The Morning Stake | 2019.01.17

Leading Off

RedRaiderSports’ Brandon Soliz recaps the Kirby Hocutt Show and there are lots of things that you can check out there, but the highlights are: that the Womble Basketball Facility is going to break ground soon . . . Travis Bruffy was on the show and said that the team has bought into head coach Matt Wells . . . by the end of the baseball season, there should be some plans for renovations to Rip Griffin Park . . . and that the tennis programs will need to have an indoor facility soon and could attach that to an additional rec center . . .

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This is the offseason. So, I think that head coach Matt Wells was in Lubbock this morning to open the first offseason workout, then in Midland for a talk after being in the DFW area yesterday.



The official site makes the transfer of McLane Mannix official. Now, we get to wait to see if Mannix receives a waiver to play immediately as Mannix has said that he transferred because his mother could not travel to Nevada as a result of PTSD.



A-J Media’s Don Williams writes about how Kirby Hocutt’s former teammate, Mike Ekeler, who was a linebackers coach at USC, told Hocutt in 2013 to watch Matt Wells at Utah State as Utah State gave USC all they could handle in a 17-14 win:

“He said, ’Kirby, I want to tell you, ‘You need to keep an eye on that head football coach,’” Hocutt told a Red Raider Club lunch crowd Wednesday. “He said, ‘That was one of the most difficult teams we’ve had to scheme against.’

“He said what Utah State did schematically was really difficult to prepare for and go up against, and he said, ‘On top of that, it was one of the most hard-nosed, hardest-playing football teams I’ve ever seen. Those guys came into Southern California believing they were going to beat us, and they almost did.’”


Midland Reporter-Telegram’s Oscar LaRoy has these notes as well and writes that Wells is excited to get to know Texas Tech fans and alumni:

“It’s important for me as a coach to reach out to alumni bases, donor bases and certainly Midland and Odessa and this area has been phenomenal to Texas Tech,” Wells said. “It’s not only the financial support but I feel supported. It’s the presence, it’s the people’s demeanor. It goes back to the people of West Texas. It’s going to be a ‘We, us and our program.’ It’s all about that internally as a team but to me that’s also a West Texas team. We, us and our is going to involve every person that wears the double-T because it’s going to take every one of us.”


Both Williams and LaRoy make note of the following: Hocutt said that the Midland scrimmage will be on Friday night and not on Saturday this year . . . the basketball team hopes to play a game in Midland next year . . . Wells said that Jack Anderson and Dawson Deaton will miss the spring as a result of some shoulder surgeries, but should be healthy by the start of preseason camp . . . defensive coordinator Keith Patterson is going to coach inside linebackers, while special teams coach will take on the outside linebackers in addition to his special teams’ duties . . . the best players will play special teams . . .

Yesterday, Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts announced that he would be transferring to Oklahoma. It was leaked yesterday that Oklahoma was blocking quarterback Austin Kendall from being eligible immediately (he’s a graduate transfer). Oklahoma essentially told Kendall that he could be eligible at any institution other than who is on Oklahoma’s schedule. A handful of Sooner fans defended Lincoln Riley’s decision to limit Kendall, but Oklahoma eventually relented after quite a bit of public backlash. Kendall announced his move to West Virginia last night and the Big 12 quarterback situation is as good as it ever was.

In other Big 12 quarterback news, via Anwar Richardson, it is very possible that Texas will lose three scholarship quarterbacks this offseason:

Texas is about to lose some depth at the QB position. Junior quarterback Shane Buechele informed Texas on Wednesday he wants to enter the transfer portal. In addition, freshman quarterback Cameron Rising informed UT he was not returning to Austin. Rising recently visited Utah. Coaches have the right to take away a scholarship, or reduce aid, for players in the transfer portal. Spoke to a person close to Shane Buechele and was told the quarterback received assurances he could remain on scholarship, graduate in the spring, and then transfer. Texas freshman quarterback Casey Thompson is currently in the transfer portal. If Thompson remains at Texas, he becomes the No.2 quarterback this spring, followed by incoming freshman QB Roschon Johnson.

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