Big 12 South Preview: Texas Tech

Who's the only member of the Big 12 with 11 straight winning seasons? Texas Technological, that's who. Creampuff non-conference schedules aside (Northwestern St., Indiana St.,FIU, etc.), Mike Leach has averaged about 8 wins a season with his wild assed, video game coaching stylings. They lose a ton on D and at WR, but picking them 4th (many have them 5th) is still tough because I think they will potentially have a better overall record than the 3rd place team.

Best Player: (#6) QB - Graham Harrell - 6-3 -197 - Hands down the most talented QB ever to play at Tech, many lesser QBs have thrived in Leach's pass happy system. This is a huge plus because the QB is EXTRA critical in said system, and Harrell's arm and release are magical
Player to watch: (#2) RB - Shannon Woods - 5-11 - 190 - Not only does he have a chance to put up about 2200 all purpose yards, his blitz pickups are absolutely critical, as Leach's system uses no TEs or FBs to help in pass protection
Player successful season most hinges on: (#48) MLB - Paul Williams - 6-1 -221 - A small middle linebacker, behind a small set of DTs, combined with the fact that your opponents always look to run the football and keep your offense off of the field, is usually bad news. Williams was caught behind cats like Fletcher Session and Brock Stratton last year, but he still managed to start 6 games. It's his show now, and the Raiders need him and those DTs ( Rajon Henry, 258lbs and Rich Jones, 285lbs) to handle their business


Why they will win the Big 12: Another huge long shot, but if Harrell throws for 5500 yards and and 50 tds....

Why they won't: Defense and special teams deficiencies show up when you play the likes of OU, and UT, and A&M may finally have the running game to get over the TTech hump



Predicted record - 8-4, Sun Bowl