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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7, 2015 VOLUME 90 ■ ISSUE 26
S. O. S I N G
WOMEN’S B-BALL
ONLINE
WOTS-HOMECOMING
PG. 7
ONLINE
INDEX OPINIONS LA VIDA SPORTS CROSSWORD CLASSIFIEDS SUDOKU
4 3 5 2 7 5
FOOTBALL
B Y: J E R E M Y K R A K O S K Y S TA F F W R I T E R
DUNCAN STANLEY/The Daily Toreador
Young receivers find end zone for first time Austin makes most of game opportunities
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i t h Te x a s Te c h trailing Baylor by a score of 21-7 in the first quarter, sophomore quarterback Patrick Mahomes II rolled out to his left and nailed sophomore wide receiver Cameron Batson for a 37-yard touchdown. The touchdown marked the first of his career as a Red Raider, and Batson said the touchdown was a moment he will never forget. “It was a great feeling and a great feeling for my family. Obviously, I didn’t score last year, but all that hard work is starting to pay off,” he said. “The O-line blocked well and Pat (Mahomes) scrambled out and found me. It’s all repetition.” Mahomes avoided pres-
sure from the Bears defensive front and extended the play, and Batson was able to get enough separation from his defender for Mahomes to throw the ball over the top of the defense. Because the team works on plays where Mahomes gets outside of the pocket in practice, Batson said it was easy for him to know what to do on the play. “ We w o r k s c r a m b l e d drills every day and it was just a scramble drill for me,” Batson said. “It was just second nature.” After scoring the touchdown, Batson “hit the whip” for his touchdown celebration. The celebration was not planned, he said, but he wanted his
CAMPUS
first touchdown to have a memorable celebration. Batson’s opportunities to score last season were limited as his primary role was a punt returner. He returned 18 punts for 65 yards last season while also grabbing nine passes for 41 yards. This season, Batson has been used more as a wide receiver while still returning punts and some kickoffs. After Saturday’s game, he has 11 catches for 125 yards and a touchdown, according to a Tech Athletics news release. Batson has also returned 10 punts and improved his return average by 1.3 yards.
SEE RECEIVERS, PG. 5
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n Texas Tech’s third offensive play of the game against Baylor on Saturday, sophomore wide receiver Zach Austin broke free behind the defense and hauled in a 55-yard touchdown from sophomore quarterback Patrick Mahomes II. Not only was the play the first touchdown of his collegiate career, but it was also the first catch of his career. “I’m not really supposed to get the ball on that play,” Austin said, “but Pat (Mahomes), you know he’s always scrambling and stuff, making plays. So he scrambled around and I slipped behind the safety. Once the ball was in the air I was just thinking, ‘You better catch this because there’s no one
behind you.’” A Baylor defender mistimed the pass and jumped t o o e a r l y, A u s t i n s a i d , leaving him wide open on the play. Austin said he was so locked in on not dropping the pass that the jumping defender did not distract him. “Once I saw him stop, my eyes were like tunnel vision on the ball,” he said. “Then I was just there waiting for the ball to come down and telling myself not to drop it.” With typical starting wide receivers Dylan Cantrell and Ian Sadler not active on Saturday, Austin said he knew he was going to get significant playing time around midweek before the game. He credited the coaching
staff for getting some of the young receivers and himself prepared to play more snaps than they usually do.
Austin led the team with eight catches and ended the game with 110 receiving yards plus the touchdown.
SEE AUSTIN, PG. 5
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Presidential series begin season Engineering students maintain near-perfect grades By AMY CUNNINGHAM Managing Editor
For almost 10 years, the Presidential Lecture and Performance Series has brought dancers, musicians, speakers and more to the Texas Tech campus. The purpose of the series, now in its 10th anniversary season, is to enhance the cultural landscape of the South Plains, both on campus as well as in the community, Jo Moore, director of the series, said. “In some respects, athletics is a great bridge to the university,” she said, “but the series is also a great bridge to the university.” J o n W h i t m o r e , Te c h president from 2003-08, began the program in 2006, Moore said.
The series remained in the president’s office until January 2009, when Guy Bailey, Tech president from 2008-12, transferred it to the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Moore said. In September 2014, the series returned to the Office of the President under Tech President M. Duane Nellis, she said. “The Presidential Lecture and Performance Series is important on many levels,” Nellis said. “The series is designed to bring in a diversity of performances that entertain, engage and inspire the audience.” The series provides an opportunity to welcome the community onto campus, he said.
SEE SERIES, PG. 2
By MICHAEL CANTU Staff WritEr
When students start their college careers, they are usually briefed on the importance of keeping a good grade point average, but sometimes that can be difficult. What can be more difficult is keeping a nearly perfect GPA throughout an entire college career. Majoring in petroleum engineering, John White, a senior from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Charlie Mitchell, a senior from Dallas, are the only two students in the Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering with 4.0 GPAs, they said. Showing up to class and studying are part of the reason they are able to maintain such good GPAs, but there is also a certain level of interest that helps.
“I tend to study quite a bit for tests and stuff, although sometimes I feel like I’m MITCHELL overdoing it,” White said. “But it’s gotten to the point where it’s kind of like a job.” White came to Texas Tech through a scholarship program, he said, and his parents were part of the reason he decided to major in petroleum engineering, as both of them work in the engineering field. He sees petroleum engineering as the most economically efficient way to provide energy to others, White said, and finding oil and gas anywhere can transform an economy. But there is also a struggle
in trying to optimize all sorts of resources, he said, not just petroleum, and WHITE balancing everything out can be a struggle he and other engineers might have to deal with. There also happen to be many misconceptions about petroleum engineering, Mitchell said, and he finds these damaging to the field. “I personally have sat in on several frack jobs and can tell you that the utmost priority is the environment,” Mitchell said. Petroleum engineers focus on drilling into the ground, finding oil and gas and securing mineral rights, Mitchell said, and there are sometimes media miscon-
ceptions that paint a bad picture. He said efficiency is always the main concern. According to the American Petroleum Institute website, there are many government organizations and interest groups working together to make and keep energy efficiency the NO. 1 priority when drilling for oil. Even if the industry was filled with people who did not care for the environment, Mitchell said, inefficiency could result in fracking into ground water. Fracking into groundwater would be terrible for the energy company, he said, because they are getting water rather than oil, and that would hurt the intent and purpose of finding oil.
SEE GPA, PG. 2