We lost to Nebraska. Rick Barnes summed it up pretty well:
``We've lost five or six games by one or two possessions,'' Texas coach Rick Barnes said. ``We are what we are, and that's the bottom line. We haven't won those games, and we've lost some games on the last possessions where teams make plays on us, and you have to give them credit for it.''
Did you know... When Texas switched from grass to artificial turf in 1969, they won a national championship.
Mack Brown cannot please everyone.
Mack Brown already can see it coming.
Three or four years from now, he'll be preparing his team for a big conference game, and a reporter from an out-of-town newspaper — or an out-of-town Tweet-o-Blog, or whatever people will be reading to get their information by then — will write a story saying the opponent's star player was snubbed by Texas.
“All he ever wanted to be was a Longhorn,” the story will read. “But Mack Brown didn't want him. Now it's his time to make Texas pay.”
It just never ends. We just finished signing all the the 2009 recruits and Barking Carnival already has the scoop on Texas' 2010 recruiting class.
Charlie Riedel, AP Photo.
I'm sure you really wanted to know this about a Sooner... Oklahoma's Taylor Griffin has quite an eye for fashion.
Taylor Griffin said there are many different sides to his style.
"I change it up," he said. "I have a sporty, athletic style. But then I have an almost-metro style where I might wear something like a pea coat and a scarf."
Football
RedRaider.com looks back at Texas Tech recruiting, 2005-2008.
Texas A&M defensive lineman Kellen Heard has left the team. Heard would have been a senior next season.
The Baylor Bears are definitely on an upswing. Baylor finished last season with a 4-8 record, but all the losses came against teams that were invited to a bowl game. And Art Briles is very excited about their new recruiting class.
"What we thought was going to happen, happened, and that’s unusual in the recruiting process," Briles said. "So that in itself was a big hit for us.
"We’re really pleased with the guys we got and we really feel like they’re exactly what we need at this time in our program."
The Mike Leach watch continues and still no contract.
Months-long communication between Texas Tech and agents for football coach Mike Leach show a growing frustration on both sides ... including a rebuke to the agents from the chairman of Tech's Board of Regents.
The university has given Leach a Feb. 17 deadline to sign a contract-extension of $12.7 million over five years, but Leach's agents say he won't sign because of four added elements they say makes the proposal unacceptable.
Tom Kirkendall asks if Leach is really worth all the trouble.
So, Tech is caught in a conundrum. On one hand, Leach has generated profitable attention for Tech; thus, it makes sense to pay big money to keep him. However, on the other hand, Leach turns around and disparages Tech in the coach marketplace by continually trying to leave. Why pay big money to someone who is diminishing the value of your product?
Nevertheless, Tech is probably over-thinking this issue. Leach is a good coach, but not the best diplomat. Pay him a salary commensurate with Tech's financial capability and Tech's position in the Big 12, and then require a hefty buyout to compensate Tech if another program hires Leach. Don't worry much about Leach's wanderlust -- a large buyout will deter most programs from pursuing Leach. Trying to restrict Leach's wanderlust by imposing a penalty is counterproductive in that it forces Tech to endure a coach who really does not want to be there while reducing the chance that Tech will realize a windfall from another program hiring Leach and paying Tech the buyout.
So, what is former OU coach John Blake doing now?
Blake, associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at North Carolina, is still a hit with people. He has become, in three years at UNC, the king of football recruiting on the east coast.
For the second straight year, North Carolina hauled in one of the nation's top 10 recruiting classes. We're talking football. Not basketball.
We live in a very fertile area, for football recruiting. California, Florida and Texas are the best prospects live. So it isn't a surprise that some of the most productive programs are in those areas.
Florida, Southern California, Oklahoma and Texas haven’t won all of the national championships over the past few seasons. Some seasons even ended in disappointment for them, although the power programs measure letdown differently than the rest. The Longhorns were bummed they didn’t play in the Big 12 and BCS title games despite a 11-1 regular-season record.
The importance of recruiting success in those programs is this: They are the best positioned teams in the nation to secure talent. That is, they are the most dominant teams closest to America’s deepest sources of prospects.
Rivals has the top recruiters in the country. In the Big 12, the Recruiter of the Year is Jackie Shipp from Oklahoma. Greg Davis also makes the Top 10 list.
It was about quality, not quantity, with Davis, who is Texas' offensive coordinator. He played a major role in the recruitment of Texas' two highest-ranked prospects in Garrett Gilbert and Alex Okafor. He also was instrumental in landing offensive tackle Paden Kelley, bringing much-needed depth for the offensive line.
Coaches are upset that recruits are decommitting from a previous verbal agreement on national signing day. But what about coaches not keeping their commitments?
How many times have we read stories about college coaches skipping town for better opportunities? And the mushroom cloud they leave behind engulfs their former players, who don't know what system the new coach will bring in or, for that matter, how long he will stay.
Great writers watch. Thayer Evans (or M. Scott Templeton, per Peter Bean) has written another piece of prose for The New York Times and for once, it doesn't mention Texas.
Ben Fry has an interesting piece on Wonderlic scores. Scores decrease as player positions move further away from the ball.