Texas Tech Recruits Got Lost on Their Way to the Red Raiders Spring Football Game

All, College Football, Recruiting Jason McIntyre April 4th. 2012, 6:30pm

Never been to Lubbock, Texas. Probably never will go there. But looking at a map, it is in the middle of nowhere. Which is why I can understand how four high school football recruits – one was already committed to the Red Raiders – got lost driving there from Houston.

“(We) didn’t use a GPS, and we didn’t even know we were going the wrong way,” Lauderdale said. “So we were driving (and we ended up) in East Texas.”
The group didn’t realize their mistake until they found themselves in Nacodoches, Texas – which was roughly 100 miles east of I-45, the road they should have been on, and still more than 500 miles from their destination.
The players, in fact, were roughly an hour away from the Louisiana border. Texas Tech, meanwhile, is roughly an hour away from the New Mexico border.

You can look at it from the Texas Tech point of view: “Kids can’t read a map? Probably can’t read a playboook.”
Or you can look at it from the recruits point of view: “Who wants to spend four years in some small town in the middle of nowhere?” [Rivals]

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32 Responses to “Texas Tech Recruits Got Lost on Their Way to the Red Raiders Spring Football Game”

1
Eric T0upal aka BrawnyTom Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 6:33 PM
“Who wants to spend four years in some small town in the middle of nowhere?”
You mean besides kids being offered a free education?
2
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 6:35 PM
Never been to Lubbock, Texas. Probably never will go there. But looking at a map, it is in the middle of nowhere.
You’re not missing anything. Except sandstorms and occasional mud rain. The girls out there are hot, but they are so country that some of them are as likely to dip as the guys are.
The joke in Texas is that it’s so flat and featureless around Lubbock that you can stand on a penny and see Dallas.
3
FredSanford Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 6:43 PM
Was it overcast? Shit I can navigate by the sun east/west wise.
4
Nada Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 6:48 PM
The players, in fact, were roughly an hour away from the Louisiana border
Maybe Mo Claiborne was secretly luring them to LSU to take his place as the team genius.
5
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 6:59 PM
But looking at a map, it is in the middle of nowhere.
that doesn’t even begin to describe how much nothing there is out there.
6
Some Random Old Dude Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:02 PM
So, in five years are we gonna be laughing at their Wonderlic scores?
I dunno – take the Beatles’ advice and “follow the sun”, ya know?
7
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:05 PM
based on the article, though, these guys missed their very first turn. It’s not like you can start heading to Lubbock from Houston without getting on 45.
I would have gone home, too, rather than heading up to 20. That would have been a miserable drive across the state.
8
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:07 PM
I dunno – take the Beatles’ advice and “follow the sun”, ya know?
they weren’t going a way that would have felt wrong in terms of nature.
9
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:08 PM
based on the article, though, these guys missed their very first turn. It’s not like you can start heading to Lubbock from Houston without getting on 45.
I guess they could have taken I-10 to San Antonio and gone north from there. Or taken 290 from Houston straight up to Austin and then switched over to 35 before hitting 20 west south of DFW. But that would be a truly shittastic drive.
10
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:12 PM
I guess they could have taken I-10 to San Antonio and gone north from there. Or taken 290 from Houston straight up to Austin and then switched over to 35 before hitting 20 west south of DFW. But that would be a truly shittastic drive.
I haven’t driven from houston to nacogdoches since I was a kid (awful drive in and of itself) but to do it, you get on 59. So if you confuse 45 and 59, you’re doomed.
If they quit in Nacogdoches, they were only about 60 miles off course, but there’s no road to just make back the 60 miles.
They weren’t really 500 miles off course. They started 500 miles away and didn’t go the right way, and quit when they were 450 miles away, or something, after going 140 miles.
11
HakeemtheDream Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:13 PM
290 to 183 north
12
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:14 PM
I haven’t driven from houston to nacogdoches since I was a kid (awful drive in and of itself) but to do it, you get on 59. So if you confuse 45 and 59, you’re doomed.
I did that the first time I ever attempted to drive between Houston and Dallas. I had to call my dad and ask for help. He asked me what the last highway sign said. I told him I hadn’t been paying attention to the signs. He wasn’t pleased.
I didn’t have much common sense when I was a kid. I’ve managed to gain a little since then.
13
KC Resident Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:17 PM
There is a whole lot of nothing out there, but up until last year, Tech was the only Big 12 team to make a bowl game in every year of the Big 12′s existence. They are able to get players.
/I miss Mike Leach
14
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:17 PM
290 to 183 north
I think 45 to 20 is the best way to go. Not as scenic as 290 to 183 though.
15
KC Resident Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:22 PM
290 to 183 north
I think 45 to 20 is the best way to go. Not as scenic as 290 to 183 though.
These are about the 5th and 6th options you all have had for transversing Texas. Texas is large.
16
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:26 PM
These are about the 5th and 6th options you all have had for transversing Texas. Texas is large.
So imagine how it is for us who grew up here, trying to understand how in New England you can cross multiple states in one day. Hell, you can drive 8 hours and still be in Texas.
/done that before.
17
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:26 PM
I think 45 to 20 is the best way to go. Not as scenic as 290 to 183 though.
if you’re mapping that shit out, you have to consider your barbecue stopping points. Because you can end up in Elgin, and then just a few scant hours later, in Llano.
18
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:28 PM
So imagine how it is for us who grew up here, trying to understand how in New England you can cross multiple states in one day. Hell, you can drive 8 hours and still be in Texas.
/done that before.
if you drive into Texas from New Mexico on I-10, you first hit mile marker 602 (IIRC). It’s awful. It’s 600 miles to Beaumont on that miserable road.
19
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:28 PM
Stopping to get BBQ in the hill country and then to get kolaches at the Czech Inn in West on 35 is definitely worth the extra time you’d add by going through Austin instead of going up to Dallas first.
20
Some Random Old Dude Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:28 PM
they weren’t going a way that would have felt wrong in terms of nature.
I understand a bit better now.
Never been to Lubbuck, but drove from Texarkana to El Paso once (with a detour to Garland to see relatives). Driving across the great state of Texas can be a huge endurance test. Soooo much open space.
21
KC Resident Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:30 PM
So imagine how it is for us who grew up here, trying to understand how in New England you can cross multiple states in one day. Hell, you can drive 8 hours and still be in Texas.
I was born in Texas. Dad’s side of the family is all around the Waco area. I haven’t been down there in awhile, but damn. I used to do a lot of traveling over the Western US and while driving long distances, one gets mentally tired and crossing a state line is a mental lift. I guess I did 54 through Dalhart several times, but I wasn’t in Texas for that long.
22
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Czech Inn in West on 35
you go to Czech Inn, and not Czech stop? You’re gross.
23
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:33 PM
if you drive into Texas from New Mexico on I-10, you first hit mile marker 602 (IIRC). It’s awful. It’s 600 miles to Beaumont on that miserable road.
I’ve done the drive to New Mexico twice that I can remember. Maybe three times. We were always going to northern New Mexico though (Taos area), so we went through, if memory serves, Austin and then up through Lubbock. On one of these trips I discovered how quickly the inside of a car can get completely coated in sand if you leave a car door open at a Lubbock gas station and a sudden gust comes up.
24
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:33 PM
you go to Czech Inn, and not Czech stop? You’re gross.
Shit, I meant the Czech Stop.
25
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:33 PM
trying to understand how in New England you can cross multiple states in one day.
East/West across Pennsylvania is among the worst things that has ever happened to me. Mainly because a Rav4 is a tin can, and the cruise control couldn’t maintain a good speed and do the hills without attempting to suicide. Also, Pennsylvania is the worst.
26
KC Resident Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:40 PM
Also, Pennsylvania is the worst.
I nominate Nevada as being the worst. There is a reason they tested nukes there. NW New Mexico/NE Arizona is horrible as well. Holy shit. It is almost like littering is required there merely to break up the dull. And I love the desert, but that area is just two lane highways with nothing but nothing with a future of nothing until you can get back into Colorado or Utah.
27
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:43 PM
I nominate Nevada as being the worst.
I can’t even imagine. I’ve only ever been to Vegas, and that was airport to strip to poorhouse to airport.
28
ms621 Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:46 PM
I’ve only ever been to Vegas, and that was airport to strip to poorhouse to airport.
Doesn’t sound as eventful as your Montreal trip.
29
Clayton Cargill Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:49 PM
Doesn’t sound as eventful as your Montreal trip.
yeah, it was weird. It should have been funner, but sometimes I just suck.
30
KC Resident Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 7:50 PM
I can’t even imagine. I’ve only ever been to Vegas, and that was airport to strip to poorhouse to airport.
I had decided on one my three week trips that I wanted to Elko because HST wrote that Clarence Thomas story about it. I was young and dumb and gas was cheap. I think I spent a hour in Elko during a 10 or 11 hour driving day in Nevada (partly Utah.) I reread that story in one of his books and I couldn’t figure out why in the hell that story made me want to go to Elko.
31
HawkEye Says:
April 4th, 2012 at 8:20 PM
I nominate Nevada as being the worst.
Western Minnesota, Iowa & South Dakota get nominated. During the summer, at least there are fields to look at. In the winter? Nothing but chisel plowed fields and lots of windmills.
32
moscanoche Says:
April 6th, 2012 at 1:18 AM
For those bone heads who can only comment that Lubbock is flat and ugly, why would someone travel there, well duh! Do you think the students are driving around on weekends looking at the scenery? You are spending your time inside a bar, a classroom, a bedroom, and maybe a PT job. I barely made it out alive because I loved the place as a student. But I had to get a real job in the real world. Would I want to settle down there…no. Look at the photo of the cheerleader accompanying this article? THAT is why someone will travel to Lubbock. I graduated from there and the person who said the girls are hot but country have the first part right. There are a lot of very beautiful women who leave the Dallas area to get away from mom and dad. Just look at the alumni map and there is a very large number of alumni in the Dallas area. I travel across all parts of the U.S. and only the LA, Miami and Dallas areas rival Lubbock for hottest women. Tech has a student population of 33,000+ in a town of 200,000. Tech athletics rule. TTU’s campus and facilities are excellent as well. To the author, maybe you should get out from behind the desk and watching the travel channel, instead of making a judgemental comment about what recruit wants to spend four years in a small town in the middle of no where.