MORE TREATS THAN TRICKS IN TECH WIN VS. KANSAS

That was one crazy Halloween afternoon at Jones AT&T Stadium.

I saw Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing, a savvy senior with 25 wins as a starter including one in the Orange Bowl, benched in the fourth quarter before the door was completely closed on the Jayhawks. I saw Texas Tech coach Mike Leach change quarterbacks at halftime, just because the starter wasn’t in a groove, a personnel move that never used to happen around here.

I saw Mike get choked up talking about Spike. And nothing wrong with that, but I think it caught some people in the interview room off-guard.
Oh, and in a game that matched the fourth- and fifth-ranked offenses in the country, defense ruled.

When I came to the stadium on Saturday, I didn’t expect to see any of that, much less all of it. At least the Red Raiders were the team celebrating after a 42-21 win. With this team getting stripped of parts from one week to the next, this year looks less and less like last year’s storybook season all the time, so the Red Raiders deserved to party on Halloween night. Not just because they shut down a team with good offensive skill people, but because Tech’s flaws, not all of which are under their control, are hard to ignore.

Win despite those flaws, overcome them, and it’s all the more rewarding.

For the rest of the season, they might just have to live with a patchwork offensive line. Saturday’s development: Playing out of his natural position at left tackle, Marlon Winn struggled mightily enough to force an in-game move back to right tackle. That bumped LaAdrian Waddle, the freshman whose redshirt Leach burned only last week, out of the game. Brandon Carter got hurt on the second play, returned for most of the second half, then limped off again with three minutes left in the game.

Not exactly a lovely Saturday for your two most experienced offensive linemen.

Just ask quarterback Seth Doege. Leach called a halt to Doege’s first career start at halftime with him struggling behind inadequate pass protection.

To the linemen’s credit, they showed something, rallying from a lousy first half to a superior second half when their run blocking for Baron Batch made all the difference.

And the whose-the-guy-this-week at quarterback’s not over either.
Don’t look for Steven Sheffield, who gave the team such a spark at midseason, to be back from the broken foot, even after an off week, for Oklahoma State on Nov. 14. The Cowboys are likely to get Taylor Potts or Doege, just like Kansas’ did.

Leach even put a funny spin on his weekly and tiresome “game-time decision” quote.

“Really, we took this one all the way to halftime in a way,’’ he said. “We don’t want anyone leaving early.’’

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Story courtesy of www.redraiders.com