Red Raider Sports Magazine - April/May 2020 by Red Raider Club

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We celebrate the life of our beloved business partner and friend, JC Chambers, CLU® who made a career in financial services, in his own words, by “making friends, not clients.” Caring and compassionate, JC was a model citizen leader in the Lubbock community and well beyond, known for his investment in the wellbeing of others. As colleagues, friends, and human beings, we are changed for the better for having known him. We will miss JC dearly and wish peace for him and his family.

J.C. CHAMBERS 1931 - 2020

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RedRaiderSports.com is a publication of TRI Productions Volume 25 Issue 5 Managing Editor Aaron Dickens

Cover Photo Artie Limmer

Photographers Elise Bressler

Elizabeth Hertel

Norvelle Kennedy Artie Limmer

Michaela Schumacher Michael Strong

Writers Shannon Carrico

Matt Clare

Al Pickett

Brandon Soliz

Matt Dowdy

Terry Greenberg

Red Raider Sports (USPS 0013-768) is published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October and December. Annual Red Raider Club membership dues of $500 or higher include a one-year subscription to Red Raider Sports Magazine. Red Raider Sports is a publication of TRI Productions, P.O. Box 53604, Lubbock, TX 79453. Periodicals postage is paid in Lubbock, Texas. Address all editorial-related correspondence to Red Raider Sports, P.O. Box 53604, Lubbock, TX 79453. Red Raider Sports is not an official publication of Texas Tech University. Postmaster: Send address changes to Red Raider Sports, P.O. Box 53604, Lubbock, TX 79453. For subscription inquiries contact the Red Raider Club at 806.742.1196. Give old and new addresses and enclose latest mailing address label when writing about your subscription. ÂŠ2020 TRI Productions. All Rights Reserved.

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Student-athletes, recruits or their coaches, family or friends may not be invited to your suite or club seats as this constitutes special seating.

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Only a few months ago, we were hoping:

you’re all staying healthy and taking care of you and

we all understand the bigger issue is stopping the

• We would be celebrating another

deep March Madness run by men’s

your family.

Without your amazing support we’ve had over

spread of this virus.

So while we’re working from home, we continue

basketball.

the years, we would not be able to support our stu-

ing another successful season with

arships and academic support, leadership training,

available to you and your family. You can reach us

College World Series.

• Our baseball team would be build-

hopes of another berth in the

• Men’s track and field would be on its

way to defending their national title.

– both golf teams, softball and

• Our other nationally ranked programs

others would be making us proud.

Instead, as you know, our winter and spring

sports seasons have been canceled as the corona-

virus has swept across the world. Throughout this

issue you’ll read about what Athletics is doing to adjust to this new world and how our teams are doing. But equally important – how are you?

I want to take this time to tell you how grate-

ful we are for our Red Raider family. We all hope

dent athletes the way we are now through scholsports medicine, and more.

As you’ll read in our cover story, the iPad pro-

gram we started a few years ago has made it easier

for us to help our student athletes in this new virtual

world we’re dealing with – a direct impact of your giving.

As our donors and supporters have stepped up

over the years, there’s a direct connection between

the programs having the best resources and expe-

riencing success – both on and off the field. Our student athletes and coaches make it happen, but you are our backbone and we are grateful for your continued support during these uncertain times.

to be focused on the needs of our student-athletes and every program. Also please know we’re always

via phone, 806.742.1196 or via e-mail, rrc@ttu.edu.

to help all of them in their journey to become Fearless Champions.

Kirby recently said “WE ARE BETTER TO-

GETHER” and he is right. We cannot wait until we are in front of our donors and fans again. But, until

then we must stick together and believe there will soon be days where we are competing and yelling

‘Raider Power’ again. Thank you for all you do and Guns Up!

Our student athletes are frustrated they won’t

be able for realize their goals – at least for now. But

We all hope we will see all of our student ath-

letes back in action soon and appreciate all you do

Andrea Tirey Senior Associate Athletic Director

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Leading Through Uncertainty b y T E R RY G R E E N B E R G

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The following took place shortly after Texas Tech sports were put on hold and at the height of the grocery panic buying as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world. Jonathan Botros was in the frozen food aisle at his neighborhood United Supermarket looking for tater tots when he ran into Marlene Stollings, Texas Tech’s women’s basketball coach. Then Nikki Dawkins, one of Stollings’ assistant coaches, came into the same aisle. An impromptu meeting broke out with the trio standing at least six feet apart – not dressed in their usual work attire. Botros – Senior Associate Athletics Director, Finance & Administration for Texas Tech Athletics – asked Stollings if she needed anything to help her student athletes and they discussed how the athletic department was setting up to virtually stay in touch with current student athletes and prospective recruits. After the impromptu meeting, they all got back to grocery shopping. How athletics operates has radically changed.

Surreal

Days before the frozen food aisle meeting, Texas Tech’s Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt was in Kansas City for the Big 12 Conference basketball tournaments. Hocutt was in a meeting Wednesday, March 11, with his Big 12 Conference counterparts and Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. The commissioner asked the ADs to stay for a couple of minutes after the meeting. The NCAA had just announced its post-season tournament – scheduled to start a week later – would be played without fans. The Big 12’s first games were about to start that day in front of fans and Kansas City medical experts still believed it would be safe. The athletic directors got their university presidents on the phone to discuss what to do with the games starting the following day – when Texas Tech and Texas would have the first Sprint Center game at 11 a.m. The decision was to play Thursday with no fans. “That night everything began to unfold,” said Hocutt, talking a few weeks later and leading an Athletic department – like most of his staff – from home. Hocutt was at dinner with Red Raider supporters Dusty and Leisha Womble when news broke about a member of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder testing positive for the virus. The NBA season was put on hold. By the next morning, medical information was changing. Kansas City’s mayor declared a state of emergency around 10 a.m. “We made the decision to cancel the tournament,” said Hocutt, who was with Bowlsby and the other ADs. “There was no way to be prepared for this. None of us fully understood the gravity of the situation coming straight at us. The information from health experts was coming so fast. We were trying to make the best decisions and then communicate the best I could to our Athletics administration and coaches,” he said. The Red Raider men’s team was warming up to play the Longhorns.

Hocutt called Deputy Director of Athletics Tony Hernandez at the arena, who broke the news to the team. Hocutt and the University of Texas AD drove to the Sprint Center as quickly as they could. “It was surreal,” he said. Hocutt walked into a somber locker room. “There were a lot of blank stares,” said Hocutt. Chris Beard told his boss: “We were ready to play this morning.” The players had a different look in their eyes from the team that barely lost the national title game a year ago to Virginia, said Hocutt. “Last year, as competitors, they were gutted. They’d left everything on the floor in a game that could have gone either way. In this case it was an empty feeling, the team was ready to empty its tank in March and they were dealing with the realization they would not get the opportunity,” he said. “I love watching a Chris Beard team in the post-season,” said Hocutt. “It’s a competitive advantage for us once we get to March.” When Hocutt went into the coaches’ locker room, he saw Beard’s daughter Avery, a student at Columbia University, who was monitoring a class lecture on her phone. A few weeks later, Hocutt said, “Little did I know I was looking into our future” when he saw what Coach Beard’s daughter was doing.

A New Normal

That future has been an intense few weeks as things have had to happen in light speed trying to hit moving targets: • Besides Kansas City – Texas Tech teams were in Hawaii, Arizona, Georgia and New Mexico for competition. They needed to get back to campus, be fed and housed and then to their homes – if they could. Some are still living in Lubbock. • During spring break, Athletics set up a virtual world to handle tutoring, training, communications, recruiting and more – while Jennifer Brashear, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Compliance & Strategic Initiatives and her team, communicated how to do it all while still complying with NCAA rules. • Botros and his team started and continue to monitor the financial impact. There’s a big loss of revenue, but a bigger savings in travel expenses. Some Texas Tech baseball and softball fans helped by not asking for season seat refunds – which became a donation of almost $90,000. What hasn’t changed, Hocutt and his executive staff say, is the commitment to taking care of 415 student athletes. Even though Hocutt won’t talk about his leadership during this time – members of his executive staff are amazed at how he’s steered Athletics through this quagmire. “Kirby’s the best leader I’ve worked with and for,” said Robert Giovannetti, Senior Associate Athletics Director/External Operations & Strategic Communications.

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“He’s very steady and thoughtful – he cares about people and our student athletes. I’m not sure any athletic directors have better relationships with student athletes than Kirby. He wants us to do the right thing. He always tries to do the right thing. We meet with Kirby every day on the phone and he never wavers. The reason the executive staff is so successful is he’s given leadership and guidance. He’s always available for advice and tremendous insight. What we’re going through right now is better because we work for Kirby Hocutt.”

More Than a Small Interruption

Texas Tech coaches and student athletes first thought the virus would be a brief interruption – they’d get back to spring football and other sports with outdoor track around the corner, said Hocutt. “It didn’t take long for it to set in this is much more than a small interruption. This is a major impact for our country and world and much bigger than sports is – or will ever be,” he said. That doesn’t make it easier for student athletes who feel like the court and field have been pulled out from under them by a microscopic opponent. “Student athletes and coaches have prepped for years to reach goals and to have that taken away is real,” he said. “It may be small within the world situation, but those feelings and grief are real and lead to more questions than we have answers for,” said Hocutt. Meanwhile, Texas Tech Athletics will “do our part to help our country, state and city get back to normalcy as quick as we can.” “I’m confident our coaches have placed a priority on the health and safety of our student athletes and our student athletes know that. Our coaches will advise and communicate to them what’s most important. It’s a heavy burden on our coaches but that’s where the primary relationships are for our student athletes,” he said. One of the biggest challenges for student athletes is having to stay away. “They want to get back to campus, get back around each other,” said Hocutt. “We have to tell them it’s not the right thing to do now.” Hocutt has been impressed with the team around him – and donors and supporters who are still stepping up in a stressful and uncertain time. “It’s been inspiring to see the people we have within our Athletics Department,” he said, adding he sees a sense of determination, em14

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pathy and real feelings that extend beyond athletics. “We have the best team in country at Texas Tech. Once we get through this, our trajectory will be higher than it’s ever been before,” he said. “We’re very fortunate to have the most loyal group of donors and supporters. The message I’m getting is, ‘Kirby, make sure you take care of our student athletes and young people,’” he said. “The number of people who declined a refund for baseball and softball tickets and said use the money to take care of our kids was great. It’s never more important that we – as the Red Raider family – stick together and support our 415 children to educate, serve and grow,” Hocutt said.

Strong Relationships

The Red Raider Club is using this time to make meaningful connections with donors and supporters. “This is a time to steward our donors and ensure each of them know the impact they make, every single day, for our student athletes and programs,” said Andrea Tirey, Senior Associate Athletic Director/Development, adding this isn’t the time for solicitations. Regardless, more than $350,000 was raised in the last ten days of March in major gifts with three new Victory Circle members. Some of that was already in motion, others inspired by an almost 8-minute video by Hocutt posted on March 26 – in which he didn’t ask for donations, but inspired people to remain positive. “The generosity has been overwhelming,” said Tirey. “Donors understand that now, more than ever, we need to provide resources for our student athletes to be successful.” Tirey and her team’s main goal is to simply stay connected and say “thank you.” “We have worked hard to establish strong relationships with all of our donors, at every level. During this uncertain time, we are spending every day connecting through phone, email, text and Zoom. We are working on new ways to continue to stay in touch with all Red Raider Club members and major gift donors,” she said. “Kirby often states that our biggest asset is our people. He is referring to our student athletes, our coaches and staff and also our donors and fans. Our supporters continue to believe in our mission and understand the importance of everyone doing their part to continue to move Texas Tech Athletics forward, even in uncertain times like today.”

iPad Program Pays Off

When Athletics launched its iPad program a few years ago, no one could imagine it would help Red Raider student athletes be uniquely prepared for a world where they’d have no choice but to connect virtually. “It’s 180-degrees of what we do,” said Greg Glaus, Senior Associate Athletics Director/Academic Services, whose team of tutors, learning specialists and others work with student athletes to help their classroom performance. They’re used to working face-to-face with student athletes. During extended spring break, his team pushed out new apps for the iPads to help working in a virtual world. Classes began again the week of March 30 and Glaus said “it went better than anticipated.” “Tutoring went well and we got a little more guidance from the NCAA allowing some flexibility for student athletes to maintain eligibility,” he said. That’s a lot to handle when almost all your student athletes are functioning on Lubbock time. But some are in different U.S. time zones and then there are the international students. Some stayed in Lubbock, others – like Davide Moretti from virus-stricken Italy – returned home. “Some are multiple time zones away,” and Academic Services communicates with them the best they can, he said. Then there are high schoolers who plan to come to Texas Tech. Glaus’ team works with recruits to make sure they’re academically eligible and that’s more complicated now that ACT and SAT testing has been delayed. There are also no campus visits for orientation – but Giovannetti’s team has created a virtual video to help with that. Meanwhile, Tirey’s team is working to fund the iPad program this fiscal year to help with unexpected costs sparked by what’s happening.

Compliance

Also the week of March 30, the NCAA made some decisions and Brashear’s team started telling coaches and administrators what they could/could not do. They condensed 23 pages from the NCAA into a two-page guide to help. The big developments were: • All spring sport athletes don’t lose a season of eligibility. It’s good news

for athletes who still had most of their season left to play and seniors who return will not have their scholarship/other aid count against team limits. • The recruiting “dead period” was extended to May 31. No coaches can go off campus and no recruits can come on campus. Signings are on hold until April 15. • All sports are currently “out of season” so student athletes are limited to four hours of what the NCAA calls “countable athletically related activity.” That can include virtual film study, technical discussions, tactical sessions, team meetings and more. Football – for example – meets virtually Sunday nights for 15 minutes. But there can’t be supervised workouts for any team – even virtually – because there is no trainer or strength coach on site. “So if I’m an athlete it’s on me,” said Brashear. A strength coach can send a workout to a student athlete, but it’s voluntary. • Schools can provide nutritional supplements, apparel, some equipment. Brashear and her staff will be working with coaches over the next weeks and months to document what student athletes are doing and when, who may return for a fifth season and other compliance issues under the new rules. “As always, we’re very focused on the health, safety and needs of our student athletes,” she said. Financial Unknown Botros has a lot of numbers up in the air. “We’ve got to be adaptive,” said Botros from his home. “No one ever predicted we’d be doing this – working from home with a 4-yearold coming in every few minutes. This is the most time I’ve spent on the phone.” It’s good news spring sports seniors can get another year – but there’s an attached challenge. If they all come back that’s $550,000 more in scholarship expense in next year’s budget, said Botros. The NCAA has told universities they have until July 1 to tell senior student athletes returning for another year what their scholarship amount will be. Athletics, he said, should be good for the university’s 2019-2020 fiscal year, which ends August 31.

They’re losing $1.9 million in NCAA revenue, ticket and concession revenue and losing food and beverage money because the Texas Tech Club is closed. But the Big 12 is helping out financially and Texas Tech is saving travel costs, which add up when a team makes a deep post-season run. “I wish we were making those deep postseason runs. I’d never trade that to save expenses,” said Botros. Then there are the little details of making refunds for students athletes who are back living at home and not using campus living and dining facilities. The real challenge will be the possible impact in the 2020-2021 fiscal year. “The financial unknown is the toughest part,” he said. Stories to Tell There are no games – but Red Raider fans still want to know how their favorite student athletes are doing. Giovannetti’s team is telling their stories on texastech.com, trying to keep everyone – people in Athletics, fans and others – connected. “We asking our student athletes to be citizen journalists,” he said, as they take videos from athletes and present them. “Davide’s story is compelling because of what’s happening in Italy – but it was important for him to go home,” said Giovannetti of the Red Raider basketball guard. Another impactful story was football coach Matt Wells’ donation to the City of Lubbock’s South Plains COVID-19 Response Fund. “Coach Wells felt it’s important to help people. He’s only been here one year, but wanted to make an investment in Lubbock. It was important to him,” he said. “We’re getting videos from kids all over saying how much they miss being here. That shows the culture built by our coaches. This is a family and they miss their family,” he said. In addition to athletes giving updates, Giovannetti’s team started a Podcast called “Typical Tech” and they recently replayed the Michigan baseball series from last year and more. His staff are also all working from home. Sometimes it takes videos longer to process – what he called “first-world problems.” “It’s been overwhelming at times. But we’re lucky we’re still getting paid. A lot of people would love to be in our situation,” he said.

He misses seeing his colleagues though, and echoed Tirey’s comments about the Athletics team. “Kirby has built a culture that our people are our best asset. I miss our people and I make sure I’m telling them that,” he said. When We Get Back to Normal In Hocutt’s 8-minute video, he talks about DaMarcus Fields, defensive back on the Red Raider football team. “DaMarcus, if you’re watching this, you even said you miss study hall and we’re going to remind you of that when we get back to normal,” he said. Toward the end of the video, Hocutt said “Things will get better” and then asked everyone to imagine they’ll be enjoying the opening moments of a Texas Tech home football game soon. Then he added: “Stay strong. Wreck ‘Em.”

The “Typical Tech" podcast gives fans another source for insight into the athletics department. The podcast, which is presented by J Ferg Pros, addresses the most recent events in the college sports landscape, while celebrating the rich history of the Red Raiders. The podcast is available on TexasTech. com or by searching "Texas Tech Athletics Podcast" in the Apple Podcast app.

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As the formal letterwinner association for Texas Tech University, the Double T Varsity Club serves to maintain and embrace the tenacious

spirit and loyalty of Red Raider alumni. The Varsity Club has over 3,000 active members, and continues to grow in an effort to con-

tact every former letterwinner in order to reconnect them with Texas

Tech. In addition, the Double T Varsity Club hosts reunions, the Hall of Fame banquet and other special events throughout the year.

Sally Kipyego came to Lubbock in 2006 as a cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track runner. As a Red Raider, Kipyego made national history, becoming the first Kenyan to win the NCAA Cross Country Championship in 2007. She won twice more in her career to become the only woman to ever win three cross country national titles. Kipyego became one of seven women in history to win four individual titles in a single school year, doing so in 2007 with titles in cross country, the indoor 3000m and 5000m, and the outdoor 10,000m. Kipyego is the only woman in Big 12 Conference history to win three cross country titles, and her win in 2008 helped the team to its first womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s title in program history. She is a three-time winner of the Honda Sports Award, given annually to the best female athlete in each collegiate sport. She is the only woman to be honored three times in cross country. Several of her marks at Tech have yet to be touched to this day: indoor mile, indoor 3000m, indoor 5000m, outdoor 5000m and outdoor 10,000m. Professionally, Kipyego has made a career running for the IAAF World Athletics Tour and is the second-fastest Kenyan distance runner in history. She is a two-time top-five finisher in the 10,000m at the World Championships and finished runner-up in the 10,000m at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

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Kipyego graduated from Texas Tech in 2009 with a degree in Nursingand is a member of the Texas Tech Hall of Fame. She currently resides in Eugene, Oregon with her husband, Kevin Chelimo, and her 2-year-old daughter, Emma. Chelimo, also a former Red Raider Cross Country athlete, finished 17th in the 2006 NCAA D1 Cross Country Running Championships, before becoming a volunteer assistant coach from 2006-2008. The pair were married in the summer of 2008. Kipyego is a member of the Oregon Track Club where she is sponsored by Nike and trained by Mark Rowland. Sally and her family also spend time in Kenya to be close to family and for training purposes. Since becoming a U.S. citizen in January 2017, Sally hopes to be able to compete in the 2020 Olympics for Team USA, for the first time in her Olympic career. On Saturday, February 29th, Kipyego, competed in the US Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta. She finished third in the women's trials, securing her place on the team with a time of 2:28:52. Kipyegoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance meant she was set to compete in her second Olympic Games (the first for Team USA). Because of the Coronavirus, the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed until 2021.

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Playing to Win Texas Tech announced the hire of associate head coach/co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Derek Jones on Feb. 12. Jones, considered one of the top secondary coaches in the country, had been at Duke since 2008. Jones had previous connections to Red Raider head coach Matt Wells and defensive coordinator Keith Patterson, as the trio spent the 2006 season at Tulsa. Following the hire, he reflected on his time at Duke, his leadership methods and his relationship with the current Texas Tech staff. RRS: You were at Duke for 12 years, what made this the right time and the right opportunity for you and your family to make a change? Jones: I think when you look at it, you never know when you're going to make a move in this profession. Unfortunately, a lot of moves you make are moves you don't want or plan to make. I was at Murray State for five years, I spent a year at Middle Tennessee, a year at Tulsa, a year at Memphis and then I moved to Duke. That was a lot of moving my family around and a lot of separation from my family. When I got to Duke I primarily wanted to keep my family together, so when other offers came along, I thought it was more important to me to have my family together. Then the fact that I worked for a guy that I respect about as much as anybody in David Cutcliffe, it was just hard for me to look at working for anybody else that was going to help me grow, educate myself and become as good of a football coach and a man as I could possibly be. One of the things about coach Cutcliffe, he always implemented every aspect of life in his coaching. After being there for 12 years you learn to appreciate what you have. He's a family guy and he allowed us to be family guys and that's important. I've always been kind of an individual and I had in my mind at a certain point when I got to where I was comfortable enough financially to live a decent life, I was never going to chase money and I was never going to chase a logo. My reasons for leaving would be about people and my reasons for staying at Duke were about people. We always had a good staff there, a lot of guys there were my friends from when I first started in the profession. This was a situation that was very similar to that, in the fact that I've known both coach Matt Wells and Keith Patterson from my past, and I knew the type of men they were and the type of coaches they were. My wife knows their wives and so it was a natural fit.

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RRS: Take us through where you learned to be so positive and so motivational. You've written a book and you mentioned that coach Wells bought the entire staff your book. Jones: I think when you look at life it's all about observation and I've just always been one of those people that feels like nothing positive comes from being negative. Even as a young kid being on sports teams, you lose and you live to see another day. I just always figured that at some point in life as a man I was going to become somebody's husband, I was going to become somebody's father. Regardless of what you do professionally, if you become somebody's husband or father that's the most important thing that you are in life. In order to be a good husband or father I have to be a walking example of being a positive person, no matter what goes on in the office or during the game. If I'm dealing with little kids they don't understand that but I'm still their dad and I still have to be that. So I've always been able to separate those things. When I look at some of the misery that people display and I look at some of the people being angry and disgruntled all the time, the times in my life where I've felt like that I didn't feel good. So I feel like that's a choice. Your attitude is your choice and it becomes a part of who you are. Each day I wake up, I look back at things that were very discouraging in life and most of those things don't mean anything now. Most of those things were learning experiences. So I've always tried to be in that pattern and I've just always prided myself in never having a bad day. I tell my kids when I coach, you're never going to see me lose my composure, you're never going to see me flip out on you, because at the end of the day if I'm going to tell you that's what I expect and want you to be I have to be an example of that myself. I feel like as long as I'm blessed to have life I have no reason to be depressed about it. RRS: You mentioned your one year at Tulsa, of course Keith Patterson and Matt Wells were there. What was that season like and did you keep in touch with those guys in the years since? Jones: Yeah, you know, coaching takes us a lot of places. I didn't know any of those guys on the Tulsa staff when I first got there, I was at Middle Tennessee State and we had gotten fired. I got on the phone one day and called the secretary at Tulsa and asked her, 'Can I speak to (then Tulsa) coach (Steve) Kragthorpe?'. She said, 'Well,

coach Kragthorpe isn't taking calls but coach Keith Patterson is taking calls on his voicemail and he'll get back with you.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; So they just put it through to voicemail and I left coach Patterson a voicemail. If I remember I just told him I didn't know him, I just wanted to sell myself and wanted an opportunity to present myself to him. He called me back. That year was really good for us, we had a good season. We ended up losing the Fort Worth bowl to Utah and coach Kragthorpe got the Louisville job and several of us went our separate ways. Coach Patterson went on to Louisville with coach Kragthrope but coach Wells and I had to move on to new opportunities. But we all did stay in contact with each other. Coach Wells would reach out randomly to see how everybody in the family was doing and when he got to Utah State he actually contacted me there about a job. He would call me and ask me about things that we're doing, just trying to get ideas being a young head coach. When I published my book he reached out to me immediately and said he wanted to buy some of the books for his staff because he had been following me on social media, reading some of those things and those were things he wanted to pass onto his staff. Now coach Patterson on the other hand, we talk about as much anybody. He always texts me, we would always stay in communication but ironically this was the fifth time that coach Patterson tried to hire me. Every year about the same time I'd get a call from him regardless of where he was and he would start the conversation off with, 'Hey stud, how are you doing?' and he'd kind of go into his sales pitch. I didn't feel like any of those situations were ideal for me and at that point in time in my career I felt like there were still things I wanted to learn from coach Cutcliffe. I felt good about the things we were accomplishing at Duke and the things we were able to get done there. So when this situation arose recently it's not like they were strangers calling me, it's not like either one of them were reaching out for the first time in years, it really felt like two friends reaching out to me with a vision about taking a program that they feel has the potential to be a championship caliber program and doing that together once again. Coach Patterson put it in the sense of we all feel like we have unfinished business and when it finally came down to it, I felt like us working together along with the other staff members he put together here have a chance to take Texas Tech to a new level.

President Lawrence Schovanec, Don Cash, Kay Cash, Clay Cash and Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt

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It’s A Whole New Ballgame

b y MATT C LA R E

The NCAA has suspended all in-person recruiting efforts through the month of May because of the coronavirus pandemic. Like many Red Raider fans, Matt Wells and his staff are at home with family and fighting the virus by practicing social distancing. But with no practice, players at home and the staff spread apart - what do the program’s football operations, and specifically the recruiting efforts, look during this time? The Red Raiders are going virtual. Zoom meetings have replaced the traditional, in-person staff meeting. With the extra downtime that comes with social distancing, the coaching staff is spending more time collaborating on evaluations for the 2021 class. These efforts led to 15 new offers to 2021 prospects over the last few weeks of March. Before the stoppage of all on-campus recruiting activities, the Red Raiders hosted over 25 prospects for a recruiting event the same weekend as the men’s basketball game against Kansas. Several of the new offers went to 2021 prospects who visited with family that weekend, so there is momentum with targets like Rider tight end Jed Castles, Kimball running back Brandon Epton Jr. and Shadow Creek wide receiver Carlton ‘C.J.’ Guidry. Castles committed to Texas Tech on April 7. Compare that recent recruiting momentum to conference rivals and other regional pro-

grams who had large junior days or top prospect visit weekends scheduled for mid-March or early April. Most of these programs were forced to cancel these events, and many coaching staffs were left scrambling to stay in front of prospects during the ‘new normal’ of campus closures and working from home. The Kansas coaching staff hosted a virtual junior day with an agenda featuring everything from on-campus tours, academic information and coaches competing in dance competitions. The Texas A&M coaching staff hosted a video game tournament, offensive coaches vs defensive coaches, with each paired against an offensive or defensive recruit. Many other programs have either followed suit with the two ideas above, or have done something similar on the recruiting side. Texas Tech was able to host two junior day events in late January and the first weekend of March. These recruiting weekends both featured 25-plus prospects and coincided with big games for the men’s basketball program, an experience most recruits really enjoyed. That provides a slight advantage to the Red Raiders, because most of these top targets remember their last visit and think of Lubbock right now. This could prove to become more of advantage the longer this all drags on, but most believe recruits will simply wait longer and not make commitments during all the uncertainty. The main disadvantage for the Red Raid-

ers during the suspension of on-campus recruiting activities is the direct impact it has on the graduate transfer market. This complicates the recruiting efforts for both Wells and Chris Beard, who were each planning to host multiple graduate transfer targets over the past month. For Wells, the right graduate addition on offense or defense could provide much needed depth. For Beard, the right additions on the graduate transfer market have led to incredible talents coming to Lubbock. Many of the players currently in the transfer portal are having to weigh the decision to commit sight unseen or simply wait things out. This holds true for both football and basketball players on the transfer market. Even players who have announced their intentions to transfer from Texas Tech, like running back Ta’Zhawn Henry, are still in the process of seeking a spot elsewhere. The football program had plans to host nearly a dozen graduate transfer targets this month, and now none of those will happen until late May or early June. At that point in the year, summer courses are typically starting with most of the football players already on campus for summer work outs. Wells and his staff could find room for as many as six or seven transfer targets this offseason, and positions of need on the roster include running back, safety, pass rusher, linebacker and wideout.

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When the NCAA cancelled March Madness and subsequently all spring sports due the coronavirus pandemic, most Texas Tech student-athletes headed home. That wasn’t quite so easy for the international student-athletes, however, although many of them did eventually go home. One may be surprised to learn that Texas Tech has international student-athletes from 26 different countries, according to Grant Stovall, senior associate athletics director/sports medicine. “Most of them were able to get home (including basketball star Davide Morretti who returned home to Italy),” Stovall said. “A week ago, we were in Kansas City getting ready to play a basketball game (in the Big 12 tournament). In fact, we were just 20 minutes prior to tip when it was canceled. And our track teams were in Albuquerque for the NCAA Indoor Championships when the meet canceled on the first day.

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At that time, people could still get where they wanted, so many of our athletes went home. Then things drastically changed, and it became harder to travel. We still have a concern of being able to get (international) student-athletes back to Lubbock, although that might not be necessary this semester.” Texas Tech, like most universities in the country, has switched to online studies for the rest of the semester. “We still have quite a few (student-athletes) who stayed in Lubbock,” Stovall said. “I think there are roughly 60 or 70 students still in Lubbock.” Texas Tech track coach Wes Kittley, who was in Albuquerque preparing for the NCAA Indoor Championships when the cancellation was announced, said distance runner Sven Cepus was able to get home to Croatia before the borders closed. But many of his athletes, including those from Jamaica, Bermuda and the Bahamas, remained in Lubbock. “School is closed down,” Kittley (pictured, left) said. “The Sports Performance Center and the track are closed, so they are kind of on their own. They can run for conditioning, but it is impossible for them to get high quality workouts.” Stovall said his role during all the everevolving changes was communicating with the coaches and student-athletes. “Our executive staff (headed up by athletic director Kirby Hocutt) has been having daily interactions,” he explained, “and then we message that information to our coaches and athletes. The challenge has been that every four to six hours, things seem to change. But our job has been to collectively organize the information and then deliver it to our student-athletes. Most of our interaction is through e-mail or text messages. Our trainers are available to answer

questions and help the athletes understand what is happening.” Because this all happened as Texas Tech was heading into spring break, Stovall said it was important that the students understand the importance of social distancing. “Spring break is a time for students to unwind and relax,” he stated. “Our target was to make sure our athletes made appropriate decisions. I have to give credit to our studentathletes because many of them changed their spring break plans.” The decision of whether or not athletes could practice or use university facilities is being made at the conference level. “The Big 12 put a ‘no activity – voluntary or otherwise – ruling’ until March 29 (and eventually extended its moratorium through May),” Stovall said. “Of course, things have been evolving by the day, and the decisions we can make are based on national, state, city of Lubbock and University decisions.” Texas Tech can still feed the athletes who remained in Lubbock on a to-go basis, and Stovall said Texas Tech is also able to still provide academic support to the student-athletes. “For those who are rehabbing from injury, our sports medicine staff can meet with the athletes on an individual basis by appointment only,” he stated. Through all the unprecedented changes that have occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, Stovall said the goal of the athletic executive committee has been to “keep our studentathletes at the center of our focus.” “We want what is best for them and our focus is how we are communicating to them,” he emphasized. “This is a new experience for everyone. We want to make sure that our studentathletes are taken care of and are safe.”

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Getting Ho

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ome b y A L P I C K ETT

Texas Tech baseball coach Tim Tadlock said the Red Raiders were boarding the plane in Biloxi, Miss., on Wednesday, March 11 after a tough 3-2 loss to Mississippi State when they received word that the NBA had suspended its season after Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz had tested positive for COVID-19. The next morning, Texas Tech’s game against Texas in the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament was canceled just 20 minutes before tip-off in Kansas City. “Forty minutes later, we found out that West Virginia’s bus had turned around and they weren’t coming (to Lubbock for the Big 12 season-opening series),” Tadlock said. Texas Tech’s softball team was in Hawaii. The Raiders had beaten the University of Hawaii 5-0 on Wednesday in a game in which Tech coach Adrian Gregory said the teams and coaches had avoided handshakes. “We were scheduled to play Minnesota at 1 p.m. (Hawaii time) the next day,” Gregory said. “We got the word that everything was canceled about 10:30 a.m., just as the kids were getting ready to head to the ballpark. Kids learn things so fast on Twitter, so they knew what was happening even before we had a chance to meet. The seniors took it harder because they didn’t know if they had just played their last game.” The Texas Tech track teams were in Albuquerque on that Thursday, preparing to compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships. “We were actually on the track about 3 p.m.,” said Red Raiders track coach Wes Kittley. “We had just had a good workout. Then I saw the Florida State coach on the phone. He raised his arms in frustration and I saw kids crying. The ACC had canceled their competition. Then Minnesota got word that the Big Ten had canceled.” Shortly later, the NCAA canceled the March Madness basketball tournaments and all spring sports. In a matter of just hours, college sports had come to an abrupt end. The Red Raiders baseball, 16-3 and ranked No. 3 in the nation, didn’t get a chance to earn a repeat trip to the College World Series in Omaha. The softball team, off a 17-9 start, was denied its goal of hosting a regional tournament. The men’s track team didn’t get a chance to defend its NCAA outdoor national championship. “It was a tough situation,” Kittley said, “especially for our seniors who were looking forward to finishing their careers at Texas Tech. It was a big blow, a tough deal.” “None of us is equipped for something like

this,” Gregory added. “We handled it the best we could.” She said that because the team couldn’t get an early flight after the tournament was called off, they stayed in Hawaii until Sunday. “We avoided public places, but we went to the beach and saw sea turtles,” Gregory joked. “If we had a few days off, Hawaii is a pretty nice place to be.” “I think we are all still in shock,” Tadlock stated. “I commend our team for how mature they handled it, but it hurt. It still hurts.” The NCAA announced it would grant eligibility relief to spring sports athletes, but what that will look like and how it will impact scholarship limits, is still unknown. “Baseball is so different,” Tadlock explained. “We have 12 juniors, and we are projecting 8-10 of them to be drafted. We encourage them to go chase their dream. I don’t think the NCAA can make a decision until Major League Baseball decides what it is going to do with its draft. There are 40 rounds in the MLB draft. If they cancel the draft, that could mean as many as 1,000 high school kids and college juniors who would stay in college instead of turning pro. We shouldn’t rush into a decision for our sport.” The Texas Tech softball team has four seniors, and Gregory doesn’t know what they might do if granted an extra year of eligibility. “One is waiting to hear from veterinary school,” she said. “One is in grad school. Two will graduate in May and one in August. They have to decide if they want to go to grad school have play another season or get on with their lives.’ Not only did the seniors on the track teams have their season cut short but Kittley also said a number of former athletes had remained in Lubbock to train in hopes of making the Olympic teams. Now, of course, the Olympics have been postponed until 2021. Michael Matthews is 36. He has run on Bahamas’ 4x400 relay team in the last three Olympics and was working out to try to make it to his fourth Olympics. Will he have another chance in a year? Gil Roberts, a gold medalist on the 4x100 relay team in 2016, along with high jumpers Bradley Adkins and Trey Culver, were among the former Tech athletes who had remained in Lubbock in preparation for an Olympic bid. “I am sure the decision to cancel everything was the right decision,” Kittley said, “but it was a tough decision, a tough pill to take.” “We will get past this and we will have better things to talk about,” Tadlock emphasized. “It will be good when they say, ‘Play Ball!’” RedRaiderSports.com

OGETHER

Red Raiders helping other Red Raiders. That’s how assistant women’s golf coach Laurie Brower described her latest goal. No, it wasn’t helping Sofia Garcia on the proper distance of her approach or how to read a certain putt. Instead, it was finding the materials necessary through various members of the Texas Tech athletics department to create protective masks for medical professionals in the Lubbock area who are helping fight the COVID-19 outbreak. “It was a simple text of ‘how is it going in the hospital?” Brower said of the conversation starter that ultimately led to 600-800 new masks for the Lubbock area. From there, Brower was told by several friends who work as intensive care nurses of the shortage of medical masks in West Texas. The shortage was so severe that friends and family members of several nurses and doctors had already began creating their own masks, using fabric and materials from what was inside a normal home air-conditioning filter as well as shoestrings to tie around the ears. Brower helped organize the shoestring delivery after reaching out to not only Tech’s equipment staff but others as well such as head baseball coach Tim Tadlock and his director of operations Joe Hughes as well as athletic trainer Imelda Garcia. What she discovered was an immediate response, with hundred of shoelaces provided within hours. In some cases, certain sport shoestrings were long enough to produce two masks, only adding to the much-needed collection the group had already produced. “Nurses are pretty tough and going to go in anyways,” Brower said of her friends. “I was

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b y M ATT D OW DY

told some doctors were having to reuse their masks, which is just not safe. That’s when the process of making additional masks sort of began. I’m thankful for Tech and the people here for immediately jumping in to assist.” Brower’s story is only one of several from the Texas Tech and Lubbock communities looking to assist the medical field during this crisis. Look at Reagan Collins, for example. The Lady Raider women’s tennis senior has been part of a team in the Honors College that has assembled protective equipment for medical professionals, using 3-D printers to produce facemasks with binding creatively made from Under Armour headbands. Through the work of the Honors College team, hundreds of masks and other medical equipment have already been delivered in the past week alone to various medical facilities in the area such as a small rural doctor’s office in Monahans, a small town in the Permian Basin, as well as in Amarillo. “I reached out to Zane Perry (Assistant A.D. for Equipment Operations) and really got a quick response,” said Collins, who is the daughter of Tech Associate A.D. Sandy Collins. “He was going to look in their stock to see what they had. They ended up ordering some and then Under Armour matched the order as well, so now we have a ton of Under Armour headbands to make even more masks.” Collins will join the medical community, herself, in August when she officially enrolls in the Texas Tech School of Medicine. She’ll eventually utilize as a pediatrician the same medical equipment she is helping to create now. At that point, she’ll once again be turning her eyes towards helping others.

Reagan Collins, future MD and TTU tennis player.

Laurie Brower with shoestrings she helped gather.

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Texas Tech

NOTEBOOK b y B RA N D O N S O L I Z

Adapting to the Times

The Red Raiders opened spring football on March 3 with their first of 15 scheduled practices. They trained three more times over the course of the next week before the coronavirus pandemic forced the Big 12 to implement a moratorium on all in-person athletic activities. Now, head coach Matt Wells and his coaching staff, much like their peers across the country, will try to build their program as much as they can from a world where social distancing is the new normal and meetings are taking place over video chats. “I truly believe we’re a developmental program in the things that we do from a skill set, learning how to develop skill sets and make them better, the lifting part. That's so much of us,” Wells said. “That’s what hurts right now for us in terms of missing time ... I understand that there are a lot of programs in the same spot as us but I still think we’re building a foundation. Our foundation has not been set. I think that’s really the first two years in a program.” With Texas Tech’s goal of becoming a true contender year-in and year-out in the Big 12, Wells knows he has to establish a winning culture around the program. He said an early test for his players will be how they use this unplanned time off. Strength and conditioning coach Dave Scholz implemented a spring break training program for the players knowing they would, at the time, be at least away from campus for at least a week. That was then extended due to the pandemic, and Wells had to balance hoping his players don’t get complacent in their training while also understanding the complications of the situation. “How accountable are our players in all their different hometowns away from Lubbock? The accountability factors are huge,” Wells said. “You know, some of them or just a few of them have access to a weight room or weights at their house. Most of them are at their house not

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able to work out so we’ve come up with some creative workouts that are applicable as we can to football. Not some silly stuff that’s not going relate to football. We’ve really tried to amp up the running, the movement, the stretching. Those kinds of things – their iPad, their investment mentally into football on their own a little bit. We’re going to lose some strength because of the inability to have the right equipment, the right weight room and the right training. Trying to do our very best.”

Takeaways from Four Practices

Texas Tech completed just four of its spring practices by the time the coronavirus pandemic, and all of the missed reps this spring will definitely impact the Red Raiders next season. “Year two in an offensive system and a defensive system with a couple of new coaches – we need practice. We needed that practice,” Wells said. “So much of who we are – our staff and our program of what we’re implementing – is development and so that’s why this time off is going to be a challenge ... There’s just so much to the development that’s an important part to this turnaround here at Texas Tech.” One thing Wells was looking forward to seeing were the early improvements on defense with the addition of two new coaches – secondary coach Derek Jones and linebackers coach Kevin Cosgrove – alongside defensive coordinator Keith Patterson. Linebacker Krishon Merriweather was one of two transfers at the position adapting to the Red Raider defense. The other was Brandon Bouyer-Randle. Wells said Merriweather was making plays in those four practices while Bouyer-Randle was limited due to offseason surgery. “I figured out one thing in four days – the guy knows how to run to the football,” Wells said about Merriweather. “He will run to the football and you can see real quick why he, you know, did what he did in junior college and why he was ranked what he was ranked in how many tackles he had. I saw a big improvement. The first two days he would take two steps forward in his stance, two steps back – basically

get right back where he started – and still go make a play or be involved in the play. And by day four, coach Cosgrove and coach Patterson had him just clearing his cleats, boom and there just you know it's just a technique. It's just a fundamental and that's coaching. It's also being coachable on his part and the guy can run to the football. He and Brandon will help our linebackers, no question.” On offense, Wells said quarterbacks Alan Bowman and Maverick McIvor were competing and adjusting well. He added that Bowman and McIvor were split ting about 90-95 percent of all team quarterback snaps whether that’s full team drills or 1-on-1s. He added that Bowman was looking better and more comfortable as each practice went by but emphasized how small his sample size on the quarterback’s development this offseason is. The unit protecting his gunslingers though will be affected. The offensive line will be needing to replace starting tackles Terence Steele and Travis Bruffy. Wells said the communication for that position is crucial but he’s confident the guys needing to step up, like Zach Adams and Casey Verhulst, will do that once they return.

Light Turns on for Vasher

T.J. Vasher is known for his height and catch radius, which have led ESPN’s Top Plays featuring some of his receptions on SportsCenter, but he’s also had some issues away from that. Vasher missed playing time last season due to a suspension and following the season he had to assess his priorities as he entered his final season as a Red Raider. According to Wells, Vasher was heading in the right direction this spring. “Really proud of TJ. He’s changed focus in terms of his priorities,” Wells said. “When I say that I mean my daily routine, my habits matching up with my goals and my dreams. What you got now is he's gained 15 pounds. The way he comes into the building – he's ready to go. This is a T.J. Vasher, I think at this point right now, just say at this point that we all want right now and he's really working on his game. I think he

has a chance to if he stays focused and does what he needs to do he’ll have a really good senior year.” Vasher said it was conversations with his father and Wells that made him realize that he has the opportunity to be the best receiver in the conference. He added that a lot of their conversations were focused on him climbing up the steps to make it to the NFL, which is his ultimate goal. “I think really I started thinking about how I’m going to be a senior and I really haven’t left my mark at Texas Tech,” Vasher said. “I realized it was time to do that like so many did before me. I want to go play in the league and have people remember me for the good and not the bad or what ifs. And I think having all those talks, the deep ones, really made me realize that. Now I’m ready to go.”

Emphasizing Two Recruiting Weekends

The Texas Tech football program was fortunate to have held two major recruiting events before the NCAA prohibited in-person recruiting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. “Now you know seeing the recruiting ban that those two junior days that we had were huge,” Wells said. “Several kids were at both of them and again you know getting them here to Lubbock on our campus, seeing the facilities, being around the people, around our players, recruits around each other, around a bunch of our signees and committed kids, I think is huge and that was good.”

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