Harrellin05

I just pulled in this morning at 2:30 so I'm trying to wake up while typing this. I just wanted to come back to this board and thank some of the greatest fans in college football. Everything I had heard about NU fans was pretty much proven this weekend. You guys are some of the most hospitable, gracious and all around good people. I had one negative and that was the guy sitting behind me whose 11 year old kid literally hung on my back the whole game while dad dropped the F-bomb every 5 seconds. I still would not let that ruin my experience though. Your team has incredible heart and the homefield advantage with the crowd behind them I thought was going to get them through. Another recruiting year like you had last year and you guys are freaking scary. Good luck the rest of the year, win the north!

Leach is a very odd guy, yes, but some of his quotes have become somewhat legendary on the RaiderPower site. There used to be a thread devoted to "Leachisms", I was going to post a link to it here, but couldn't find it. He doesn't give the same ol' coachspeak that you hear out of so many coaches these days. When he first came to Lubbock a lot of people hated the guy. My wife still doesn't understand him half the time, but I think he's great. I met the guy though so she didn't have the benefit of meeting him and hearing our conversation which was pretty normal. Somebody asked if he had been to Lincoln, yes he has I think it would have been either 2000 or 2001, I can't remember the last time Tech was up there. I can't wait to get up there. I'm leaving for Lubbock today and picking up some friends in the morning to head that way. Looks like the cold front moved in just in time for the trip. This will be my first visit to Memorial Stadium and hopefully not my last. I was lucky enough to go to Wrigley Field earlier this year and this is going to be right up there with that as far as I'm concerned. Good luck this weekend to both teams!

Thanks for the warm welcomes! Yes, the drives do lead you to believe that the defensive battle was won by KU's defense. I guess I think more in the terms of stats. First half our d held them to under 100 yards of offense which is rare for our d and KU substituted in 3 different qb's throughout the game. None were really effective. I do see your point though. Our kicking game has gotten quite a bit better from last year. Trlica was pretty inconsistent, but apparently has worked on that during the off-season. I think he has only missed one this year and he's perfect on PAT's. Reyes our punter is a good one. He punted 8 times last game as you said, and he had only had to punt 8 times total in the previous 3 games. He is currently 3rd in the conf. with a 44.8 yard avg. What can we look for from NU's defense? Are there still questions in the secondary? I'm looking forward to this weekend. We'll be up there bright and early Sat. am to start tailgating. I've heard there are lots north of the stadium for like $5-$10 to park in. Is that the best place for a visitor with an RV that wants to tailgate? Thanks for any input.

Just checking in to see what is being said about my Red Raiders. You guys do provide pretty good analysis, however there are a few things that I disagree with and most of that I think is because I was at an advantage and saw the game in person, where you're going off postgame stats and recaps. I'd like to think since Tech's d shutout KU in the 1st half and only allowed somewhere around 95 yards in the first half and only one long td drive for the game that they would be the dominant aspect in the game. KU's d did disrupt Tech's offense but I don't think they dominated the game. Had they won the game and totally shut down Tech then the argument could be made. Secondly someone wrote that Hodges lacks mobility. The stats there are rather misleading too due to the final stats of whatever 13 rushes and however many negative yards. Most of those sacks (5) came from his blindside and that DE was pretty dang quick. Cody has shown that he's not afraid to step up into the pocket, tuck it in and run when he needs to. He is much more athletic in that area than his predecessor. I give credit to KU's defense, they were a lot quicker than what the OL was used to going against (thank you POS out of conf. schedule). I just hope they will make the adustments before Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised if Hodges was in the shotgun more this week than he was last. Runningbacks You won't see Tech running a lot of traditional running plays. What you will see when Taurean has the ball he's usually taking it on a shovel pass or screen and he'll go from there. He is a solid receiver out of the backfield and a great athlete. He actually just broke the record for most career touchdowns at Tech a couple of weeks ago. Offensive Line The analysis on the OL was right on somewhat. They are the weakest and youngest unit and not much depth there. When things don't go right of course they catch the blame, when things do go right the glory always goes to one of the skill position players. Same song as it's always been. Wide receivers Just a correction, Hicks is a split-end (w4) and Filani is a flanker (w3). Robert Johnson and Danny Amendola would be your two inside receivers. Johnson was recruited to Tech to play at qb coming out of juco, I believe he was the top rated qb in the nation but was red shirted last year and made the move to IR. He's been a great addition. When Tech does put in a TE look for Bristol Olomua or Rylan Reed. Olomua is most likely who you will see since Reed is a "non-traditional" freshman, after playing pro baseball. It is a fine receiving corp and they will sub in and sub out a lot. I have wasted enough of ya'lls time and it is past my bedtime so I best get to bed. I'll be making the trek up on Friday to Lincoln for my first experience there and I'm really looking forward to it. Here's to a good, clean and injury free game for both sides!