Saturday Football... on Sunday

My fifth game in four days was the opener of the college football season in Lubbock. Texas Tech was playing SMU. It's kind of cool, we have four local players starting for Texas Tech and two at SMU that get decent playing time. So, in addition to shooting the game I had to make sure to get file photos of all the local guys for future features. Plus it was coach Tommy Tuberville's first game as head coach since taking over for Mike Leach, so needed shot of him too.

The one drawback to this, but I guess also the reason I was here since the game got moved to Sunday, was because it was a TV game on ESPN it was being played at 2pm. Afternoon games in West Texas are still hotter than hell, and with Tech playing on artificial turf that didn't help either since it just sucks in the heat and holds it there with nowhere to go. Someone told me the temperature of the turf was 138 degrees during the game!

The start of the game looked like it could be a blowout, Tech went up 14-0 quick. Then they kind of stalled and opened things up for SMU to come back, by the fourth quarter it was looking like a pretty good game. Sadly though, photo-wise it just kind of sucked. There just wasn't much as far as spectacular photos. The one good thing going was wide receiver Lyle Leong, who is from Abilene, was going nut, he had over 100 yards receiving and three touchdowns. It was starting to look like deja vu, since Tech's quarterback Taylor Potts is also from Abilene. It's not all that hard to get shots of the local guys when they're having good games. On the other side of the ball, Will Ford, the starting cornerback and a Cooper High School grad, was making some nice plays, as well as safety Cody Davis, from Stephenville. I was also able to get a couple of shots of the SMU guys, which was good since this will probably be the only game I shoot of SMU this year. So, while I wasn't thrilled with what I got, it's always fun to shoot college football, despite the hate.