Here and There
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Texas Tech Red Raiders (2-3, 1-1) |
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Baylor Bears (2-3, 1-1) |
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October 7th @ 7:00 p.m. |
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McLane Stadium | Waco, Texas |
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Baylor -1 |
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ESPN2 | Watch ESPN |
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72, Mostly Cloudy |
Some Hither, Others Yon
While wondering whatever happened to Darcel McBath. Seeing some of those videos honoring Mike Leach triggered me looking into McBath, who played a handful of years in the NFL, from 2009 to 2010 at Denver, then a year at Jacksonville, and two years, 2012 and 2013, at San Francisco. McBath bounced around as an assistant coach, starting at the ground up at North Texas as a defensive quality control coach, most likely for Seth Littrell and then at Washington state from 2017 through 2019 until he was hired at Mississippi State to coach cornerbacks with Mike Leach in 2020 and is currently there. cornerbacks coach at Mississippi State.
Prologue
I sometimes forget about NCAA football website that details each team and what it really does is give your team’s rank in terms of traditional statistics, which is not something I’ve ever found anywhere else.
The one thing that really stands out is how the offense has been mid thus far this year and the pass offense has been less than successful by a handful of metrics, whether it be total yards, which isn’t always an indication of success or passing efficiency. Also, the third down conversion has not been good and I don’t think I realized how poor the defense has been on 3rd down, which is maybe more significant. These are starts more than a quarter through the turn so maybe we’ll take a look at these things after 6 games to see if they have improved.
And since we have Baylor up, these are the stats for Baylor and much like Texas Tech, these are stats that are problematic as well, but maybe not for Texas Tech. The Baylor defense hasn’t been great, passing yards allowed are fine, but that usually doesn’t tell the story, the passing efficiency defense isn’t great and the run defense has been less than stellar. I do expect with the return of Shapen that the passing efficiency offense will improve.
This is just a fun video and would be a great idea for a Texas Tech video, but you have to get all of that coaches’ audio and I’ve wondered if that’s always taped so you can listen later.
Let’s go win the game#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/oY2ID2PqhQ
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 3, 2023
The Bakay Index
Nick Bakay is an actor, writer and TV personality who made regular appearances on ESPN and wrote on ESPN’s Page 2. Bakay did a segment on ESPN called “Tale of the Tape” where he would give an advantage to one side or the other, or if it was close, then it was a “push”. Bakay was also the voice of the cat Salem on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Doing Something Good or Doing Nothing at All. Always doing something good. Advantage? Doing something good.
The Way that Tahj Brooks Looks at Behren Morton vs. The Kenny Perry Head Rubs.
Pump Jack Posse showed out today 😤@CoachKennyPerry | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/B3mC1YQ2xy
— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) September 30, 2023
I mean, how do you even choose? Advantage? Push.
Fat Bear Week vs. Any Other Week. Look, you can choose not to partake in Fat Bear Week, but you would be robbing yourself of voting on various fat bears with zero criteria for voting. Advantage? Fat Bear Week.
Team Passing Efficiency. I know that it is still early, but we have two teams that have previously been very prolific passing the ball having issues passing the ball. Baylor is currently 105th in team passing efficiency and Texas Tech is 94th. Defensively, Texas Tech is 51st and Baylor is 96th. Advantage? Texas Tech.
Quickie Previews & Recaps
All games are on Saturday, October 7th except for the Kansas State-Oklahoma State game, which is on Friday, October 6th.
This Week: Kansas State @ Oklahoma State (6:30 pm on ESPN)
Last Week: Oklahoma State – off :: Kansas State – off
An off-week for Kansas State and Oklahoma State which means that travel won’t be as much as an issue. The last time these two teams played, Oklahoma State lost on the road to Iowa State, 34-27, and Kansas State throttled UCF 44-31 at home. I don’t like Oklahoma State this year (I mean this in a way where I don’t trust the team) and I very much trust Kansas State to get work done. Kansas State is favored on the road by 12. I’ll take KSU.
This Week: Oklahoma vs Texas (11:00 am on ABC)
Last Week: Oklahoma 50, Iowa State 20 :: Texas 40, Kansas 14
Both Texas and Oklahoma walloped their opponents, OU took care of business against what is a depleted Iowa State team and offensively challenged team. Texas also took care of business at home against Kansas, there appeared to be on doubt as to the result. For this game, I keep thinking What would hurt each program the most? I’m not sure and really am not a huge fan of picking this game only because I do think that Texas has the better quarterback, but not by much. I think that’s why the line is in favor of Texas, favored by 5 early in the week.
This Week: UCF @ Kansas (3:00 pm on FOX)
Last Week: Texas 40, Kansas 14 :: Baylor 36, UCF 35
UCF gave up 26, yes 26 points in the 4th quarter in a seemingly unbelievable collapse. Truly epic. Kansas getting crushed on te road is not a surprising result and now UCF will do their best to not collapse again. Kansas returning home will help significantly and this is a tight line, Kansas is only favored by 3.
This Week: Texas Tech @ Baylor (7:00 pm on ESPN2)
Last Week: Texas Tech 49, Houston 28 :: Baylor 36, UCF 35
Baylor was helped tremendously by the return of Shapen who was fantastic in their comeback win against UCF. Texas Tech go back on track with a win against what appears to be a not-real-great Houston team. This may be one of the worst Houston teams that we’ve seen in a while. Baylor’s offense is anemic and Texas Tech’s was too until this past week. Baylor is favored by 1 and I have a theory that Vegas loves Texas Tech fans because they irrationally believe that their team will always cover.
This Week: TCU @ Iowa State (7:00 pm on FS2)
Last Week: West Virginia 24, TCU 21 :: Oklahoma 50, Iowa State 20
TCU absolutely has no excuse to lose to West Virginia at home. But with West Virginia winning, that means that Neal Brown will continue to coach there. I don’t know what to expect of Iowa State at home and TCU on the road, especially if TCU is going to lose a game they should win at home. TCU is favored by 5.5, which is odd, but that maybe says more about Iowa State’s offensive struggles than TCU having trouble last week.
Last Week: BYU 35, Cincinnati 27
Both teams appear to have an off week this week. Not a surprise from me that BYU won at home, although I would not have expected this score to be as close as it was. Cincy is winless in the Big 12 and BYU is 1-1.