHING SAYS HOME LIKE ONE OF YOUR OWN

Hocutt’s first hire as new AD was basketball coach Billy Gillispie. Gillispie had been out of coaching two years after Kentucky fired him in 2009. Hocutt said he saw an opportunity for Tech to have the kind of success Gillispie brought to UTEP and Texas A&M. “But you know what? It didn’t. It didn’t work out and what you do is you stand back and you reassess the situation and you learn from it and you move forward,” Hocutt said

Whatever lesson Hocutt learned must have hit home…literally. Hocutt has hired four other head coaches since the ill-fated BG fiasco. Three of the four hires had one major thing in common…they were former Red Raiders coming home. Baseball coach Tim Tadlock, who played for the Red Raiders in 1990 and 1991, was hired in June 2012, and Candi Whitaker, who played under former Lady Raiders coach Marsha Sharp in 2001 and 2002, was hired last month. The only non-former RR was basketball coach Tubby Smith, a man whose integrity and character is tough to challenge. But no hire has been more therapeutic to the Red Raider Nation than bringing back former QB Kliff Kingsbury.

Texas Tech is a place and culture that is different from others. Tech will never have the money or resources to compete with fellow in state schools like Texas & Texas A&M. Unless you are from west Texas, Tech can seem isolated and distant. Nor would I imagine Lubbock, TX as being a dream destination for most recruits…unless of course they like water that taste like shit and a climate that might include wind, heat, cold and sand all in the same day. That being said, I have never met a single person who went to school there that didn’t love it and make it sound like the greatest place ever. Hmmm, The OAS is kind of slow sometimes, but I am starting to understand….maybe it takes one to know one…

The hiring of Kingsbury has been applauded by both those he has worked under and nationally; but more importantly it has been well received by the Red Raider Nation. It has brought back a level of trust among those that became disillusioned with things when Mike Leach, Tech’s all-time winningest coach, was fired in 2009. To Tech fans it doesn’t matter that he is only 34 or that he has never been a head coach before. It doesn’t matter if he hasn't thrown a chair across a court or wears an iconic sweater. They could care less about whether he like pirates or whether he is the son of a Hall Of Famer…all they know is he is one of them…their son…a Red Raider. Welcome Home Kliff, just remember… don’t drink the water.

Just the opinion of one mildly interested guy

The Overweight Armchair Sooner (The OAS)

Buddy Putty