The Morning Stake | 2019.10.16

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Little Giants Turns 25. Via ESPN, the cast and the crew give the scoop on the 25 year anniversary of the movie Little Giants:

Bob Shallcross — original story and screenplay writer, one of the ad execs: [Jim Ferguson and I] were partners back in the day. We were creative directors of Leo Burnett in Chicago. McDonald’s was one of our clients, which was cool because we’d get Super Bowl assignments. There was a period of about three or four years where every year we had a Super Bowl assignment. We did that Bird-Jordan commercial, too, “Nothing but net.” I don’t know if you remember that commercial. Michael and Larry. We did that one year and they wanted to do a sequel to that, which I fought and fought and fought because I don’t like sequels.

And then we had to do another one one year. And so we’re trying to figure out what the heck to do, and we were thinking about how do we do this and not necessarily go the celebrity route and all that stuff. … I was sitting on a train one day. I’m a big observer and I was looking out the window, and we stopped and made a lot of stops and at one of the suburbs, I looked out the window and there was this pee wee football practice going on. And it just struck me at that moment that this is kind of interesting and this is kind of where it all starts. Might be kind of interesting to do a tribute to pee wee football and be watching that on the day of the Super Bowl when you’re watching the best athletes that play the game, et cetera, et cetera.

You know so many kids will never get there. It just kind of went from there and I came back in the office the next day and I said to Ferg, “I just thought of this spot on the train. What do you think?” And we started writing it and rolling with it and it just kind of came together. It was nice because they bought… I think it was a 90, the original spot was 90 seconds. You get a little time to tell a story. The production was interesting. We shot most of the Florida scenes and the Super Bowl was in January. We had a tight deadline.

Texas Tech Volleyball

Texas Tech Soccer

Texas Tech Softball

Lady Raider Basketball

Texas Tech Basketball

Texas Tech Football

Uniforms vs. Iowa State. Just use these all of the time. They’re perfect.

More on Morton. As you know, Eastland quarterback Behren Morton committed to Texas Tech yesterday, a 4-star signal caller that is still a junior and will be part of the 2021 class. Because that post that I wrote was pre-produced, I didn’t get to include some of the other content that goes along with a commitment post. RedRaiderSports’ Sam Spiegelman talked with Morton and there’s more there at the link:

“I felt like I was at home in Lubbock. I was born in Lubbock and I lived in Lubbock for eight years of my life. I’ve gotten to see football games in Lubbock and I always wanted to be a Red Raider growing up. It felt like home. The coaches at Texas Tech are phenomenal. Coach (David) Yost, Coach (Matt) Wells and Coach (Joel) Filani, the whole offensive staff and even the defensive staff were texting me, wishing me good luck before games. It’s really comforting. I wanted to make this commitment for a while and I knew it was right after visiting other schools.”

“I took visits in the spring, too, so I got familiar with all the offenses. I sat down with all of the offensive coordinators to talk about the offense, and at the end of the day, the best fit for me was Texas Tech. As much as I could learn in the springtime helped me to become more familiar with what I’m gonna be doing while I’m there. I felt like Texas Tech was the right kind of offense for me to fit in. They definitely throw the ball a lot. So does all the other schools, but the relationships I have with the coaches at Texas Tech felt like the best relationships.”

24/7 Sports’ Gabe Brooks talked to Morton about his game:

“One of my pros as a quarterback that will help me succeed is my athleticism. I play five sports as of right now, so I stay very busy,” Morton said. “One other thing that will help me be successful is the way I can change my arm angle and fit the ball into tight places where other quarterbacks can’t.”

“There’s always room for improvement, but some of my main focus is going through my read progressions, then playing disciplined football.”

Faster Start. RedRaiderSports’ Brandon Soliz has the recap from the media scrum with offensive coordinator David Yost and Yost discussed the need to start off faster:

“Right now, we kinda start off inconsistent,” Yost said. “Kinda are making plays and it’s kinda starting right now a little bit at the QB position. Me and Duffey have talked about. The way he comes in about the middle of the second quarter and the second half is – he’s like a totally different guy. He’s a different guy on the phone … He’s kinda the catalyst to everything we’re doing. It starts with him that way. We gotta get him into his comfort zone quicker with the plays, the offense, what’s going on on the field and everything, seeing the defense. We’ll be working all week then you gotta get in the game and kinda react to what adjustments they make and what it looks like with game speed. But, we gotta be able to make that transition a little quicker.”

Also in the article is Yost discussing the Iowa State defense, that rather than the 2-deep look that Baylor gave Texas Tech, the Cyclones will play more 4 or 5 deep. Also discussed is SaRodorick Thompson’s game against Baylor.

Notebook. LubbockOnline’s Don Williams has a notebook where Ja’Marcus Ingram is adjusting to play with Texas Tech:

“I’ve already got good relationships with them,” he said, “and the system is still pretty similar. Just the terminology was different. So just learning the terminology and a few little different things, and it was easy.”

Also discussed was that Jace Amaro and Justin Stockton were drafted by the XFL, Amaro by the Seattle Dragons and Stockton by the New York Guardians.

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