The Morning Stake | 2019.08.21

Leading Off

Changes Are Happenin’. This is way too late, but this happened while I was in the air on the way to Seattle last Friday to see my little brother for the weekend. Congrats to our very own Spencer and Michael for joining the Countdown to Kickoff on Talk 1340 with Rob Breaux and Karson Robinson before each game. Their promotion is well deserved and if they can just get that queso endorsement, we can all celebrate. With that comes a bit of a change on Thursday as Michael will not have time to write his normal Meats & Bounds post this year and each week, I’m going to send you to the good folks at Lubbock In The Loop because they also have an events calendar that can let you know what’s happening for any week that you’ll be in Lubbock. There’s no real partnership here other than me appreciating what they’re doing at LITL and trying to help you all if you visit Lubbock (or maybe you live in Lubbock and need to know what’s happening).

Either way, this is a win-win and I’m super proud of Spencer and Michael. Oh, and this doesn’t mean that they are going away from STP. They’ll still have their Wednesday podcast and post-game reaction podcast in addition to pre-game festivities at Talk 1340.

Now please enjoy this video.

Texas Tech Track and Field

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Football

Kickoff Luncheon. A-J Media’s Don Williams reported at the Kickoff Luncehon that head coach Matt Wells told the crowd that the team would take the field prepared:

“The two things I can promise you,” he told a lunch crowd on Tuesday, “is that we will take the field every Saturday with a passion that is unmatched by any team in the Big 12, and the second thing is that we absolutely will be prepared to play.”

And Billy Joe Tolliver is all-in as well:

“And in that process of preparing and performing, that preparing side of it, you have to buy in to everything that the coach is telling you,” Tolliver said. “Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s right, but once you know what’s right, it’s hard not to do it. And eventually they’ll get there and I’m looking forward to great things. I love the staff he brought with him.”

Notebook Worthy, But Not Scratch Pad Worthy. There’s no video from after practice, but A-J Media’s Don Williams talked to quarterback Alan Bowman after practice on Tuesday and Bowman said that freshman quarterback Maverick McIvor may be a bit dinged up and that, “it’s one person less in the fight.” Bowman was also asked about the difference between Kliff Kingsbury and David Yost:

“Coach Kingsbury’s just nasty in the film room coming up with stuff and then coach Yost has a set plan on what he does and you’re going to get really, really good on your set plan. ‘We’re going to do this, and we’re going to get really good at it.’

Defensive end Eli Howard was also made available after practice and gave some nice praise to freshman Tony Bradford:

“He plays tackle, but he’s very versatile,” Howard said. “He could play end as well, if need be. He’s extremely talented, versatile and has great feet. He really came in as a nose, but he moved a little bit better than I think we anticipated. He can move around, no doubt.”

Miscellaneous . . . LandGrantGauntlet’s Josh Cowan with a ranking of the Big 12 special teams (it’s not good) . . . Heartland College Sports’ Derek Duke ranks the Big 12 offensive lines and Texas Tech is 5th overall . . . . . . Not necessarily linking to this, but in conference news, Jalen Hurts was named as the starting quarterback for the Sooners, while Austin Kendall was named as the starter for West Virginia and Jarrett Doege was declared immediately eligible by the NCAA, Jarrett had spent a couple of seasons at Bowling Green before transferring . . .

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