FanHouse Texas Tech Football

HOUSTON -- Reclined way back with his feet kicked up on a table in the Houston Cougars' film room Tuesday and answering questions in a philosophical yet aloof way, Dana Holgorsen was channeling his inner Mike Leach without even realizing it.

The voice, the demeanor and delivery were all Leach -- albeit a younger, less clean-shaven Leach.

"I sat in the same room as him for many, many years," Holgorsen, the Cougars second-year offensive coordinator said when reminded of the similarity. "All of that stuff rubbed off, I guess."

When Jack Bicknell Jr. left Lubbock to become the offensive line coach at Boston College, it left Texas Tech scrambling to fill the void. It now appears that Red Raiders have secured Bicknell's replacement. Mike Leach has hired Matt Moore who spent last season as offensive line coach at Troy. Moore is one of Leach's former players, as the two crossed paths at Valdosta (Ga.) State, an NCAA Division II school, where Leach coached from 1992-96.

Leach has shown a penchant for hiring former players and is excited to have Moore in Lubbock.

"He's had a great career at a variety of high schools, one of them being Hoover (Alabama) High, when they ran offenses very similar to ours and borrowed from ours and where they had a lot of success and won a lot of Alabama state championships,'' Leach said. "He's done well in college, too. It's exciting to have him on board and get going.''

Moore, who is 34, served stints as both the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at Hoover, the Alabama powerhouse featured on the MTV series Two-A-Days. Despite missing all of the Red Raiders' spring practices, Moore is confident he can fit right in with Leach and his staff.

"It'll be a little different not getting to go through spring with the kids before you start the season,'' Moore said. "But I'm confident, having played in this system and having run this system for the past eight years, that I'll be able to fit right in from a technique standpoint and from a terminology standpoint.''

Tyler Bridge and Kari Rodgers have served their school anonymously as they manned Texas Tech mascot Raider Red's costume. On Sunday the pair was unmasked as their role in the Texas Tech tradition was honored. As part of the ceremony Bridge and Rodgers passed Raider Red's guns to the incoming mascots, whose identities will now remain anonymous.

Bridge performed as Raider Red at football and basketball games for three years and he might have taken it a bit too seriously.

"I've had the privilege of not growing into the costume but growing with the character," Bridge said.

It should surprise no one that Bridge also played the lead role of Danny Zuko in the Texas Tech School of Music's rendition of "Grease."

Interestingly, the Raider Red tradition used to be limited to members of a Texas Tech spirit organization known as the, um ... Saddle Tramps. Really? Is it any wonder Mike Leach fits in so well in Lubbock?

With the Saddle Tramps and the "Passing of the Guns" it's great to see that school spirit is alive and bizarre at Texas Tech. And don't even get me started about the Bell Ringer. Just watch.

In a game that was supposed to highlight the apparent quarterback battle, Texas Tech receivers Mike Crabtree and Edward Britton stole the show. Britton finished the day with three catches for 93 yards, including a 66-yard touchdown from Graham Harrell. Crabtree also caught three balls and finished with 103 yards receiving. He scored on a 43-yard pass from Harrell in the first quarter.

The emergence of Britton and Crabtree could be an important development for Texas Tech fans. The Red Raiders are trying to replace a talented trio of 2006 seniors in Joel Filani, Jarrett Hicks and Robert Johnson. The offense is also relying on a young, first-year wide receivers coach in Lincoln Riley. Riley was pleased with what he saw on Saturday.

"Every guy that we have right now is pretty good after the catch as far as making things happen," Riley said. "That's exciting, knowing that if we can get completions and make routine plays, those guys have a chance to take it the distance."

Despite being somewhat overshadowed by the wide receiver play, the Texas Tech quarterbacks also enjoyed solid days. Incumbent Graham Harrell finished the day 16-25 for 317 yards and three touchdowns. The only negatives to Harrell's performance were his two interceptions, both of which were returned for touchdowns. Taylor Potts who is challenging for Harrell's job completed 16-27 passes for 139 yards and also threw one interception.

Texas Tech tight end/fullback David Schaeffer recently disclosed that he bought his head coach Mike Leach a little something special for Christmas.

"I'm a Bill O'Reilly fan. I listen to a lot of talk radio. G. Gordon Liddy. Rush Limbaugh. Sean Hannity. I like G. Gordon Liddy. I got Leach that Stacked and Packed Calendar. G. Gordon Liddy puts out this calendar. It's women in bathing suits holding guns. He talked about it; I figured he'd want it. Maybe that's why he put me on scholarship."

Seriously, that must be it. I mean how else does a guy with two catches for 10 yards in his career, earn a scholarship at pass-happy Texas Tech?

Girls with guns, man. Girls with guns. While Mike Leach tries to come off as a complex deep-thinker, it's nice to see he's a simple man at heart.

Schaeffer also has some well-developed ideas about Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations.

"I'm really pretty outspoken about a lot of stuff - guns, abortion, stuff like that, just basic hard-line conservative views. See, I'm all for Texas seceding from the Union if Hillary Clinton gets elected president. That's an idea I've run across (Mike) Leach, and he thought it was a pretty good idea."

This guy needs his own reality show. Stat.

A year ago Graham Harrell (pictured at right) won the starting quarterback job for Texas Tech as a sophomore. All he did was complete over 60% of his passes and throw for 38 touchdowns. One would assume that he had the job for 2007 all locked up. On Friday, his head coach, Mike Leach let the world know that this wasn't necessarily the case.

"Taylor Potts has outperformed Graham Harrell the last two practices, so the quarterback situation's wide open,'' Leach said. "If Taylor Potts is able to continue to outperform Graham the rest of the spring and through camp and some things like that, he's got a shot to be the starting quarterback here.''

Potts apparently did nothing to discourage the quarterback controversy with his performance in the Red Raiders' scrimmage on Saturday. He completed 20-24 passes for 255 yards and four touchdowns. Those numbers surpassed the efforts of Harrell who was 19 of 30 for 165 yards and three touchdowns. Leach now claims that the remainder of the spring's snaps will be split evenly between the two QBs and he apparently feels good about this situation.

"Competition brings out the best in everybody," Leach said, "but you want to make sure it's real and warranted competition, the best you can. I think both are good quarterbacks. Both do good things. Both have some real strengths, and now I think we want to prepare them both so that they can have the best offseason possible, and then see who we're going to go with in the fall."

The emergence of Potts is an unexpected development in Lubbock. Prior to his recent performance, he was probably most known for taking part in ESPNU's televised summer camp-on steroids Summer House. For his sake I'm glad that it looks as though he will soon be able to add something a little more meaningful to his resume'.

Adam James, son of ABC analyst Craig James, is currently a 6-3, 220-pound freshman at Texas Tech. While college football fans remember his dad as - one-half of the "Pony Express" backfield, turned CFB talking head - Adam takes his father's fame in stride:

I don't even think about it," James said. "I mean, when you get to know him, he's really a normal guy. So to me, it doesn't even feel like he is."

Adam James was a greyshirt in the fall, meaning the spring practices have given Texas Tech coaches the first glimpse of what he is capable of.

"We don't entirely know what we have with him," [Texas Tech coach Mike] Leach said after Monday's practice. "We're looking forward to seeing. I think he's got real soft natural hands and catches the ball real well."

Those receiving skills might mean that Adam winds up as a tight end in the Red Raiders pass-happy offense. Lining up at TE could be just what Adam needs to help escape the shadow of his father's three-time all-SWC career as a running back at SMU. However, if Craig James is anything like I imagine, "Old Pony" will gleefully remind Adam of his 96-yard TD reception against North Texas in 1982 that set a new record as the longest scoring play in Southwest Conference history.

Former walk-on quarterback Lincoln Riley, who was cut by Mike Leach in 2003, is now the wide receivers coach at Texas Tech. Lincoln who is just 23, might be the youngest full-time assistant coach in Division I football. He joined the Red Raiders staff as a student assistant after Leach recognized he lacked the athletic ability to quarterback Texas Tech.

"That was fairly obvious,'' Leach said. "Yeah. Recognition would be an understatement. He had a real good mind for (the game), but at the time I had a lot of quarterbacks, and with the limitation on walk-ons, we weren't going to have an extra slot. Plus, he could help the team better as a coach anyway."

Riley got his shot as a full-time coach this season, when former wide receivers coach Sonny Dykes left to take a position with Arizona. His progression through the coaching ranks is interesting given that he is being mentored by Leach, who just happens to be one of the few major college coaches who never played a down of college football.

Riley will certainly have his work cut out for him in 2007, as the Red Raiders must rebuild their receiving corps following the losses of Joel Filani, Robert Johnson and Jarrett Hicks. Filani, Johnson, and Hicks combined for over 2,500 yards and 26 touchdowns a year ago.

In case you've missed the FanHouse's awesomely awesome and fantastic Spring Practice Questions, I've cobbled together the "Complete Series" for Big 12 teams.

Seriously, read these, folks. They're about football. And right now the sporting world isn't about football. And you're dying for more football. That's why you're here. To endure this choppy writing of mine. And read these Big 12 Spring Practice Questions. The complete series. Below.

Previously at the FanHouse:
Spring Practice Questions: Texas Tech Red Raiders
Spring Practice Questions: Iowa State Cyclones
Spring Practice Questions: Missouri Tigers
Spring Practice Questions: Kansas State Wildcats
Spring Practice Questions: Oklahoma Sooners
Spring Practice Questions: Texas A&M Aggies
Spring Practice Questions: Texas Longhorns
Spring Practice Questions: Colorado Buffaloes
Spring Practice Questions: Nebraska Cornhuskers

Last Year: (8-5, 4-4) Unranked.

Fans Are: Mellow. The Red Raiders under coach Mike Leach continue to field competitive teams, score the occasional upset and otherwise light up the scoreboard. Last year was a bit rocky with quiet offensive efforts in losses to TCU (12-3 final) and Colorado (30-6 final) but the Red Raiders also took Texas to the brink before losing, crushed a handful of foes and hung tough against Oklahoma. The bowl comeback against Minnesota was nice, too.

Expectations: Just keep on making bowl games. A Big 12 championship appearance would be nice, but the stars would have to align with veteran personnel and favorable schedule.

Questions:

1. Can the hiring of Jack Bicknell help the run game?

Eh. The run game has always been nothing more than a sometimes compliment to the passing game under Mike Leach. Bicknell's hiring is interesting in that he's outside of Leach's "circle", but I doubt coach Leach is changing the formula to how he does things.

2. Why is there reason for hope this year?

Stability. Last year was crazy, even by Mike Leach standards. He scolded his team early in the season for not working hard. Another strange collapse against Colorado followed. Star receiver Jarrett Hicks' season was stalled by the NCAA as they dragged their feet in reviewing his academic situation. He later missed the team's bowl game to further hit the books. Guard Ofa Mohetau, a talented junior college recruit, was suspended from the team. And a month ago three players were accused of stealing things, two of whom are no longer on the team.

It appears the dust has settled and what's left of the roster can get around to just playing football without distraction. That is a good thing.

3. Give us something to look forward to?

Junior quarterback Graham Harrell is a rare Texas Tech quarterback who isn't a fifth-year player/first time starter. He now has a year under his belt and is one of the most highly recruited quarterbacks in the Mike Leach era. He should challenge Hawaii's Colt Brennan for leadership marks in many seasonal passing categories (yards, attempts, completions, touchdowns) in 2007. The gunslinger isn't dead in college football, and we have Mike Leach and those coaches with similar brands of offenses for it!