BROOKS: Big showdown for Texas Tech, Oklahoma

By B.G. Brooks, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 20, 2008 at 1:08 p.m.

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Photo by Matt Slocum / Associated Press

Quarterback Graham Harrell has had huge success at Texas Tech.

This might be all the digging required to unearth what's behind Texas Tech's 10-0 record and No. 2 ranking: 499 pass attempts, six interceptions, five sacks allowed.

Those three statistics also show what No. 5 Oklahoma's defense is focused on Saturday for the weekly entry in the Monster (aka, South) Division of the Big 12 Conference.

The game is being billed as the biggest in Norman, Okla., since 2000, when the Sooners defeated then-No. 1 Nebraska 31-14 and ultimately won their seventh national championship.

The Red Raiders' aversion to negative offensive plays borders on unbelievable, as does Colorado's two-game winning streak against Tech (30-6 in 2006 in Boulder, 31-26 in 2007 in Lubbock).

Oklahoma has forced 15 turnovers in its past four games, leading to victories by an average score of 58-31, and Buffaloes coach Dan Hawkins recently credited fast starts and turnovers as the keys in those two wins against Tech.

Hawkins says Tech "comes out and just absolutely shoots the lights out and there's just no relenting; they continue to score and continue to put it on you. What I think happens a little bit on your team is you sort of feel this urgency like, 'We have to score every time we have it.' "

Oklahoma appears capable of doing that, averaging 51.4 points a game, while Tech averages 47.9.

Can someone get a stop . . . please?

Rotten to core

Saturday's Apple Cup game (Washington vs. Washington State) in Pullman, Wash., matches a pair of teams that are a combined 1-20, with neither combatant having beaten a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent this season.

The Huskies (0-10) are 117th in the FBS in total offense, the Cougars (1-10) are 118th. In scoring defense, U-Dub is 116th, Wazoo is 118th.

For the first time in Husky Stadium history (built: 1920), UW didn't win a home game. WSU, having allowed 533 points, is closing in on the FBS record of 566, yielded by Eastern Michigan in 2002.

Huskies defensive tackle Johnie Kirton told The Seattle Times, "Growing up (outside Seattle), it was either Washington State in a Rose Bowl or Washington in a Rose Bowl, so it's kind of embarrassing that both of us are doing so bad right now."

"Doing so bad" is a very, very kind assessment.

Ordinary Joe

If all goes as planned, next November will find Purdue coach Joe Tiller spending Saturdays in Wyoming - but not on the sidelines in Laramie, where he once worked.

The retiring Tiller coaches his last Boilermakers game Saturday against Indiana, and he has maintained in the weeks preceding his finale he didn't want it to be about him.

In truth, he didn't have a choice. His weekly luncheon became a tribute, his weekly radio/TV show followed suit, prompting this from Tiller: "I don't care for it that much, but I appreciated it immensely. I think Saturday it could be emotional."

His final Purdue team is 3-8, giving him an 86-62 record in 12 seasons (125-92-1 overall).

Build it, fill it

No. 1 Alabama has a season- ticket waiting list that exceeds 10,000. No wonder 'Bama officials believe a plan to expand Bryant- Denny Stadium to a capacity of more than 101,000 makes financial sense.

"One of the main reasons for this is to expand student seating. We want to accommodate every student that wants to go," said Finis St. John, the board of trustee president pro tem in The Birmingham News.

Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (102,038) is the Southeastern Conference's largest, Vanderbilt Stadium (39,790) the smallest.

Good hands, bad heads

The frat boys-football players brawl at Florida State that resulted in five receivers being suspended last week is being viewed as another example of the Seminoles program's disciplinary shambles.

FSU trustees Jim Smith, the group's chairman, and board member Emily Fleming Duda think the NCAA is taking interest and "serious, serious sanctions" could be forthcoming, said Duda.

Said school president T.K. Weatherall, who played for coach Bobby Bowden: "It just tarnishes what everybody is doing."

Bowden called the incident "a black eye" and "a disappointment . . . but life is made of disappointments."

Right. Some places more than others.

Right on, Big O

We don't know which box - John McCain's or Barack Obama's - Florida coach Urban Meyer filled in on his presidential ballot, but we do know Meyer is liking what he's hearing from Obama, the president-elect.

After Obama said Sunday on 60 Minutes that he supports a college football playoff, Meyer told the The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union, "I think he needs to go meet with (Florida athletic director) Jeremy Foley.

"I'm glad to see (Obama is) interested. Any time a president-elect or any (people of influence) place the value on athletics like we all do, I think that's good. I think that's good for our country."

Squeezing the Orange

Some creative Tennessee fans, not the least bit sorrowful to see a coaching change under way, have begun referring to the outgoing coach as "Phillip Paid-in-Ful-mer" and their team as the "Vol-In-Tears." Nice to see humor, albeit of the gallows variety, prevailing in sad times over in "Knocksville."

Last and short

* Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops isn't the only one in the family facing a big game Saturday. Brother Mike, Arizona's coach, faces No. 21 Oregon State. The Wildcats (6-4) have enjoyed a handful of big wins in November but could offer validation for their coach by beating the Beavers.

* South Florida junior quarterback Matt Grothe plans on graduating this spring or summer, and he'll also petition the NFL's draft advisory council for an early peek at his draft status. He leads the Big East in total offense (275.5 yards), passing (236.2) and touchdown passes (15).

* After interviewing with Clemson, Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster told a Virginia newspaper that former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables also have interviewed for the job. Kiffin also is being mentioned as a replacement for Greg Robinson at Syracuse, along with East Carolina's Skip Holtz.

Clothes make the Duck

* Oregon, with Nike honcho Phil Knight again playing clothier, has upgraded its uniforms to black pants, dark green helmets and silver and yellow wings on the shoulders of black jerseys. The whole outfit allegedly is lighter, but coach Mike Bellotti said the Ducks were stylin'. "They looked awesome," he said. "They're going to keep on coming (the new styles). Our tradition is innovation."

BIG 12 SMALL TALK

* Ron Prince ends his short Kansas State stay with Saturday's game against Iowa State. His exit marks the 21st coaching change since the league's formation in 1996, but Prince's tenure (three seasons) was shorter than the average of 5.1 years. Oklahoma and Texas are the only league schools not to make a change since 1999; the other 10 schools have had 14 new coaches this decade.

* Since a 21-16 loss at Iowa State in 2006, back-to-back North Division champion Missouri hasn't lost a division game (10-0) and has outscored those 10 opponents 468-182 - or an average of 47-18. "We want to control the North Division," receiver Jeremy Maclin said in the Columbia Tribune. "We want to stay on top. Mizzou's on the rise. Now we got to stay up there."

* How good are the league's good-hands guys? Six of the 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the nation's top receiver, are from the Big 12, and two are from the same team. The semifinalists: Dez Bryant, Oklahoma State; Quan Cosby, Texas; Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech; Chase Coffman and Maclin, Missouri, and Kerry Meier, Kansas.

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