MIKE LEACH SHOWS METTLE IN DEFEAT

So America will see that Texas won by just 10 points, and maybe America finally will get it.

America almost never gets it where Mike Leach is concerned, but maybe now America will. He has to earn his respect every year, and when he does it one year, he has to do it all over again the next year.

No other coach in college football is better. Leach complains about being overlooked, but he may secretly love it.

Even as he rolls out another new version of college football’s best offense, even as he plugs in new players and keeps rolling, he loves the underdog role.

This was a game second-ranked Texas was supposed to win easily. Inside the UT program, some thought the Longhorns would hang 70 points on the outmanned Red Raiders.

The game was nothing like that. Texas won 34-24 on Saturday night but was pushed to the edge. That Texas Tech is unranked is beyond ridiculous. These two teams are really close, and this was a heavyweight bout from start to finish.

“I thought it was one of the harder-hitting football games I’ve been around,” Texas coach Mack Brown said. “I thought it was a great football game.”


Raiders not going away
Texas fans will fret about Colt McCoy’s poor throws and about a defense that gave up 414 yards. They’ll do everything except understand that what Leach has built at Texas Tech is here to stay.

They’ll have trouble admitting that for all his shtick, Leach is smarter and better than almost any other coach in America. Texas punched and punched. Texas kept landing punches, too. Texas did things that would have beaten almost any other opponent.

Texas Tech’s players did what really good, really tough players almost always do. They kept getting back up and counterpunching, refusing to give in.

The Red Raiders put themselves on the national map with that last-second victory over the Longhorns a year ago. Yes, that was Leach’s finest hour.

This was a pretty good hour, too. Leach came to Austin with a quarterback making his third career start, his first on the road. Leach brought one healthy defensive end.

He scrambled to fill holes here and there, and in front of a crowd of 101,297, Texas Tech did itself proud.

Leach brought his team to one of the toughest, loudest places in the nation, to a place were Brown’s teams are 61-6 overall and 23-1 against the Big 12 South.

Texas Tech didn’t win, but when it ended, the Longhorns were thrilled to walk out of Royal-Memorial Stadium with a victory, any victory

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Story courtesy of Richard Justice at www.chron.com