By Wendell Barnhouse
Big 12 Sports.com Correspondent
LUBBOCK, Texas - Mike Leach isn't monkeying around. The Texas Tech coach hears no evil, sees no evil, speaks no evil.
Evil, in this case, being expectations.
"It's really irrelevant," Leach said Sunday after practice. "If they think you're supposed to win all your games, you try to win 'em all. If they think you're gonna lose all your games, you still try to win 'em all.
"It really doesn't change anything around here. If we don't improve each day, we're not gonna be very good. I don't worry about what we have to prove."
A Sports Illustrated writer has picked the Red Raiders to reach the BCS title game. Those prognosticators bored with picking Oklahoma or Texas to win the Big 12 South Division can in good faith list Texas Tech as a contender.
Leach's team debuted at No. 12 in the Associated Press preseason poll. That's Tech's highest ranking since climbing to 10th after a 6-0 start in 2005 and its highest preseason ranking since opening at No. 8 in 1977.
That's a lot of noise to ignore.
"We put expectations on ourselves," safety Darcel McBath said. "We've set our goals for this season. We'll keep those goals secret. Win games, that's really our goal."
Texas Tech must avoid losing games they're expected to win. Two of the Raiders' four Big 12 losses came at Oklahoma State and at home to Colorado. A defeat of Oklahoma was balanced by a 59-43 loss at Texas.
Senior quarterback Graham Harrell, who passed for 5,705 yards and 48 touchdowns last season, is one of 10 starters back on an offense that averaged 40.9 points and 529 yards per game.
Sophomore Michael Crabtree (134 catches for 1,962 yards and 22 touchdowns) is the best wide receiver in college football. If the Red Raiders can maintain last season's production, look out. If they can improve ...?
"We can be scary good," Harrell said.
What has been scary is Texas Tech's defense ... or lack of defense. In the four losses last season, the opposition scored a total of 180 points.
After the team allowed 610 yards in the loss at Oklahoma State, Leach moved Ruffin McNeil to defensive coordinator. The Red Raiders improved over the last half of the season and hope to carry that into 2008.
"If we keep playing like that, we'll have a very, very successful season," McBath said.
Escaping the doghouse: Two years ago, Shannon Woods led the Big 12 in all-purpose yards (1,498). Last year, he fell out of favor with Leach and his production dropped considerably (577 yards in nine games).
While sophomores Aaron Crawford and Baron Batch should see action, the 5-11, 200-pound Woods has re-established himself as the Red Raiders' top running back.
"Shannon right now I think is playing better than he's ever played,'' Leach told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "I think he's playing a little better than (2006), actually. But I also think he's got more competition than he's ever had."
O-Line depth: Last season, assistant coach Matt Moore could rely on six players for his five positions. He prefers to have eight who can play - two centers, three left-side linemen and three on the right side. The Red Raiders, though, might wind up with 10 reliable offensive linemen.
Kicking competition: Freshman Donnie Carona is on scholarship while senior Cory Fowler is a walk on. Both are battling to be the starting kicker. Fowler has displayed accuracy from beyond 40 yards but special teams coach Clay McGuire hasn't decided which one has the edge.
Practice is a beach: At one end of Texas Tech's practice fields is a strip of sand, about 10 yards wide and 30 yards long. It's called "Muscle Beach" and it's where injured players go to work out.
Leach had it installed during his first season. After a dozen or so players missed the first workout with "injuries," Leach had the sand pit installed. The injured players spent time running and dragging weights through the sand. At the next practice, only three players were "injured."
After Sunday's practice, walk on defensive linemen were taking turns pushing a four-wheel utility vehicle through the sand as strength coach Benny Wylie sat in the driver's seat. The players were paying the price for not practicing at full speed.
BIG 12 FOOTBALL SKYWRITERS TOUR
Prior to the formation of the Big 12 Conference, sportswriters and sports broadcasters covering football in the Big Eight and Southwest conferences would gather in a central location and take off on the annual Skywriters Tour...an eight-day trek from campus-to-campus around the respective conferences to cover the preseason football practices. The tour provided fans with unprecedented daily coverage from each school. In the early years the tour consisted mostly of writers traveling by charter air service and thus was dubbed as the Skywriters Tour. In an effort to bring Big 12 fans additional insight into the fall camps from around the Big 12, we have dispatched Wendell Barnhouse and Melanie Weiser on the 2008 Big 12 Virtual Skywriters Tour.
