Please Welcome Advertiser #2! Hey, hey, hey! Please welcome HPF Consultants, Inc. as advertiser #2 for Staking The Plains. As you can see from the banner above, they do all sorts of engineering things with engineering and oil and gas that are completely above my head and I’d like to thank Dustin and everyone at HPF Consultants, Inc. for advertising with STP. Much thanks! If you you’d like to advertise with Staking The Plains, shoot me an email and I’ll send you the ad sheet, although the page views from when I finished the ad sheet are off as we’re averaging about 11,000 page views a day rather than the 5,000.

Moore Earns More PT. LAJ’s Don Williams writes that DE Gary Moore has earned additional playing time after his productive day against UTEP last week. Moore says that he weighs 235 and is doing his best to keep his weight up:

The 6-foot-5 Clarksville product weighs 235 pounds now, but said he had dipped back to 220 just a few months ago.

“Coach told me I had to get my weight up if I wanted to play,” Moore said, “so that’s what I tried to do: just keep constantly eating, drinking water, doing whatever I have to do to keep my body healthy.”

Also mentioned is that Moore may not play a ton this weekend, because of Moore needing to gain some weight. I’d also ask you all if you all still want Moore on offense, or, if after seeing him last weekend that you think he can be a player on defense? I’ve sorta been in the camp that Texas Tech needs “dudes” on the defensive side of the ball as there was more than enough talent on offense.

Double-T Insider:

Improving Toughness. ESPN’s Jake Trotter writes that defensive coordinator David Gibbs is looking to improve the toughness of the team against Arkansas:

The trip to Arkansas should reveal how far the Red Raiders have come under David Gibbs, Tech’s sixth different defensive coordinator in as many years. Gibbs has tried to simplify the scheme — going from a 3-4 to a 4-3 alignment — and has focused on instilling toughness and discipline among his defenders. The Red Raiders gave up 45 points in the opener to Sam Houston State, but showed progress in Week 2 in a 69-20 win over UTEP, even though the Miners scored a 91-yard touchdown early in the game on a simple isolation handoff.

“We know what’s coming, so we better lace them up,” Gibbs said. “If you can’t stop a simple ISO play, we probably shouldn’t even head to Arkansas, because they’ll run 50 of them.”

Toliver Ready. Via the SW Times, cornerback Henre’ Toliver plays the nickel at 6-1/186 and had his first interception of his career against Texas Tech last year and talks about IR Jakeem Grant:

“He’s not that big, but he’s a real shifty guy … really fast and really shifty,” Toliver said. “I’ve just got to get my hands on him. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got to get my hands on him and disrupt things for him. If I do that, we should be good.”

Miscellaneous. DMN’s Michael DuPont recaps his week covering Texas Tech and with game information . . . Sports on Earth’s Matt Brown picks this week’s big games and thinks the Red Raiders just might win this sucker . . . ESPN has an interesting look at race and college football, sparked by the reaction of Eric Striker and his opinions after an OU fraternity member was leading a racist chant . . . SB Nation’s Bill Connelly has his weekly picks and the computers (he really doesn’t make them, they based on a formula) don’t like Texas Tech against Arkansas . . . ESPN’s Big 12 Blog Bros also have their picks and Jake Trotter, you’re our only hope . . . via the TulsaWorld, an introduction of the Big 12 quarterbacks not named Trevone Boykin . . . via College Football Talk, Arkansas lost another receiver this week as Cody Hollister suffered a broken foot during practice this week . . .