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Posted
4 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

Just to dovetail on this, because I feel like this is an important point regarding Texas recruiting. This isn't for a Texas Tech audience. This is for fellow Longhorn fans.

I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole of the 70s and 80s, because that's it's own thing, but it did set a foundation for the pure as the driven snow approach the administration, the coaching staff, and frankly, all of us fans took regarding our football program.

In the late 90s Mack Brown arrived and shifted the entire dynamics for how to recruit Texas. He locked the state down. Texas went on a facilities spending spree that no one else could even approach. Brown was a Svengali wizard with closing skills even Alec Baldwin could admire. But things changed towards the middle of the 2000s. There were mistakes made on the Texas side, so it's not all on every one else. But this is when 7 on 7s first becoming popular, where you were falling behind in development and exposure if you didn't participate. It was the beginning of the personal trainer era. All of this had been going on in basketball since the 80s, but high school football coaches had held on as the gatekeepers, at least in Texas, into the mid 2000s.

Saban was the first to industrialize the new dynamic. Suddenly Alabama was tossing out 300+ offers per recruiting cycle, with the caveat that they weren't "committable" offers. To make it committable, you had to make it to one of the Alabama camps. How were you going to get to one of the camps? Well, Alabama would pay your way. This was the start of the paid unofficial visits, which are basically de rigeur and have been the worst kept secret in college football recruiting for a decade and a half. They would spread around hefty bonuses to third parties who could get talented players to their campus. Soon the whole SEC was participating in these shenanigans, and not long thereafter, the rest of the college football world as well. Especially Clemson, Oregon, and Ohio State. 

Mack Brown, and then Charlie Strong after him, refused to play this game. We wouldn't do anything to establish relationships with third parties because we still felt like the key relationship was with the Texas high school football coaches. We also wouldn't move up our recruiting cycle, because Mack Brown felt like kids should finish their junior season first. So not only were we not compensating players in the same way schools like Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State were doing, we also were refusing to work with third parties, we weren't willing to compensate players for visiting the campus on an unofficial visit, we weren't helping defray costs much less financially reward people for bringing talented players to campus. 

And in the meantime all of us - and I include myself in this - would feel good about how tight we were able to wear our halos. I remember the first time I had my road to Damascus moment was when it was apparent we had a legitimate shot at Saban. At the time he felt like he had no chance to compete with Bear Bryant's legacy at Alabama, but if he could become the first coach to win 3 national titles at 3 different schools, that's something he could be remembered for. It's laughable now, but at the time none of us - including Saban himself - understood the dominant run he was about to go on. I thought about it, and realized I wanted to win so badly in this new environment, that if hiring Saban was the price we had to pay, I was all in. Then Dodds and Brown managed to cockblock him, and the opportunity vanished.

I remember when we were hiring Tom Herman, and I told a collection of hardcore fans that we were going to start working with third parties and paying for unofficial visits, and everyone was aghast. "Oh, we don't do that at Texas." Yeah, we don't, and we're getting our heads handed to us in recruiting because we don't. You have to make the decision whether you're willing to compete in the big time, and right now we are literally making the deliberate decision we don't want to. It's not possible to compete in this environment without working with third parties and without helping with unofficial visits. That's anywhere. 

I'll also say that the reason Texas is in the position it's in regarding NIL has very little to do with the coaching staff or the administration. People don't understand how hard it is to do anything from the grassroots level without buy in from the heads of the organizations they're ostensibly trying to help. It's one of the hardest things in human society. It's unbelievably hard. I'm not going to say the administration sabotaged NIL efforts, but they sure didn't make it easy. They saw it as a threat, not an opportunity.

The folks who worked on NIL at the beginning are heroes to me. I mean that literally. I did nothing to help, but as a fan I get to reap the rewards of unending cold calling, unending hearing the word no, unending education of the stakeholders. Yes, we have a rich alumni base, but not that many of them wanted to invest in NIL. We don't have a Phil Knight $30 billionaire whale bankrolling our entire operation. Even now the administration would prefer in some ways to have the $20.5 million figure be the ceiling for payroll costs, but if we abided by their wishes we'd be ceding the field to the Texas Techs of the world. 

I say ad nauseum that you have to have the right coach. All the support in the world doesn't matter if the wrong guy is in charge. Neither Charlie Strong nor Tom Herman nor late Mack Brown would be successful in the current environment at Texas. It would simply buttress their collective incompetence. I feel like Sarkisian is the right guy. I can't say I felt that when he was hired. I certainly didn't feel that way after his first two years. But the way he's built the program, the way he's built his staff, the consistent development I see in Longhorn players in ways I never have before. The narrative he paints about changing the culture, with the GPA, the "way you are some of the time is the way you are all the time" line, the way he and his staff vet the players they go after. The work ethic. The transparency. The results on the field. I'm a believer.

But without being willing to compete in the same way the programs around us are competing would tie the hands behind the back of whoever the head coach happened to be. I am grateful the people who are in a position to make these kinds of decisions are choosing the path they're choosing. 

Please no spoilers in express’s novel. I’m almost done reading it. Need one more day. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Tired Horn said:

So, what are the golden days of Tech football? Off the top of my head, here are the top three in my football watching lifetime:

1. 1973 - Jim Carlen and Joe Barnes produced an 11-1 season with a Gator Bowl win over Tennessee. Might have beaten Texas to finish the regular season unbeaten if the game had been in Lubbock instead of Austin. Final rank = 11.  

2. 2008 - Mike Leach went 11-2 just  in time for a contract extension that they ran him off to be rid of the next year. Final rank = 12.

3. 1976 - Steve Sloan and Rodney Allison (with a little known assistant coach named Bill Parcels) went 10-2 and almost went to the Cotton Bowl. Final rank = 13.

As far as a sustained era, I'd pick Leach. He got Tech consistent television coverage, making them feel relevant even when they were mediocre.

Good luck in winning the Medium 12, you occasionally Red, occasionally Black Raiders.

 

 

I'd have to agree, I got to Tech as a freshman in Leach's first year. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, Tired Horn said:

So, what are the golden days of Tech football? Off the top of my head, here are the top three in my football watching lifetime:

1. 1973 - Jim Carlen and Joe Barnes produced an 11-1 season with a Gator Bowl win over Tennessee. Might have beaten Texas to finish the regular season unbeaten if the game had been in Lubbock instead of Austin. Final rank = 11.  

2. 2008 - Mike Leach went 11-2 just  in time for a contract extension that they ran him off to be rid of the next year. Final rank = 12.

3. 1976 - Steve Sloan and Rodney Allison (with a little known assistant coach named Bill Parcels) went 10-2 and almost went to the Cotton Bowl. Final rank = 13.

As far as a sustained era, I'd pick Leach. He got Tech consistent television coverage, making them feel relevant even when they were mediocre.

Good luck in winning the Medium 12, you occasionally Red, occasionally Black Raiders.

 

 

Mike Leach also had Cody Campbell and John Sellers on his roster. That looks like it might be one of the biggest parts of his legacy at Texas Tech. 

  • Like 1
Posted
3 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Mike Leach also had Cody Campbell and John Sellers on his roster. That looks like it might be one of the biggest parts of his legacy at Texas Tech. 

There are many measures of Leach's greatness, whether it was his eventual coaching tree, his innovation and influence on the game, or even his focus on academics when players still followed a 4-5 year program- in case you forgot, he had  RB Edward Britton sitting at a desk on the field during practice one year for not focusing on the books.  His grad rates were relatively stellar, especially compared with what he inherited in 1999.

Maybe it is by definition the Leach curse, but in his last season at Tech, one which was recognized as an absolute rebuilding campaign, his team went 9-4, including the Alamo Bowl he wasn't allowed to coach.  In the subsequent 15 seasons, the Red Raiders never topped 8 wins, regardless of the circumstances.  IMHO, that is an additional measure of the man's legacy.

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Posted
On 8/12/2025 at 12:54 PM, TrashMaster G said:

oRM28U.gif

 

This one is too good for just a .gif that ends before you see that dude wobble around in the spirit world. His kids are probably still concussed thanks to Vasher

 

Posted
16 hours ago, Brian Fantana said:

There's a best buy too

The Bears have to drive to Dallas to go the Cheesecake Factory. I’m told there’s also one of those in Lubbock. They just don’t put Cheesecake Factories anywhere.

Posted
11 hours ago, Frank Drebin said:

You’re seeing now what it is like if UT could pay players.  

Oh those dark times when Texas didn't out-talent other teams.  I 'member...

Posted
55 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Oh those dark times when Texas didn't out-talent other teams.  I 'member...

You can be obtuse all you want.  But if you cannot see the difference, I do not know what to tell you.

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Going to be another 10 in 2026.

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Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, Iceman said:

LOL.  Every team in the world was paying players, but unicorns and bigfoot resided in Austin.

You dumbass. I’m going to help you apply some critical reasoning. 
 
Look at how many SWC championships Royal won. How many times he finished in the top 5. Compare it to his regional and national peers. 
 
Now, go look at how many (how few, actually) NFL players he coached. There are surprisingly few. (Hilariously, a large percent were WRs that were targeted about ten times per season at Texas). His predecessor and successor both had more future pros per roster. 
 
Royal was not building teams by outbidding the competition for the sure thing blue chips. He didn’t want boosters buying players because he didn’t want to cede control. 
 
When Royal was told that a rival school was starting to really cheat, He’d call their HC on the phone and tell them that if they didn’t put a stop to it, he was going to the NCAA. He could do that because he didn’t fear reciprocity. He was happy recruiting, just relying on the natural advantages of UT. 
 
Now, go back to explaining how to win at college football from your Lubbock perch. I’ll hand it to you, Techsters- y’all have played in bowl games I never knew existed. 

Edited by statsman
Posted (edited)

Lol, but talent reason doesn't support your story at all.  I was told, 'Now we're paying them. See the difference?'

No. there isn't a difference. All that changed was the medium for payment. 
 

aggy ain't the only institution with fairy tales.  Just own it.  But you can't. Homer announcerism is all you know. 

Edited by Iceman
Posted
18 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Lol, but talent reason doesn't support your story at all.  I was told, 'Now we're paying them. See the difference?'

No. there isn't a difference. All that changed was the medium for payment. 
 

aggy ain't the only institution with fairy tales.  Just own it.  But you can't. Homer announcerism is all you know. 

You can’t see it for the same reason you couldn’t get into Texas and wound up at Tech in the first place - you aren’t smart enough to see anything on your own. Even when something is spelled out plainly to help you follow things, your room temperature IQ gets in the way. 

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Posted (edited)
22 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Lol, but talent reason doesn't support your story at all.  I was told, 'Now we're paying them. See the difference?'

No. there isn't a difference. All that changed was the medium for payment. 
 

aggy ain't the only institution with fairy tales.  Just own it.  But you can't. Homer announcerism is all you know. 

This is a particularly bold statement. I suggest that you take a brief holiday from expressing such extreme opinions and consider a few objectively determinable points, including:

Did the story you reference make explicit mention of the relative paucity of future NFL players on DKR's teams?

What is the current preseason #1 (AP and Coaches), and how often was that true in the past?

How many players has that team had drafted over the last two years, and where does this number lie wrt its historical median and mean?

Did that team have a policy in place formerly requiring players to document their accommodations and any vehicle they might be seen driving so as to help verify that they were not receiving any impermissible benefits?

Is that school winning a higher percentage of recruiting battles for 4* and 5* athletes from regions and against schools traditionally associated with the "bag game?"

You are free to opine that to you the difference does not matter. This is a feeling on your part about which you are likely the expert. But I advise dialing back the demonstrably false claims.

Edited by Magus Ossis
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Posted
31 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Lol, but talent reason doesn't support your story at all.  I was told, 'Now we're paying them. See the difference?'

No. there isn't a difference. All that changed was the medium for payment. 
 

aggy ain't the only institution with fairy tales.  Just own it.  But you can't. Homer announcerism is all you know. 

Stupidity Are You Stupid GIF

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Posted
1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

You can’t see it for the same reason you couldn’t get into Texas and wound up at Tech in the first place - you aren’t smart enough to see anything on your own. Even when something is spelled out plainly to help you follow things, your room temperature IQ gets in the way. 

This is the truth. We are talking about the same guy who came on here for years insisting that UT had the consistent support of an abundance of questionable calls by B12 refs going in our favor.

Yeah, read that again and consider how monumentally stupid it is. 

 

16 minutes ago, demos said:

Man, what will Tech do? No more tortillas and no more guns up!

These are dark times on the South Plains.

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Posted

Tech people are too dumb to believe in our fairy tales, so we'll insult them until they believe in the sanctity of the rusty uterus. 
 

lolz. Fuck off. 
 

there's a reason the baseball threads work on this board. Y'all like your homer bullshit and can't believe everyone ain't subscribed.  

Posted
18 hours ago, Iceman said:

The best DB many fans have never heard of, including Tech fans.

Elmer Tarbox

ebaa200c-f98e-40c4-824d-4d2e5148a027-5._

I would disagree with the "...including Tech fans" now thanks to the Football Ring of Honor.  Made people look him up.  Amongst my circle, though, we knew who he was and he was legendary, mainly because when Arch Lamb was still alive he would tell us stories about Tarbox (they were at Tech at the same time).

Posted
22 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Tech people are too dumb to believe in our fairy tales, so we'll insult them until they believe in the sanctity of the rusty uterus. 
 

lolz. Fuck off. 
 

there's a reason the baseball threads work on this board. Y'all like your homer bullshit and can't believe everyone ain't subscribed.  

After you’re done explaining to us how our program has worked, why don’t you go to MD Anderson and fill the Oncologists in on how they treat cancer, and maybe, while you’re at it, tell the Pope what he doesn’t get right about Catholicism. 

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Posted
49 minutes ago, Iceman said:

We can do it twice.  Then penalty. 
 

Question:  how will they know it is home fans?

Because no other fanbase regularly throws groceries onto the field during their games? I remember when this whole tortilla thing started. It was the year Tech went to the cotton bowl and got skull drug by Keyshawn. Johnson and USC. My uncle is a big time tech alum and he was so embarrassed by the tortillas. The fact you have kept doing it all these years is… I guess not surprising.

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Posted
46 minutes ago, Iceman said:

Tech people are too dumb to believe in our fairy tales, so we'll insult them until they believe in the sanctity of the rusty uterus. 
 

lolz. Fuck off. 
 

there's a reason the baseball threads work on this board. Y'all like your homer bullshit and can't believe everyone ain't subscribed.  

We don't give a fuck what you believe.  We do enjoy pointing out your ignorance.

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Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

Because no other fanbase regularly throws groceries onto the field during their games? I remember when this whole tortilla thing started. It was the year Tech went to the cotton bowl and got skull drug by Keyshawn. Johnson and USC. My uncle is a big time tech alum and he was so embarrassed by the tortillas. The fact you have kept doing it all these years is… I guess not surprising.

Wrong.

The tortillas started at least 5-6 years before that.  They were throwing them my freshman year in 1991 (not nearly as many as they would by 1995, but it started either then or maybe the year before in 1990).

Edited by Uncle Nate
Posted
3 hours ago, Iceman said:

Lol, but talent reason doesn't support your story at all.  I was told, 'Now we're paying them. See the difference?'

No. there isn't a difference. All that changed was the medium for payment. 
 

aggy ain't the only institution with fairy tales.  Just own it.  But you can't. Homer announcerism is all you know. 

Are you retarded?

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Posted
On 8/12/2025 at 4:58 PM, Iceman said:

I'm just cruising through the offseason, looking up old dudes, and not so old.  Robert Hall, for instance.  I wish he could have played for Leach.  Holy furk Hall was before his time.  and this is the only fucking picture I can find???

hq720.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEhCK4FEIIDSFryq4qpAx

Mechanically, probably Dick Winders finest work.  

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Posted
15 hours ago, Uncle Nate said:

Wrong.

The tortillas started at least 5-6 years before that.  They were throwing them my freshman year in 1991 (not nearly as many as they would by 1995, but it started either then or maybe the year before in 1990).

What kind do they throw, corn or flour?
HEB brand or homemade? Plain or buttered & salted?

Posted
1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

What kind do they throw, corn or flour?
HEB brand or homemade? Plain or buttered & salted?

HEB hasn't made it to Lubbock yet. That'd be a waste of damn good tortillas.

Posted

I'll be honest. If they only threw them around in the stands, it would be one of those quirky traditions that make CFB cool IMO. Less fun for the clean up crew, but that's a small issue. The real problem is that throwing anything at benches or the field is out-of-bounds for me. And BTW, I think there is HEB in Lubbock.

Posted
3 minutes ago, Magus Ossis said:

I'll be honest. If they only threw them around in the stands, it would be one of those quirky traditions that make CFB cool IMO. Less fun for the clean up crew, but that's a small issue. The real problem is that throwing anything at benches or the field is out-of-bounds for me. And BTW, I think there is HEB in Lubbock.

Well I'll be go to hell, you're right! https://www.heb.com/heb-store/tx/lubbock/lubbock-h-e-b-772

I can't get one near my home in DFW, but the tortilla-tossers have one???

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Posted (edited)
14 hours ago, TheStoicPaisano said:

Spotters will love the giant numbers. The double T logo is unique.

 

They misspelled Tceh. These uniforms are a bit cartoony, but somehow I kind of like them. 

Edited by Vertigo
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Posted (edited)
28 minutes ago, DFW Horn said:

HEB hasn't made it to Lubbock yet. That'd be a waste of damn good tortillas.

False.  It's on the south side of town in the Hub City.  Not in Amarillo, but it has been in LBK for about 3 years or more.

 

I agree they shouldn't be thrown on the field.  Good luck policing that.  Still have a problem on the 2 warnings, and then the visitors decide to do their thing.    I'm glad it isn't banned, but also don't trust people to avoid shenanigans.

Edited by Iceman
Posted
23 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

They misspelled Tceh. These uniforms are a bit cartoony, but somehow I kind of like them. 

I like how they tried to incorporate uniform elements from the different decades, starting with the 1920's:

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