Good afternoon to some, and good evening to others. My good friend Koby name dropped me in a recent article here on Front Porch Sports, so I feel more than obligated to respond and defend my position.
It was a typical night after work when I made my tweet about Lubbock, and I can admit that the program’s Twitter admin did a great job at baiting responses. Last time I checked, their “YoU cAn’T rEcRuIt To LuBbOcK” tweet has amassed 2.2 million impressions – that’s about as many viewers as their football program had all last season! Kudos to Red Raider Nation.
It’s safe to say that I triggered Texas Tech fans, and I received an immense amount of ridicule and “gotcha” tweets. These ranged from calling out my program’s location in Eugene, giving me the rundown on the coolest museums to visit, and how many people they knew that chose to relocate to Lubbock. It was very eye-opening, educational, and fun. My tweet has since gained 200k+ impressions, I’ve been lambasted for multiple days, and called multiple derogatory terms… and I regret nothing. I’m standing on everything I said.
I stand by what I said, because I wasn’t wrong. I gave my personal anecdote, which was true – Until I made that tweet, I did not know a single soul who had vacationed near Lubbock or moved there. Did I say that no one does that? No! But I know people who have traveled or moved to Oregon, Washington, even New Hampshire (where I traveled to for a wedding in July), and various other parts of Texas. Texas is home to multiple big cities with a lot to do, and Lubbock just doesn’t make the cut when I converse with fellow friends and family.
I know oil money is making waves in NIL recruiting for the Texas Tech football program, but is the city also paying y’all a big stipend to move out there? Or is this something that you really wanted to do, to live in the Panhandle with no immediate access to a major city or popular tourist destinations? Last time I checked, recruits also like to party and get out to do things, and Lubbock just isn’t that popular of a place to have fun. There’s a reason why it’s taken so many years for a program in a state run on oil and football to get some momentum in recruiting. It’s not a highly desirable place to be in Texas. Which brings me to my next point, do Texas Tech fans know how to read? My tweet said that I didn’t know anyone who vacationed or moved “anywhere near” Lubbock. I did not specifically say that people didn’t choose the college town itself. So the rebuttals from the masses saying that Eugene wasn’t a popular travel destination just exposed their reading ability. Unless you’re a hermit, you will have a much better experience vacationing around Eugene then you will in Lubbock. Crator Lake, the Willamette Valley, and the beautiful Oregon Coast await you. I may be biased as I’ve been to Oregon twice and lived in Seattle for 4 years, but it doesn’t get much better than the PNW outdoors.
I would be regretful if I didn’t call out one of the most notorious sightings from Red Raider nation – saguaro cacti emojis. My mentions were SPAMMED by fans with this emoji, and I was completely and utterly dumbfounded. Not only do Tech fans not know how to read, but they use a specific cactus that isn’t even native to Lubbock! How can you use an emoji to signal who you support, when that cactus is not even relative to your region? Last time I checked, there is an Oil Drum emoji, and it fits the program perfectly, since oil is driving your NIL department.
I’ve said what I needed to say and I’ll look forward to multiple people with below average literacy repping foreign cacti to tell me how awful of a sports fan I am.
