Texas Tech had a short lived tradition where the Red Raider student section threw thousands of tortillas on to the field during games. The tradition started at a home game in 1992 vs. Texas A&M; after the World Wide Leader made a comment about there being nothing in Lubbock except a tortilla factory and Texas Tech. The tortilla tossing tradition has faded over the last few years due to unsportsmanlike conduct penalties being called against the Red Raiders while the field was cleared of the delicious flour frisbees. In the years that have followed the Tech vs. TAMU rivalry has continued to gain steam and has reached new heights in the Mike Leach era. In fact the "Dread Pirate" moniker was born following a heated Tech vs. TAMU game in 2005 when his pregame speech mentioned pirate swords and his post game comments included making the wife of a TAMU assistant a Red Raider slave. It only makes sense that in the present day The Dread Pirate would make some derogatory comments about A&M;'s Quarterback Stephen McGee being selected in the 4th round of the NFL draft while Tech Quarterback, and statistical giant, Graham Harrell went undrafted. None of this was lost on TAMU front man Mike Sherman who offered a grandfatherly rebuttal. I expect this growing rivalry will continue to gain steam heading into 2009 and could potentially be one of the better rivalries in the Big XII should Leach stick around Lubbock and TAMU somehow get decent again following the "I made LT" Franchione debacle.
The College Football Hall of Fame announced the class of 2009 this week. Heisman winners Tim Brown and Gino Torretta headline an impressive list of college football greats.
Nebraska has long been one of my favorite college football programs to follow. I met Tom Osborne as a 10 year old kid in the mid 80's when he came to meet with my Dad to recruit a couple of his high school players. I had a very memorable discussion with Dr. Tom that day that trumped any other meeting with a college head coach or assistant coach that was on the road recruiting I ever had. For the record that's saying something because I met a lot of them. I'll save the full story for another day. I will say that as a result of that meeting with Dr. Tom I have kept close tabs on the Huskers over the years and I am very familiar with the history of Trev Alberts. I always assumed Trev left the World Wide Leader because he couldn't stand Mark May but that theory has since been debunked by inside sources. Regardless Trev moved on to working at CSTV with one of my favorite Football Players, and former SWC terror Brian Jones who was a beast as a linebacker at Texas. That relationship has now come to an end as Trev is moving on to assuming the role of Athletic Director at the University of Nebraska Omaha. No that's not the Big Red Machine but it is a step towards bigger things for Trev and I wish him the best.
Quarterbacks are finicky, and in the era of big time recruits demanding both big time attention and playing time transfers at the QB position are becoming more and more common. Jevan Snead left Texas for Ole Miss because he couldn't beat out Colt McCoy. Mitch Mustain left Arkansas for USC in a Springer episode I have discussed at length in previous posts. Now a few other signal callers are on the move for similar reasons. In 2007 Zach Frazer left Notre Dame when he realized he wasn't going to beat out Jimmy Clausen. Frazer has just been named the starter for 2009 at UCONN where coincidentally he is set to play the Irish in South Bend this season. Steven Threet started his career attempting to get in the mix at Georgia Tech under Chan Gailey. When that didn't work out he transferred to Michigan who subsequently hired Dick Rod. Threet spent 2008 in the mix at Michigan trying to implement Dick Rod's spread which also didn't work out so well. Threet is now attempting to make history signing on at Arizona State were he is looking to get time under center at his third D-1 program. Meanwhile Robert Marve originally played at Miami and was subsequently run off by OG Cane front man Randy Shannon. Marve has been shopping his options the last few months and appears to be headed to Purdue of all places. As an ND fan this is semi-disconcerting as Marve is actually a very good athlete and Quarterback assuming of course he stays out of trouble and on the field. I expect the Boilers will welcome him with open arms due to their present situation, and he will likely shine there. At least until Ethan Johnson decelats him!
Twitter is exploding. Can you buy stock in Twitter? College coaches around the country are joining the Twitterati and blasting short messages around the world wide web at the cyclic rate. This has already been discussed at length by all of the great Notre Dame football bloggers I have linked in the right side bar. As a result I have left the subject matter alone to this point. But I do read the Weis Tweets and I have to say there is actually some good info on there. Based on some of Charlie's most recent Tweets I have extrapolated what I see as two very positive and important aspects of Weis as a coach. For starters he works his ass off to get his players to the
next level. Not only does that say a lot about him as a person but it will also ultimately pay dividends for him in recruiting where he has already debunked the Davieham theory that you can no longer recruit at ND. Second Charlie is game planning for your ass right now. He isn't waiting until after his summer vacation, he's on the job every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I would bet a fair amount of money that Charlie is breaking down tape of his 2009 opponents as I type this and coming up with game plans that are going to put points on the score board. The probability of an Irish offensive resurgence are high now that his recruits are coming of age. Despite the extreme level of criticism he has taken over the last two seasons I'm glad he's on the job, and as a Notre Dame fan I appreciate what he's doing for the program. If nothing else he puts in the work. I'm liking the odds that it will all come together for him in 2009. If that happens I'll be interested to see if his critics in the media flip positions and jump back on the Charlie bandwagon.