Welcome back to the Return of The Saturday Column With No Name! With an open date for Texas Tech Football we can take a deep breath, look around and see where things stand on a few fronts today. Gonna be awesome to watch the carnage in College Football today and know that Texas Tech controls its own destiny. Win two more games and you’ll be sitting at No. 3 in the final CFB Playoff rankings.
So, with that as our backdrop, let’s get to a few things!
- You’ve got to show up at the Show Down and Texas Tech MBB forgot to do that Friday night in the Bahama’s, getting smoked in a battle of early season ranked teams. Purdue pummeled Texas Tech to the tune of 86-56 for Tech’s second loss of the season. Several things could be true here. Purdue might just have a 30-point talent gap on Texas Tech right now. Texas Tech could still be trying to figure things out and the talent gap isn’t that great. One thing is for certain. Texas Tech has a long ways to go when it comes to running offense with this squad. The obsession with 3’s when they aren’t working says either they can’t adjust or won’t. Both not good. Defensively, Texas Tech looks slow to react to ball movement. Not good. Again, we’re talking about playing a great team in Purdue, but given what we also saw at Illinois against a solid Top 4 level seed in the post-season, we have some things to consider. All of that and I still think Texas Tech will have a great season and trust HC Grant McCasland to get the team to jell. All I ask… more North-South ball movement and less East-West. I’m sure “Football Guy” is freaking out right now… that’s a shame. This is gonna be a good team and I’d much rather them plays a tough non-conference schedule and get smoked that beat New Jersey Tech by 40 and learn nothing about how to compete at a high-level.
- Not sure if Colorado has anything for Arizona State tonight, but if every Coach Prime wanted to show Buffalo fans he is still “the right guy”, this would be it. Texas Tech fans can sit back and root for an upset there and for BYU to do what they do in the Big 12 the last two seasons, which is win when they are a favorite, home or road. Would be great to go to bed tonight and know that Texas Tech is in the Big 12 Title Game. It doesn’t change what Tech has to do if they want a Top 4 Seed or at the very least host a game in Lubbock, but it would allow you to play without the added pressure. Also, helps me worry less about bad weather up there at WVU next week compressing the talent gap into a game of goofy turnovers and strange college football happenings. Just Win Baby, no need for style points now.
- We caught the tail end of a nice sports radio discussion this week on the local all-sports station in Lubbock. Got in late so not sure who all was talking but they were debating the top Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks of all-time. Years ago it was a simple list. Now, it gets a little harder to rank as we go through history and compare eras. Of course you can only compare two QBs when it comes to championships… so let’s get our list out there and you can fire away in the comments with your own Top 5!
1. Roger Staubach. Best athlete to ever play QB for Dallas, one of the best in NFL history. Could play and win in any era . His numbers for the 70s are staggering given Dallas also had a great run game.
2. Troy Aikman, like Staubach had great talent around him and made them all better. A pure technician, amazing accuracy and a competitive desire that elevated a team that wasn’t very discipline, particularly when Barry Switzer came to town to be the sponsor/bus driver.
3. Don Meredith. Got the hell beat out of him early in his career and had to suffer through Tom Landry trying to figure out how to be a head coach in Big Games. By the mid-60s Meredith is leading a team to multiple title games, but can’t get past Vince Lombardi’s Packers and even a tough Cleveland team. Had he been healthy, he could have won Dallas’ first Super Bowl in the early 70s, but he was tired, wanted to sell iced tea and be a TV super star. He made the right call.
4. Tony Romo. A very good but not great QB. Asked to do great things for a franchise that forgot how to draft for a while, then just forgot how to win anything of consequence. Tough and gritty, he did what he could but couldn’t elevate the team past any talent level it had or didn’t have.
5. Dak Prescott. Read what we just wrote. Prescott and Romo are the exact same NFL QB.
Alright, there’s a few quick thoughts on a Saturday. Great to have the column back and maybe someday it will be worthy of a name. Hit us in the comments and we’ll be with y’all on Social Media tonight as well taking in the massive Big 12 games tonight. Thanks for being out there, thanks for sharing with your friends what we do and we’ll see you in the morning.
Hyatt
