The Morning Stake: February 13th

Tennis

Softball

Golf

Track and Field

Lady Raider Basketball

Football

Buy your very own Staking The Plains t-shirt. Click on that danged shirt. Oh, and free shipping for Valentine’s Day for all orders over $45 using the code “VDAY929522”

ESPN’s Max Olson has the Big 12 offensive line rankings and your Red Raiders check in at #9, one spot ahead of Iowa State:

9. Texas Tech: New offensive line coach Brandon Jones takes over a group that will miss Baylen Brown, who led the Red Raiders in career starts, and a few medical retirements last season cut into their depth. Fortunately for Jones, he also inherits one of the best offensive line recruiting classes in school history, led by ESPN 300 early enrollee Jack Anderson. The new kids need to contribute early on.

There’s also another ESPN article, “instant impact” but I’m ignoring it as the guy that wrote it thought that Texas Tech would hire Art Briles (this was before all the crap came out last week ,but I’m still bitter).

CBS Sports’ Jason LaCanfora writes about Patrick Mahomes and where he thinks his draft status will end up and I agree with all of this:

Keep hearing more buzz about Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He’ll be a “riser” by the combine, I’m sure, and the more time teams spend with him the more the evaluators will like him. At worst he’s the third quarterback taken in the draft and I wouldn’t rule him out as a top-three pick, either, depending on what quarterback-starved teams like the 49ers, Browns and Bears do in the trade or free agent market. I don’t think he gets past the Texans in the first round.

Mahomes is such a good kid that he’s going to impress scouts. It is inevitable.

Meanwhile, MMQB’s Albert Breer thinks that all five of the top quarterbacks get drafted in the first two rounds (DeShaun Watson, DeShone Kizer, Mitch Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes and Davis Webb):

One AFC college scouting director told me that DeShaun Watson is at least a year away from being able to run an NFL offense, and DeShone Kizer is two years away. Ex-Texas Tech teammates Patrick Mahomes and Davis Webb (who transferred to Cal) have talent, but both come from schemes that complicate their NFL transition. (Think Jared Goff.)

You’ll hear this is a bad quarterback draft. I’ve heard it from some people, and I’ve heard from others that it’s not as terrible as advertised. “It’s a good quarterback class,” said our NFC exec. “Realistically, all five of those guys go in the first two rounds.”

Our good buddy Chip Brown of Horns Digest is writing about Baylor and asking why authorities aren’t more on Baylor’s tail and I’m sure that in due time, these things will happen, the more interesting thing here was this:

Sources close to the situation told HD there were regents at the time who were involved in keeping the Title IX coordinator position at Baylor vacant from 2011-14 – in violation of federal regulations – to set up former school president Kenneth Starr to be fired with Ramsower as Starr’s replacement.

The sources said Starr retaliated against those trying to oust him by commissioning the Pepper Hamilton law firm to investigate the school’s mishandling of rape claims. Starr’s hope was that Pepper Hamilton would expose the criminal activity of the high-powered school officials trying to run Starr off, sources said. Regent leadership responded to Starr’s commissioning of Pepper Hamilton by telling the law firm not to put together any written reports about its findings, sources told HD.

Baylor officials have said there are no written reports about the Pepper Hamilton investigation to protect victims from having information released to the public that could reveal their identities. Sources told HD there’s no written reports about the Pepper Hamilton findings to avoid information getting out about the criminal decision to leave the Title IX coordinator job vacant in an attempt to oust Starr.

I know Texas Tech has their own issues, but I feel like those issues are being dealt with in the best way possible. The appropriate courses of action are happening. It is not pleasant, but it is unrealistic to think that there are zero sexual assault issues happening at any football program. It is an ugly part of college or sometimes life. Just have to let things play out, which is uncomfortable, but it’s the system we have.

Miscellaneous . . .

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