Big 12 Things

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark was asked about expansion and boy, he’s not bashful about the Big 12’s intentions and the idea of moving West into a 4th time zone is where he wants to go. Yee haw.

Big 12 commish Brett Yormark on potential future expansion, and what types of schools would be additive for the B12 moving forward: “Obviously going out west is where I would like to go, entering that fourth time zone. A program that has national recognition.”

FULL QUOTE 👇 pic.twitter.com/IwYEfFDedF

— Justin Williams (@Williams_Justin) September 7, 2022

Baseball

One of the best baseball beat writers I’ve ever read, largely because his work is not like anyone else’s, Levi Weaver, was the first to report that Josh Jung will debut for the Texas Rangers on Friday night.

Sources: Josh Jung will be recalled and debut tomorrow.

— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) September 7, 2022

Football

Dallas Morning News’ Ryan Mainville has 5 things to know about the Cougars, here’s just one of them:

The trenches
Texas Tech’s pass rush was one of the biggest keys to victory against Houston last season. The Red Raiders tallied four sacks against the Cougars, disrupting any flow within the passing game. That’s an area Texas Tech could capitalize on once again. The Red Raiders put together a four-sack performance against Murray State last week, while Houston gave up four sacks against UTSA. It seemed that the secondary would be the highlight of this Texas Tech defense, but it looks like it may be the pass rush.

Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte writes about the Houston and Texas Tech rivalry:

Back to tortillas. For eight years as a coordinator under Mike Leach, Holgorsen engaged in the AT&T Jones Stadium tradition by, admittedly, tossing a few corn tortillas as he made his way to the press box.

Holgorsen’s last five trips, however, have been as a visiting head coach.

“Now I’m getting hit by them,” he said. “But that’s cool. As long as they’re not slapping me with them. The whole slap-your-face (with a) tortilla, that just makes no sense. Why would somebody do that? They roll them up and throw them and whatever.”

Saturday’s game will mark exactly one year since UH accepted an invitation to join the Big 12, along with Cincinnati, BYU and UCF. All four schools are set to officially join the Big 12 on July 1, 2023.

Kansas City Star’s Vahe Gregorian writes about Kliff Kingsbury’s vision of Patrick Mahomes is what set him up for his success today:

But also because Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury became captivated with Mahomes soon after he took over at Texas Tech in 2012, lasering in on the raw player he’d seen on tape as a junior.

Thanks to Adam Cook, then Whitehouse’s offensive coordinator and a former Tech walk-on, it was a nice indulgence of fate that Mahomes was in the Air Raid system Kingsbury had played in and would favor at Tech … and could easily see Mahomes fitting in.

So Kingsbury, perhaps the right person at the right time, had a specific vision of what Mahomes could be when so many others only had tunnel vision about him one way or another.

When I asked Mahomes on Wednesday about Tech being among the first to recruit him as a quarterback, he said, “They were really the first and only.”