On the Diamond
Texas Tech softball will open the season in Clearwater, Florida at the NFCA Leadoff Classic presented by MaxBP with games today through Sunday. There is no reason not to go ahead and hop on the softball hype train. By all account, this team should be good and I love that Texas Tech wants to be a softball school.
GAME INFORMATION:
Thursday v. Marshall – 6 p.m. CT | Watch | Live Stats
Friday v. No. 25 Mississippi St. – 4 p.m. CT | Watch | Live Stats
Friday v. Penn St. – 7 p.m. CT | Watch| Live Stats
Saturday v. No. 16 Nebraska – 3 p.m. CT | MLB Network | Live Stats
Saturday v. Iowa – 6 p.m. CT | Watch | Live Stats
Sunday v. Kennesaw St. – 12 p.m. CT | Watch | Live Stats
On the Court
The Lady Raiders fell to Utah last night, 70-64, falling to 3-9 in Big 12 play. They will play No. 9 TCU on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander spoke with head coach Grant McCasland about the win at Houston and his coaching philosophy. I think this is a tough line to walk, but being hard on players and demanding things of them is difficult to love them as well.
“I think the things you have to be consumed with are, one, how do you deepen the relationship with your team and players? I honestly think that’s it,” McCasland said. “You start using people and you start having expectations like they’re robots, I think you lose your team. … That’s the thing I care about the most. How do we get these dudes to really care for each other, that’s when I think we’ll play our best in these tough moments.”
McCasland’s coaching dogma is leading to program-defining accomplishments. The Red Raiders’ 9-2 league record is the school’s best 11-game start since joining Big 12 in 1996-97. TTU is 5-0 on the road in Big 12, the only team without a scratch away from home. That’s why its metrics are so good — and outpacing its 4/5-seed projection (for now). It’s a jump from last season, when Tech earned a No. 6 seed but oddly didn’t have nearly as good of a defense as McCasland had at North Texas, when his assistant Ross Hodge (now the head coach there) was running the show.
You have probably noticed that I don’t get too much into bracketology here, mainly becuse there is only one time when that is important and that’s when the committee makes that decision. Projections seem like fodder for discussion and it’s great, but we’ve still got a ways to go.
On the Gridiron
Texas Tech and the Big 12 released the 2025 football schedule and I never know quite what to do with this other than to say that it all looks like dubs. The byes are maybe not as evenly spaced as you’d like, but at the very least there is one after the 4th game and one before the final game of the season, which seems a bit pointless as they will have played 7 games straight. At the very least, they won’t be going to Morgantown on a short week.
DATE OPPONENT
08/30 Arkansas Pine-Bluff
09/06 Kent State
09/13 Oregon State
09/20 @ Utah
09/27 BYE
10/04 @ Houston
10/11 Kansas
10/18 @ Arizona State
10/25 Oklahoma State
11/01 @ Kansas State
11/08 BYU
11/15 UCF
11/22 BYE
11/29 @ West Virginia
CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson writes about 9 games that will impact the Big 12 and Texas Tech is listed for 2 of them. This is the first and you’ll have to click over for the second:
Texas Tech at Kansas State (Nov. 1)
The second of two huge Big 12 games on Nov. 1, Texas Tech will have a chance to win its way into the Big 12 title picture after nearly forcing the league into tiebreaker mayhem with a late push in 2024. Texas Tech gets head-to-head opportunities against Kansas, Arizona State, Kansas State and BYU in a five-week window that put Joey McGuire’s team in the spotlight right as the selection committee is preparing for its first batch of CFP Rankings. While other teams have one or two games that will define their shot at competing for a Big 12 title or at-large bid to the playoff, Texas Tech’s postseason chances will mostly be won or lost on the field in late October and early November.
Lubbock Avalanche Journal’s Don Williams reported that linebacker Bryce Ramirez will receive a 7th year of eligibility and safety Devynn Cromewell will receive a 6th year. Ramirez’s extra year is for that horrific leg injury he suffered against NC State and Cromwell is because he started his career at a non-NCAA institution.
I somewhat forgot (who am I kidding, I completely forgot) that yesterday was second National Signing Day and head coach Joey McGuire joined Rivals’ Adam Gorney to discuss all sorts of things. This is a good interview.