Articles written by Jon Mark Beilue
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Say it again: Give Brooks the ball
If Texas Tech’s slow football start is to be salvaged, it just might come from the unlikeliest of players. Nothing against Tahj Brooks, but he’s a running back. Those who... — Updated 10/4/2023
Commentary: Tech's slow start mirrors Big 12
The three-game non-conference dance card is complete for Texas Tech. The results are this: The Red Raiders are likely not as good as offseason storylines indicated. Neither is the... — Updated 9/19/2023
Commentary: Blame game points to the usual
With the college football season only eight quarters old, Texas Tech finds itself where the Red Raiders haven’t been in 33 years – a big fat 0-2. When a team is 0-2, when a team... — Updated 9/12/2023
Commentary: Hype looks silly in Texas Tech opener
Joey McGuire was right. His Texas Tech football team did put the country on notice last Saturday night, that is after a long rain delay if much of the country bothered to notice.... — Updated 9/5/2023
Opinion: Raiders must walk McGuire's big talk
Nothing like August for college football fans. Except for a few early starters, every team is undefeated. The traditional good teams are going to reload. Those believed to be so-so... — Updated 8/29/2023
Commentary: Rangers are a habit hard to break
As a boy in the 1970s whose dad would put him on a tractor around 8 a.m. on a long summer day and often not get him off until a 9 p.m. sunset, a tractor radio broke up the... — Updated 5/9/2023
Commentary: This time right time for McCasland
Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt never did get around to calling me to see who he should hire as Tech’s next basketball coach. Come to think of it, he also never did two... — Updated 4/8/2023
Commentary: Good job unexpectedly comes open
A year ago, Mark Adams was the toast of West Texas, a symbol of patience and level-headedness, an example of old-fashioned defensive toughness with a bit of the everyman modesty.... — Updated 3/18/2023
Commentary: With Mahomes, all we can do is watch
There’s a funny GIF out there on the information superhighway of then-Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury surrounded by three or four players. They are on the sidelines watching a... — Updated 2/8/2023
COLUMN: Time to triple the fun and drama
So, did you like New Year’s Eve? No, not any late-night parties, but college football that afternoon and night. Did it get any better than the two College Football Playoff... — Updated 1/3/2023
Commentary: Leach, Tech got best of each other
Leach, Tech got best of each other To call Mike Leach an original is not too original. Of course, he was. This is like describing the sky as blue and water as wet. Whatever the... — Updated 12/13/2022
Commentary: Fight and grit? Raiders have plenty
Another Texas Tech home football game, another walk-off field goal in overtime, another storming of the field. The first two were in the bright sunshine and mid-80s of September,... — Updated 11/29/2022
Commentary: Tech pushes past behind to earn bowl
As the shadows lengthened in the late afternoon on Saturday in Ames, Iowa, the biting cold was getting sharper by the minute. Game time was still a couple of hours away in this... — Updated 11/22/2022
Commentary: For Shough, his time may be now
In the beginning, there was Tyler Shough, followed by Henry Columbi, followed by Donovan Smith, followed by Shough again, followed by Smith again, followed by Behren Morton and foll... — Updated 11/15/2022
Commentary: Fourth-down gambles are a mixed bag
When it’s fourth down in the second halves of tight games, most fans will cup their hands and shout, “Go! Go!” to normally too-conservative coaches. At Texas Tech, with a... — Updated 11/8/2022
Commentary: Tech not as bad or good as it seems
There’s an old dusty manual of sports sayings somewhere, and in it is this one: A team isn’t as good as its best game and isn’t as bad as its worst. That one is true,... — Updated 11/1/2022
Commentary: What? Actual defense at Tech?
There are any number of examples to illustrate the gross ineptitude and coaching malpractice of the Texas Tech defense over the last dozen years. All speak to the horror show that... — Updated 10/25/2022
Commentary: Who plays at QB? Morton is future
An open date for Texas Tech was a much-needed reprieve at the midpoint of the football season. Injuries, inevitable with any team, were starting to become a factor for a team... — Updated 10/18/2022
A debut that exceeded anyone's expectations
He occasionally played at a time when most fans were filing out of the stadium. They didn’t care to take the time to look, to search for the details in his decisions or notice... — Updated 10/11/2022
Commentary: Tech's goal? Be as good as K-State
When little kids grow up, most want to be a police officer or firefighter, maybe a cowboy. They never want to be an accountant. That’s much too dull. When the Texas Tech football... — Updated 10/4/2022
Commentary: Changing a culture is elusive and hard
Texas Tech staggered Texas with a fourth-quarter comeback. The Red Raiders were on the verge of a win but somehow the Longhorns tied the score and now the game was in overtime.... — Updated 9/27/2022
Commentary: Reality exposes where Tech is and how far away
Turns out the 2022 Texas Tech football season is not a made-for-TV Disney movie after all. You know the plot – new coach is hired and excites the fan base as he instantly rescues... — Updated 9/20/2022
Commentary: Class in session for young Tech QB
“That’s the way to throw the football – good job!” “What are you doing? Why are you throwing it there?” “All right! Big-time scramble there!” “Don’t hold the bal... — Updated 9/13/2022
Commentary: This is a fish that Tech should keep
The opponent was Houston Baptist – the university, not a church. It was two years ago, and the delayed 2020 college football season under the cloud of COVID was tepidly... — Updated 9/6/2022
Commentary: Texas Tech confronts challenging reality
We interrupt the final days of the nearly nine-month preseason coronation of Joey McGuire as head football coach at Texas Tech with one fairly sobering thought: The Red Raiders may... — Updated 8/30/2022
