HCS Mailbag: Field Storming, Kirby Hocutt’s Hot Seat, Plus Big 12 Refs Accoutability
Welcome to the HCS Big 12 mailbag! This mailbag is for all you football junkies out there who root for a Big 12 school who not only have questions about your team, but other teams in the conference as well. So, join me, grab your favorite drink, and relax as I answer all your Big 12 questions. For those interested, I will send out a tweet (@Derekduke25) every Monday until 8 PM CT for you to send in your questions to be answered every Tuesday right here at Heartland College Sports.
I want to thank each one of you who submitted a question this week and for those reading, I am glad you could join me. I am doing this on a Monday night and of course it would not be a proper mailbag without a drink next to me. Tonight’s drink is Weller Special Reserve. Cheers!
@cychas87 asks: Should officials have to answer questions from press after a game? Especially if the call is a bogus celebration. They should be required to be specific on what he did.
Duke: I think they should especially when a call decides the game. If we hold players and coaches to certain standards, then shouldn’t we do the same with officials? If you are a fan of one of the ten Big 12 teams then at some point you have had your heart ripped out of your chest. The calls on the field are fifty-fifty at best and the replays take way too long and there’s a good chance that the play they just reviewed is going to end up being wrong anyway. Welcome to life in the Big 12.
@clonesjer asks: Why do people love to hate field stormings from afar? Have you ever stormed a field Derek? When and where or why not?
Duke: I have not stormed a field before. In fact, it has been years since I went to a college football game as a fan in the stands. I want to say it’s been at least six or seven years and the last game I went to was at Texas State so there was nothing to even get excited about. Personally, I don’t mind fans storming the field at all. I think it is fun and makes college football unique. Let the haters hate all they want because they need something to complain about.
@ISUCYfred asks: Will the Big 12 address the taunting call? If not, should they?
Duke: The Big 12 shouldn’t address the taunting call on Xavier Hutchinson, but the official who made the call should. Earlier we had a question about officials answering questions from the media after the game. If media were allowed to do that then that would be the perfect time to ask why that call was made. It had to be a judgement call and it was clearly a bad one.
@C_Boeckman asks: Is Gary Patterson next to get fired or Neal Brown?
Duke: In case anyone has been living under a rock, Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells was let go on Monday. TCU and West Virginia have their issues, but Neal Brown would be the next to go. Why? Because Neal Brown doesn’t have a statue outside the stadium like Gary Patterson does. Gary is on his own terms at TCU and while I think a change may be needed soon in Fort Worth, Neal Brown is on a much shorter leash than Gary is. I think sometime this week I am going to do a piece on Gary Patterson on the site so be sure to stay tuned for that.
@3C4ISU asks: Why isn’t Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt on the hot seat?
Duke: This is a great question that I should think be asked more often. Kirby Hocutt has been at Texas Tech since 2011 and while he did make a great basketball hire in Chris Beard (now at Texas) and baseball with Tim Tadlock, the football program has been on a downward trend. Kirby hired Kliff Kingsbury to turn the football program around and that failed and now he failed once again with Kliff’s replacement with Matt Wells now being pushed out. It’s been ten tough years for the Red Raiders football program, and we all know that football is king so when the football program struggles, so does everything else. At what point does some of the blame started going towards Kirby’s direction? I say right about now.
@OffCydes asks: Of all the conference games you’ve seen thus far, which rematch would you want to see the most in Arlington?
Duke: Honestly, I really do not care who ends up playing for a Big 12 title. All I can ask for is a good game. The Oklahoma State/Iowa State game was great but both of those teams still have to play Oklahoma so we will just have to wait and see how those games play out. If I had to pick it would be some combination of those three teams.
