Time for Texas Tech to earn respect: Other notes

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Texas Tech coach Mike Leach has had little difficulty in the laboratory, rolling out quarterback after quarterback who passes for several miles and a bushel of touchdowns a season.But Leach and the Red Raiders -- although he'll bristle at this suggestion -- have had difficulty punching up a breakthrough season in the Big 12 Conference's South Division.Because of an improved defense working in concert with yet another of those prototypical quarterbacks (senior Graham Harrell), Tech, currently unbeaten (8-0) and ranked sixth, might have its best team of Leach's nine-year tenure.But timing is everything, and Leach's high-water mark in Lubbock also comes at a time when the Big 12 South is the best division in college football. Among Tech's four remaining games are these three opponents: No. 1 Texas on Saturday, No. 9 Oklahoma State on Nov. 8, at No. 4 Oklahoma on Nov. 22.The eccentric Leach, who has a law degree but rarely goes lawyerly, likes to point out that his team has "the third-best record in the Big 12 over the last nine years. We've been winning some games."The Red Raiders also have lost a bunch against ranked opponents: They're 10-26 under Leach against Top 25 teams but 63-11 against the unranked.Leach also likes to point out that national respect has been slow trickling toward Tech. The floodgates can be opened Saturday, and in the upcoming weeks, too.DIFFERENT DUKE: In years past, it was automatic: November was the month for Duke fans to shift from punts to dribbles.But this season finds the Blue Devils needing two wins to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 1994. And first-year coach David Cutcliffe is beating the drum loudly about the new month's arrival."I told them Sunday, November is so great," he said. "You get to decide who the conference champions are or who may play in the conference title game. You got the battle going on for the national championship game. You got the battle for echelons of bowl games. You got the battles to get into bowl games."Then I looked at them and said, 'Welcome to November.' This is their first chance in November. How about that?"The Blue Devils play Saturday at Wake Forest. Both teams are 4-3.CELEBRATE THIS: No. 5 Florida and No. 8 Georgia, a pair of one-loss SEC teams still harboring BCS championship game aspirations, meet Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla.The Gators are stoked by memories of last season's 42-30 loss, particularly by the Bulldogs rushing the end zone en masse to celebrate a Knowshon Moreno touchdown that pumped up Georgia and deflated Florida.In his newly released book, "Urban's Way,'' Gators coach Urban Meyer wrote of the incident: "That wasn't right. It was a bad deal, and it will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and in the mind of our football team."Added Florida senior tackle Phil Trautwein at the SEC summer media gathering: "You haven't seen it since then, but we have. They show us clips of it all the time. It's motivation to us. Every time we run stadium steps, that's what is on the video. It's definitely motivating us this offseason."Florida and Georgia enter "the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" ranked in the top 10 (Associated Press) for just the fourth time in the history of the series.DESERT FORTUNES: After thriving in Dennis Erickson's first season, Arizona State is 2-5 and suffering greatly on offense. Meanwhile, at Arizona, formerly beleaguered Mike Stoops' team is 5-3 and a win away from bowl eligibility -- with woeful Washington State on deck (Nov. 8) after this week's bye.Here's Erickson's take on the decline: "People can talk about talent. But we should be better than 2-5. But as I say that, we better start doing it. We're not making plays within the whole football team, it's not just one person."With a loss Saturday at Oregon State, Arizona State would equal its school-record losing streak of six, first set in 1929.EXTRA POINTS-- Michigan defensive end Brandon Graham guaranteed a win against Michigan State. Score: Spartans 35, Wolverines 21. Said Graham: "I feel confident that my team had my back when I guaranteed the win. I am not going to take it back." It was MSU's first win over Michigan since 2001 and the first in Ann Arbor since 1990.-- Not a good sign for Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer: The Vols have lost to their major rivals -- Alabama, Florida, Georgia -- by a combined score of 85-29. Saturday night's 29-9 loss to the Crimson Tide marked the first time in Fulmer's 17 years that the Vols had lost to UA in consecutive years.(Contact B.G. Brooks of the Rocky Mountain News at brooksbg(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)