Texas Tech contest winner may kick this week

Texas Tech’s situation at place-kicker has evolved from a concern to a source of frustration. Now, it seems as if it has taken an unexpected, crazy twist.

Having already gone through two kickers – who have combined to miss six PATs and half of their field-goal attempts – the sixth-ranked Red Raiders are now seriously considering giving Matt Williams a shot against No. 18 Kansas this weekend.

	Coach Mike Leach was noticeably frustrated about the kicking game at his weekly news conference.

Williams is a Tarleton State transfer student who won a month of free rent at the Tech/UMass game several weeks ago by kicking a 30-yard field goal. After his successful try, Williams was walking back to his seat when he was flagged down.

“They relayed a message to me saying that Coach [Mike] Leach wanted to talk to me,” Williams told RedRaiderSports.com the next day. “He told me to come into his office on Tuesday and talk to him, and then Coach [Clay] McGuire told me to come and speak with him on Monday.”

Initially, it was thought that Williams was ineligible this season due to transfer rules. However, according to McGuire – who heads up the Red Raiders’ special teams unit, Williams has been cleared to play.

“That is the way I understand it, yeah,” confirmed McGuire on Tuesday. “He’s got a real good shot. Only Mike Leach could bring a guy out of the stands and make it work.”

This wouldn’t be the first time that Tech has relied on a non-scholarship kicker, although not quite under such unconventional circumstances.

“We have a tradition of walk-on kickers rising to the top,” commented Leach after the UMass game. “[Robert] Treece and [Alex] Trlica both were walk-on kickers that eventually ended up getting to play significantly. We’re always looking for guys. We’re excited to see what [Williams]’s got to offer if he’s interested.”

What Williams offers, compared to Donnie Carona and Cory Fowler, is something that is absolutely necessary for PATs: trajectory.

“I’ve seen that guy try one kick,” added Leach. “But the difference between his and the others is that they barely got off the ground. His got up right away.”

Digg Zombies Unite!!

I’m pretty excited that the term for banned Diggers coming back to life and re-registering on Digg and being called Zombies seems to be catching on!

I just wanted to say thanks to the boys over at Random Logic for their take on all of this Digg situations, and I laughed at the cool graphic to the left here about Digg Zombies. Now that Halloween is upon us, it just makes sense to re-register at Digg and become a Digg Zombie doesn’t it?

I would also like to say thanks to Ashmadai’s Blog for his take on the Digg situation as well. Both of these blogs do a very good job in explaining in detail some of us ex-diggers went through as we were banned from Digg.

I will also send props to City Social Marketing Blog for their take on the mass banning. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Michael over at Digg Hacker for the nice set of tools to work with. So thanks to everyone who is keeping all of the banned Diggers at the forefront of thoughts on Digg.com. And remember Zombies, you keep doing what you are doing, we appreciate you!