“Get Real” Raider Fans

Guess what?  Mike Leach ain't coming back.  And you know what else?  Tubberville ain't going nowhere.  And the coach doesn't really care about what "kind of football" you like, he's going to do things his way and that's all there is too it.  There's one big problem with this, he's never going to be able to get all the players he needs to make his system work.  Read more after the break.

The minute Tubberville called his backfield "the pistol" and put the Red Raiders in white helmets it was obvious that the coach was going to put his stamp on the team.  We are no longer "the Red and Black", we are the "Red and Black and sometimes white, except on days when we were camouflage and so on".  It doesn't seem like much, but we seem as confused on the field as we are about our team colors.

Back to recruiting, if you were a football player and you at least thought you might be pro caliber someday, wouldn't you want to play in a market that would expose you to a pro team and pro scouts as much as possible?   Sorry kids, Lubbock is just a blip on that radar.  And even when there's not a pro team around I think it's hard to recruit against "big city" programs.  These kids have stars in their eyes and they're immature enough that their going to go to the place that's going to impress their friends.

I heard the most ridiculous thing from a sports fan Saturday.  It was something along the lines of "sure our other coach's put together all of these winning seasons, but the couldn't get us to the national championships".  How f'n stupid is that?  Let's keep in mind that #1.  There's only ONE national championship and only two teams out of hundreds are trying for it and #2. We did come close once (when we had a ten game winning season).   There was also the claim that "defense wins championships" (that old worn out saying). I've got news for you guys, MORE POINTS THAN THE OTHER GUYS WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS and it doesn't really matter how you get there.   The other thing was is that "we have to play good football on all three sides of the ball".  This goes back to recruiting, I just don't think we'll ever have the draw to do that.  At least when we had a killer offense we had excitement and  crazy plays and huge yardage totals that  kept us in the national sports news.

I'm not a Tommy Tuberville hater, I just think he's a square peg that we're trying to put in the wrong hole.  I think he's a poor fit for Tech and that' s going to suck for him as much as it does for us.  He's probably a great guy who feels like he's stepped in it right now.  We're going to lose a lot more before we get better and even then I don't think any conference, let along national championships are in our future. Before, at least on occasions, we forced teams like OU, OSU and Texas to play OUR game which threw them off stride, now we're trying to play football their way and we're just never going to get the players to do it.

So what do you do?  You can support the team or step away. You can understand the situation and quit grumbling for a few years.  You are NEVER going to convince the Tech Administration that they made the wrong choice, their egos will NOT allow it.  They found the guy that will go to cocktail parties with donors and shake hands with their friends.  They just kind of forgot he had to coach football in Lubbock Texas too.

I'm still going to check out the games on occasion and stick by the coach (after all, his is OUR coach, win or lose), but until proven otherwise, I think we're going to have a lot of mediocre football seasons.

What are your thought? Can you stick with Tech? Do you think the coach was the wrong choice? Do you think he can turn it around?  Please state your case, I'm not the biggest football fan, I'm just making some observations on the situation as I understand it, which may not be how it really it.