Football

 LAJ’s Don Williams recaps yesterday’s press conference with Kliff Kingsbury, noting that last year’s game, the team was wholly unprepared and the team won’t be taking Kansas for granted this year:

“It was unenergetic. It was bad coaching. Bad playing offensively,” Kingsbury said at his weekly press conference. “The defense played great. Offensively, it was a joke, so we have been working hard to correct that this year.”

Also of note on the injury front, Terence Steele, Zach Barnes, D.J. Polite-Bray will all return this week for Kansas. That’s terrific news for the defense and the offense.

LAJ’s Nicholas Talbot writes about the virtual reality system that Texas Tech implemented this past year. Here’s Kingsbury on using virtual reality:

“For quarterback, the operation, you see the play and then you signal it out,” Kingsbury said. “With the thing on, you can see the leverage of the DBs, see the front, see the blitz, see the safeties. So I have just seen, at the line of scrimmage, much better command, much better pre-snap recognition and they continue to get better and better as they use it.”

And for those of you who didn’t see the video over the weekend (I think it came out on Friday night and I posted it on Saturday morning) here you go, it’s terrific:

SI’s Pete Thamel has an interesting article about Big 12 expansion, namely how OU president David Boren has flip-flopped his stance a handful of times on Big 12 expansion. Aside from that, Thamel has deemed everyone in the conference other than Texas and Oklahoma, the “Little 8” and here’s (allegedly) what they’re thinking:

The schools not named Texas and Oklahoma are in a unique spot here. If the landscape does trend toward four 16-team leagues, there are essentially 10 spots available on the dance floor. The Pac-12 (4), Big Ten (2), ACC (2) and SEC (2) have 10 total spots. But there’s zero chance those would simply go to the 10 schools in the Big 12, as geography, markets and common sense wouldn’t allow it. After Oklahoma and Texas, there’s no other no-brainer addition that provides value to a league.

Adding two more schools next month would likely add to the long-term stability of the Big 12. Everyone in the Little 8 can agree on more stability, even if they can’t agree on the teams. (To clarify, the Little 8 are Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech and West Virginia.) Without clear-cut destinations, would those eight schools consider forming a voting block? How much can they trust Texas and Oklahoma since they could bolt after 2025? The voting block is highly unlikely, especially with Oklahoma State and Texas Tech so politically tied to the flagship schools in their state. As one Big 12 source put it: “All politics are local. It wouldn’t be in Northwestern’s active interest to agitate Michigan. N.C. State can’t create an anti-UNC block in the ACC. Texas Tech may not trust Texas, but they aren’t going to vote against them.”

 Set your Palm Pilots.

Just Announced: #TexasTech & K-State will kick off at 6 p.m. on Oct. 8 in Manhattan.

📰: https://t.co/FAMeg24g2M
📺: ESPN2 or ESPNU#WreckEm pic.twitter.com/BpecodVxsy

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) September 26, 2016

KUSports’ Benton Smith writes about Kansas’ improved passing defense:

“Our guys play against this offense every day. Now, in no way, shape or form am I trying to say we’re exactly like these guys,” Beaty clarified while comparing KU (27.7 points a game) with the Red Raiders (61.0 points, second in FBS to Louisville’s 63.5 average).

“We’re all different in what we do, but I do know this: the very bare bones of it are the same concepts. So they’ve gotten to play against it a lot,” the coach added of KU’s defense. “We’d like to hope that gives us a little bit of an advantage going into the game, knowing that they’ve seen these concepts before. But, you know, it’s not unlike that for them. They play against the same stuff, as well. So it should be a fun evening on Thursday night out there.”

KUSports Kansas head coach Tom Beatty was asked about Texas Tech and Patrick Mahomes.

“He’s hard to tackle. He’s very well-coached. He’s got a ridiculous arm,” Beaty marveled. “He can throw it from anywhere, and he breaks rules, because he’ll throw it to the wrong guy and he’ll still put it in there. He’ll throw it to a guy that you’re not supposed to be going to, and that guy still is able to get the ball because he can put it in a hole about that big. Really talented guy.”

 Miscellaneous ESPN has Texas Tech in the Cactus Bowl this year . . . just going to quote the title to the story and let it go from there, Ken Starr Believes Art Briles Is The True Victim In Baylor’s Sexual Assault Scandal . . . ESPN’s Jake Trotter has their weekly power rankings and still has Texas Tech 8th overall . . .