FAIR WARNING: There are spoilers for Season 3 of Game of Thrones below. If you have any interest in remaining spoiler free, then you should not read this column.
Texas Tech is an average baseball finish away from a stronger-than-the-original sequel to the Year of Suck -- more Empire Strikes Back and Godfather II than Speed 2 or The Matrix: Reloaded.
What is truly sobering is that Texas Tech's 2014-15 academic year is far less anomalous than most would like to admit.
The football program has lost 13 of its last 16 games against Power Five opponents and hasn't finished with a winning Big 12 record since 2009. The men's basketball program has finished ninth or worse in the league for seven-consecutive seasons. The women's basketball program has won just five of its last 40 games against conference opponents. Things aren't nearly as bad on the diamond for the Red Raiders -- especially after sweeping Baylor this weekend -- but even that program has had its share of recent frustrations when compared against preseason expectations.
There's been so much disappointment surrounding the Double T lately that you would think the last few years of Texas Tech athletics were something straight out George R. R. Martin's notebook. The few, fleeting moments of glory have been drowned in a salty sea of absolute wretchedness.
The football program bottoming out (you hope) at 4-8 last season was merely the most jarring of the recent letdowns.
It's to the point that the most referenced highlight of the 2014 football season was a loss, which is not all that dissimilar to the Red Wedding being the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions Game of Thrones.
The Red Wedding -- and, specifically, Robb Stark's death -- extinguished any short-term hope for happiness in the series. It signaled that things would get worse for the series' protagonists before they got better.
For the Red Raiders, Pat Mahomes is pre-Red Wedding Robb Stark. He is the last short-term hope for happiness. Big weekends from the tennis, soccer and track and field programs can provide isolated moments of satisfaction but, if everyone is being honest with themselves, Mahomes is the key to whether fans begin to wake up every morning feeling confident about Texas Tech athletics again.
If Mahomes can improve upon his performance as a true freshman, the Texas Tech football team will rebound from its 4-8 finish in 2014. If his 625-yard, six-touchdown showing against Baylor turns out to be more of a sign of things to come than a career highlight, the Red Raiders will return to the upper half of the Big 12 football standings for the first time since 2009. If Mahomes' career path is more Robb Stark than Graham Harrell, the mood surrounding Texas Texas athletics is going to get darker than the Rains of Castamere.
There isn't another young gun in the pipeline for the most important position for the most important sport on campus. The program didn't sign a quarterback in February and has so far struck out on elite signal callers in the 2016 class.
Sure, there are other quarterbacks on the roster. Davis Webb has started and won games for the Red Raiders before, but his 2014 season was a massive disappointment even before injuries sidelined him for the final four games. Nic Shimonek was a scholarship quarterback at Iowa before transferring to the South Plains and earned a measure of praise for his scout team work in 2014, but he hasn't been mentioned at all as a contender for the starting job this fall. Both could probably win games for the Red Raiders in the next two years, but neither represent the same kind of untainted hope that Mahomes does.
How many quarterbacks achieved greatness -- truly great, not good or pretty good -- in college after going from entrenched, clear-cut No. 1 starter to backup? I'll answer this for you: Not very many.
To put it simply, history would suggest that the next great Texas Tech quarterback is either Mahomes or someone who isn't old enough to get into an R-rated movie by himself.
Winter is coming, and the Red Raiders desperately need Mahomes to avoid a Red Wedding-esque sophomore season.
IN MY HEAD
... Saturday will mark exactly six months since a Texas Tech quarterback last spoke with the media. Davis Webb was made available after the Red Raiders' 34-21 win over Kansas on Oct. 18, 2014.
... For as much as the team dynamic in organized sports is pushed in everyone's faces -- the team as a family, all for one and one for all, all working toward one collective goal -- it's always interesting to watch when that narrative crumbles over money. The latest example of this is the L.A. Angels trying to parlay Josh Hamilton's relapse into a reason to void his contract.
... I'm just seven episodes in, but Marvel's Daredevil hasn't captured me as much as some of Netflix's other offerings have, namely House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.
... We should find out this week whether Texas Tech's Janine Beckie made the Canadian Women's National Team for the upcoming World Cup.
... Is Brad Stevens already a top five coach in the NBA?
... I would not want to play this game with my parents.
... 'In the Kingdom of Ice' is the best book I've read so far this year. It's a non-fiction account of an ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole in the late 1870s. It's pretty remarkable how wrong the prevailing wisdom was at the time about the North Pole. (For those wondering, the first person probably reached the North Pole in 1909, but even that account is disputed.)
... It has become common practice for coaches to insult everyone's intelligence with their answers to questions. We just accept it now. No one bats an eye at these coaches lying to everyone. For example, how many times did Tommy Tuberville say Jace Amaro was "day to day" with what we later learned was a lacerated spleen? Texas head coach Charlie Strong is just the latest example of this, saying in a sworn deposition that he doesn't know who called the Longhorns' offensive plays in the team's blowout loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl.
... It's never too late to reinvent yourself or make it big. In 1988, Gregg Popovich was the 39-year-old head men's basketball coach at Div. III Pomona-Pitzer in Claremont, Calif.
... Juice of the Week -- Apple.
This post was edited on 4/13 11:21 AM by A. Dickens
Texas Tech is an average baseball finish away from a stronger-than-the-original sequel to the Year of Suck -- more Empire Strikes Back and Godfather II than Speed 2 or The Matrix: Reloaded.
What is truly sobering is that Texas Tech's 2014-15 academic year is far less anomalous than most would like to admit.
The football program has lost 13 of its last 16 games against Power Five opponents and hasn't finished with a winning Big 12 record since 2009. The men's basketball program has finished ninth or worse in the league for seven-consecutive seasons. The women's basketball program has won just five of its last 40 games against conference opponents. Things aren't nearly as bad on the diamond for the Red Raiders -- especially after sweeping Baylor this weekend -- but even that program has had its share of recent frustrations when compared against preseason expectations.
There's been so much disappointment surrounding the Double T lately that you would think the last few years of Texas Tech athletics were something straight out George R. R. Martin's notebook. The few, fleeting moments of glory have been drowned in a salty sea of absolute wretchedness.
The football program bottoming out (you hope) at 4-8 last season was merely the most jarring of the recent letdowns.
It's to the point that the most referenced highlight of the 2014 football season was a loss, which is not all that dissimilar to the Red Wedding being the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions Game of Thrones.
The Red Wedding -- and, specifically, Robb Stark's death -- extinguished any short-term hope for happiness in the series. It signaled that things would get worse for the series' protagonists before they got better.
For the Red Raiders, Pat Mahomes is pre-Red Wedding Robb Stark. He is the last short-term hope for happiness. Big weekends from the tennis, soccer and track and field programs can provide isolated moments of satisfaction but, if everyone is being honest with themselves, Mahomes is the key to whether fans begin to wake up every morning feeling confident about Texas Tech athletics again.
If Mahomes can improve upon his performance as a true freshman, the Texas Tech football team will rebound from its 4-8 finish in 2014. If his 625-yard, six-touchdown showing against Baylor turns out to be more of a sign of things to come than a career highlight, the Red Raiders will return to the upper half of the Big 12 football standings for the first time since 2009. If Mahomes' career path is more Robb Stark than Graham Harrell, the mood surrounding Texas Texas athletics is going to get darker than the Rains of Castamere.
There isn't another young gun in the pipeline for the most important position for the most important sport on campus. The program didn't sign a quarterback in February and has so far struck out on elite signal callers in the 2016 class.
Sure, there are other quarterbacks on the roster. Davis Webb has started and won games for the Red Raiders before, but his 2014 season was a massive disappointment even before injuries sidelined him for the final four games. Nic Shimonek was a scholarship quarterback at Iowa before transferring to the South Plains and earned a measure of praise for his scout team work in 2014, but he hasn't been mentioned at all as a contender for the starting job this fall. Both could probably win games for the Red Raiders in the next two years, but neither represent the same kind of untainted hope that Mahomes does.
How many quarterbacks achieved greatness -- truly great, not good or pretty good -- in college after going from entrenched, clear-cut No. 1 starter to backup? I'll answer this for you: Not very many.
To put it simply, history would suggest that the next great Texas Tech quarterback is either Mahomes or someone who isn't old enough to get into an R-rated movie by himself.
Winter is coming, and the Red Raiders desperately need Mahomes to avoid a Red Wedding-esque sophomore season.
IN MY HEAD
... Saturday will mark exactly six months since a Texas Tech quarterback last spoke with the media. Davis Webb was made available after the Red Raiders' 34-21 win over Kansas on Oct. 18, 2014.
... For as much as the team dynamic in organized sports is pushed in everyone's faces -- the team as a family, all for one and one for all, all working toward one collective goal -- it's always interesting to watch when that narrative crumbles over money. The latest example of this is the L.A. Angels trying to parlay Josh Hamilton's relapse into a reason to void his contract.
... I'm just seven episodes in, but Marvel's Daredevil hasn't captured me as much as some of Netflix's other offerings have, namely House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.
... We should find out this week whether Texas Tech's Janine Beckie made the Canadian Women's National Team for the upcoming World Cup.
... Is Brad Stevens already a top five coach in the NBA?
... I would not want to play this game with my parents.
... 'In the Kingdom of Ice' is the best book I've read so far this year. It's a non-fiction account of an ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole in the late 1870s. It's pretty remarkable how wrong the prevailing wisdom was at the time about the North Pole. (For those wondering, the first person probably reached the North Pole in 1909, but even that account is disputed.)
... It has become common practice for coaches to insult everyone's intelligence with their answers to questions. We just accept it now. No one bats an eye at these coaches lying to everyone. For example, how many times did Tommy Tuberville say Jace Amaro was "day to day" with what we later learned was a lacerated spleen? Texas head coach Charlie Strong is just the latest example of this, saying in a sworn deposition that he doesn't know who called the Longhorns' offensive plays in the team's blowout loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl.
... It's never too late to reinvent yourself or make it big. In 1988, Gregg Popovich was the 39-year-old head men's basketball coach at Div. III Pomona-Pitzer in Claremont, Calif.
... Juice of the Week -- Apple.
This post was edited on 4/13 11:21 AM by A. Dickens
