Christmas Morning: Unwrapping Desmond Roland

Remember how amazing Christmas morning was when you were a kid? Your parents tucked presents under the tree, wrapped and ready to be opened. You've spent the past few days inspecting each present, shaking them, sizing'em up, trying to figure out what is in each box. You know that your Nintendo 64 had to be in one of these perfectly wrapped gifts, you just did't know which one.

Christmas morning comes.

You open your first present the one you thought was the Nintendo 64. Stupid Bugle Boy Jeans.

You tear into the next one. It's a few action figures. Great gift, exciting, but not the N64.

Then it happens. You rip open the next one. You see that awesome 3D graphic of the N64 and you go NUTS.

<a href="http://gifsoup.com/view/160642/nintendo-64-kid.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/160642/nintendo-64-kid-o.gif" border="0"/></a><br /><a href="http://gifsoup.com" title="GIFSoup" target="_blank">GIFSoup</a>

That is how I feel about our running back situation.

Our first gift, Jeremy Smith. The box was the perfect shape, the weight was just right. It seemed like it was the one, but it was just stupid jeans. We knew that Smith wasn't going to be Randle, but we did expect to see good production out of him. He's fast, strong, and built like He-Man. But Smith has done nothing but struggle. I don't want to go over his stats, but I will. This is #31's production up to the ISU game:

Stupid Jeans.

In comes Rennie Childs. Our spark. OSU's running game savior. Ya, it was just a 45 yard outing, but it was the best damn 45 yard outing any of us had seen. All last week, the twitterverse, and every other Cowboy media outlet, was calling for Rennie to get more snaps. We all wanted it. But Rennie was our action figures. It was a great gift, one we wanted, but not the 64.

It's time to open the third gift. It's been a good Christmas so far, but not really what we're hoping for, or used to. Mild excitement was still looming from the action figures, but we still have hope that in this third present, our dreams will be realized.

When Roland walked out onto the field for the start, I would say most of us were a bit surprised. I wasn't expecting Rennie to get the start, but I was quite sure that it would be Childs or Smith.

Roland spent the first two quarters getting my hopes high. He ran well, he ran hard, he ran with real determination. Going into half, I was excited about our run game (not so much about the score, but the run game). That first half was me starting to realize that Des Roland could be my 64.

Then, 6:38 into the third quarter, I finally opened my gift. It was a Nintendo 64, complete with Mario 64 and that sweet controller with a joy stick AND a button on the back! Roland took a hand-off from Chelf at our own 48 yard line, hesitated for a quick second to watch the line play develop, found a hole, and hit it hard. Des blasted through the line, breaks three tackles, and rumbles his way to a 58 yard touchdown, his 3rd of the game.

<iframe width="480" height="270" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight='0' scrolling="no" src="http://hub.video.msn.com/embed/ae9658a9-ed86-4d56-b0d0-67a2283ab0d0/?vars=YnJhbmQ9djUlNUU1NDR4MzA2JmxpbmtvdmVycmlkZTI9aHR0cCUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy5iaW5nLmNvbSUyRnZpZGVvcyUyRmJyb3dzZSUzRm1rdCUzRGVuLXVzJTI2dmlkJTNEJTdCMCU3RCUyNmZyb20lM0Qmc3luZGljYXRpb249dGFnJmZyPXNoYXJlZW1iZWQtc3luZGljYXRpb24mbWt0PWVuLXVzJmxpbmtiYWNrPWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuYmluZy5jb20lMkZ2aWRlb3MlMkZicm93c2UmY29uZmlnQ3NpZD1NU05WaWRlbyZjb25maWdOYW1lPXN5bmRpY2F0aW9ucGxheWVy">

<A href="http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&vid=ae9658a9-ed86-4d56-b0d0-67a2283ab0d0&from=shareembed-syndication&src=v5:embed:syndication:" target="_new" title="Roland's 58-yard TD run against Iowa St.">Video: Roland's 58-yard TD run against Iowa St.</A>

</iframe>

(Man that was the slowest 58 yard TD I've ever seen. But let's not forget, Des is 6'2, tall guys typically look slower than they are due to their stride length. But it is safe to say, he won't be burning too many DB's.)

Now it's time to start playing. We've opened the gift, dad hooked up your new system to the families 32" tube, and it's time to play.

Lubbock will be crazy. Lubbock will be loud.

There is a chance Lubbock will be scary.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>To all of our amazing TTU students, let&#39;s see how crazy we can get in the Jones Saturday night! Costumes encouraged...<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23letsgetweird&amp;src=hash">#letsgetweird</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Wreckem&amp;src=hash">#Wreckem</a></p>&mdash; Kliff Kingsbury (@TTUKingsbury) <a href="https://twitter.com/TTUKingsbury/statuses/394569884908015616">October 27, 2013</a></blockquote>

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Rolling into Texas Tech is going to be more difficult than deciphering a Gundy press conference, but with Roland in the backfield and an offensive line that seems much improved, the Cowboys should head into Jones AT&T Stadium ready to play ball against a defense that is very susceptible to the run.

And I feel pretty good about it.