Leading Off
Red and Black Gala. The Red & Black Gala was held last night, which is where they athletic department celebrates the student-athletes for Texas Tech with player and coach of the year awards and things like that. From the outside looking in, it looks like a terrific celebration of these student-athletes. Click on the Twitter-tweet below for lots of photos. I’ll do a separate post that details everything once there is video, which is usually a couple of days from now, but here’s a summary.
Top Team GPA: Women’s Tennis
Women’s Coach of the Year: Adrian Gregory (softball)
Men’s Coach of the Year: Chris Beards (men’s basketball)
Women’s Fearless Champion Award: Zarriea Willis (women’s track and field)
Men’s Fearless Champion Award: Jarrett Culver (men’s basketball)
Jeannine McHaney Award: Jessica Hartwell (softball)
J.T. & Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy Award: Travis Bruffy (football)
Good Citizen Award: Volleyball
Female Team of the Year: Softball
Male Team of the Year: Men’s Basketball
Any time we get to celebrate this group of student-athletes is a great time. 👔👗🎉
🔴#WreckEm | #RedandBlack19⚫️ pic.twitter.com/28UtgICqvn
— Texas Tech Red Raiders (@TechAthletics) May 7, 2019
Texas Tech Golf
We’re in contention. Can’t ask for more in the postseason.
— Texas Tech W Golf (@TexasTechWGolf) May 6, 2019
Texas Tech Baseball
Panthers vs. Red Raiders. Texas Tech will host Florida International for a two-game set starting at 11:00 a.m. The double-header was originally supposed to start at 2:00 p.m. but because of possible bad weather, it was moved up. Mason Montgomery receives the first game start and Erikson Lanning receives the second start. FIU is 20-27 overall and 9-15 in conference.
Two-fer Tuesday. Early start. Let’s get it done.
Preview ➡️ https://t.co/1j9Olsw1cD
🔴#WreckEm⚫️ pic.twitter.com/Xa6kyqTefM
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) May 7, 2019
Warren the Big 12 Player of the Week.
Congrats to Cameron Warren on taking home his second Big 12 Player of the Week award of the season!
🔴#WreckEm⚫️ pic.twitter.com/gtatV1X2bO
— Texas Tech Baseball (@TTU_Baseball) May 6, 2019
Texas Tech Basketball
You Ready for This?
The Red Raiders went deeper in #MarchMadness than any team in program history.
Revisit the top plays from @TexasTechMBB‘s run to the #NationalChampionship game! pic.twitter.com/974oMOptIa
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) May 6, 2019
Texas Tech Football
Raider Power at Cotton Fest. I think that’s William Clark Green, Texas Tech alum, on stage with head coach Matt Wells leading the Raider! Power! chant this weekend.
🔴RAIDER POWER⚫️@TTUCoachWells got the @CottonFest crowd rockin this past weekend!#WreckEm pic.twitter.com/YNJHXI8cjx
— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) May 6, 2019
Straight Line Recruiting. HookEm’s Mike Craven has an explanation on what “straight line recruiting” is. I’ve seen this hashtag on Twitter, but didn’t have a clue what it meant, and it is basically colleges dealing directly with high school coaches rather than with recruiting services and 7-on-7 coaches. The idea here is that the 7-on-7 and recruiting guys just want to see their player get the best possible scholarship, while high school coaches may be more picky about how that player is recruited:
And that’s the rub. The high school coaches are at the mercy of college coaches continuing to value the relationships with individual head coaches. A coach can’t keep his star player from choosing a school just because that coach doesn’t like the way the school recruited his player. Winning is important, but getting kids to college should be the ultimate goal. The private sector is sneaking into football recruiting within Texas because there was a need, rather it was perceived or real.
“A lot of college coaches feel there is enough info out there about kids with social media and recruiting sites, but you need to come to the source,” Holmes said. “You need to come see who these kids are and where they’re from. Then we wonder why so many guys transfer so quickly. I respect the coaches who call me first. No head coach should find out a school is recruiting one of his players through social media.”
2019 Signees. RedRaiderSports’ Ben Golan did Q&A’s with some of the 2019 signees and I’d expect all of the signees to follow: linebacker Bryce Robinson, defensive end Quinton Williams, and offensive lineman Cole Thomas. The Williams Q&A is short and sweet. He didn’t elaborate. The Robinson and Thomas Q&A’s are much more detailed and were enjoyable.
All 130 Ranked. AthlonSports ranks all 130 coaching jobs and Texas Tech ranks #36 in the nation and 5th in the Big 12, behind Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia. The following five were TCU, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas.
Texas Tech is an interesting program. It’s in a remote location, but Lubbock isn’t exactly a small town (population 250,000). It’s a big state school, but it’s at best the third-best program in the state. Recruiting can be a challenge as well since Dallas is a five-hour drive. Bottom line: There’s a lot to like — and a lot that makes this a tough job.