In this Morning’s Stake: Texas Tech baseball plays New Mexico today at 1 p.m. in Albuquerque; is there really a legitimate quarterback controversy; and ranking Texas Tech’s rivals.
Baseball Plays Today. Another mid-week affair as the Red Raiders will play New Mexico today at 1:00 pm in Alburquerque. Quinn Carpenter gets the start and he was just named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week where he knocked the cover off the ball against Kansas:
Carpenter led Tech to its series win over Kansas batting .556 (5-for-9) with a double, triple, three RBI, .636 on-base percentage and .889 slugging percentage. He started the KU series going 3-for-4 with a run, triple and two RBI as the only Red Raider with a multi-hit game.
Carpenter pitches as well, although I think he’s a better hitter than hitter, but it’s still impressive that he can do both.
I Know Kingsbury Said It. ESPN’s Max Olson has this ten things from this spring and writes that the quarterback competition between Davis Webb and Patrick Mahomes won’t end soon:
5. Texas Tech quarterback battle won’t end soon: Coach Kliff Kingsbury hasn’t seen enough to name Patrick Mahomes or Davis Webb his guy at quarterback. After Tech’s scrimmage in Midland, Texas, on Saturday, he told reporters the competition could continue into the fall. With Webb still limited in contact situations and Mahomes working to balance his time between football and baseball, it’s probably no surprise that no decision is imminent.
I may be speaking for myself here, but I sorta feel like we already really know what’s happening even though Kingsbury won’t come out and say it, which is that something totally drastic has to happen for Mahomes to lose the job. I don’t know if this sort of thing sells more papers, i.e. that twinge of fear (fear probably isn’t the correct word) when you hear something that you don’t want to have happen “might” happen, so you click on the story to make sure that it’s not true or not what you think. Still, this hardly feels like a quarterback competition in the truest sense that I feel that both players are neck-and-neck.
Ranking the Rivals. DMN’s Tommy Magelssen ranks the top rivals for Texas Tech as of today, with Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas and Baylor being the descending order. I don’t think that TAMU should be in the list just because you can’t really have a rival with a team that you don’t play. TAMU is really off the radar for me personally. I also don’t think you can supplant Texas at the top spot, but maybe that’s just me.
Miscellaneous. Via Land Grant Gauntlet, Oklahoma running back Keith Ford has been suspended indefinitely for violation of academic and team rules . . . it is also being widely reported that Oklahoma State is considering buying out the final year of head basketball coach Travis Ford’s contract . . . ESPN’s Max Olson has a Big 12 recruiting scorecard where you can get caught up on the various recruiting things around the Big 12 . . .