The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Daily O'Collegian

The only thing wilder than last year's game between Oklahoma State and Texas Tech was probably each coach's post-game press conference, which quickly became the other "Mike and Mike Show."

Although OSU's Mike Gundy made most of the headlines, the YouTube videos of him and Tech coach Mike Leach after the game have more than a million hits.

Gundy attacked a local columnist for a story that highlighted a quarterback switch, while Leach, who was equally outraged, went after his players' dismal performance.

"Where are we at in society today?" Gundy said in that press conference. "Come after me! I'm a man! I'm 40! I'm not a kid, write something about me or our coaches."

Leach blasted his team, which allowed 610 yards in a 49-42 loss while its offense totaled more than 700 yards.

"We got hit in the mouth and acted like somebody took our lunch money," Leach said during his press conference, "and all we wanted to do was have pouty expressions on our face until somebody dobbed our little tears off and made us (expletive) feel better."

In the press conference on Monday, Leach revisited Gundy's epic rant in a way only the eccentric Leach could.

"I'm 47, I still haven't made man," he said. "Everybody's got their tirades. We're all in glass houses, so you may throw little stones, but not very big ones."

The two coaches will meet again this weekend under more pressured circumstances. For the third time in five weeks, No. 8 OSU will play a Top 5 team away from home and No. 2 Tech faces its second Top-10 opponent when the two teams meet at 7 p.m. Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium.

The Cowboys (9-1,4-1 in Big 12 Conference play) have some experience playing top-ranked opponents on the road this season. They defeated then-No. 3 Missouri 28-23 on Oct. 11 but lost a close one to then-No. 1 Texas, 28-24, in Austin two weeks later.

Cowboys' quarterback Zac Robinson, whose

passer rating is second in the nation, said the win against Missouri and a close game at Texas - which came down to the end of the fourth quarter - proved to themselves that the Cowboys can beat anyone in the nation.

"The past few years we've struggled on the road," Robinson said. "The win at Missouri definitely helped us out a whole lot and gave us some confidence. Obviously, we played pretty well on the road at Texas in a tough environment and almost pulled it out there."

Continued...

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