Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is in a similar position to MU’s Gary Pinkel in replacing a top quarterback and top wide receiver. Just substitute in replacing Graham Harrell for Chase Daniel at QB and Michael Crabtree for Jeremy Maclin at WR and it’s the same problem.

Leach’s way of describing it brought a few more laughs than Pinkel’s but the message was the same:

“There was a time when nobody heard of Harrell or Crabtee either. How’s this Harrell going to be. This Crabtree’s just a freshman, how’s he going to be. It’s a yearly ritual, honestly. We’ll play some guys that most people have never heard of, but they’ve been around our place for a while so we know them. I don’t think it will be a big letdown. I don’t know that we have an individual as good as Crabtree but our overall depth will be better.  Taylor Potts (likely starter at QB) could have started for a lot of teams last year. He could have started for us but we had Harrell who was the first to throw for 5,000 yards two years in a row and the guy guy who has more TD passes than anyone in history.”