PREVIEW: TEXAS A&M AT TEXAS TECH | Wisdom of the Crowd

#21 RED RAIDERS (5-2) LOOK TO CONTINUE DOMINANCE OVER AGGIES (3-3)

Where: Jones Stadium, Lubbock

When: Saturday 6pm central

TV: NONE and that's a load of crap

Weather: high 60s then dropping, windy but dry

Line: Texas Tech minus -21.5

Well this is the other BIG GAME I look forward to each and every year. And pretty much since this fantastic Zach Thomas INT in 1995, its been a great run for Texas Tech against the Aggies in Lubbock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zKZd2aE3C0

But before we get into this matchup, lets take a quick look back at last week's game...

WOW! Holy @#$@%! In the words of Butch and the Sundance Kid "Who were those guys?" (i'm probably going to far back for that reference to register for many of you, old Robert Redford/Paul Newman movie). Texas Tech dropped a 31-10 hammer on the Nebrasak Cornhuskers in a game that they really needed to win on the road. Literally I can't remember a game against a top 15 team, where Tech came out and dominated the game on both sides of the ball from the get go. The first drive on offense had Sheffield completing 6 of 6 passes on an 80 yard drive. Then the defense came out, picked up a lateral and rumbled 82-yards for a TD. and just like that it was 14-0 Tech.

The offense looked good at times, then the scary 0-fer 3rd quarter made an appearance. But lets give some credit to a much deserving defensive performance. I have no idea what Ruffin has done with this squad, but they dominated the Huskers in every way imaginable. They only gave up 285, and that's good in this day of the Big 12 and 10 total points. They put up another 5 sacks and ran off Nebraska's starting QB. They finally gave up a TD at the 8:40 mark of the 4th quarter. SUPERB! And that leads us to this week's game...

Here come the Aggies. I still could handle Tech going 2-9 each year as long as those two wins are against Texas and Texas A&M. Well we missed our shot at UT, so this year we have to keep the tradition alive of whupping on the Ags. This shouldn't be too much of a challenge, but it is conference play and yes a rivalry so lets see what happens.

I don't think this Saturday's schedule has any matchups where you have two teams completely going in opposite directions. Tech seems to be back on track and if someone had decided to kick a field goal against Houston, possibly a Top 12 team. The Aggies on the other hand are reeling right now after three consecutive losses after a hot three game win streak to start the season (against the redheaded stepchildren of college football).

The Aggies offense rests in the hands of Jerrod Johnon. That kid is cut from the mold of Vince Young (bet that kills Aggies) and so far is having similar challenge like VY did in his first few years. The guy was averaging 315 yards a game, but then tossed three INTs against Kansas State contributing to the 5 total turnovers by the Ags.

The Wrecking Crew has left the building. And for the life of me, I don't know why or how you get them back. They come in giving up 62 points to the Wildcats, blowing a lead against an injured Oklahoma State squad and getting rolled 47-19 by Arkansas. They are currently ranked 88th against the rush, 83 against the pass and are the 94th ranked defense. How in the world do you let this happen under two different coaching regimes? I never liked Slocum but you had to respect him as a coach, unless you are an Aggie Big Dollar alum and then you trashed him and got what was coming.

Tech really seems to be back in a groove now with only one problem. And that problem happens to be the starting QB. Sheffield came out and proved that he could be the man in his 3 game stretch, but then suffered an injury against Nebraska and is out for 2-3 weeks. So Potts comes back in. So we're replacing the second string with the starter? I'd say that's a good replacement. There are other bugs and injuries hitting the team, but thanks to Leach's no reporting on injuries, lord only knows who's in what shape. The defense is on fire giving up an average of 9 pts over the last three games.

BUT REMEMBER NORTH TEXAS!

GAME PREDICTION

TEXAS TECH - 42

aggies - 17

FUN WITH NUMBERS

4 Tech is on a four game winning streak against the Aggies

7-2 Leach's record against the Aggies

6,122 Numer of new seats that are in the new north end side of the stadium in Lubbock

Small Rant - any Lubbockites who are going to this game should be ashamed. By not selling out this game early, we have NO television coverage. And don't think its because the match-up isn't good enough. Want to know what Fox Southwest is bringing us? Iowa State vs Nebraska. This is purely because Tech wanted to try and institute the NFL's blackout rule to try and drive a sellout. You are a pathetic bandwagon fan if you're not going to this game and you live within a 2 hour drive of Jones Stadium. Did you know that Lubbock is now Wet? and the stadium is really nice these days. good work.