Lady Raider Basketball

PREVIEW | Lady Raiders to Face TCU on Wednesday
📰: https://t.co/LgPHpOK9OZ pic.twitter.com/4ZW86jD0K7

— Lady Raider WBB (@LadyRaiderWBB) February 7, 2017

Football

ESPN’s Jake Trotter is doing his spring positional reviews and ranks the quarterbacks with Texas Tech coming in at 8th:

8. Texas Tech: With Patrick Mahomes moving on to the NFL, the reins of the Tech air raid will be handed over to Nic Shimonek. The Iowa transfer shined in his lone significant action last season, throwing four second-half touchdowns in a victory over Kansas. Juco transfer McLane Carter, incoming freshman Xavier Martin and Jett Duffey, who was suspended by the university through the summer, round out the unit.

CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson and Ben Kercheval write that Louisiana coaches may end up boycotting LSU because of how current Texas Tech running backs coach Jabbar Juluke was treated after the season by Ed Orgeron. LSU did end up hiring Louisiana Tech’s running back coach, I’m sure to alleviate some of the problems, but I do think there’s something there. Coaches are a big part of how and what high school players think about college programs. Go ask Lake Travis coaches what they think about Kingsbury and wonder if Texas Tech will sign a player from Lake Travis as long as Kingsbury is the coach.

LAJ’s Don Williams spoke with wide receivers coach Emmett Jones about Quan Shorts, Tony Brown and Antoine Wesley. Here’s a bit about Shorts:

“Quan grew up,” Jones said. “He bought in a little bit more to coaching, bought in a little bit more to the expectations we had as a staff as far as with the program. We saw a glimpse at practice. We started seeing more and more of it. Then the trust was there.

“We talked to coach (Kliff Kingsbury) about giving all those other guys shots in the game. ‘I think it’s time to see what Quan can do.’ Coach gave him a shot and he came through, so now his confidence is high.”

Here’s Patrick Mahomes working out in San Diego:

Texas Tech quarterback @PatrickMahomes5 working on his drop backs pic.twitter.com/yHoptkiBWe

— STACK (@STACKMedia) February 7, 2017

More @PatrickMahomes5, practicing hitting the quick slant pic.twitter.com/xMWSDRRHUr

— STACK (@STACKMedia) February 7, 2017

Texas Tech did confirm to local reporters that defensive line coach Kevin Patrick has left for NC State. I do think this is a not-so-great situation for Texas Tech and I’m not usually one that worries about coaching changes. The defensive line didn’t play great, but some of the things that Patrick was saying after National Signing Day were music to my ears. I hope they continue the thought process of where they want guys lined up and put to bed this thought of 240 pound defensive ends. I think this will be an important hire.

#TexasTech confirms that defensive line coach Kevin Patrick has left the staff after report he’s accepted offer from NC State.

— Don Williams (@AJ_DonWilliams) February 7, 2017

Miscellaneous . . . we’re going to bullet this list because I’m in charge.

• Interesting article from Bloomberg about how Under Armour is in a severe tailspin and had their credit rating cut to junk status by S&P Global Ratings. I’ll let some of you finance guys tell me what that means, but that doesn’t sound real great.
• Geaux24/7 is reporting that LSU has offered Breiden Fehoko and already has a visit lined up for Ole Miss.
• Via College Football Talk, TCU confirmed the hiring of Chris Thomsen as offensive line coach, who was also at Texas Tech under Tuberville, and then Sonny Dykes as an offensive analyst.
• Land Grant Gauntlet’s Patrick Mayhorn wonders where all of the Big 12’s 5-star players have gone (it’s not to the Big 12).
• Via the San Francisco Chronicle, there are some Pac-12 athletic directors that are grumbling about the television distribution deal for the Pac-12. Sure do think that some Texas teams could solve a lot of those distribution problems.
• Gridiron Now’s David Ubben writes that the Big 12 needs to start owning Texas in recruiting and I couldn’t agree more.