Good evening West Texans and all you fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were. . .
OUT-EVERYTHINGED IN COLUMBIA
The Not Ready For Prime-Time Program struck again, this time in Columbia, Missouri as the Texas Tech Red Raiders failed to show up at the show-down with the Missouri Tigers. Once again, Tech took to a national stage with everything to gain and once again left fans wondering just how close this program is to being a true Big 12 South title contender.
Heisman Trophy talk, over. National ranking, gone. Quest of going from an average program to a championship contending program, continuing. The good news is that Tech saved ESPN a ton of money as they now won’t have to fly someone to Lubbock on Sunday and Mike Leach won’t have to adjust his media-availability philosophy next week as Tech preps unbothered for Colorado.
Missouri did what they wanted defensively which was pressure Graham Harrell and lock-down Tech’s WR’s with solid press coverage. Missouri basically said, “we have better athletes than you and we’re going to prove it” and they did. That the Tigers blitzed at will without getting burned was something we really haven’t seen happen to the Tech offense since 2000 or 2001. That it came against a Heisman-Trohpy hopeful at QB and WR is even more shocking. Missouri had the look of a program on the rise. Tech had the look of a deer caught in the national hype spotlight. The question becomes how could the Tiger program under Gary Pinkel be better than Mike Leach’s Red Raiders? How could Pinkel go from being on the ropes two years ago to putting the Tech offense and defense on the ropes two years in a row?
The reality of today’s game is that Texas Tech just isn’t ready to win these games. Texas Tech doesn’t appear to be tough enough as a program to exert its will on an opponent when things aren’t going great offensively or to be able to sustain a solid defensive effort for a full sixty minutes.
That Tech continues to be unable to run the ball consistently when dared to by opponents is a reflection of that toughness. Missouri got in a defensive alignment that dared Tech to use Woods and Lewis. Tech couldn’t make the blocks necessary to make it work. If Tech had been able to spring the RB’s past the line of scrimmage they would have been past the second level and into the secondary before the Tigers could react. It would have forced Missouri to change their fronts and their coverage. Tech couldn’t do it. Instead, Harrell spent all being unable or unwilling to take the few soft spots the defense was giving the Red Raiders and exploit it.
As for the defense, they held together for a quarter and a half and then it was back to the defense that got Lyle fired. Missouri stretched Tech by formation and the Red Raiders just weren’t good enough man for man to be able to make plays. As the day wore on, the tackling got worse, the coverage grew softer and the results were all too familiar. Mike Leach had said that Tech’s defense didn’t need anything more than motivation and desire. True to their word, Tech didn’t do anything scheme-wise different as the day went on. As Missouri continued to pound Tech with the running game, one of the announcers opined that Tech would be forced to go to “8 in the box” to slow it down. They obviously haven’t watched much Tech football. Again, it goes back to toughness, and the Tech defense wasn’t good enough or tough enough to win a physical battle of wills against the Tigers.
Many will question Mike Leach’s decisions to go for touchdowns vs. field goals. I have no problem with his calls on that or the fourth down calls. That’s who you are and that’s what you do. Mike Leach knew this was a day you needed touchdowns and not 3’s.
So, now where does this leave Tech? Where does it leave a fan-base that has craved a team that would break through and win the games on a national stage and shut up the critics and prove that it’s not a “system” or “gimmick” offense. It leaves them waiting for next week, or more likely next year as this team continues to grow and mature and hopefully get tougher.
For now though, Tech fans have nothing to counter folks that say Harrell’s numbers have been put up against week teams and that when it matters, the offense can’t come through. In fact, if you look at the vast majority of the losses Tech’s had since 2003 most have come because of offensive brown-outs against good teams. Tech’s record against ranked opponents isn’t an aberration; it’s an indication that Tech still has a long way to go to be considered more than a program that plays an exciting brand of offense that occasionally scores a nice upset win. Painful, but true.
Can the Red Raiders shake that earned-image? Maybe not this year, but the window for sure has to be 2008. Between now and then, Mike Leach must figure out how to infuse his team with a tough, physical nature that doesn’t go into hiding as soon as they see an airport.
We’ll have much more on this game later.
HYATT
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I think its time that Tech takes a long look in the mirror and decide what direction are we going to go. Leach has been a good shot in the arm for our program, but realistically what has he done? There are plenty of other schools with much less tradition, alumni support, and an overall program stability that are currently in the top 15, yet we continue to lose to ranked teams like its a habit. I’m not so sure what to think of the tech program at this point.
Exactly how many “next years” does a coach get?
Leach’s teams are a ton of fun to watch, and they sure get the fans pumped up every week, but I can’t quite seem to forget that “boring” old Spike Dykes football got us into the top 20 (and even as high as 13 as I recall) more times than Leach-ball has.
Just a thought.
Mike Leach has been our savior! Spike was the most boring coach and Tech was never in the national spotlight.
I still think Harrell is the best QB in the NCAA and should win the Heisman, either this year or next.
The difference between Spike and Leach is that Leach gets to play one more game a year plus the program now costs 3 times as much as it did with Spike. And that’s about it.