Hey! We get a transcript of head coach Joey McGuire as practices start.

• Going really well. Hard normal Tuesday. Today in shells. Working on our base stuff and run no matter who we play. Have done a lot of self-scout on offense and defense. Great energy, starts with the QB running around and he is running around and full go. Looks really good.
• These are really quick practices, because we have so many. Faster pace. Good to let these guys heal up and get into a routine. Not in school and more time in the training room.
• Where we are missing, possible lawsuit on a 5th year. Our young guys are getting more reps because we only have 105 guys, last year I had 123, then the guys are injured. Missing on the 5 for 5 and missing on academically.
• I’m going to be at home. Our players are going to go home for Christmas. I haven’t had Christmas with my mom and dad and Garrett and his fiancé since 2016. So we’re going to hang out on Friday and Saturday.
• Challenge these guys, how serious do you want to get another game. We are an older team, the leaders are tremendous leaders. We wind Lee Hunter up and just focusing on having fun, get our work in, went to Evie Mae’s, bowl tomorrow night. Make sure they are focused and enjoying time together
• Practice Thursday and Friday, will be off Saturday. Sunday, Monday practice, will be back in town ready to practice on the 26th, will probably go at night to give them time to get back.
• Matt Ludwig, “Moose”, he’s a mature and very developed young man. Really good football and basketball player. His dad was a head strength coach previously. He’s a good young man. Unfortunate situation at Michigan that’s great for us. He will be here on January 10th. I can’t wait to hear the crowd go “Moose”. He fits really well with this group.
• With us, everything we do goes through our personnel department. James and his crew are going through things. I may see something on social media, we are watching film if we haven’t already. January 2nd, we are also fortunate, we will be aggressive in certain positions. We won’t have to be as aggressive as last year. The first high school playoffs are playing 16 games, people are so stuck on traditions, but it has changed. I keep hearing the head coach at Clemson and Missouri, the broken situation is stuck in what’s tradition, moving the calendar. If you look at the days we should have a national champion on January 1st. Coaches and players are going to change, but you can look at the portal faster. It just takes common sense. The NFL does it. We are so reactive in college football.
• There’s going to be a lot of talk in January and 2nd semester. You have to get TV executives in and it’s so TV driven on how we do this. It’s going to expand, we don’t know when, so we will need to change the calendar more, whether it is 16 or 24 teams.
• We are reactive, seeing how this is happening. Enough people will talk about it and gain traction. We just keep doing the same things, camp doesn’t need to be a month long, we have these kids all summer. I’d love to be the commissioner to fix the calendar and 5 for 5.
• We have Oregon State next year, when that was scheduled that was a Power 5, and now it’s a Power 4, I think we are getting close to NC State coming here. I think it’s awesome. Crazy idea, how about moving the bowl games to an invitation on August 23rd and playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but it would be a huge attraction. You would lose a home game.
• We’re definitely talk about it, we did some sudden change today, some good on good. Make sure our tackles were seeing speed. We usually don’t do that this time of year. We are trying to keep the physicality, but being smart about it. The byes all lost taking a month off. We are the only group that does this and doesn’t make a lot of sense.
• The OC and DC have been done for about a month, waiting for KP and Blanchard before released the news. They were done before I was. All of the assistants, we did them last year. Will do them again next year.
• I love that stuff, this team has fed off this stuff, The Athletic came out with 15 anonymous coaches and one of them was frauds of the playoffs and one of them was Ole Miss and then Texas Tech. We have guys that feed off of that in a good way. Lee Hunter feeds off of it, a video of Dana White saying bet against me, Goggins and Denzel Washington. It’s poking the bear.
• Quarterback is 1A and losing David, Melo and Lee, is 1B. When you have a dominant defensive front, everyone is better. I made a call to a coach last week, because we were so aggressive, every player in the nation is going to be linked to us and drive up the place. Letting certain guys know that we are not interested in certain guys.
• A lot of it is going to depend, the injunction is going on the 5 for 5, and the NCAA has said it’s only the 5 players in that lawsuit. Hunter Zambrano coming back, that’s like getting a portal guy. Feel good about the front guys and secondary. Do we move Curry in or keep him back. The Big 12 has changed so much, maybe a vet linebacker. I feel good about the guys coming back, but guys will surprise you. Good to have 3, a defensive tackle and a couple of edges.

ESPN with the top 50 players in the college football playoff with write-ups on the players. Romello Height is at No. 37, Lee Hunter at No. 25, David Bailey at No. 4, and Jacob Rodriguez at No. 3.

ESPN’s Matt Miller projects where he thinks certain players will go and in each round. An interesting read.

CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson with one fatal flaw of the College Football Playoff field:

4. Texas Tech: Red zone offense
For a team that is so dominant, boasting 12 wins of 20+ points on the season, it does seem like the Red Raiders do leave a little bit of meat on the bone offensively when it comes to cashing in their scoring chances.

The numbers back it up, too, with Texas Tech ranking 101st nationally in red zone touchdown percentage (56.2%) and scoring touchdowns on just 32% of their red zone attempts across five games against FBS teams with a winning record.

When Texas Tech played its biggest games against its toughest opponents, the defense was dominant enough to produce a lopsided score but the margins could have been even larger if the offense had been able to punch it in the end zone more often.

On the Hardwood

I needed to mention the Lady Raiders win over Jacksonville yesterday, 76-40 with 4 players in double-figures. Sarengbe Sanogo and Denae Fritz led the way with 14 points each, Bailey Maupin had 11, and Jalynn Bristow had 10. A big advantage inside, 48 points in the paint to just 28 for the Dolphins. Things get very real very fast as the Lady Raiders will be on the road in Waco to take on Baylor this Sunday as Big 12 play begins.