Kevin Sherrington

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LUBBOCK – Peering one-eyed from the cover of the latest Texas Monthly is West Texas' resident Bluebeard, a coach who doesn't just march to the beat of a different drummer, he's leading his own merry band.

For instance: Asked if he had any issues posing with an eye-patch for the magazine, the Pirate said no.

"They said there wouldn't be any nudity," he added, thoughtfully, "so I felt good about that."

Don't we all.

As if it were necessary, Mike Leach forged on to explain he has "a lot of latitude" when it comes to the personal and professional realm, a fact he demonstrated quite nicely this off-season when he took on his own administration in a contract war, then followed that battle with a couple of volleys at the NFL for its apathy toward Texas Tech quarterbacks.

Bottom line: He got his money, all right.

Maybe his NFL quarterback, too.

The latest and most luxurious model in the Pirate's assembly line, Taylor Potts is 6-5 and 218 pounds. NFL size. NFL arm. Coming out of Abilene, he was ranked the nation's 13th-best pro style quarterback. Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor and Texas A&M came calling.

Of course, Graham Harrell was a big-time recruit, too. A Heisman candidate, even.

And at the moment he's a Saskatchewan Roughrider.

Hey, Mike: Do you finally have the kind of quarterback the NFL wants?

"I don't know," he said. "Who knows what they want?

"A lot of times, they don't even know themselves."

He's probably right. But whether Potts, a junior, ends up in the NFL is currently beside the point.

"I just need him to make the players around him better," Leach said. "Make the routine plays.

"Just focus on his job."

His job will be different from Harrell's. He won't have Michael Crabtree. He won't have a team poised for one of its best seasons ever, even if last year ended in disappointment. He'll do well to finish third in a tougher division where the Raiders could fall as far as fifth.

Still, Detron Lewis gives Potts a fine No. 1 receiver. Asked what he personally offers that's different from Harrell, Potts said "more vocal leadership."

And then there's this: The ball comes out of his hand faster, which might help Potts in his desire to match Harrell's uncanny ability to avoid sacks. Tech quarterbacks were sacked just 13 times last season, an average of once every 50 pass attempts.

Potts' passing style is a little different, too. The motion is somewhere between three-quarters and over the top, an improvement, actually.

"In high school," he said, "I could fall below three-quarters."

Darren O'Day at quarterback?

"I played baseball all my life," Potts explained. "When my arm got tired, I'd drop down."

His arm will be tested like never before this season. In two seasons as a backup, he's thrown for 699 yards and five touchdowns. Or what a standard Leach quarterback manages in a typical non-conference game.

But Lewis – who urges critics to give Potts time – has confidence in his man, too.

"The only distinct difference between Potts and Graham," he said, "is that Potts throws the ball harder."

Time will tell if it ultimately means the difference between the CFL and the NFL.

Meanwhile, we return you to the world of the Pirate in all its glory:

Indulging his passion for rugby last spring, it seems he skipped over the pond for a match between England and Wales. Five minutes into a homily on the adventure, he suddenly complained that he can't get rugby on cable.

"I'm on 96th Street, and it only goes to 94th," he said. "There's a whole bunch of guys out there with killer cable, and here I sit."

Landlocked. Aye, it's a pirate's nightmare.