Are you a college football fan? Did you just tune into March Madness last week after ignoring the sport completely for the last 11 months?
How to talk to your kids about an elite Texas Tech defense
The Red Raiders are always known for playing some of college football’s worst defense, but basketball’s a totally different story.
USA Today Sports
One part will be hard to understand.
While you watch Texas Tech play Purdue, you might hear some TBS broadcasters talking about Texas Tech’s defense in an uncomfortable way.
“One of the best defenses in the country,” they might say.
“Incredibly stingy,” they might say.
“This is an elite defense,” they might say. “It’s really hard to score on Texas Tech.”
Texas Tech is giving up 64.6 points per game, the 15th-best figure out of 351 Division I teams. In opponent-adjusted defensive efficiency, TTU’s an even more robust No. 4 in the nation — 92 points per 100 possessions. Chris Beard’s Red Raider defense has keyed one of the most impressive turnarounds in the country.
“I always got kind of a kick going out and recruiting, and you see these teams that have on the back of their shorts, ‘Defense wins,’ and then I watch a two-hour practice, and they don’t work on defense one time,” Beard said. “Defense to us is more than a T-shirt or bracelet or something on our asses on our practice shorts. It’s something that we believe in.”
When you hear that Texas Tech has a good defense, stay calm.
There will be an urge to stand up, lash out, and tell everyone within earshot that there’s no way this could be true. Bad defense has been as much a part of Texas Tech’s football identity as driving five hours to find any major cities or having a person in a black cloak ride around on a horse.
If a little girl was born in the summer of 2010, she has never lived to see Texas Tech’s most famous sports team finish better than 88th in scoring defense.
That little girl is turning 8 this year, and as she’s gotten older, she’s come to know only defensive misery. The year she celebrated her sixth birthday, the Red Raiders got her the present of finishing 128th out of 128 FBS teams in points allowed per game.
Some kids will not understand this. They might think that if Texas Tech can play good defense, then Texas A&M can go better than 8-5 and Texas can make a bowl game more prestigious than the Alamo.
It’s important to remind your kids that things will soon be back to normal.
Comfort them by telling them that if Texas Tech wins, the Red Raiders might get a chance to commit a bunch of turnovers and give up a ton of points to West Virginia in the next round.
There will be no avoiding difficult conversations.
Even if Texas Tech’s defense falters on Friday, that will mean your children are watching a good Purdue.
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