I’m here to report this morning that I did run in my local 5k and I can also confirm that Fitsum did beat me, he ran a 22:10 and I ran a 22:49, which I was attempting to run under 23 minutes, and had 11 seconds to spare. I was pouring on the gas (let’s be honest, I’m not fast and “pouring on the gas” makes it sound like I was hurtling towards the finish line) to get to that point and was thankful to be the fastest 50-year old in a group of 200+ and I also finished 25th overall. Fitsum finished 20th and was happy that he beat his old man.
On the Court
The Lady Raiders finished their trip in the U.S. Virgin Islands 2-1, beating Missouri State 72-69 on Saturday evening behind 32 points from Jasmine Shavers. The Lady Raiders will host SFA on December 3rd at 6:00 p.m.
On the Gridiron
This reckons to be a busy season (as they all will be) regarding the transfer portal. News broke last night as it was reported that former 5-star receiver Micah Hudson would enter the transfer portal as would cornerback Jalon Peoples.
With Hudson, I was on the train of “he better play otherwise he’s going to transfer” and that is what happened. But I am also reminded by what Don Williams said, which is that in the opportunities that he had to watch Hudson, he made spectacular catches, but would drop routine ones. The thing that’s always driven me a bit crazy is sometimes I think that Red Raider Sports hypes players up a bit, it’s something I’ve thought about and during the fall practices, they would have their spectacular grab of the day from Hudson posted on X/Twitter. So there was this idea that he’s making these spectacular grabs, why isn’t he playing? I know that I thought that, but then, a few months later, Williams noted on Twitter that yes, Hudson does make those spectacular grabs, but he also misses routine passes, that certainly made me pause because that was never being reported.
Then Hudson was one of the six student-athletes that was part of the Team Mahomes class, which was always a bit odd that Hudson was catered to in that way when there were probably other players that were maybe more deserving. Hudson hadn’t done anything to speak of, so you could maybe consider this an investment and I’m fine with that despite there being players who probably “earned” this designation more than Hudson.
Hudson has been on the Availability List for the last handful of games, a leg injury, and it now makes sense for Hudson to be on the list so the coaches don’t have to answer questions about why he’s not getting snaps. With him being injured, he’s sort of off-limits.
Ultimately, I’m not going to get fired up too much about a player arriving or leaving. No staff should be held to the standard of making sure a player or certain players don’t transfer. We live in a world where a player can transfer for any reason and maybe that player will eventually become an all-conference or all-American. We know that Hudson wasn’t better than Kelly and it’s debatable as to whether or not he was better than Caleb Douglas or Coy Eakin, or should have bumped them out of their spots. Regardless, good luck Micah and Jalon.
Red Raider Sports’ Ben Golan reports on 2026 Mount Pleasant DT Ayden Johnson (6-0/313) committing to Texas Tech on Saturday morning. Holding a block while making a tackle seems like an important skill for a defensive lineman and Johnson seems to do it quite well.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams wrote about the strong defensive performance on Saturday and McGuire’s comments after the game regarding the defense just not being good enough this year:
“We’ve got to make a huge improvement this spring,” McGuire said of the defense. “Whenever you’re playing in all these one-score games, there’s always reasons and that’s one of them. You’ve got to be able to play better defense and get off the field and then when you do hit lulls on offense, you’re able to get the ball back.”
This comment makes much more sense now given that McGuire let go of defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter and secondary coach Marcel Yates.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams on RB Tahj Brooks feeling the love in his final home football game of the year:
Asked what he believes his legacy at Tech to be, Brooks said, “I feel like my legacy here probably is … I want to say just the best running back Texas Tech has ever had. The only thing I probably haven’t done here is win the Doak Walker.”