The Morning Stake: Three Red Raiders to Preseason All-Big 12 Team; Gibbs Is One Man Upset?

Le’Raven Clark, Pete Robertson and Taylor Symmank all make the preseason All-Big 12 and could David Gibbs turn the conference on it’s head?


Photo via Charles Henry @ Flickr.

Football

Big 12 Players to Watch. Hey everyone, I helped this week on a few posts with the good folks at The Student Section, namely Kevin Causey, who puts it together, along with Bart Doan, Terry Johnson, Allen Kenney (Blatant Homerism) and Chris Ross (The Land Grant Gauntlet) to discuss players to watch in the Big 12. I might have chosen a Texas Tech player.

One Man Upset? DCTF’s Greg Tepper wonders if David Gibbs is the guy that could turn the conference on it’s head:

David Gibbs has a proven track record. He turned around Minnesota’s defense in the late 90s, turned Auburn into a juggernaut in 2005, and had three spells in the NFL. He’s a proven commodity.

That’s not to say that turning around Texas Tech’s horrendous defense will be easy. There may not be enough defensive bullets in the chamber. But there are playmakers here — Pete Robertson led the conference in sacks last year (yes, really), Keenon Ward showed flashes last year, and Branden Jackson is a solid contributor up front.

There are a couple of things to un-pack here.  1) It does seem as if no one around the conference is really talking about Gibbs and what could happen. I think that the general presumption is that the Texas Tech defense will continue to be terrible until proven otherwise. I don’t think that’s a terrible presumption at this point and a lot of Texas Tech fans feel that way. 2) I wrote about how Gibbs turned around Houston, but as Tepper reminds us, he did it at Auburn and Minnesota. This isn’t his first rodeo.

All-Big 12. The Big 12 released their preseason All-Big 12 Football team and Le’Raven Clark, Pete Robertson and Taylor Symmank all made the cut. Land Grant Gauntlet has a few extra thoughts on the team. As for my own thoughts, Shawn Oakman will certainly receive all of the accolades, but I think that Andrew Billings is the better defensive lineman on their team, plus, there is no Hassan Ridgeway, which I think is a bit crazy. Other than that, I’m pretty good.

Grant to Biletnikoff Award Watch List. Congrats to IR Jakeem Grant who was named to the Belietnikoff Award Watch List, which goes to the nation’s top receiver!

Nelson to Wuerffel Trophy Watch List. Congrats to CB Justis Nelson for being named to the Wuerffel Trophy Watch List which goes to the AFCA Good Works team and is a community service award.

Miscellaneous. DMN’s Michael DuPont has a breakdown of the defensive linemen . . . ESPN’s Max Olson has the week 12 schedule breakdown and Texas Tech has a bye in week 12 and 14 . . .

Basketball

Texas Tech Offers Schneider. Via Wreck’Em 24/7’s Daniel Paulling Texas Tech and Tubby Smith have offered Bryce Scheider, an unrated shooting guard from South Carolina. Oh, and Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith just happens to be Scheider’s godfather.

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