Here’s A Lesson About Football That Texas Tech Should Take To Heart

We can rise like a Phoenix from the ashes but have to swallow our pride.

The following story is true, none of the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

When I was a freshman in High School I was a backup for The John Glenn Eagles out of Norwalk, California. I don't think we were very good, and I don't think our varsity squad was anything to write home about either.  One of our cross-town rivals was Excelsior High (later where they shot some of the scenes for the movie Grease).

Excelsior High was so bad that when our varsity was scheduled to play their varsity they called up us freshmen to play in that game, and even second-team guys like myself (I did get better by the way) got to get on the field. We still won the game.  Imagine that, getting humbled by a team that called up freshmen.  Excelsior went winless that year.

Let's jump to the next year when Excelsior won district play. Yes, just like that. These guys took the chip they had on their shoulders and went to work. They never trash-talked or said, "see ya next year", they just went to work and got not just good, but great. We never saw 'em coming, not even a little bit.

That's the culture we have to develop. Talking trash at this point has zero value because no one is going to listen anyway. The best thing to do is to tape the score of that game inside the weight and conditioning rooms and watch the players go to work.  Yes, things like N.I.L. deals and the transfer portal make things like this difficult, but hard work and redemption need to be cornerstones of the new culture. People and teams have gone from worst to first forever, and we weren't even the worst (except for Friday night).

If we learned our lesson, I have high hopes that Tech will go through the Big 12 like a knife through butter in '24.