Don’t break out the toilet paper just yet.

ESPN’s Big XII blogger picks Texas Tech to finish last in the South Division this year.  (Bonus:  Tony Franklin crack tossed in for good measure.)

Me likee Grantham.

I don’t know how it translates onto the field yet, but, damn, every time I read a quote from Coach Grantham about his philosophy on defense, I come away impressed.

Chris Low gets this from him:

“I worked under Dom Capers, and he’s a 3-4 guy, too. So is Wade Phillips,” Grantham said. “They all have their things you take from them.”

Simply, it’s a defense predicated upon hitting the quarterback and making that guy’s life miserable on Saturday afternoons.

And the only stat that really matters to Grantham is winning.

“We want to attack people,” Grantham said. “And when I say that, that doesn’t mean you’re always blitzing. You’re attacking them mentally and physically. The most important guy on the field is the quarterback. If you look at all the teams that win, usually at the end of the year, their quarterback probably played well.

“So, defensively, you have to stop the run, but you also have to affect the quarterback. You can do that multiple ways. One is with pressure and the next way is by disguise. The quarterback likes to get a pre-snap read and know where he’s going to throw the ball. You’d like to be able to show something and then take it away.”

… Grantham’s other goal for this spring is to become a more physical defense.

“Being physical is being a good tackling team, because what that does is eliminate big plays, which goes hand in hand with not giving up a lot of points,” Grantham said. “If you’re giving up points, then you’re probably giving up big plays. But if you make teams go the long, hard way and don’t give up big plays and make them earn it, then you can usually find a way to stop them.

Being smart and being fundamentally sound – I’ll take it.

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Putting their best foot forward

David Hale was good enough to post this yesterday:

It’s a fun watch, but check out the quarterbacks’ foot positioning when they’re throwing out of the shotgun. Remind you of anything?

Now, granted, we weren’t treated to seeing any running plays out of the shotgun, so if their stance looks the same for those, then, no harm, no foul.