The Morning Stake: July 14th

Photo via Kimberly Vardeman @ Flickr

Golf

Football

Good Works. QB Patrick Mahomes is being honored for his good works off the field

Do Work.

Preseason All-Big 12. The Big 12 released their preseason football team and the only Red Raider to make the list is K Clayton Hatfield. Oklahoma has 9 players make the list, Baker Mayfield was named as the Offensive Player of the Year and Malik Jefferson was named as the Defensive Player of the year. Should be a fun year.

LAJ’s Nicholas Talbot writes about being the only player honored and notes that guys like Jah’Shawn Johnson and Breiden Fehoko aren’t quite there yet:

They are young and talented, but have yet to fully fulfill their talent on the field.

That could happen this season.

Only 15 of the 27 members of the 2015 preseason team actually made the all-Big 12 first team at the end of the season.

Injuries happen.

Some players unexpectedly break through.

Others fall flat and under perform.

That is the nature of the beast.

Mahomes No. 85. SI ranked the 100 top players in college football and has QB Patrick Mahomes at No. 85:

With Trevone Boykin and Baker Mayfield leading College Football Playoff charges at TCU and Oklahoma, respectively, last season, Mahomes didn’t receive nearly as much attention as he deserved. That should change in 2016. The junior is a skilled playmaker who fits perfectly in coach Kliff Kingsbury’s high-powered spread offense, and he’s poised to build on the 5,109 total yards and 46 total touchdowns he tallied in 2015. However, Mahomes will have to make do without leading receiver Jakeem Grant, who was selected in the sixth round of this year’s draft. — CJ

Run Defense. ESPN’s Brandon Chatmon looks at the average yards allowed for the run defense and Texas Tech was 9th last year:

9. Texas Tech Red Raiders, 5.24: The Red Raiders faced a Big 12-high 1,643 opponent rushes during this span and Tech allowed 273 of those carries to gain 10 yards or more. The past two years have been particularly troubling as Tech allowed opponents to average more than 250 rushing yards per game during both seasons.

Curl Talks Commitment. Via NewsOK, Texas Tech commit Kamren Curl talks about his upcoming season for Muskogee and also his commitment for Texas Tech. Curl is named as one of NewsOK’s Super 30:

“Mostly the coaches. Out of all the schools, I had the best relationship with the Texas Tech coaches,” he said.

Muskogee will use Curl as a safety, but they’ll try him at cornerback at points this season.

Watkins says the Roughers won’t be afraid to put Curl on their opponent’s best receiver. The coach’s confidence does not run low on his star defensive back.

“I think Texas Tech got a steal. He’s the total package,” Watkins said. “He’s got everything that you want.”

Miscellaneous. Yesterday, Art Briles told reporter Jesica Morrey that he would be a head coach in the NFL or college in 2017 . . . ESPN’s Brandon Chatmon is picking all of the Big 12 games and is on week 12 and predicts a Texas Tech win over Iowa State . . . the The Student Section’s Yesh Ginsburg grades the non-conference schedules for the Big 12 . . . also from The Student Section, the players to watch this year in the Big 12 . . .

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