Texas Tech Soccer
On the field (most wins over ranked opponents in program history) and in the classroom (top in the Big 12 in All-Academic selections), 2018 was a stellar year for us.
Check out our full list of highlights and notable performances below! ⬇️#WreckEm https://t.co/Z9721526NZ
— Texas Tech Soccer (@TexasTechSoccer) December 3, 2018
Texas Tech Softball
🚨 The 2019 schedule is here! 🚨
2⃣4⃣ games at the Rock
HALF of the 2018 WCWS field 🔥
The famed @NutterClassic 🙌🔴#WreckEm⚫️ pic.twitter.com/c2KiIurRnI
— Texas Tech Softball (@TexasTechSB) December 3, 2018
Texas Tech Basketball
If you don’t watch these, you’re missing out a bit. Fun and entertaining.
We had fun at the beach, but being back by the 🔥 is where we belong. Pull up a seat and get your weekly #FiresideChat update from @CoachBeardTTU and our special guest, The Godfather. #4To1
Hidden 💎: #GristmillInGruene @GrueneTX
🎵Selections: @Travistritt, #NotoriousBIG pic.twitter.com/WiF02DP0r1— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) December 4, 2018
The most recent AP Top 25 Poll was released yesterday with your Red Raiders climbing to #13 overall. If you like to see how everyone voted, College Poll Tracker is your friend, but in case you don’t click over, every voter has at the very least voted them in the top 25. CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish, who I consider the best voter, has the Red Raiders at #12, but he puts the time and effort into thinking about his top 25 each and every day. General good guy NCAA’s Andy Katz has Texas Tech at #13.
Texas Tech Football
We’ve signed WR Dylan Cantrell to our active roster and waived T Joe Barksdale.
→ https://t.co/kWUdbngMHk pic.twitter.com/9ewappRB2d
— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) December 3, 2018
ProFootballFocus has their all-conference team and the only Red Raider on offense is offensive lineman Jack Anderson, with linebacker Dakota Allen making the first team on defense with kicker Clayton Hatfield making first team on the special teams unit. Wide receiver Antoine Wesley made the second team and De’Quan Bowman made the second team as a returner.
Last night, Markel Reed decommitted, so you can add him to the list of players who have decommitted. I mentioned over the weekend that it has somewhat become industry standard to consider this first recruiting class for Matt Wells & Co. as “year 0” rather than year 1. There was some pushback on that and the harsh reality is that with the December signing date, it makes coaching changes that much more difficult, with a February signing date, it was a bit easier to keep a class together, but things have changed quite a bit from just a couple of years ago. Again, you get to do what you want, but it’s a tough time recruiting now. Hopefully, Wells can pull something together. The one thing that I’d mention is that Wells seemingly has an air of confidence about him. Let’s see.
Interestingly, Louisville has reportedly hired Scott Satterfield as their new head coach. Satterfield was at Appalachian State and did really well, however, Cardinal fans are a bit disappointed that it’s not Jeff Brohm, similar to Texas Tech fans who were disappointed that it wasn’t Mike Leach and/or Dana Holgorsen. I liked Satterfield quite a bit as an option for Texas Tech, not really sure how to distinguish between him and Wells other than win/loss, Wells winning at a program that was only 10 games over .500 (.501 to be exact and .490 without Wells), while Appalachian State has a winning percentage of .634. I know that I never really considered the difficulty in a place to win and really only considered records, I admittedly was pretty closed minded about that. I think that thus far, we have Les Miles, Mack Brown, and Satterfield as part of that Power 5 coaching group. To be added will be Kansas State’s search, which apparently includes Seth Littrell, Jim Leavitt, and Bret Bielema.
CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli is grading each hire, and gave Louisville an A for the Satterfield hire, and Texas Tech a B+ for the Wells hire:
The two-time Mountain West Coach of the Year is a nice hire for Texas Tech, even if it is somewhat unexpected. Wells is a South Carolina native, and while his coaching career began at Navy, and he spent a season at Louisville, the majority of his career has been spent west of the Rockies. He’s never coached in the state of Texas. What he has done, however, is take over a Utah State program that was in good shape and overseen a reset of the program, building it back up to a 10-2 mark this season. While his overall win percentage of .564 might not seem great, when comparing it to Utah State’s historical win percentage (.490), it’s clear he got the most out of the program while there. Grade: B+