As we get closer and closer to National Signing Day (February 6) we are getting more and more looks at supposed new helmets for the 2013 college football season. We recently got a glimpse of Western Michigan’s new Boise State inspired helmets. Now it looks as though Texas Tech, known for their black and red look over the years, will adopt white as an alternate color.
A recent photo, which appears to have leaked from a recruiting trip and was shared by the Reddit community, shows a pair of texas Tech helmets. The black helmet gets a minor update with a red stripe. But of course the eye-catcher here is the white helmet, featuring a similar red stripe down the middle of the helmet with the standard Texas Tech logo on the side.
Texas Tech showed off some new helmets, including a white version.
Geno Smith and the West Virginia offense have struggled, but what about the defense? Getty Images
Earlier today I took a look at West Virginia’s drop in offense now that they are in the thick of the Big 12 schedule to see if they can find their swagger this weekend when Oklahoma comes to Morgantown. As I noted, the Mountaineers had scored 56 points in the first quarter of their five wins to start the season but just 14 points in their recent four-game losing streak. The way this season started for West Virginia looked like they were going to have a rousing good time in their new conference home, the Big 12. That clearly has not been the case, with West Virginia still one win away from becoming bowl eligible. After a 5-0 start, who would have thought we would reach that point.
The offense is certainly going to be taking the brunt of the recent struggles of the Mountaineers, but you have to wonder if the defense is getting gassed as well. This was one of the concerns for the Mountaineers heading in to the season, and we now have an idea of whether or not this may be the case. Has the conference change caught up to West Virginia?
I hesitate to make year-by-year comparisons, and especially week-by-week comparisons because every game each week can have a different outlook on a weekly basis and the makeup of teams changes each year. Perhaps, though, we got a glimpse of the theme of the season in week one, when West Virginia faced in-state foe Marshall in the Friends of Coal Bowl. As you can see in the graph below, Marshall found success on offense against West Virginia and you can compare the offensive results for the Thundering Herd. West Virginia played Marshall in week one in 2011 as well, and the defensive success was, to put it kindly, noticeable.
Take a look at the chart below and you will see that once the Mountaineers got in to Big 12 play, it became obvious something was going to have to change compared to playing in the Big East. Last season just four teams all year put together at least 400 yards of total offense against West Virginia. So far this fall all six Big 12 opponents (and seven total) have put together over 400 yards of offense.
Don’t mess with Texas is the message being sent with Texas Tech’s uniforms for this weekend’s game against… well, Texas.
Take a look at these uniforms on the right. The Red Raiders stay true to the namesake color scheme, which is smart. The helmet, judging by this initial image, looks to be pretty sharp.
From what we can see in this image (click image to view larger), it looks as though Texas Tech is going with a black helmet, possibly in a reflective chrome style or something similar, with regular red logo. We will have to withhold further judgement until a better picture becomes available.
Of course, this uniform is all about the Texas pride with the shoulder pads. The shoulders are given a blue swatch topped by a Texas flag-themed star on each side. The same star design appears on the red socks to be worn with the uniform.
At first glance it looks as though this uniform was inspired by the alternate uniforms worn by the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, with the stars on the shoulders look.
So, does this mean Texas Tech is more faithful to the state of Texas than the Texas Longhorns? Will the Longhorns make their way to Lubbock and feel ashamed for not representing their state in the same fashion their little brothers from Texas Tech will be?
Of course not.
That said, the Longhorns will be in for a difficult game this weekend against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech has come up small against Oklahoma and Kansas State this season but managed to demolish West Virginia. We just do not know which Texas Tech team will be showing up on a week to week basis. At least we know what uniforms to be looking for this week.
Texas will look to have a stronger outing after slugging away with a win, somehow, against Kansas on the road this past weekend.
West Virginia pulled out all of the bells and whistles as they played host to the first Big 12 game in conference history. Aside from celebrating a 70-63 victory over Baylor with a rousing rendition of “Country Roads,” the school set up a massive gigapixel image with a panoramic shot of Milan Puskar Stadium, and they want fans to go ahead tag themselves in it.
It’s really quite stunning. Click the image below to check out the full image. Yes, you can rotate and zoom the image as well, allowing you to be as creepy as you wish. Are you anywhere in this image?
Click image to view full image.
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