Joey McGuire could have opened his press conference with incredible praise about how the fans stayed until the bitter end against a Houston team that was there through double-overtime. Instead, he opened with a comment on throwing bottles onto the field.

"I love our traditions," McGuire said. "I love everything we do at Texas Tech."

Well, not everything. He doesn't love fans throwing bottles onto the field. It's interesting because McGuire praised and lauded the tortilla throwing.

"The tortillas flying onto the field fires me up," McGuire said. But anything else, at any other time after the opening kickoff, is strictly off limits. It's not a hard concept for most to understand, but for a few idiots, the concept might as well be thermonuclear dynamics.

Don't throw anything onto the field after your tortilla is gone at the opening kickoff. Don't throw the last seven dollars of your $10 beer, or even a second tortilla. Don't make a paper airplane or toss a water bottle onto the field of play.

"It's important to uphold all the traditions of Texas Tech," said McGuire. "Throwing water and beer bottles are not one of our traditions."

Now, McGuire is saying the right thing that it's not a tradition, but how many times does it need to happen before it is one? Because this is year two of bottle-throwing making the news in Lubbock.

Of course, it's not really the sanctity of traditions that McGuire cares the most about. He cares about winning football games first and foremost, and a 15-yard penalty in a key moment because a bottle gets launched onto the field would be the opposite of The Brand of McGuire's program. I'm not making any leaps in logic here either. McGuire said it himself: "The worst thing that could happen is that we could get penalized for something like that."

So, fans, you've wanted Texas Tech to be good for more than a decade. It's happening before your very eyes. The team is growing and improving. Grow and improve with them. Fill up the stadium before the 1st quarter is halfway over. Stay until the end of the game. Sing The Matador Song. Clap with the fight song. Throw a tortilla at the opening kickoff. Be wild and get right up to the line; just don't cross it.

What's the line? Throwing bottles on the field is certainly one of them.

The other one, according to McGuire, is wasting your cold beer.

The bottom line: don't be stupid.

The good news is that the student section retention against Houston was a huge step in the right direction, and those who stayed got to storm the field. If McGuire and the Red Raiders hold up their end of the bargain like they want the fans to do, the student section will look like it's 2008 again by the middle of next season.

Can't wait.

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