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| Week Thirteen |
| posted November 20, 2003 2:00 PM EST Have you ever heard of Barrow, Alaska? If you have, you�re the type of person that the PSU Preview Staff would like to have on a Trivial Pursuit team. Barrow, for those of you who didn�t know, is the northern most city in America. Evidently the 4,500 citizens of Barrow threw one heck of a shindig on Tuesday. No, it wasn�t a Britney Spears CD release party. It was a farewell to the sun party. The fine citizens of Barrow will not see the sun for another two months. The sun will rise next at 1:08 p.m. on January 23rd. To offset the dark months of winter, there�s an 82-day span in the summer when the sun does not set at all. Who does that remind you of? The sun shining 24 hours a day for 82 days straight? It was exactly 82 days ago today that the Oklahoma Sooners started basking in the sun of their undefeated season. The Staff thinks it�s high time that the sun set on the Sooners� undefeated season. Who better to lasso that sun and plunge the Sooners into the abyss than the Texas Tech Red Raiders? This is a shot-in-the-dark/wishful thinking pick. But, wouldn�t it be nice to see? Disclaimer: The PSU Preview Staff is affiliated with Texas Tech University; the Red Raiders are officially the #2 Favorite Team of the Staff; therefore, this upset of the week was written from the heart, not the head. The Red Raiders are entering the game coming off of a heartbreaking, down-to-the-wire, loss against in-state rival Texas Longhorns, 43-40. The Sooners are coming off another monotonous win after annihilating Big XII Conference opponent, Baylor, 41-3. What�s really on the line this week? Even if Oklahoma loses, they have already clinched the Big XII South and will play in the Big XII championship game. The loss will be just a blemish to their perfect record, but they would still likely make it to the Sugar Bowl to face another team with at least one loss for the National Championship. Texas Tech will host Oklahoma this weekend. The Red Raiders are currently boasting a perfect 5-0 home record and, with a win Saturday, would post its 13th undefeated home season in school history and the first since 1995. This is also Senior Day for the Red Raiders. This is the last home game for the senior class which includes notable Wide Receiver / Punt Returner Wes Welker. Welker has broken a 54-year NCAA career punt return yardage record by piling up 1,745 career punt return yards. He also holds the NCAA record with eight (8) career punt returns for a touchdown. This Saturday, another NCAA record should fall as Texas Tech Quarterback BJ Symons will look to surpass Ty Detmer�s NCAA single-season passing record. He needs only 83 passing yards against Oklahoma to set the new standard. Ok, you can�t really say �only 83 yards� against Oklahoma�s seconday. Afterall, 2002 Texas Tech Quarterback Kliff Kingsbury went to Norman last year with some impressive passing stats of his own and was picked off on his first pass. He had a lackluster performance against the Sooners. He was only 15-35 for a measly 224 yards passing. BJ usually passes for 224 yards midway through the 1st quarter. Mike Stoops, Defensive Coordinator for the Sooners and first in line for the University of Arizona head coaching gig, has some nice things to say about the Red Raiders � �What they do against everybody else is really irrelevant to us. They don't play defense like we do. We don't get caught up in the numbers. They're irrelevant to us. We just talk about executing. It's not alarming that they run up huge numbers. They do that every year and we slow them down." It�s important to note that Mike Leach perfected his air raid offense under the direction of Bob Stoops in Oklahoma before accepting the head-coaching job at Texas Tech in 2000. Evidently the Stoops brothers have a great deal of respect for Leach. How about we turn the lights off in Norman for a while and let the Red Raiders enjoy some of the warm sunlight for a change? |
| Upset of the Week |
| Texas Tech Red Raiders over Oklahoma Sooners Saturday, November 22, 2003 Jones SBC Stadium - Lubbock, Texas 3:30 PM EST - ABC Sports |
| Photo � Barrow, Alaska |
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| PSU PREVIEW PREDICTION: Texas Tech 28 - Oklahoma 24 |
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