less than a week away

I have been looking forward to the 2008 Texas Tech football season since the day Graham Harrell committed to Tech in the fall of 2003. All signs pointed then that this was to be the season that everything came together. A highly recruited quarterback who would be a senior sets the stage for high hopes when Mike Leach is your QB coach. Anyway, I went and saw Graham play in the Texas HS football playoffs for Ennis the day after Thanksgiving 2003. Ennis played Highland Park at Texas Stadium that day. HP was QB'ed by someone you may have heard of, Matthew Stafford who was a sophomore that season. Anyway, I left that game impressed with Graham but thinking with should be recruiting that guy.

While QB is an important position, I have come to believe that it is the second most important position on the field behind the Offensive Line. That is why I have such high hopes for this season in that we return all 5 starters from last year and 2 of them should be NFL draft picks in Rylan Reed and Louis Vasquez. Good story on Reed if you haven't read it.

Finally, offensively you need to have good receivers to catch if you throw the ball a lot. Which brings us to Michael Crabtree. I am an eternal Tech skeptic and often don't believe the hype until I see it on the scoreboard or the field. I had heard the reports about this kid who we redshirted in 2006 just dominating practice. I thought sure, our defense is not that great anyway, so whats the big deal. Also, Jarrett Hicks, Joel Filiani (6th round NFL pick), and Robert Johnson were all returning receivers for the 2006 season so he wouldn't get to play anyway. Labor Day 2007 made me a believer. 3 TDs in your college debut is pretty good, but the fact he made it look so easy. Then he did it the next week, and the next. Pretty amazing stuff. I am really bummed this will be his last year in a Tech uniform as thanks to that redshirt, he will be playing in the NFL in 2009.

Enough of my rambling on Tech football today. I am ready for the season can't you tell? I will try to write some of my opinions on the defense later this week. I think that will be the true test of can we break through or are we just going to have a good season?