Track & Field

Coach Kittley, Viershanie Latham and Trey Culver preview the first meet of the season #WreckEm https://t.co/yZyeyviJX5 pic.twitter.com/k4m36uqbSm

— TTU Track & Field/XC (@TTU_TF_XC) January 13, 2017

Tennis

Red Raider Basketball

 ESPN’s Jeff Goodman has a terrific article on Thomas Brandsma, who followed Chris Beard across the country to play for Beard:

The decision was made without hesitation, though, due to the connection he quickly formed with Beard that went well beyond just player-coach level.

“The word is genuine,” Brandsma said. “He’s a real guy, a real person. People just gravitate to him. I just trust him. He held me accountable in every phase, more than just basketball. In life.”

Wichita Eagle’s Kellis Robinett has his Big 12 report, focusing on the struggling Sooners, who Texas Tech faces this weekend and Oklahoma State, who is on a bit of a losing streak.

Football

This is from 24/7 Sports’ Travis Haney who has this notebook from his time at the AFCA convention and there was this tidbit from Haney about Sooner offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, emphasis mine:

Another bowl season performance that other coaches were talking about was Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley’s play-calling in the Sugar Bowl against Auburn.

“He was on his game,” one Power 5 coach said. “That guy will be a head coach by this time next year, and he’ll probably get a bigger job.”

Riley, just 33, is said by those coaches to have maturity beyond his years. He has been linked to several jobs in the past year, including the Houston opening – but he has been frank in telling administrators at smaller schools that he has his eye on a couple of Power 5 schools. One is his alma mater, Texas Tech – where Kliff Kingsbury is entering a make-or-break season.

If Tech did have a hire to make, one coach did wonder whether Riley or TCU assistant Sonny Cumbie – both former Tech quarterbacks – had resumes too similar to Kingsbury’s when he was the OC at Texas A&M.

Always take these sorts of things with a grain of salt, but I do think that there’s something to Riley being a viable candidate should Kingsbury faulter this year. The reason against Riley is that he’s too similar to Kingsbury, as noted above.

As I’m writing this, it is rumored that Anthony Lynn is to be named as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. I don’t know of a Texas Tech graduate ever being the head coach of a professional team. Congrats to Lynn, what an incredible climb and accomplishment. LAJ’s Don Williams spoke with Spike Dykes about what would make Lynn a great head football coach:

“That doesn’t surprise me,” said Spike Dykes, Lynn’s coach at Tech. “Anthony Lynn is the top of the heap. Anything he’s ever done has been unbelievable, in my opinion — as a player, as a person, as a constituent. He’s a guy, he loved football. It just proves that good things do happen to good people.”

The Big 12 Blog Bros a analyzing the Big 12 early entrants and Mitch Sherman thinks that Patrick Mahomes made the right decision to leave early (I agree):

Mitch Sherman: Only Luke Falk of Washington State threw more passes than the 1,164 passes attempted by Patrick Mahomes over the past two seasons. It’s time to take that arm to the next level. Mahomes’ skills translate well to the professional game, but his gunslinger mentality at Texas Tech and the Red Raiders’ offensive system does not. Sure, Mahomes needs more polish before he’s ready to take over an NFL offense, but he’s better served to get paid and minimize his injury risk while working toward that ultimate goal.

Texas Tech has offered a preferred walk-on spot to Belton TE Remington Lutz (6-5/225).

Speaking of walk-ons RRS’s Drew Kohnle has a run down of the walk-ons that Texas Tech has offered, including the two receivers we talked about earlier this week, Rowdy Warner and Nate Shelton.