Raiders keep lofty goals in sight
For the 14th year in a row, a spot in the Big 12 Conference championship game is not in the cards for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders’ chances took a hit way back on Sept. 19 when they lost to Texas and vanished three weeks ago with a stunning home loss against Texas A&M.
But with the exception of No. 2 Texas and No. 17 Oklahoma State, it’s not as if any other Big 12 teams are separating themselves. In fact, a pack of eight Big 12 teams have either five or six wins headed into this weekend.
Texas Tech linebacker Brian Duncan tackles Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter at Jones AT&T Stadium Nov. 8, 2008. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)
If it can win its last three games, Tech could make a push for its third trip this decade to the Cotton Bowl or second to the Holiday Bowl.
“We’re definitely aware,’’ senior cornerback Jamar Wall said. “We know the situation and what can happen. But you can’t get there without winning the next game, then the next game, then the next game. So right now our main focus is Oklahoma State, even though we know we can be where we want to be.’’
Last season, Tech reached 10-0 and No. 2 in the national rankings by beating Oklahoma State 56-20. The Raiders will try to make it two in a row over the Cowboys when they visit Stillwater, Okla., on Saturday.
For Tech, the 2008 season came unglued after the OSU game with a blowout loss to Oklahoma, a close call against Baylor and a bowl defeat to Mississippi.
“We talk to them about the month of November being what people remember, trying to make sure we put together a great month of November,’’ defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said after Tuesday’s practice. “That’s what we talk to them about as a whole. But as coach (Mike) Leach does, we still go back to one game a week, and the most important one is the one this week against Oklahoma State.’’
The Cowboys are 6-1 in their last seven games and have three home victories in a row over Tech.
Nevertheless, the Raiders control their destiny as it pertains to second place in the Big 12 South Division. They can pull into a tie for second and gain a tiebreaker edge by beating Oklahoma State. Then next week, they have a home game against Oklahoma, the other South team with two league losses.
The possibilities for Tech sound attractive, but the reality is the Red Raiders have won three in a row only once this season — against New Mexico, Kansas State and Nebraska. Two of those came at home, and now the Raiders have only one home game left.
“Our biggest goal right now is that we have three games left in the Big 12 Conference, and our goal obviously is to win them all,’’ flanker Alex Torres said. “We are not going to try and worry about what other people do and who beats who and this and that. We are just going to try and think about what we can control and to get out there and practice like we want to play.’’
McNeill says Tech coaches don’t want the Raiders thinking in three-game chunks. The last time they might have been looking ahead, A&M came into Lubbock and put a 52-30 licking on Tech.
“What we found out about them that one week is try not to tell them too much,’’ McNeill said. “We want to control what we can control, and that’s practicing well this week so we can play well on Saturday. We try not to bring anything else up for them, because this group handles having that single purpose better than being able to give them expanded things.’’
College football
Who: Texas Tech at No. 17 Oklahoma State
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Boone Pickens
Stadium, Stillwater, Okla.
Records: Tech 6-3, 3-2 in the Big 12; Oklahoma State 7-2, 4-1
Last game: Tech 42, Kansas 21; Oklahoma State 34, Iowa State 8
Last meeting: Tech 56, Oklahoma State 20 last year in Lubbock
TV: ABC (channel 28; Suddenlink Cable channel 8)
Line: Oklahoma State by 31/2
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Must be hell having to cover Texas Tech if you hate them as much as Don Williams does.
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You are way to candid, cold and frank to be a local red raider follower and journalist. I have seen this sentiment echoed in the past and kept quiet, but I agree with the fact that your past articles are condescending and cannot resist my freedom of the press. If you think your professionalism should trump some homerism in a town like Lubbock, then, {I}we think you are misguided. GO RAIDERS!…
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Don Williams is the “fat little girlfriend“, he hurts the program and I hope AJ does some cost cutting….This is garbage!
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Don is not the Sports Information Director for Texas Tech. He is a journalist, whose first responsibility is to report the facts accurately and fairly. I like that he writes not just about the stars of the team, but the role players and the players that may make an impact in Tech’s future success. Is this the best article he has ever written? No is not. However, none of us are at our best every day.
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The worst (impolite) fans in the Big 12 seem to like their title and admire over-the-top behavior.
Talking facts and history in the fact of wild-eyed fanatics is not much appreciated, but surely Don has the freedom to do it.
I would rather the rowdies sit down & shut up for a while.
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wazoo, i think a critical chromosome or two wound up on your parent’s sheets.
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What story are y’all reading? Where do you get the idea that Don Williams is Tech bashing or is anti-Tech?
He wants them to win as much as any of us do.
Fact is, the strongest team we’ve beaten Nebraska, and that’s not much to brag about. Now beating OSU this weekend would go a long way to changing that.
I hope we do it, and I think we can. But what’s all this vitriol against Don Williams? What exactly do you want–a reporter or a cheerleader?
Doesn’t make any sense to me.
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Don Williams is not bashing Tech. He’s speaking the truth. But you guys don’t like the truth. Would you rather he sugar coat everything?
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I dunno, maybe he can be a little more upbeat about this year’s team and how much success it’s had despite all of the injury problems we have had this year. Look at a team like OU and what injuries have cost them, we could very well have done as bad if not worse… Now Tech has a chance to do what we all thought impossible after the 1 point Houston loss and it’s very possible that we can do it. Sure our greatest win this year is at a down Nebraska, but OK State’s greatest win is at home against a very overrated Georgia team that may not be goin to a bowl game this year. Sure we lost at home to A&M, but its not like that’s the first time fat little girlfriends have gotten to these kids (they are just kids). Refer to 2007 at home against CU. I like our chances at a very good bowl, and with Sheffield maybe being able to go sometime soon and Potts hopefully feeling a little fire under his scrotum, our offense might finally play to its potential. I like our chances.
And for Don Williams, anyone that’s ever seen this guy in person at work or even listened a lot to him on the radio, the guy is just a downer. I get depressed everytime I see the guy. I guess it is sad seeing how his radio station is soon becoming obsolete. I’m kinda surprised it took as long as it did to get a station as good as 104.3 in Lubbock, but thank goodness it finally did.
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What are you people reading and what website do you think you are on? This is the website of the local newspaper and the article was not an opinion peace, but a reporting of the facts. Don writes an excellent article, he is only reporting the facts. Also, his opinion pieces are usually right on.
As for his radio show, the Williams and Hyatt show is the only decent programming on that station, they need to move to 104.3.
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Leach and Co. do not like to look ahead and this is exactly what Don was doing in this…planting the seeds of looking ahead. One game at a time, nothing should be in Tech’s heads but OSU! No Friday Night Lights either COACH! No fat little girlfriends, that’ll come after the season!
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I think Brad and D.D woke up cranky this morning before they read the article.
I see nothing wrong with it, other than it opens with a very direct paragraph.
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Brad & D.D. are dumbed-down Neanderthals that can’t stand anyone with a different opinion..
They used to go yell at professional wresting matches & now want Tech football to be like that.
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Blind homerism gets old fast. I’d much rather have an objective report of what to expect from an upcoming game. There is also nothing in this article that makes me think he dislikes TTU or wants them to lose.
You guys need to get a grip and stop complaining when anyone says anything other than ‘TTU is the greatest football team in the nation, they are going to win out guaranteed!!’.
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Talking to players about “going to win out” is not the thing that Leach and Co. like as it take the eye off the ball (which is the next game ONLY!). The reporting should be about the team and their current opponent unless it’s a Big !2 article. non of this game after next crap. Worry about that on Sunday. We can’t handle doing both. It showed this year and Don is playing into this trap. Though all the whorns, that’s all they can think about….think about that guys! (Could be why they play so crappy in the first half of every game….)
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I look at this website because we get no coverage of Tech in San Antonio (that SA). I don’t see anything wrong with this article from a journalistic perspective. If you want a guaranteed absolute pro-Tech perspective, stick to the athletic department website.
The fact of the matter is Tech needs to take it one game at a time, because when it hasn’t it has overachieved (won). When you take a “big picture” view in the middle of the season, you get results like the A&M game (which I am STILL sick about).
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Bob, your right and that’s my complaint.
Though I do think as the “local paper” they should lean toward Tech as the DMN, SAEN, HC, FWS etc. have there own fair or anti-Tech articles one can read. This also goes to voting in the polls, Tech should lean towards Tech, if they don’t why would anyone else?
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Williams is paid to report facts. He is not making them up. Sometimes the facts are not kind to the Raiders. I like Coach Leach and I like the style of game he coaches (most of the time), but the fact is in all the time that he has been head coach, the Raiders have never come close to winning the Big 12 South, much less the Big 12 Conference championship. I do not think that is too much to ask when one is paying a coach millions of dollars. He has brought Tech a long way during his tenure, but we still have a long way to go. (I liked and admired Spike, but he was trying to compete with one hand tied behind his back, because Tech had not stepped up to the plate financially to really compete.)
Before someone starts to remind me that Tech shared the Big 12 South title last year, spare me. When you lose the OU game with so much on the line by 40 some odd points, I find no evidence that the Raiders came close to winning the title. Nobody cares that we were in a three-way tie. Beat OU and chances are that after beating whatever dead meat the North would serve up in the championship game, Tech would have been playing for the mythical national championship, instead becoming a patsy for the SEC in the Cotton Bowl, again.
I think this team has the potential to win out, and 9-3 is a record to be proud of, especially considering all the injuries that have occured. But potential means you haven’t done it yet. So do it, Raiders!!!! Win out, one game at a time. Then Don can write about a new, more fan friendly, set of facts.
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I’m proud to be a Red Raider, but some of the comments in here are embarrassing.. Based on all the whining some of you “fans” do, you’d think Don Williams had written some horrific article about the football program. Quit being such babies. Some of you sound like Aggies.
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Well we could be such brown nosers to our team we could be like the whorns of Austin!
Dumb story on a slow sports day. Lets put this to rest, points have been made.
On to Stillwater….Wreck’Em Tech!
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Mike I liked what you said. Red Raiders need to show up Saturday Night and win. Guns Up Believe.
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Hey – Don Williams is cool. The man is just stating the obvious or “state of the season” sort of. He could have talked about getting a little more luck in Austin or running Batch instead of Potts (oh Lord I thought I’d never have to think of it again) down in Houston or grabbing a few freakin face-masks in the half-time locker room against the Ags in our own house! He could’ve gotten a little rude maybe, but he tells it like it is. This IS supposed to be a “rebuilding” yr at Raiderland so what exactly is all the fuss about. Might go 9 and 3 if we are lucky and a really good bowl. I think overall theyve grown and done a good job. Sure we gotta play em one at a time but there’s nothin wrong with a season goal is there? He told it like it is dude. If you can’t take a little heat get out of the kitchen. Really good we aint talking natl politics here!!!
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