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BROOKS: It's time for Texas Tech to earn respect

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

Published October 30, 2008 at 2:39 p.m.

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Senior Graham Harrell is the latest in a long line of prototypical quarterbacks Mike Leach has had at his disposal during his nine years as coach at Texas Tech.

Photo by Matt Slocum / Associated Press

Senior Graham Harrell is the latest in a long line of prototypical quarterbacks Mike Leach has had at his disposal during his nine years as coach at Texas Tech.

Flagging discipline

South Florida coach Jim Leavitt wants his team to annually rank among the Football Bowl Subdivision leaders, but not in this category: The Bulls are the only team that has finished among the top 10 in penalties every season since 2001. USF led FBS (formerly Division I-A) in penalties in 2002 and was No. 2 in 2001, 2004 and 2007. This season, the Bulls rank tied for fourth, averaging 8.63 a game.

Kickoff

BIG 12 SMALL TALK

* If Missouri coach Gary Pinkel has no interest in replacing Ty Willingham at Washington, Pinkel's offensive coordinator, Dave Christensen, might be in the running. Christensen was a former Huskies player in the early 1980s. Other names surfacing in the early U-Dub search are Jim Mora Jr. and Lane Kiffin.

* After a 32-20 comeback victory against Baylor, several Nebraska players said the Cornhuskers had rediscovered the art of winning - lost under former coach Bill Callahan. Said linebacker Cody Glenn: "We've had a few close games. Some of them we let slip away, but we're understanding how to win." The Huskers (5-3) are a win short of bowl eligibility but won't get it Saturday at No. 4 Oklahoma.

* Sooners coach Bob Stoops and Cornhuskers coach Bo Pelini attended the same high school (Cardinal Mooney, Youngstown, Ohio), but not at the same time, and worked together on the 2004 Oklahoma staff. Don't expect Pelini to follow his predecessor's lead: On the Huskers' 2004 visit to Norman, Okla., Callahan referred to Sooners fans as "(expletive) hillbillies."

* Who said it? "You can't expect to play three or four years (of college football) without expecting to get your butt whooped every now and then." Could have been anyone from Colorado (a 58-0 loser to Missouri) or Kansas (a 63-21 loser to Texas Tech). It was Jayhawks quarterback Todd Reesing.

GAMES TO WATCH

* Kansas State (4-4, 1-3) at Kansas (5-3, 2-2), 10:30 a.m. Saturday (FSN): With a loss, the Jayhawks take another step back toward mediocrity.

* No. 8 Georgia (7-1, 4-1) vs. No. 5 Florida (6-1, 4-1) at Jacksonville, Fla., 1:30 p.m. Saturday (CBS 4): The Bulldogs were lights out last week against Louisiana State, but the Gators have been waiting for this one.

* No. 1 Texas (8-0, 4-0) at No. 6 Texas Tech (8-0, 4-0), 6 p.m. Saturday (Ch. 7): The Red Raiders' first of three megatests in the Big 12 South.

* Nebraska (5-3, 2-2) at No. 4 Oklahoma (7-1, 3-1), 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN): It's not what it once was, but the Cornhuskers can show they're taking the right road back.

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Guns up? Or thumbs down?

Mike Leach has had little difficulty in the laboratory, rolling out quarterback after quarterback who passes for several miles and a bushel of touchdowns a season.

But Leach and Texas Tech - although he'll bristle at this suggestion - have had difficulty punching up a breakthrough season in the Big 12 Conference's South Division.

Because of an improved defense working in concert with yet another of those prototypical quarterbacks (senior Graham Harrell), Tech, currently unbeaten (8-0) and ranked sixth, might have its best team of Leach's nine-year tenure.

But timing is everything, and Leach's high-water mark in Lubbock also comes at a time when the Big 12 South is the best division in college football. Among Tech's four remaining games are these three opponents: No. 1 Texas on Saturday, No. 9 Oklahoma State on Nov. 8, at No. 4 Oklahoma on Nov. 22.

Upwardly mobile Baylor visits Lubbock on Nov. 29, and by then, after facing the South's lineup of executioners, who knows what Leach's team might have left.

The eccentric Leach, who has a law degree but rarely goes lawyerly, likes to point out that his team has "the third-best record in the Big 12 over the last nine years. We've been winning some games."

The Red Raiders also have lost a bunch against ranked opponents: They're 10-26 under Leach against Top 25 teams but 63-11 against the unranked.

Leach also likes to point out that national respect has been slow trickling toward Tech. The floodgates can be opened Saturday, and in the upcoming weeks, too.

Different November

In years past, it was automatic: November was the month for Duke fans to shift from punts to dribbles.

But this season finds the Blue Devils needing two wins to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 1994. And first-year coach David Cutcliffe is beating the drum loudly about the new month's arrival.

"I told them Sunday, November is so great," he said. "You get to decide who the conference champions are or who may play in the conference title game. You got the battle going on for the national championship game. You got the battle for echelons of bowl games. You got the battles to get into bowl games.

"Then I looked at them and said, 'Welcome to November.' This is their first chance in November. How about that?"

The Blue Devils play Saturday at Wake Forest. Both teams are 4-3.

Bring on the bye

Fresh (well, maybe not) from its 13-6 victory at then-No. 10 Ohio State, No. 3 Penn State is off this weekend - and that's real good news for the Nittany Lions.

Starting quarterback Daryll Clark (blow to the head against the Buckeyes) needs at least a week off to clear out the cobwebs.

Safety Anthony Scirrotto (concussion) couldn't start last game and needs a break for the same reason.

And then there's coach Joe Paterno, whose hips and leg issues have forced him to watch the past four games from the press box.

He joked about needing help getting to the postgame interview platform after his team's first win in Columbus, Ohio, in 30 years and the first road victory against a top 10 team since winning at Miami in 1999.

"Where'd my manhood go, huh?" JoePa, 81, asked. "I think (the bye) will be a big help for us right now. We're tired."

Celebrate this

No. 5 Florida and No. 8 Georgia, a pair of one-loss Southeastern Conference teams still harboring BCS championship game aspirations, meet Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Gators are stoked by memories of last season's 42-30 loss, particularly by the Bulldogs rushing the end zone en masse to celebrate a Knowshon Moreno touchdown that pumped up Georgia and deflated Florida.

In his newly released book, Urban's Way, Gators coach Urban Meyer wrote of the incident: "That wasn't right. It was a bad deal, and it will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team."

Added Florida senior tackle Phil Trautwein at the SEC summer media gathering: "You haven't seen it since then, but we have. They show us clips of it all the time. It's motivation to us. Every time we run stadium steps, that's what is on the video. It's definitely motivating us this offseason."

Florida and Georgia enter "the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" ranked in the top 10 (Associated Press) for just the fourth time in the history of the series.

Desert flip-flop

After thriving in Dennis Erickson's first season, Arizona State is 2-5 and suffering greatly on offense. Meanwhile, at Arizona, formerly beleaguered Mike Stoops' team is 5-3 and a win away from bowl eligibility - with woeful Washington State on deck (Nov. 8) after this week's bye.

Here's Erickson's take on the decline: "People can talk about talent. But we should be better than 2-5. But as I say that, we better start doing it. We're not making plays within the whole football team, it's not just one person."

With a loss Saturday at Oregon State, Arizona State would equal its school-record losing streak of six, first set in 1929.

Last and short

* How bizarre: Since they've been at their current schools (the start of the 2005 season), Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis has more Pacific-10 Conference wins (eight) than ousted Washington coach Ty Willingham (six). The Irish defeated the Huskies 33-7 last weekend.

* Michigan defensive end Brandon Graham guaranteed a win against Michigan State. Score: Spartans 35, Wolverines 21. Said Graham: "I feel confident that my team had my back when I guaranteed the win. I am not going to take it back."

It was MSU's first win over Michigan since 2001 and the first in Ann Arbor since 1990.

* Not a good sign for Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer: The Vols have lost to their major rivals - Alabama, Florida, Georgia - by a combined score of 85-29. Last weekend's and last season's losses to the Crimson Tide marked the first time under Fulmer that's happened in consecutive years.