FanNation - The Republic of Sport

       I will admit it; I had Oklahoma Winning the Big 12 South (Win this weekend and they will). I knew that Tech was going to have a great year, as Graham Harrell was as good as any recent Tech Quarterback, which is exceptional considering Sunny Cumbie, Kliff Kingsbury, Cody Hodges and BJ Symons. All have had stints in the NFL, although none has had great success. Cumbie is a AFL stalwart, Kingsbury bounced around the NFL and CFL before settling on a coaching career at the university of Houston, Symons was a 7^th round pick of the Houston Texans before settling into the rotation with the AFL's Tampa Bay Storm, and Hodges was playing for AF2's Fort Wayne Fury.

       Michael Crabtree has been one of the most under-the-radar wide receivers in recent history. If Crabtree played for Ohio State, in a "traditional offense," he would be a household name.

       Head coach Mike Leach was originally a Lavell Edwards (BYU) disciple that honed his fast break offense at Valdosta State, Kentucky, and Oklahoma before getting the head job at Tech. Leach's offense had some success filling the same role as the offense that no one wanted to face in the SEC, under Hal Munne. Still, a run-n-shoot offense has never really made it big time until this year. June Jones' Hawaii squad went undefeated before getting picked apart by Georgia in last year's sugar bowl.

    This year has been full of surprises as everyone knew that Sam Bradford and Oklahoma would make some noise. Everyone knew that Colt McCoy and Texas would make some noise. Texas Tech was supposed to do what it always did: throw the ball. Mike Leach has instituted his Run-n-shoot offense for years, but this has been the year that most are now taking notice. The biggest knock on Tech is that when they used to play in big time games, their offense would be prone to mistakes, often interceptions. This notion, and the fact that they hadn't been able to get over the hump in the Big 12 south has had been plaguing Tech for years. They were seen as a gimmicky team that was using the Run-n-shoot in order to stay relevant in the loaded Big 12 South.

      In 2002, the managed to win nine games with wins over Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State, but then they just couldn't beat Oklahoma, getting blast 60-15. This year Tech has the chance to win it all if they can beat Oklahoma, and Baylor the following week. Missouri will likely await them in the Big 12 Championship game.

      This season didn't start out entirely great for Tech, even though they were 6-0. They had blowout wins versus Eastern Washington, Nevada, SMU, UMass and Kansas State before needing overtime to put away Nebraska. Although they were perfect in the win column, they were less than impressive. Their record just didn't inspire much confidence, as Oklahoma, Texas, or Oklahoma State would have been able to do the same with ease. The game versus Texas was clearly the biggest test of the season, as they pulled it out in the last two minutes with a Harrell to Crabtree touchdown. The next three games (assuming a spot in the Big 12 Championship) might be the biggest in Leach's career.

    So, here comes Oklahoma...