Leading Off

Thanks to Dan for helping out with the post-game write-up from last night’s win over West Virginia, my brother-in-law celebrated his 40th birthday (shout-out) last night, so I did my best not to check my phone during dinner (which I did only 3 times).

RedRaiderSports’ Brandon Soliz recaps the Kirby Hocutt Show and Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt confirmed that beer and wine sales and the lower concession prices will go into effect starting with the Kansas State game this Saturday against Kansas State. Hocutt also confirmed that Anheuser-Busch is the beer brand of choice, so I hope you like your Bud.

Lady Raider Basketball

The Lady Raiders drop a narrow game to the Sooners, Chrislyn Carr scored 19 points, while Brittany Brewer had 13 points, 9 boards, and 6 blocks and Zuri Sanders grabbed 16 rebounds in the loss.

RECAP | Lady Raiders Drop Heartbreaker to OU, 66-61https://t.co/YDmjy3MD6l

— Lady Raider WBB (@LadyRaiderWBB) January 3, 2019

Texas Tech Basketball

Make sure and catch Dan’s recap from last night. The Texas Tech players and coaches danced last night, their first win in Morgantown . .. ever.

First win in Morgantown = 🔥🔥🔥 locker room. #4To1

🔴#WreckEm ⚫️ pic.twitter.com/0yFJEuFSMu

— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) January 3, 2019

Texas Tech Football

Although not official-official, ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg reported yesterday that Matt Wells has hired Memphis defensive line coach Paul Randolph. Memphis’ coaching staff is a bit intertwined with Texas Tech’s staff in that Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson coached with Norvell at Arizona State, where Randolph was prior to his time at Memphis. Randolph also apparently got his start with former Arizona State head coach Todd Graham as Randolph coached at Rice and Tulsa, which are also stops for Keith Patterson (Randolph’s Memphis coaching profile).

I’m not sure how I ran across this, but Optimum’s Scouting Justis Mosqueda has an interesting article about how offensive pass efficiency means more in the NFL than in college, which makes the case for the NFL hiring someone like Kliff Kingsbury so intriguing:

This is all to say this: Running games and defensive play are much more likely to win or lose you games at the college level, not because they have better players, but because talent inequality is more varied. Teams have more identity than just their offensive passing game, which just is not the reality of most NFL teams.

/snip/

In nine years in qualifying roles, he has never had a single below-average offense, despite moving around to three different programs. In total, his teams have been worth 6,719 passing yards of value above the FBS average.

Miscellaneous . . . Via College FootballTalk, Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Mike Yurich is leaving to be part of Ohio State’s staff as the quarterbacks coach and passing game offensive coordinator. Oklahoma State was paying Yurich $800,000, which again emphasizes how Texas Tech pays their assistants, which I think both coordinators make $600,000 for Matt Wells . . .