Seth: We’ve made it through another offseason and it’s time to catch up. The last time we talked, Texas Tech was gearing up for the Bulls of South Florida, Kliff Kingsbury essentially saved his job by beating Texas, and Texas Tech football may be entering into a defining season in a lot of ways. What’s your thoughts on the offseason?

Travis: I’m in my usual happy place—overly optimistic about the season and fully confident that Tech will be a dominant team. Of course it rarely, if ever, plays out that way, but that’s how I like to roll. August is such a dreary month otherwise with my wife and kids dreading their return to school, the dearth of any interesting sports and the suffocating south Texas heat, so I like to retire to my happy place in my leather chair and think good things.

When I’m being honest though, and when I check my text messages from my super secret Mensa group, I realize that this season might be another slog. I’m most concerned about the quarterback position I guess, which leads to my first question/topic for you.

It seems like Leach’s version of the Air Raid relied on QB’s with an accurate arm but not necessarily a strong arm. Kingsbury, Harrell, Hodges, none of those guys had a rocket arm and were very successful. It seems that Kingsbury’s version of the Air Raid is reliant on QB’s with a big arm.

I think that’s a cause for concern right now because I don’t think Carter has the gun that Kingsbury’s offense calls for. First, do you think Leach’s and Kingsbury’s versions of the offense are that different and B, how will Kingsbury adjust to his personnel if that’s the case this year?

Seth: I think Kingsbury’s vision of the Air Raid is one that beats the suffocating style that TCU presents, and that’s something that Leach seemingly had a difficult time beating. I can think of the Missouri teams that did this to Leach as well, where they stuffed the middle of the field and the short accurate passes were really ineffective because there was no room to throw and those quarterbacks didn’t go over the top as well. I should say that this was really later in Leach’s Texas Tech tenure as coach because so much of that was so new early, teams couldn’t adjust. In a perfect world, I think Kingsbury’s offense is maybe more predicated on breaking the top of the defense, like Mahomes really was able to do and Shimonek wasn’t able to do as well. Personally, I think that Kingsbury ends up surprising us all this year and I think his offseason of reflection was one where he needed to figure out a way to skin the cat without having the best quarterback.

I think last year really made Kingsbury uncomfortable in that respect (he had the worst S&P+ offense of his tenure last year at Texas Tech, worse than when he had two freshman quarterbacks). I think we’re going to see a healthy running game and I think between Carter and Duffey, they’re both quite mobile and can punish a defense with their feet. That’s my plan and I’m sure that it matches exactly with what Kingsbury will do.

So, the defense has really been the talk of the offseason and there’s really good reasons for that, lots of starters return and a lot of the same back-ups also return. Are you feeling confident about the defense?

Travis: It’s an odd, unfamiliar place for us to hang out hats but it looks like the success of the team this year is going to be heavily dependent on how well the defense plays. It was interesting to see four of five of those guys being named to the preseason All Big 12 team. More than anything, I loved how it pissed so many people off. But yeah, I think they will do well. I’m so impressed by the reemergence of Dakota Allen. I’ve got a ton of admiration for that dude and am excited about him anchoring what could be a special unit.

So I see you headed full bore into the life of a soccer dad. How’s that going?

Seth: It’s been a strange journey since last year. Last year, Youssouf was on a team with players that had families that were middle class and they were all nice, but the team was starting to fall apart a bit. Youssouf was moving up an age group with the team and they would need 7 players, rather than 4. When we played this spring, we barely had 5 each game and we were really concerned about if he would have a place to play. For whatever reason, we feel the need to really foster this gift.

I have a client that started a soccer academy in Terrell, Terrell FC, and it’s all shoestrings and duct tape at this point, but the owner is a really good guy and he’s making an earnest effort to really create something special. They had these Wednesday open practices and they put Youssouf in the appropriate age group, which at the first water break, he said that he didn’t want to play soccer with these “babies”. He’s still only 6, but physically, he should not be playing with kindergartners. He’s a big strong kid. The put him the next age group and he’s much more comfortable there and he’s on level and I think he’s better than most. We’re set to play in a fall league and there’s about 16 kids, and at least 2 teams, so there’s plenty of opportunity to play. And this is the sort of academy that has adults play on Sundays and the kids walk out with them like they do in the professional soccer ranks and the adult team actually plays other teams. It’s an interesting dynamic, it’s mostly Hispanic players, probably 95%, and the coach sometimes coaches in Spanish, which I think is great.

Youssouf has a leg that won’t quit and can hit the heck out of the ball. He has a much better idea as to where he needs to be spatially and he’s been playing with a lot more confidence. With the league last year, he didn’t score one goal all season. He’s looked much better and much more free about what he’s doing.

And you’ve got a little girl who is no longer little and just finished up her last year playing club basketball. How has that process been, especially now that you have people recruiting her? Are you already going through separation anxiety?

Travis: When we got into this two and a half years ago we didn’t really know what we were signing up for. AAU Ball is an all encompassing endeavor and basically suffocates all other outside activities. I haven’t written anything in a couple of years because there’s just not enough time.

We’re on the road almost every weekend and weeknights are filled with practices and training sessions. Then you have the recovery and PT sessions to try and keep them healthy and it just eats up the time. But once you’re committed to it, there’s nothing else in the world like it. To be able to watch my daughter compete at a pretty high level has been one of the absolute joys of my life. And, most importantly, she still loves it, probably more than most of us can imagine. To be that dedicated to a sport is really something to watch and I’m so glad that she’s going to have the opportunity to play in college. I tried to soak in every minute this summer, and man those girls work hard in practice. It’s truly impressive to watch.

So how are you feeling about this first game in Houston?

Seth: I think this is probably a pretty even game and probably two pretty even teams. Ole Miss has a better offense most likely, although we really don’t know who will be the quarterback for Texas Tech, but Ole Miss has more proven skill players for sure. Texas Tech has the better defense, maybe by quite a bit.

I’m incredibly uncomfortable trying to make predictions when the table are turned and Texas Tech has potentially a much better defense. The problem for the defense is that the Ole Miss receivers are pretty danged good and the secondary is possibly missing Jah’Shawn Johnson and is already down a cornerback as Octavious Morgan is out for the year.

I think this is really close and I’ll take Texas Tech by a point or two, something like 37-35.

What about you? Predicting seven field goals on Saturday?

Travis: You know, after last year’s debacle with the kicking game I’m wondering if I should change my outlook and embrace kickers. But earlier this year the Tech punter blocked me on Twitter, so screw those guys. I’m going with seven touchdowns and 4 converted two-point conversions, for an even 50 points. Let’s have a great Saturday morning.